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Rafael Gomez Haro Second Vice President of the Andalusian Association of Dismantlers (AAD) and owner of Provaluta España Reciclaje de Metales, SL, a vehicle recycling centre based in Córdoba-Andalucia, Spain, gives his point of view on the issues he faces in his country as an auto recycler and how the new directive needs to provide guarantees for legal ATFs.
Auto recycling operation loopholes
The Spanish auto recycling industry is very professional. Registered Authorised Treatment Facilities (ATFs) have excellent systems in place, offering depollution and parts sales from their sites and through online platforms but, according to Rafael, there is a downside, and this relates to unofficial ‘dubious legal’ operations. It seems there is a loophole in the system when it comes to vehicle dismantling.
When a vehicle is in temporary deregistration, it gives people who are not registered ATFs, an opportunity to dismantle this vehicle in their own home or small facility and place parts online to sell and there is nothing in the law to suggest this is illegal. If vehicles are being dismantled in large volume, the authorities will get involved, but on a small scale, they are left to their own devices.
In Spain, temporary deregistration represents about 50% of the total deregistrations, this is bad news for the sector and will soon be higher than the definitive deregistrations of ATFs.
The law in Spain recognises as one of the great novelties in Royal Decree 20/2017, which determines that the extraction, reuse and sale of used spare parts can only be carried out by Authorised Treatment Centres (ATF), as long as the vehicles to which they belong have previously undergone definitive deregistration in the General Vehicle Registry of the DGT and have been decontaminated.
Rafael told us that setting up a registered ATF in Spain is a similar process to many other countries around the world. The correct paperwork is required, and it can take anywhere from one up to three years to become a legal auto recycling company. But for people who dismantle on a smaller scale and who do not go through this process, it seems, according to Rafael, they are not penalised and even if they are, penalties are small. If their small facility is closed down by the authorities, they will continue to dismantle elsewhere.
He said for legal operators, it costs a lot of money, but for these unofficial operators, costs are low, and even if they are caught, penalties are also low. Now around 75-80% of vehicles which come into yards in Spain are between 15-20 years old and not profitable because of the amount the operator has to pay to be legal.
In Rafael’s opinion, the government does little to fix this loophole because it seems that it is too much trouble for them to deal with. He said that it is easier for the government to inspect a legal operator than investigate an ‘unofficial’ operator.
Insurance and salvage vehicle classification
According to Rafael, in the past, ATFs made a contract with an insurance company and paid around 10 or 12% of the market value of damaged vehicles, but for the past ten years, ATFs pay from 25% to 100% of the market value of damaged vehicles. Most vehicles are bought through auction, but there is no control of where the vehicles end up as the buyer’s documentation is not checked.
He said there is a categorisation system in place in Spain, but it seems that it is not being utilised. Even on online platforms where parts are sold, documentation must be shown to prove the legality of the ATF selling the parts, but Rafael says that no one checks this. And since the pandemic, businesses have had to close which has provided an opportunity for people to dismantle cars at their home to make some cash without paying tax or other business costs.
What is the solution?
According to Rafael, the government needs to become much stricter; Government and manufacturers need to have responsibility for the entire life cycle of a vehicle. He said there needs to be an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system in place so that when a vehicle reaches its end of life, the owner of the vehicle takes it directly to the registered ATF where they either receive money for the vehicle or discount on the purchase of a new vehicle similar to that of a scrappage scheme.
AAD has proposed to the government a series of measures to control vehicle auctions, control of damaged vehicles. Are they repairable? Destination control repair shop or only ATF, create software for EU member countries to control the export and import of vehicles, control of the Temporary Deregistration, and we have had meetings with the advertising platforms to expose the current situation and that take steps to enlist only legal advertisers.
What if you sell your vehicle second-hand? What is the process?
Rafael said since July, sales of second-hand vehicles (up to 20 years old) in Spain has risen by 31%. Those buying older vehicles are young drivers who do not want to go on public transport because of COVID-19, so they look for older, less expensive cars, but this creates problems; the automobile fleet is ageing which means more cars enter workshops to be fixed and more accidents occur. You may think this is good for the auto recycler as they will be able to supply more parts – true – but this is also good for the illegal operator.
When it comes to buying these parts, particularly online, unfortunately, the consumer is unaware whether they are buying from a legal or illegal operator. Rafael said the government needs to make a campaign to show the public through these online sites what they need to be aware of when making a purchase and give reasons why they should only buy from legal operations.
For Rafael, he is selective on the type of vehicle he buys to depollute as he is only looking for the parts he can sell that are in high demand.
EVs and HEVs
Rafael talked of the concerns he has with EVs and HEVs. He said in Spain, there is little information or knowledge about how to dismantle these kinds of vehicles and little possibility of finding out from manufacturers about this. He said if he was to take on an EV or HEV and there was an accident, this will be the employer’s problem and not the manufacturer’s. Rafael said:
“We have to guarantee the safety and health of our employees. In Spain, there are no EV and HEV handling courses approved by the Ministry of Industry, and this concerns us, we cannot guarantee the correct treatment of these vehicles or the health of our employees.”
Therefore, he suggests clear legislation in the Directive with no room for interpretation so that all ATFs in all European countries work in the same way so that they can accept these vehicles as more and more reach their end of life – One Directive and one EPR system throughout Europe.


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Investment marks expansion in EMEA region, advancing Pure's innovation engine
MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, Nov. 12, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Pure Storage , the data solutions leader that helps innovators build a better world with data, has expanded its global presence with the opening of a new European Research & Development Centre in Prague, Czech Republic. The opening marks further significant investment in the EMEA region and demonstrates Pure's continued commitment to innovation.
Pure was founded with innovation at its core, with a customer-first mind-set. This new EMEA hub is designed to fuel Pure's innovation engine, and further accelerate time-to-market.
In 10 years, Pure has disrupted the storage industry by creating solutions that are intelligent, automated, and modern, setting a bold path for Pure in its second decade. Pure's vision of the modern data experience is cloud-managed, AI-driven, constantly improving, and consumable via a flexible subscription model that can be deployed in a hybrid environment.
Pure has worked with CzechInvest, a local business and investment development agency to open this new R&D centre in Prague. The Government-backed organisation aides global companies to establish in the Czech Republic. CzechInvest's access to local experts, partnerships with academic institutions and existing focus on research and development were important support mechanisms in opening the R&D centre in the Czech Republic.
Recognizing that talent can be found worldwide, and innovation is only driven through a diverse workforce, the centre will be run with a start-up mind-set designed to encourage a culture of inclusivity, innovation and customer-centricity.
The centre will be headed by Dan Decasper, General Manager of Pure1®, the company's cloud-based software platform. Commenting on the launch of the centre, Decasper said: "I'm thrilled that on our 10(th) anniversary we maintain the same commitment to innovation that we had on day one. We've experienced tremendous growth and have always believed in investing back into talent acquisition and expansion. We chose Prague because great talent can be found here, and it's a gateway to the rest of the region."
About Pure Storage Pure Storage helps modern organizations turn data into business advantage. Pure solutions enable a unified data experience that can adapt as customer needs evolve. One of the fastest-growing enterprise IT companies in history, Pure Storage helps customers put data to use while reducing the complexity and expense of managing the infrastructure behind it. Pure Storage provides a modern data experience that creates a common operating environment across multiple data centers and clouds, easing operations via APIs and intelligent AI-driven automation. And with a certified NPS customer satisfaction score in the top one percent of B2B companies, Pure's ever-expanding list of customers are among the happiest in the world.
Analyst Recognition: Pure Storage has been named a Leader in the 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for General Purpose Storage [https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2637416-1&h=2286971537&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.purestorage.com%2Fresources%2Ftype-a%2Fgartner-mq-2019.html&a=2019+Gartner+Magic+Quadrant+for+General+Purpose+Storage].
Pure Storage, the "P" Logo, Evergreen, and Pure1 are trademarks or registered trademarks of Pure Storage, Inc. All other trademarks or names referenced in this document are the property of their respective owners.
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If you’ve been in the Cultural District lately, you may have noticed the new Mr. Gatti’s Pizza on the west end of Museum Place, near Van Cliburn Way. Next door, a sign announces an upcoming location for Gigi’s Cupcakes.
It’s no coincidence the two will be next to each other. Both chains are now based just a couple of blocks away, in the former Bombay office building on Bailey Avenue.
Over the past two years, Fort Worth investors purchased Mr. Gatti’s, a nearly half-century-old chain known for its locations near Texas university campuses, and Gigi’s Cupcakes, an upscale bakery franchise out of Nashville.
Michael Poates, who serves as president of both chains, identified the new owners only as two Fort Worth family offices, but declined to name them saying they prefer to stay in the background. He said they are actively seeking other acquisition opportunities with an eye towards expansion.
“We believe we could grow another 100 (Mr. Gatti) locations in five years,’ said Poates, 53, a former Whataburger executive who came to work for the investors when they owned Dairy Queen locations.
Mr. Gatti’s currently has 90 locations in 16 states including new stores at Davis Boulevard and North Tarrant Parkway in North Richland Hills and in Mesquite, where it has a 13,000-square-foot family entertainment center with a game room for kids. Other stores are planned in Murphy and Rockwall, and they’re looking in Mansfield and Weatherford. It’s focusing on smaller markets for new franchises.
The spacious 4,600-square-foot Museum Place restaurant is now the chain’s flagship, sporting a large open oven, craft beer on tap and gelato for dessert. On a recent lunch hour, traffic was light. Poates said the site was picked to be across from a proposed hotel, though that project has been delayed by concerns over its height. He said the company may hold off on opening the Gigi’s for a while.
Meanwhile a new Gigi’s has opened in Presidio Towne Crossing in north Fort Worth, joining other area stores in Southlake and Dallas. Gigi’s has more than 100 stores in 23 states, according to its website.


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Oil companies, fighting for position and profit in the increasingly competitive gasoline market, are trying to woo customers by offering feature-packed credit cards that let users do more than buy gas.
Mobil Corp. yesterday introduced a new "premium" credit card that includes the ability to get cash at Mobil stations, a travel reservation service and access to a "no-fee" Visa card from Chase Manhattan Bank, among other features. T.C. DeLoach, vice president and general manager of Mobil's Fairfax-based U.S. marketing division, said the new Mobil-Plus card "combines into a single card the services most preferred by our customers."
Other major oil companies have introduced similar cards in the past couple of years. Some of the companies also are experimenting with "debit" cards, which automatically take money from a customer's bank account to pay for a gasoline purchase. Mobil's new card includes this feature, and such developments could mean major changes in the way motorists buy gas in coming years.
But the new kinds of credit cards come with a catch: Unlike traditional oil credit cards, which have no annual fee, the new cards can cost anywhere from Mobil's $12 a year to more than $50 annually -- an effort by the companies to recover some of the costs of administering their credit card programs. For the same reason, many companies charge a few cents a gallon extra for gasoline bought with a credit card.
"Essentially, the credit card operations of oil companies have always lost money," said Spencer Nilson, editor of the Nilson Report, a newsletter that follows the credit card industry. "They would like to get all of their free customers onto a fee-paying basis."
The companies also hope the new cards will build brand loyalty -- and thus market share -- by encouraging holders to buy most of their gas from the company that issued them the card. "The total demand is essentially unchanged, so the broad long-term goal of every marketer is to get a bigger chunk of the same-sized pie," said Carol Edwards, a Mobil spokeswoman. "We're out there courting the customer more than ever before.
"We have to get the customer in there that many more times," she said. "The customer who might be coming in here two out of four or three out of four times -- this is an effort to get them to come to Mobil three out of four or four out of four times."
Mobil and the other oil companies are not dropping their existing free credit cards, but are hoping that the features included in the premium cards will encourage customers to trade up. "I think all the major oil companies are trying to worm around so they can charge a fee," Nilson said.
"We perceived a demand . . . that consumers wanted services that require a fee, and will pay a fee," said Phil Blackburn, a spokesman for Texaco Inc. The company's "Star Member" card, introduced late last year with a $20 annual fee, has attracted somewhere between 5 and 10 percent of Texaco's existing 7.5 million cardholders, Blackburn said. But he added that the figures are preliminary, and a better test will come when the cards come up for renewal at the end of their first year of use.
A spokesman for Shell Oil Co., which introduced its "Signature" card in 1985, said that card accounts for about 600,000 of its total 9.1 million credit card accounts.
Mobil officials yesterday argued that the benefits included with their new cards "far outweigh the fee," as DeLoach put it in a statement. The company throws in a Mobil travel guide, which retails for $8.95, and makes discounts available on lodging, air travel and car rentals, in addition to the other services offered.
The ability to get a Chase Manhattan Visa card through the Mobil-Plus card also appears to be something of a bargain. Chase Manhattan officials said the Visa cards would have no annual fee for at least the first two years, although the annual interest rate of 17.9 percent is higher than those on some other Visa cards.
Other oil companies also offer connections to Visa, Mastercard and other credit cards through their premium cards. Amoco Corp., the oil industry's largest issuer of credit cards, with 10 million cardholders, has perhaps the most extensive ties to other card programs: In addition to Visa and Mastercard, it also offers benefits from Diners Club or Carte Blanche.
In addition to its other features, the new Mobil card will offer the fullest test yet of the debit system for buying gasoline. Mobil already has been a pioneer in this area, allowing customers in the Washington area and elsewhere to buy gasoline with their automatic bank teller cards, with the purchases immediately deducted from the customers' accounts.
With the Mobil-Plus card, customers will be able to make debit-card purchases regardless of whether they have a bank card. Cardholders will be required to submit their checking account numbers when applying for the card, and transactions will be debited against those accounts through a service run by Chase Manhattan. Debit purchases of gasoline generally are charged at the same rate as cash purchases, or 4 cents a gallon cheaper than Mobil's credit card price.
Other companies have experimented with or implemented debit card programs, but they are not universal. Amoco, for instance, still is sporadically testing the idea, and a spokesman for Texaco said, "We don't think right now it's a necessary measure to take."


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Asus at the Computex 2012 revealed its plans to release the "Transfomer AiO," an all-in-one PC that will have the ability to easily dual boot both Windows 8 and Google's Android OS.
Unlike the Android-and-ARM-based Viewsonic desktop, the Transformer AiO seems rooted in Windows 8: it boots into Win8, and transitions into Android only after you press a button.
In addition, the AiO has dual form factors: you can use it as a traditional all-in-one if you like, or you can detach the screen from the base and use it as a wireless display (slash, an absurdly large 18-inch tablet). The display supports 10 finger multitouch and has a LED-backlit display as well.
Samsung is showing off its Series 7 all-in-one PC designed to run Windows 8. The company says that not only does this PC have touch screen support for up to 10 fingers, it also responds to voice commands as well, similar to Microsoft's Kinect.
Nvidia has posted a video on YouTube showing off the "ASUS Windows RT Tablet 600," running on Nvidia's Tegra 3 platform. The video shows briefly what the upcoming platform will offer and for those who need a refresher, Windows RT is WOA and will only be available to OEM partners.
Take a look at the video as this is Microsoft's tablet OS in action and it will be put to the test against the industry juggernaut, the iPad.
Lenovo at the Computext showing off a 10.1 inch Thinkpad tablet, that has a 1366x768 resolution screen and is 9.7 mm thick. The tablet is reporting of having Intel Clover Trail processor running things, an eight megapixel camera and a two megapixel camera, a micro-HDMI port, a dock connector, and the battery last over 10 hours on a single charge.
Lenovo had already introduced a hybrid IdeaPad Yoga tablet-notebook running on Windows 8.
Toshiba shows off Windows 8-based concept designs, one of the concepts as shown in the picutre below, has a touch screen tablet but with a slide out keyboard. Another design has a tablet with a detachable keyboard. Finally, Toshiba showed a normal clamshell laptop case with a touchscreen.


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>> Facebook shares opened down 20% on Thursday, the steepest one day fall in the company's history. And it's taking the Nasdaq down with it. The drop follows a dismal forecast from Facebook executives who said profit margins would plummet for several years due to the cost of improving privacy safeguards following the massive Cambridge Analytica scandal.
In the first full quarter since the revelation that 87 million Facebook users had their personal data taken without their permission, growth in monthly active users, a key metric for the social network, came in below analyst expectations. Add weaker than forecast revenues and you get a stampede out of the stock, erasing roughly $150 billion in market value off the table.
Other big tech stocks like Amazon, Netflix, and Google, as well as Facebook competitors Twitter and Snapchat all falling after the report. It's what the profit warning says about Facebook's future business that really spooked Wall Street, says Reuters' Silicon Valley reporter Paresh Dave.>> They're expecting revenue to continue to grow more slowly.
Their expenses are growing even faster in part because they're responding to this privacy issues around the world.>> Facebook has been under non-stop scrutiny by government agencies in several countries and is the subject of a delete Facebook campaign not just for the breach, but for claims it helps promote hate speech and can be manipulated for political gain.
In an effort to win back public trust, Facebook has pledged to spend more to improve content and security. But Wall Street is now clearly worried that the spending may not buy back what Facebook has lost, credibility with users and investors.


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"All these fools in the UFC are getting beat up by a straight-up stoner," says the MMA fighter. D-Rod then explains his weed-laced training routine and details his fruitful ties with Tradecraft Farms.
December 3, 2022
With only a week left until 4/20 the Cop List is back with a whole new collection of brand new products worth your time. This month’s rundown featuring 710 Labs, Timber, Uncle Arnie's & more!
April 13, 2022


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A survey by the shipping association of the CEO panel comprising of 26 senior executives revealed that the majority of Danish shipping companies - 69 percent - had been hit by cyber-crime according to a report in Seatrade Maritime News (SMN).
Consequently 69 percent of Danish shipowners have increased their IT budgets this year - an exact correlation with those who have been hit.
Mike Loginov CISO at Powel AS Norway, and president of IOTSA told SC Media UK that in the United States alone, the US$ 700 billion (£509 billion) shipping industry is expected to be valued at US$ 1.3 trillion (£900 billion) by 2023, and with the level of growth it's hardly a surprise that the shipping industry is of interest to the adversarial community.
He went on tell SC that “it also depends on which adversarial lens we focus on. If, for example, we consider the scenarios from a cyber-warfare perspective, the capability to seriously distrust the global supply and logistics chain makes cyber-attacks on shipping a strategic and attractive attack vector from a national defence position.
He adds: “As older ships with legacy technologies are replaced or refitted with modern interconnected capabilities they potentially become more vulnerable to direct cyber-attacks. Shipping companies should take the lessons learned to date very seriously to ensure that the risk is appropriately managed and mitigated. The integration of IT and OT systems through the growth of IoT use in the shipping and logistics world remains fertile ground for the inquisitive hacker and nation state players alike. Unless the industry takes serious steps to bolster its cyber-defence then the disruption the Danish shipping sector has experienced is likely to become much more prevalent as tensions between nations increases.”


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Eileen DiLeo has been named executive vice president of stores for the Hudson’s Bay and Lord & Taylor divisions of the Hudson’s Bay Company, succeeding Debbie Edwards who will retire on May 1.
DiLeo, who will report to Bonnie Brooks, the president of HBC, has been senior vice president of store operations for Hudson’s Bay and Lord & Taylor since last year. The 30-year retail veteran began her career at Bloomingdale’s, joined May Department Stores where she progressed from sales roles to store management and into senior operations roles at Lord & Taylor. The company credited DiLeo with introducing best practices and creating synergy across the retail banners.
"I love to fight and I got into a lot of trouble, so instead, I thought I'd do it professionally," says Bellator MMA fighter Liam McGeary. #wwdfashion (📷: @andyboyle; Interview by @jeanpalmieri; Styled by @thealexbadia)


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Food truck fiesta
Thailand plans to break the world record for the largest parade of food trucks next month.
The Food Truck Festival is the first of its kind in the Kingdom. Organised by the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the Food Truck Club (Thailand), it takes place on March 7-8 at Impact Lakeside, a 152,450m² outdoor space, which was also the venue for the largest serving of mango sticky rice that broke the Guinness World Record in January last year.
More than 200 food truck vendors will take part in the fair. The current record is 158 food trucks, set at the International Food Festival in Penang, Malaysia, in April 2018.
TAT also hopes that the event will further promote the country's reputation for clean, quality street food.
Catch the bus
Booking.com is launching the Bangkok Booking Bus, a blue and white modified camping bus, offering a once-in-a-life-time camper van experience.
According to research conducted by the website, about 42% of Thai travellers would like to stay at least once in alternative accommodation. The reason was not only to feel inspired but to impress their friends by turning to alternative accommodation types as a way of expressing their individuality.
The Bangkok Booking Bus can accommodate up to two people. It features a king-size bed, toilet, shower area, living space, dining table, a small refrigerator, electric kettle and mini toaster.
To promote the bus, Booking.com is giving an opportunity for those who are interested in the service to stay for overnight on Feb 22. Reservations will open at 8pm on Feb 20. The bus will be parked at Asiatique The Riverfront on Charoen Krung Road. The room rate is 2,000 baht.
After the event, Booking.com will donate the bus to Local Alike, a Thai travel social enterprise focusing on local communities, and a 2017 Booking Booster participant who will make use of this bus in their journey to sustainability.
Spread the culture
The National Discovery Museum Institute, in association with Krungthai Card (KTC), is offering a "Buy One Get Another One" promotion.
The offer is available to KTC credit cardholders who purchase a Thailand Museum Pass (299 baht). They will receive another ticket for free.
The ticket, known as the Muse Pass, allows the ticket-holder to visit 64 museums and learning centres nationwide, with discounts at restaurants and shops throughout a year.
The promotion will end on Dec 30.
- VietJet Thailand has added more flights to Udon Thani.
The Bangkok-Udon Thani service will increase from 10 times per week to twice daily. Flights depart Suvarnabhumi airport at 7.30am and 3.25pm and will arrive at Udon Thani airport at 8.40am and 4.35pm, respectively. Return flights depart Udon Thani at 9.10am and 9.20pm, arriving in Bangkok at 10.20am and 10.30pm, respectively.
- Thai Airways has partnered with the Fine Arts Department to launch the Miles Rak Thai project for Royal Orchid Plus (ROP) members to donate miles.
Under this project, officers of the department and other organisations working to conserve national heritage will receive sponsored travel. ROP members may donate 300 miles or more by logging in with their ID on thaiairways.com/rop then select "other services" and click "donate miles" from now until May 31.
HOTEL DEALS & UPDATE
- Banyan The Resort Hua Hin has closed its hotel and restaurants.
According to an official statement, the property cited several years of losses as a result of the slowdown of the economy.
However, its golf course and golf club remain in operation.
- Sindhorn Midtown Hotel opens on March 1.
The property will feature 344 rooms and suites, restaurants, a bar, a swimming pool, a fitness centre and meeting rooms
The 31-storey building is part of Sindhorn Village, a mixed-use residential project valued at 55 billion baht situated on 56 rai of land on Lang Suan Road.
The hotel is offering a "Pre-opening" promotion with a 40% discount for those who book a room via its website. Prices for a night's stay start from 3,300 baht (from a net price of 5,500 baht) for a stay in Urban Premier King (33m²) to 8,400 baht (from 14,000 baht) for a two-bedroom Corner Suite (72m²). The prices are for rooms only.
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GE just announced that it is readying a new solar thin-film panel, system, and inverter product with a goal to provide the lowest cost of electricity in the market. The multinational corporation is backing a cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film product and recently topped 15% efficiencies on commercial glass, according to a press release.
Working in collaboration with PrimeStar Solar, Inc., GE expects to make thin-film panels commercially available sometime in 2011. These panels will be built on a 30-MW manufacturing line in Arvada, Colorado.
Importantly, GE will use its big company resources to make solar approachable. â€œWith continued advancement, we know we can further reduce total installed system costs, making solar more accessible to consumers worldwide,â€ said Danielle Merfeld, GE solar researcher and development leader.


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With the constant buzz around Apple's every iPhone-related movement, you'd think the smartphone was dominating the industry. Revolutionary as it is, that's not the case.
Smartphones are set to become much cheaper as mobile phone vendors try to get data-centric devices in the hands of pre-paid subscribers.
INQ Mobile stopped by PC World's offices last week to show off their new Chat 3G and Mini handsets. INQ Mobile is a relatively new mobile company based in the UK and previously only had one phone on their roster, the INQ 1. But this is a company to w...
Banning texting while driving is such a no-brainer that it's hard to believe there is even a discussion. States may say they have better things to do, but when the feds threaten to cut off highway funding they'll find the time. Good for the feds.
Apple's iPhone 3GS has hogged much of the limelight in the smartphone space, but for business and corporate users, the idea of tapping a screen with your finger to type e-mails is difficult to fathom.
Technology is dangerous -- at least according to a gazillion alarmist headlines published over the past 20 years.
Let's face it: We're a world that loves smut. More than a third of Internet users surf to salacious sites on a semiregular basis, according to some purely academic research cited in a recent Harvard study (PDF). Most of those users hit nearly eight X...
HTC has introduced its latest smartphone running on Google's Android mobile operating system, the HTC Hero.
With last week's launch of Apple's latest iPhone, the iPhone 3GS, the rumor mills are running in low gear on what the secretive computer-maker might be planning for its next cell phone.
We’ll show you how to pick up a bargain this week, including a great deal on a Nikon camera, a cheap mobile phone plan, a Canon Legria HF20 camcorder at a reduced price and a 46in Samsung LCD television with a free 22in LCD!
Few companies innovate with the intensity and frequency of those working in mobile, and today's present is a future that only a handful of people would have predicted just a few short years ago. While most of us happily soak up rampant innovation as ...
AT&T has been keeping quiet on its plans to adopt the Google Android platform so far. But with rumors that Verizon might steal its iPhone exclusivity and several high-end handset manufacturers already set to deliver Android phones, the wireless carri...
You have your Twitter. And your Facebook. And your Flickr. And your MySpace. And, if you're like most people, the list of Web sites you use to share information with your friends, family, and the world at large probably goes on, too.
Adam Blum, CEO of startup Rhomobile, says 90% of the programs being written with his company's open source mobile application framework are by ISVs and the other 10% by enterprises, but over time he'd like to see those percentages reversed.
You've spent your hard-earned cash on a brand new smartphone. Now it's time to put that money to work and turn your new acquisition into an entertainment powerhouse. The number of mobile entertainment apps out there is incomprehensibly large, and rel...
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This is a first breach in the device planned Thursday by the government to maintain the sale of so-called essential products in the country. Barely published, the list of commercial activities authorized during the reconfinement will already be amended.
After a conference call by Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, Finance and Recovery, and Roselyne Bachelot, Minister of Culture, with representatives of the book industry and those of the large distribution, the government announced on Friday that “The book and culture departments of supermarkets”, including Fnac, “Would be temporarily closed”. The measure, which Bercy excluded however Thursday, will come into force on Saturday, October 31.
“A boulevard to Amazon”
The Syndicat de la librairie française, which has been calling for this restriction since the announcement of the administrative closure of book stores, considered non-essential, concedes that it does not “Solves part of the problem”, offering ” a boulevard in Amazon “. Only the reopening of bookstores will contribute to “Restoration of truly fair competition” according to him. Bercy and the rue de Valois ministry specifically promise a meeting ” next week ” with “Actors in the book industry to study (…) the terms of a possible reopening of bookstores ”.
The government is thus trying to stifle the controversy resulting from the distortion of competition caused by the operation of a product department. “Non-essential” by Carrefour, Fnac and other distributors of “Essential products”. Several voices had pointed to the aberration of the closure of bookstores while Fnac, open because a supplier of computers, telephones and reams of paper said to be essential for teleworking, could sell its books. It is “For the sake of responsibility” that the brand will close access to “Its culture departments”, finally argued its general manager, Enrique Martinez, Friday evening.
Fnac – which generates 17% of its turnover on editorial products (books, CDs, DVDs) – is not the only one to make this concession to the book world, for – on paper – a period of two weeks; Carrefour, Auchan and other Leclerc will have to do the same. The whole represents nearly half of book sales in France. “ The first victims of this decision are the authors and publishers », Observes Jacques Creyssel, president of the Federation of commerce and distribution. The representative of the interests of supermarkets in France talks about it on purpose to avoid the risk of this demand spreading to other sectors.
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SOUTHWESTERN. NS – No two lobster seasons are ever exactly the same.
The weather differs. The shore price paid to fishers changes. The start date even varies.
One constant, however, is the need to market the catch, but even this seems to change from year to year depending on new challenges that arise.
The upcoming lobster season in southwestern Nova Scotia comes on the heels of two years of the COVID pandemic.
Still, even during those pandemic years lobster was on people’s minds and their plates.
Geoff Irvine, executive director of the Lobster Council of Canada, said the pandemic period created a time of lobster demand in the United States, with a focus on lobster meat and raw tails.
“Due to generous government stimulus payments over two presidents, the closure of restaurants, an inability to travel and the desire to enjoy something special at home, Americans bought lobster in high volumes at retail that supported higher prices from approximately June of 2020 to April of 2022,” he said.
And as prices for live and frozen lobster adjusted off their pandemic highs this spring, the industry still saw steady demand for live lobster in the United States, South Korea and the United Kingdom.
China is bouncing back, but it’s doing so slowly due to ongoing shutdowns of major cities caused by ongoing COVID-19 cases.
With frozen lobster, however, Irvine said they have seen a drop in demand from the United States. Stimulus money is gone. People are traveling. But inflation is causing consumers to trade down in their food choices.
Still, there is growth being seen in South Korea, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark and Irvine said there has been a focus in 2022 on exporting whole-in-shell lobster to Asia and Europe with some success.
But things are far from a slam dunk.
“Demand is generally suffering due to economic factors, along with a looming recession worldwide, higher interest rates and the impacts of the war in Ukraine on market behaviour,” said Irvine, who added they are faced with ongoing market access challenges in all key markets, which creates trade disruptions and additional costs for everyone in the value chain.
These challenges, he said, include expected traceability regulations in the United States, along with new EU Health Certificate animal health requirements in Europe and changes to how plants must register online to export frozen lobster to China.
“The challenges around preventing mortalities to North Atlantic right whales also remains at the top of the list as additional measures are implemented, including whale-safe gear, measures to slow down shipping and prevent and mitigate entanglements,” Irvine said.
He noted the Lobster Council has focused efforts on telling the Canadian story around North Atlantic right whale entanglement prevention and mitigation. This comes after the red listing of Canadian lobster by the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program, which has had impacts on the lobster industry. The group suggested lobster gear is leading to entanglements and mortalities, which is not the case in LFAs 33 and 34.
“We are producing a video, offering webinars to customers who wish to go into greater detail around the North Atlantic right whale measures and encouraging exporters to use a fact sheet when explaining how Canada is approaching this important issue,” said Irvine.
Other industry marketing measures include producing unique recipe creation videos through the Chef Ambassador Program for Instagram; producing unique trade-focused video telling the Canadian Lobster story in China; and building relationships with trade associations and seafood rating organizations in Europe and the United States.
“All of our marketing tactics are meant to drive demand for Canadian lobster for the long term,” Irvine said.
In early October, leading seafood expert John Sackton presented a Lobster Market Outlook for the Lobster Council of Canada. Sackton, who has 45 years of experience in the seafood industry, said there is much to be wary of.
We are still in the aftermath of the pandemic when it comes to shellfish, he said. The food service is facing many headwinds. And the consensus seems to be a recession in 2023 is likely.
He warned a collapse in shellfish markets would hit the Atlantic provinces hard.
Comparing retail performance from October 2021 to this past spring, Sackton said in October 2021 seafood was leading consumer sectors in increased demand, but by June 2022 it had slipped considerably to the bottom of the list.
His presentation also highlighted several factors about people’s dining habits:
• Low-income shoppers are turning away from seafood.
• Frozen seafood has been faring worse than it was in the 2009 recession.
• Restaurant operators are expecting worse conditions ahead, not better, as dining-out levels have not yet recovered to 2019 levels.
Inflation, he said, is changing restaurant behaviours.
Plus, restaurants often don’t have the needed staff; they are reducing hours of operations; some are closed on days they would normally be open on; and they are facing higher food costs.
Still, his presentation wasn’t all bleak. When it comes to export markets, he called the European Union “a bright spot for lobster exports, with stronger demand.”
The United States, he said, remains a primary market for live and frozen lobster.
China lockdowns this past spring did hurt demand. Things appeared to improve over the summer but the market is still considered weak.
But looming over everything, of course, is the direction of the economy and what that will mean for consumer confidence.


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The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) is looking to create a joint payment system with BRICS countries, in an effort to cut dependence on the US dollar and other western currencies.
The EEU, a Russia-led post-Soviet bloc consisting of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan focusing on the free trade of goods, services and capital amongst member nations, is mulling creating a single payment card with BRICS members to bring together each country’s major payment system, including Russia’s Mir, India’s RuPay, China’s Union Pay, and Brazil’s Elo.
“We’ve made substantial progress and now the work is focused on such sectors as banking, insurance and the stock market,” said EEU chairman advisor Vladimir Kovalyov, as cited by Russian newspaper Izvestia. The EEU is also planning to establish a regulatory body uniting the two blocs as part of the joint infrastructure. The BRICS group, which is comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa and accounts for almost one quarter of the world’s GDP, has been increasing efforts to cut reliance on the western monetary system.
Information for this briefing was found via Izvestia. The author has no securities or affiliations related to this organization. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.


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FOUR friends who became technology entrepreneurs have created a digital platform to connect small service providers with clients. The product, ServiceIQ, lets service providers list their specialities online, and even manages a bookings system.
A Web and mobile application, ServiceIQ, is now available to connect service providers in the health, accommodation, hospitality and travel services sector to their customers.
Service providers receive live requests through a central dashboard and can see if a response threshold set by the customer has been reached.
The aim of the software application is to improve services and enable continuous connection between service providers and clients.
Aimed at enabling an ongoing connection between service providers and clients in various sectors, Zartner Technology recently launched their ServiceIQ mobile application.
A new offering by a black-owned information technology consulting and technology services company with a focus in delivering custom software solutions is set to ease the customer service sector.


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US Census Bureau launches iOS apps, says 860 developers have asked for API key
America’s Economy, U.S. Census Bureau’s first mobile application, is now available for iPhone and iPad. The app was available to Android users on Aug. 9. According to the Census Bureau, there have already been more than 10,000 downloads of the app from the Google Play store in the past three months.
The app provides frequently updated statistics on 16 key indicators in the U.S. economy. U.S. Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel announced the launch of the apps earlier today at the White House.
Since the Census Bureau’s Application Programming Interface was released in July, 860 developers have received API keys to access census data, with users generated 24 million data requests in the first 3 weeks of the API’s release, an average of 18 per second.


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McDonald's is well known for including amusing games, contests, and toy offers served side by side with its food. But the so-called "pink slime" associated with McDonald's hamburgers, despite its amusing nickname, has been seen as anything but by critics such as Jamie Oliver and The New York Times. After years of criticism, McDonald's 'pink slime' is a thing of the past.
McDonald's "pink slime," or ammonium hydroxide-treated spare beef trimmings, is used to extend meat products and to kill bacteria. Celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver likened the filler to dog food. But McDonald's has confirmed that its use of the additive is a thing of the past, telling The Daily Mail that it hasn't used the pink slime for several months.
McDonald's released an official statement on its decision to discontinue use of "pink slime". In the statement, Todd Bacon, McDonald's Senior Director of Quality Systems, Supply Chain Management, says, "At the beginning of 2011, we made a decision to discontinue the use of ammonia-treated beef in our hamburgers. This product has been out of our supply chain since August of last year. This decision was a result of our efforts to align our global standards for how we source beef around the world."
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Reverdia, a joint venture between Royal DSM and Roquette Frères dedicated to be the global leader in the market for sustainable succinic acid, has joined the consortium ADMIT BioSuccInnovate, an innovative Climate-KIC initiative funded by the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT), along with the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) at Aberystwyth University and other European partners. The Consortium will explore with CIMV, a biorefining company, the use of locally-available lignocellulosic feedstock, such as wheat straw or miscanthus to produce bio-based, biodegradable plastic packaging for consumer markets in association with UK retailer Waitrose and food tray producer Sharpak.
The project is in line with Waitrose’s sustainable packaging strategy. Reverdia contributes its Biosuccinium™ sustainable bio-succinic acid technology to help build a truly sustainable packaging value chain.
Jo Kockelkoren, Reverdia’s Global Commercial Director said, “This venture builds on our market development work and partnership model that spans the entire value chain, from biomass to consumer applications.”
David Bryant, project lead at IBERS stated, ”We chose Reverdia as they have proven best-in-class sustainable technology and the best LCA, as well as the capacity to deliver and license high-quality Biosuccinium™ today.”
Martin Taylor, Managing Director at Sharpak said, “We are pleased to collaborate with Reverdia and the other Consortium partners. It is only by working together that we can create a sustainable packaging supply chain.”
Karen Grayley, manager of packaging and reprographics at Waitrose said, “The use of lignocellulosic feedstock for the production of bio-based plastic packaging from BiosucciniumTM is well-aligned with the ethos of treading lightly on the environment in the Waitrose way. We anticipate that this project will help contribute to Waitrose’s sustainable packaging strategy for 2020 and beyond and endorse the partner’s collaboration in making renewable packaging a commercial reality.”


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Small business owners and entrepreneurs gathered in Chicago's West Loop last month to hear from their peers and Facebook experts about how the company helps businesses connect to customers.
The "Facebook Fit" event was hosted at Moonlight Studios, 1446 W. Kinzie, and featured Dan Levy, director of small business at Facebook, discussing how the company provides a way for businesses of all sizes to grow through targeted advertising.
At Windy City Times, we view social media as a way to enhance our reach, and we link to articles, photos and videos of events and news we cover on our website and print publications, including the weekly Windy City Times and biweekly Nightspots magazine. We also link to special publications we do, such as the Gay & Lesbian Wedding Guide.
Because we have always been free both in print and online, we view social media as a complement to what we do. There certainly is competition in all forms of media, but for now social media provides our company with low-cost ways to reach more potential readers. We have more than 11,200 Facebook followers for WCT and 3,700 for Nightspots, plus more than 15,200 Twitter followers. Our website averages about 125,000 unique visits a month. We print 10,000 copies of WCT weekly, and 4,000 copies of Nightspots biweekly. We also have a mobile-friendly website that works on any form of mobile device, including tablet computers, and we have an iPhone app. We also have a weekly podcast, Windy City Queercast, available on the web and iTunes, and a YouTube channel for videos.
To sum it up, we use it all to cover the LGBTQ community. Some things work best in print, others online, others on a podcast or video. The Internet has freed us up to cover the community in far more in-depth ways, but our bread-and-butter are our print publications. Everything else is about marketing and branding what we do, and getting more readers for our stories.
The focus of the Facebook Fit event was on how the company serves tens of millions of businesses around the world. There was a panel of small business owners who explained how each of their companies benefited from Facebook advertising and marketing services. The range of the businesses represented a nice diversity, including: a plumbing company ( Morgan Miller Plumbing ), an event space in Streator, Ill. ( The Silver Fox ), and a specialized clothing manufacturer ( Divas SnowGear ). Each found a way to better connect with customers through Facebook.
Facebook has two main ways businesses use to promote their pages: direct ads that can target new customers, and boosted posts. Once you have your Facebook page, you also need to maintain a consistent presence through posts for customers, and this is where it can be tricky. There is a balance for a plumbing business, for example, not getting too political, but for a media company like Windy City Times, much of what we cover is very political. So there is no one-size-fits-all model for social media. Humor, however, does seem to help a lot, plus creating a more personalized approach, with photos, contests and customer engagement.
What we find valuable with Facebook is the ability to target potential followers across a wide range of categories, from geographic to political, cultural to gender, age and their likes of similar organizations. For example, we may target people who live in Chicago who also like PFLAG, HRC or the Chicago Sky basketball team.
Facebook also now allows businesses to target people through a "Lookalike" tool, finding audiences that are similar to those who already follow them. Businesses can also import email addresses to specifically target their customers who also have Facebook accounts.
The Facebook Fit event provided a nice opportunity to hear details about Facebook products for businesses, and to get a "tune-up" on things that we have already been doing.
There were also representatives on hand from Intuit, Square and LegalZoom, to help small businesses navigate other parts of their companies. Facebook is holding similar Fit events around the country.


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Full Channel is a provider of broadband video entertainment, high-speed internet access, and telephone services to residents and businesses in Rhode Island's East Bay, including the communities of Barrington, Warren and Bristol.
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Sep 8, 2021
‘We want our partners to be those strategic advisors and then kind of move on so they are able to offer our solutions to more and more customers out there,’ Masergy’s VP of global operations tells CRN. By Gina Narcisi, Jennifer Zarate September 08, 2021, 05:34 PM EDT Many IT companies are tapping into the channel, at least in part, to extend their sales force. But partners can find themselves at odds with the direct sales side of the house, which sometimes competes with the indirect channel. Masergy Communications, a company that does about 80 percent of its business today through partners , is protecting the role of its partners by solving customer problems alongside -- not in competition with -- its channel partners. It has also shortened the sales cycle so that partners can close more deals, more efficiently, according to the company. “[Masergy’s] capacity to bring the resources together to help propose, price out, contract or implemented solutions and then provide support down the road is a very unique proposition that they have that is somewhat lost on many of the other providers,” Bill Hooper, RealCom Solutions’ COO, told CRN. RealCom Solutions has been a longtime Masergy partner because of the company’s “full channel integration,” Hooper said. “That’s what’s unique about their direct sales teams -- they’re very collaborative with partners. You know when you engage with them on an account, you’ve got somebody that can be trusted,” Hooper said. Plano, Texas-based Masergy has always been a channel-first company , said Craig D’Abreo, Masergy’s vice president of global operations. “We understand the challenges and the needs [of partners] and we understand what the customers are looking for. And we also understand the role of the partners and channel right,” he said. That role, he said, is strategic advisor, and not “box pusher.” Partners are designing solutions to help their customers digitally transform and ready the businesses for the future. “We’re going shoulder to shoulder with the partners to really understand what the customers are looking for and then bring in those innovative solutions … [such as] SDN, UC, and cybersecurity.” Implementation is the next step after solution design. Masergy can take over the implementation -- or the “nitty gritty configuration” piece for partners, which can free up the solution provider to focus staying consultative in the eyes of their customers, D‘Abreo said. “That’s the second way Masergy really comes in -- we handle the entire implementation process from a white glove perspective, so that the partners can once again go and be more strategic in nature.” The third way that the company is protecting partners is through its ongoing support for end customers, D’Abreo said. As solutions are rolled into production, Masergy can “take over’ the maintenance of the customer account, 24/7, he said. “We want our partners to be those strategic advisors and then kind of move on so they are able to offer our solutions to more and more customers out there,” he said. “We want to help them go advise new customers and offer solutions that can increase their revenue as well.” Partners can be as involved with design, implementation and maintenance as they‘d like, or, they can focus on their customer relationships and adding new services as their customers’ needs evolve, such as tying in security with UC, D’Abreo said. “We do see a lot of that being brought together,” he added. As a busy solution provider serving enterprises, Frisco, Texas-based Realcom Solutions wants an easy way to do business with its suppliers. Masergy keeps the firm from getting “too bogged down” in the minutiae of task such as installations, Hooper said. It also gives RealCom and its customers everything they need from one vendor, which can benefit the customer financially, too. “What’s a bit unique about Masergy’s offerings is I can sell a customer the network, I can layer on the UCaaS offering for the voice, and then I can layer on the security, so that I have a one stop shop to go to,” he said. “I’ve got it all bundled into one offering for a customer, which makes it really easy for partners and customers have one contract that helps them reach a higher commitment level.”
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Varjo promises a VR headset with 'human eye-resolution'
Codenamed "20/20," it crams in 70 megapixels per eye.
Your next trip to the library could include an Oculus Rift
If you live in California, that is.
Apple is the perfect anti-VR test case
Imagine a VR headset built just for the iPhone. Yeah, we can't either.
Oculus Rift officially supports the HTC Vive’s best feature
Room-scale VR is no longer listed as "experimental" functionality.
'Alien: Covenant' VR experience emerges on April 26th (updated)
'In Utero' portrays the horror of 'Alien' from a young creature's view.
'A Moment in Time' shows the charming potential of art in VR
Goro Fujita spent 80 hours making the scene in Quill, a VR painting app by Oculus.
'Arden's Wake' paves the way for never-ending VR stories
Penrose Studios' third film proves that social VR doesn't have to be a gimmick.
Facebook's plans for Oculus are finally taking shape
When Facebook creates the reality, it controls the content.
Explore the world with Google Earth VR on Oculus Rift
You no longer need a Vive to soar over Google Earth's landscapes.


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St. Bernards are synonymous with the term ‘rescue dog’ as they are well-known for their role in rescuing people up in the Swiss Alps. However, popular cellphone juicer brand, mophie, will be putting their own techie twist on the rescue concept this weekend at SXSW, Austin.
How? By having St. Bernards rescue SXSW-goers in need of an emergency recharge with mophie packs!
All people have to do is tweet a screenshot of their dying battery to @mophie with #mophierescue and selected users will receive a link with an interactive map that will track the St. Bernard’s location.
In a press release, mophie’s VP of Marketing, Ross Howe said:
“We’ve activated at SXSW for several years and saving the batteries of attendees’ mobile devices has become our reputation during the week in Austin. This year, we tossed in a new element and partnered with the National St. Bernard Foundation for some added assistance to our rescue efforts, while also making the adoption of these lovable dogs easy. The idea is: mophie and the St. Bernards save the people of SXSW. The people of SXSW save the St. Bernards.”
Olive Ashwell, Marketing Manager for the St. Bernard Rescue Foundation hopes that these cutie patooties trotting around saving the day will make them a more popular pick when it comes to finding them “safe and loving homes.”


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Price of LG made Google Nexus 4 has been reduced by 25 per cent. Google Play Store’s Twitter account formally announced the price cut today. However, the price cut is applicable to the USA, the UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, Spain and South Korea markets only. After the price slash, the Nexus 4 8 GB model is to cost $200 or Rs 13,400 (considering Rupee at 67 versus Dollar) while the 16 GB model will cost $250 (Rs 16,750)
Currently, the 16 GB model of the smartphone costs around Rs 25,000 in India but since the Rupee is tumbling against dollar every day (at the time of writing it was 68.70 against Dollar), LG or Google may not have the elbow-room to reduce its price further.
LG Google Nexus 4 smartphone features 4.7-inch True HD IPS touchscreen display with 1280×768 pixel resolution. The smartphone is powered by quad-core 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro System on Chip with 2 GB RAM on-board. LG has packed 2100 mAh battery. Google has recently released Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update for the Nexus 4 smartphone.
You can read the review of LG Nexus 4 here.


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Investors have shrugged off a US$2.8 billion fine imposed on Chinese internet giant Alibaba by government authorities, sending the stock surging by up to 10% in early trading on the Hong Kong exchange.
China's anti-monopoly regulator, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), announced the record fine Saturday, saying the company had "abused its dominant market position in China’s online retail platform service market since 2015 by forcing online merchants to open stores or take part in promotions on its platforms".
The fine, which culminates an investigation that started in December, amounts to 4% of Alibaba's 2019 domestic revenue.
Alibaba issued a contrite statement Saturday morning. "We accept the penalty with sincerity and will ensure our compliance with determination," the statement read.
Alibaba pladged to "further strengthen our focus on customer value creation and customer experience" while introducing "measures to lower entry barriers and business costs of operating on our platforms".
"We are committed to ensuring an operating environment for our merchants and partners that is more open, more equitable, more efficient and more inclusive in sharing the fruits of growth," the open letter stated.
The SAMR said it decided the level of fine after factoring in the “duration and degree” of the misconduct, as well as Alibaba’s “in-depth self-examination” and “proactive rectification”.
A commentary in the government mouthpiece China Daily said the case was a lesson for other companies. "Monopoly chokes the healthy development of a market economy causing it to stagnate," the commentary said. While the government strongly supports the development of the platform-based internet economy, it will not hesitate to regulate. "Free competition does not mean the big fish can eat the small fry, and the market economy is not a jungle where the strong can use their strength to exclude their competitors," the editorial stated.
While the market has reacted positively so far, atleast one analyst sounded a note of caution about how the ruling will impact Alibaba's future growth.
“The antitrust penalty is credit negative for Alibaba, but the company’s strong financial profile and good access to funding provide a buffer to withstand these challenges,” said Lina Choi, senior vice president at Moody’s Investors Service. “The required corrective measures will likely limit Alibaba’s revenue growth as a further expansion in market share will be constrained. Investments to retain merchants and upgrade products and services will also reduce its profit margins.”
The previous largest fine issued in an anti-monopoly ruling in China was a US$975 million penalty issued to US-based chipmaker Qualcomm in 2015.


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Crick Trailer Sales has launched a new sliding bogie tipper trailer providing up to 50% increased payload compared to a traditional rigid alternative. The company has cited a unique chassis design and new hydraulic drive system for providing the boost alongside improved stability, manoeuvrability and enhanced safety.
The new trailer can transport up to 29.5 tonnes of aggregate in its extended position running at its 44-tonne limit. A conventional 8×4 unit can carry 19.7 tonnes at its 32-tonne limit.
Crick Trailer Sales technical sales representative, Scott Pagano, said, “In recent years, articulated tipping vehicles have been gaining popularity in aggregate sector operations as there are clear savings to be made from larger payloads and fewer journeys. The unique chassis design of the sliding bogie tipper also ensures higher levels of safety for operators and greater manoeuvrability, which makes the vehicle easier to drive.”
The body can be shortened to enhance stability and manoeuvrability. Fitment of an SAF Holland hydraulic drive can provide – via in-cab activation to combat adverse off-highway conditions – up to an additional 600Nm torque to the rear drive axle. In tests conducted at HORIBA MIRA, the company stated that the trailer remained stable at 8.5 degrees with a load of just under 29 tonnes.


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Washington — For the first time in more than two decades, Mexico last year surpassed China as the main source of goods imported to the United States. The change reflects growing tensions between Washington and Beijing, as well as the United States’ efforts to import from countries that are friendlier and closer to home.
Figures released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Commerce show that the value of goods imported into the United States from Mexico rose nearly 5% between 2022 and 2023, to more than $475 billion. At the same time, the value of Chinese imports fell 20% to $427 billion.
The last time Mexican goods imported into the United States exceeded the value of Chinese imports was in 2002.
Economic relations between the United States and China have deteriorated severely in recent years as Beijing has aggressively fought on trade and made ominous military gestures in the Far East.
The Trump administration began imposing tariffs on Chinese imports in 2018, arguing that Beijing’s trade practices violated global trade rules. President Joe Biden kept those tariffs in place after taking office in 2021, making clear that antagonism toward China would be a rare area of common ground between Democrats and Republicans.
As an alternative to offshoring production to China, in which US corporations have long been engaged, the Biden administration has urged companies to seek suppliers in allied countries (“friend-shoring”) or return manufacturing to the United States. Supply chain disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic also led U.S. companies to seek supplies closer to the United States (“reshoring”).
Mexico has been among the beneficiaries of the growing shift away from dependence on Chinese factories. But the picture is more complicated than it seems. Some Chinese manufacturers have set up factories in Mexico to take advantage of the three-year-old United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, which allows duty-free trade in North America for many products.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said this week that the trade status gives Mexico new leverage, saying it would make it harder for the United States to close the two countries’ border to limit immigration, as suggested in negotiations over a border bill in the US Senate. .
“The negotiation proposes closing the border,” he said. “Do you think Americans, or Mexicans, but especially Americans, would approve of that? Companies would not accept it, maybe one day, but not a week.”
Some industries, especially automakers, have established plants on both sides of the border that depend on each other for a steady supply of parts.
Derek Scissors, a China specialist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, noted that the biggest declines in Chinese imports were in computers, electronics, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, all politically sensitive categories.
“I don’t see the United States being comfortable with a rebound in those areas in 2024 and 2025,” Scissors said, predicting that the reversal between China and Mexico in imports to the United States is likely “not a one-year blip.”
Scissors suggested that the decline in American dependence on Chinese goods partly reflects wariness of Beijing’s economic policies under President Xi Jinping. Xi’s draconian COVID-19 shutdowns crippled major sectors of the Chinese economy in 2022, and his officials have raided foreign companies in apparent counterespionage investigations.
“I think it’s American companies that belatedly decide that Xi Jinping is not trustworthy,” he said.
Overall, the U.S. deficit in goods trade with the rest of the world — the gap between the value of what the U.S. sells and what it buys abroad — shrank 10% last year to $1.06 trillion. .
Associate Press writer Mark Stevenson in Mexico City contributed to this report.


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BEIJING -- Sales of home appliances in rural China rose 128 percent during the first four months, boosted by a nationwide subsidy program for Chinese rural consumers, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) on Friday.
The sales value of home appliances covered by the rural subsidy program reached 94.43 billion yuan ($14.3 billion) from January to April, according to a statement on the MOC website.
During this period, the sales of home appliances in the countryside reached 39.515 million units, an increase of 91 percent from one year ago.
Televisions and refrigerators were the most popular appliances Chinese farmers bought in the first four months, as their sales volume accounted for more than half of all home appliances sold, according to the MOC statement.
China started the subsidy program in February 2009 to stimulate rural consumption and buoy the nation's economic growth amid the global economic downturn.
Under the program, Chinese farmers can receive subsidies equal to 13 percent of the price of designated types of refrigerators, televisions, washing machines, computers, air conditioners, mobile phones, water heaters, microwave ovens and traditional ovens.
Last year, another six types of home appliances, including electric bikes, smoke exhaust ventilators, gas stoves, pressure cookers, electric cookers and DVD players, were added to the list of subsidized appliances.
By the end of April, sales of home appliances in rural China amounted to 336 billion yuan, with subsidies on them totaling 39.17 billion yuan, according to the MOC statement.


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Editor’s Note: In this final segment of the cover story in the March issue of Farm Journal’s PORK, Neil Dierks recalls some of the highlights enjoyed and challenges faced during his career in the pork industry. With the present trade situation, there will be more to come.
From the time Neil Dierks joined the staff at the Iowa Pork Producers Association, to his present role as CEO of the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), he has seen issues come and go, and come again in a different form. Here are some of the most memorable.
> The mandatory pork checkoff: “When I was with Iowa Pork, the national checkoff was coming but basically there was no guarantee of any funding returning to states,” Dierks says. “Iowa went to the legislature and created a state mandatory checkoff bill through an appropriations process that passed in the last waning days of the legislature. And it was all protected. It’s so ironic, because I ended up as CEO of NPPC. Ultimately, Iowa supported the national checkoff.”
> Pseudorabies eradication program: “I was there when the U.S. decided to go forward with an eradication program,” Dierks says. As difficult as it was (producers didn’t want people coming onto their farm) he says the relationship between the industry, APHIS and the state vets, was about as good as it could get. “Now, fast forward
20 years, from the PRV eradication effort to Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus.” Collaboration has improved as a result of PEDv and the secure pork supply initiative will help, but Dierks says the veterinary community and diagnostic labs are a critical component to future programs.
> H1N1 flu pandemic of 2009: This was a very difficult time for the industry, Dierks says. “We haven’t talked to people about our systems on food—you can’t get H1N1 from eating pork. A representative of the government looks at every pork carcass when it’s harvested.”
> Application of technology: Three-site production, segregated early weaning, barn filtration, the recognized value of manure, and other technologies are now common on pork operations. Dierks is a strong believer in research and science; these technologies and others in the pipeline are critical to the industry’s success.
> Animal ID/premise ID: The pork industry took the lead on this issue long ago. “Our industry and our producers stepped up,” Dierks says. Other industries balked, but pork producers knew it was important in the face of a disease outbreak. That mindset “came back in spades with the
outbreak of high pathogenic avian influenza in Iowa and Minnesota,” he says.
> Growth of exports: Exports have grown tremendously in the past 20 years, driven in great part by getting access to markets for U.S. pork. “There has been a lot of work by many groups to promote pork, but the work to get access to those markets in order to sell product has been the responsibility and charge of NPPC, whether in Washington, D.C., or in other capitols,” Dierks says.
> Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome: “It’s interesting to see that everyone is still looking for solutions. We have new technology of potentially a PRRS-resistant pig. We have other genetics companies doing work on disease resistance through classic swine breeding, too. We also have a vaccine, and take a look at filtering—that’s the standard now on sow farms.”
> Introduction in marketing pork—The Other White Meat: This campaign was significant, Dierks says because it positioned the industry in a completely different way. It also became a highly recognized symbol. While the sale of this logo and trademarks to the National Pork Board has drawn criticism from activist groups, the campaign was a watermark moment. On the other hand, Dierks feels the industry needs to do a better job of mending the disconnect between consumers and the production chain.
“The marketplace is so different than it was 20 or 30 years ago, and it’s so competitive,” he says. “That’s why we’re seeing people market non-product-specific qualities of product. We need to continue to evaluate how we sell product and we create margin.
This list barely scratches the surface and Dierks says there’s always something new.
“Take a look at labor in the industry and how that leads us into immigration reform, and environmental issues are always at the forefront.”
He’s already looking at what might be on the horizon.


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–Brazil’s KEY coffee region of Cerrado in Minas Gerais state has been hit by severe frost damage
–Individual coffee farms in Cerrado report as much as 40 percent of farm hit by latest frost
–Total cultivated area of coffee farms in Cerrado sees 25 percent of area hit by frost attack
–Frost impact on Cerrado coffee yields could impact up to 2 million 60-kg bags in 2022 crop
–This week’s frost attack in Brazil was 3rd this season and most severe to coffee since 1978
–4th cold front with high possibility off causing additional frost damage to start this weekend
–New York Arabica futures open all above US$2/lb and hits high of $2.1485/lb before profit taking
JULY 23 (SpillingTheBeans)–Brazil’s key Cerrado Mineiro coffee region in the north-western corner of the country’s top producing state of Minas Gerais has been severely affected by the latest intense wave of damaging frost that hit most of the Arabica coffee park in Brazil this week, producers told SpillingTheBeans in exclusive interviews on Friday. This week’s frost attack was the most severe to hit coffee production in Brazil, the world’s largest grower and exporter, since 1978, and the 3rd intense cold front alone this year to cause frost damage both to the new 2021 coffee harvest as well as to the next 2022 crop. A 4th cold front with “very high” possibility of causing further damage to the already weakened coffee farm is forecast to start this weekend.
More details at; http://www.spilling-the-beans.net/breaking-brazil-frost-damage-worst-since-1978-prices-set-to-return-to-over-3-lb-and-possible-hit-new-highs/
*This story will be updated and content and sources added shortly!
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Biden calls for new funding to fight semiconductor shortage in budget request
Among other measures, the White House’s budget request includes $150 million to fund two new manufacturing programs, including one targeting domestic semiconductor manufacturing. It’s the latest effort from the White House to address the ongoing semiconductor shortage, which has stalled supply for consumer items like the PlayStation 5 and halted production at Ford assembly lines.
The “American Jobs Plan,” the sweeping $2 trillion infrastructure package unveiled in March, also included new funding to build domestic chip manufacturing capacity, allocating over $50 billion for investment in the sector. In…


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Merchants’ physique CAIT on Sunday wrote to Info and Expertise Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad demanding that the federal government prohibit WhatsApp from implementing its new privateness coverage or impose a ban on the messaging app and its mother or father firm Fb.
The Confederation of All India Merchants (CAIT) claimed that via the brand new privateness coverage, “all types of non-public information, fee transactions, contacts, location and different important info of an individual who’s utilizing WhatsApp will probably be acquired by it and can be utilized for any goal by WhatsApp”.
Within the communication to Prasad, CAIT has demanded that “authorities ought to instantly prohibit WhatsApp from implementing the brand new coverage or put a ban on WhatsApp and its mother or father firm Fb”, the merchants’ physique said.
CAIT mentioned Fb has greater than 200 million customers in India and enabling it to entry information of each consumer can pose severe risk to not solely the economic system however even to the safety of the nation.
Nonetheless, in an e-mail response to PTI, a WhatsApp spokesperson mentioned, “To additional enhance transparency, we up to date the privateness coverage to explain that going ahead companies can select to obtain safe internet hosting providers from our mother or father firm Fb to assist handle their communications with their clients on WhatsApp.
“Although after all, it stays as much as the consumer whether or not or not they need to message with a enterprise on WhatsApp.”
The spokesperson additional mentioned that the replace doesn’t change WhatsApp’s information sharing practices with Fb and doesn’t affect how folks talk privately with pals or household wherever they’re on this planet.
“WhatsApp stays deeply dedicated to defending folks’s privateness. We’re speaking immediately with customers via WhatsApp about these adjustments in order that they have time to assessment the brand new coverage over the course of the following month,” the spokesperson added.
An e-mail despatched to Fb searching for touch upon the difficulty didn’t elicit a response.
CAIT Secretary Normal Praveen Khandelwal mentioned, “The modified privateness coverage of WhatsApp is an encroachment on privateness of a person and runs in opposition to the essential fundamentals of Structure of India and subsequently the CAIT has demanded speedy intervention of the federal government.”


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A proposal by the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) to toughen Switzerland’s “Swiss made” watch ordinance has been pulled. It must be revised to comply with European trade treaties and a major Swiss government plan to protect the viability of “Swiss” and Swiss flag trademarks, the Swiss Federal Council says. Switzerland exports 25 million watches annually, worth $11 billion. The United States is its top market.
The proposal to strengthen requirements allowing use of “Swiss Made” on watches was approved in June by the FH membership and sent to the Federal Council for review and approval. Changes include more use of Swiss-made components (80 percent for mechanical watches, 50 percent for quartz module watches), instead of non-Swiss ones.
However, the Council said Nov. 23 that the FH must withdraw, review, and revise its proposal. It cited its own pending proposed legislation to strengthen and protect “Swiss” trademarks for all products. It also called FH’s proposal “problematic,” because of a 1972 pact with the European Union on watches, which prohibits unilateral changes.
Instead, it urged the FH to bring its proposal into compliance with the pending “Swiss” legislation and international agreements, and re-submit it next year.
The Federal Council will present its proposed “Swiss” trademark legislation by year’s end, and give all economic and political sectors—including the Swiss watch industry—opportunity to comment until the end of March 2008.
At least one Swiss newspaper said the Council’s action means FH’s proposal is “dead.” Some opponents suggest revision could remove what they consider its objectionable sections.
However, Jean-Daniel Pasche, FH president, told JCK the Council’s action “wasn’t a rejection” of FH’s proposal, only a directive to “review and revise it where necessary. The Federal Council looks on it favorably,” he said. “It’s only concerned with its details.”
Swiss trademark law applies to all products, including watches, and is the basis for a 1972 “Swiss-made” watch ordinance. “It’s logical that if they revise the law, we’ll revise our proposal,” said Pasche. “So, this wasn’t a surprise, but it’s very important to know the contents of the draft law [and] how it could affect our proposal.”
Once the FH board knows that, a revised FH proposal could be submitted as early as April 2008 to the Council, said Pasche. He added that the FH has begun discussions with the EU and its fellow European associations.
FH’s proposal is endorsed by major Swiss watchmakers, including the Swatch Group, the world’s largest watchmaker and a major watch components supplier; Rolex; and the Richemont Group, parent firm of Cartier. It’s opposed by a number of other, smaller watchmakers—who claim it favors large watchmakers and that higher-priced Swiss components could force them to raise prices or close. And it was criticized by the EU and European watch associations for being allegedly unilateral and “protectionist.”
While most opponents decline to speak publicly, some endorse the Council’s directive. Ronnie Bernheim, president of the popular upscale Swiss brand Mondaine, said he is pleased the Swiss Federal Council has “clearly seen that the FH proposal was not good and protectionist,” he told JCK. Hopefully, he said, the Swiss government will enact “a future new law and a new ordinance [that] will be in the interest of the whole Swiss watch industry and will respect international treaties.”


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Yet again, Boston is being recognized for it’s health and fitness ways. It was named the the top US city to stay in shape, this time according to Infogroup, a big data and marketing analytics service.
“Boston has the highest concentration of fitness-related businesses, according to a new study.”
I honestly usually hate lists and rarely cover them. But this list was one that made sense to me and I wanted to share it hoping that it might reach the right people.
BRING US MORE HEALTHY RESTAURANTS!
We have a ton of studios and gyms that have opened up over the past few years in Boston but we want more healthy restaurant options.
“The large concentration of gyms and health clubs in Boston reveals consumers are more likely to live healthier lifestyles. This knowledge can assist other companies, such as health food stores or wellness stores, looking to open new locations looking to target a similar market. Similarly, for entrepreneurs looking to open fitness and health-focused businesses, this data indicates where they might find both a marketplace for their products or services, and more importantly, success.”
I honestly, don’t know why food entrepreneurs haven’t realized this sooner. Every time a new healthy restaurant opens up, it slays in the form of long lines and immediately opens up a second locations. See Sweetgreen, Juice Press and Dig Inn.
Here is how they conducted the study:
“To determine the top U.S. cities for fitness, Infogroup used its verified business database of more than 15 million records to identify which metro areas are home to the most fitness clubs and gymnasiums, yoga instruction businesses, running and jogging supply stores, sporting goods retailers and membership and recreation clubs. Once these factors were compiled, Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) with a population of one million or more were ranked by their concentration of fitness-related businesses per 10,000 residents.”
“More than half of the Boston “fit” businesses are gyms or health clubs, with sporting goods retailers making up an additional 26 percent and yoga instructors accounting for 19 percent. With such a high concentration of fitness-focused businesses, Infogroup data suggests Boston residents have the greatest opportunities available to meet fitness goals.”
Here are the top 10 “fit” cities:
- Seattle, Wash.
- Minneapolis, Minn.
- Denver, Colo.
- Hartford, Conn.
- Providence, R.I.
- San Diego, Calif.
- Pittsburgh, Penn.
- Grand Rapids, Mich.
- Portland, Ore.
I’m glad that as “Sarah Fit” I am able to live in the city that allegedly is the easiest to stay fit. Now, if only By Cloe could open already…
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The 2012/13 UK boating tourism's economic impact was an estimated £3.7billion
Boating tourism contributed an estimated £3.7billion to the UK economy in 2012/13, according to a new report published by the British Marine Federation.
This figure accounts for 3.2% of all tourism expenditure in the UK, according to Deloitte: The economic contribution of the tourism economy in the UK, November 2013.
UK boating tourism supports approximately 96,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs through direct and indirect effects.
This annual contribution to the UK economy in 2012/13 is estimated to be larger than the total tourism impact of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games between 2005 and 2017 (including pre-event visits, the Games themselves and the estimated ongoing legacy effect).
The comparitative figures were taken from Oxford Economics (2012) The Economic Impact of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
UK boating tourism sectors – marinas/moorings, passenger boats, charter/boat hire and sea schools/training – generated a total turnover of £609million in 2012/13, across more than 2,000 businesses.
This returned Gross Value Added (GVA) of £434million and supporting 14,900 FTE jobs, both directly and indirectly.
In addition, wider tourism expenditures support a further 81,000 FTE jobs and £3.3billion of GVA in the UK economy. These expenditures include purchases of ‘non-boating’ goods and services (such as food, drink, travel and accommodation) resulting from day visits and overnights stays to participate in boating and watersports activities, visit boats and take trips on passenger boats.
The overall economic contribution is many times larger than the core boating tourism sector:
For every job directly employed in the core boating tourism sector, a further 10 jobs are supported in the wider economy.
The overall GVA contribution is said to be 14 times larger than the core boating tourism sector.
Helen Grant MP, Minister for Tourism said: ‘I very much welcome the findings of the British Marine Federation’s report into the Economic Benefits for UK Boating Tourism.
‘These are important statistics to a Government which recognises the crucial role that the overall tourism sector plays in economic growth. Boating tourism has a key part to play in sustaining this positive picture.’
Nigel Hamilton, Chairman of British Marine Federation Tourism, added: ‘Boating tourism is a very diverse segment of the UK tourism market and makes a valuable contribution to the wider economy.
‘Despite the industry experiencing some challenging times in recent years as a result of the global financial crisis and subsequent recessions, prospects for future growth now look good as we expect participation rates in water-based activities to rise.’
The full report, which can be viewed by BMF members, assesses the impact of each of the marine tourism sectors individually, and estimates wider tourism expenditures by region and by boating and watersports activity for all associated day visits and overnight stays in the UK.


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Tesla (TSLA) announced today it delivered 422,875 electric vehicle (EV) units in the first quarter of 2023, missing Street expectations for 432,000 deliveries.
The company said it produced 440,808 EVs in Q1.
For the same period last year, Tesla delivered 310,000 EV units and a record 405,278 vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2022.
In 2022, vehicle deliveries rose 40% year-over-year to 1.31 million. For this year, analysts expect Tesla to deliver ~1.8M EVs.
Several analysts weighed in on Tesla ahead of the Q1 deliveries report. Most notably, CFRA analysts upgraded Tesla to Strong Buy from Buy with a price target of $275 per share.
“We think TSLA’s production likely benefited from easing chip shortages and supply chain issues and the ongoing ramp-up of the Austin and Berlin factories,” analysts wrote in a note.
On the other hand, Deutsche Bank analysts cut Q1 estimates for Tesla to EPS of $0.69, which is below Street’s $0.87.
“Q1 is positioned to be the trough for the year, and while management had indicated that it would still see auto GM (ex-credit, including FSD) remain in the 20%+ range at any single quarter in the year, much of this will depend on the volume/pricing dynamics and macro conditions throughout the year which in of itself is challenging to predict,” analysts said last week.
Tesla stock price closed at $207.46 on Friday to hit a new 4-week high. Shares are up 68.4% year-to-date (YTD).
By Senad Karaahmetovic


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AJG Direct’s Managing Director Paul Gillett recently sourced inspiration from Jeff Bezo’s and Richard Branson; the strategy change has seen AJG Direct boost engagement and productivity in meetings.
With the New Year upon us, many companies will be looking to source a fresh challenge or an opportunity that offers advancement. Marketing specialists AJG Direct reveal their secrets to maintaining their top talent.
Mentoring many up and coming entrepreneurs has allowed AJG Direct MD Paul Gillett to gather an in-depth knowledge of money potholes for tomorrows business owners. Be sure not to fall into the same traps as those who’ve been before.
Sales and Marketing specialists AJG Direct understand the importance of business networking, but with alarming statistics indicating many of us are getting it wrong, they reveal the top faux pas to avoid.


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Citrix Is The Newest Enterprise Tech Agency Underneath Strain From Activist Buyers
Know-how corporations, notably these with an enterprise bent, look like coming underneath growing strain from activist buyers who need to squeeze out income at the price of merchandise and jobs. Final yr EMC pressed by an activist investor ultimately bought the corporate to Dell for $sixty seven billion. Citrix is the newest firm dealing with this difficulty –and from the identical investor because it seems.
It’s been a busy week for Citrix, an organization targeted on desktop virtualization and networking. Simply yesterday, it bought its cloud administration merchandise to Accelerite, and on the identical day introduced that it had acquired Comtrade’s SCOM administration packs for Citrix customers.
What these strikes present is that Citrix is within the midst of a pivot the place it’s making an attempt to shed merchandise that it sees as outdoors of its core mission, whereas making the occasional acquisition to reinforce that mission. Meaning merchandise like Citrix CloudPlatform and CloudPortal Enterprise Supervisor are out of right here and the Comtrade SCOM administration packs are coming into the fold.
Final November, the corporate introduced it was spinning out its GoTo merchandise akin to GoToMeeting, GoToMyPC and different merchandise right into a separate firm.
There are additionally layoffs concerned right here with one thousand jobs anticipated to be minimize from the GoTo transfer alone. The corporate had over 9000 staff worldwide previous to the layoff announcement.
Citrix has indicated it needs to focus on core merchandise akin to XenServer, NetScalr and maybe Citrix Office Cloud, however it’s not essentially making these strikes as a result of it needs to vary course.
As an alternative, it seems that Citrix is underneath strain from activist investor, Elliott Administration. In the event you’re not conversant in Elliott, they’re the identical agency that purchased a $1 billion stake in EMC in 2014, and instantly started placing strain on the corporate to promote its eighty % share in VMware. Ultimately EMC bought the entire agency together with the VMware piece to Dell for $sixty seven billion. That sale is predicted to shut later this yr.
In a case of ‘Deja vu another time’ Elliott has taken an activist investor position with Citrix as nicely, pushing the corporate to make some strikes it won’t essentially have made in any other case.
These aren’t the one tech companies during which Elliott has proven curiosity. As eWeek reported in October, Elliott has its fingers in loads of tech offers. The MO is usually the identical. Elliot buys a stake, then secures a few seats on the board and begins pushing for substantive modifications in path.
The query is why a personal fairness agency like Elliott is all of the sudden smitten with these giant enterprise tech corporations. R Ray Wang, who’s principal at Constellation Analysis says it’s as a result of it might extract some cash from them.
“The personal fairness companies are concentrating on tech corporations as a result of their progress charges of 10 to twenty % could seem sluggish for tech, however are excessive [compared to] different industries. They’re within the midst of compressing these corporations for money and forcing M&A throughout the board,” Wang advised TechCrunch.
EMC bought the corporate earlier than it was pressured to make different strikes it didn’t actually need to make. Citrix wasn’t so fortunate, dumping product strains, chopping jobs and far more. These corporations might be the start of different comparable exercise by buyers like Elliott as giant tech corporations beneath strain from smaller, extra nimble rivals develop into targets of some of these companies.
Citrix didn’t reply to a request for remark earlier than we revealed this piece. In the event that they do, we’ll replace the story.


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The campaign is supported by 360 degree activation including TV, Press, Outdoors, Visual Merchandising, amongst others
BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | August 27, 2012
Interestingly, the campaign message of the retail arm of the brand, The Raymond Shop is ‘Celebrate Everyday’. It promotes living and celebrating life everyday – an apt messaging for Onam, which denotes a new beginning for glorious days ahead.
In addition, Raymond has launched a special Onam campaign specific to the Kerala market. The campaign is supported by 360 degree activation including TV, Press, Outdoors, Visual Merchandising, amongst others. Raymond has also tied up with leading banks to offer benefits to their consumers.
Speaking on the new campaign, Mrinmoy Mukherjee, Director-Marketing & Business Development, Retail, Raymond Limited said “Onam is by far the biggest festival to be celebrated in Kerala. From Raymond’s perspective it is extremely critical that we capitalize on the buyer’s sentiment and provide customers, both old and new a perfect scenario to celebrate this most loved festival. The Raymond Celebrate Everyday campaign is highlighted in Kerala, encouraging consumers to celebrate the festival not only on its day but even before and after.”
Raymond views Kerala as one of the major markets for the brand and aims to expand extensively and aggressively in the state. The brand has on an on-going basis taken up various activities to engage with the consumers and continuously build brand recall.
With the upcoming festival Onam, the Raymond Shop has now tremendously increased its on ground activities by planning a host of consumer connect activities.
Raymond Ltd, one of the leading apparels, fabric and retail major in the country has continuously increased its reach pan-India with its current presence including multiple exclusive The Raymond Shops and thousands of multi-brand stores in various cities across nation. Currently, The Raymond Shop has presence in over 650 locations. The Raymond Shop is a retail network spread wide across Kerala covering all key cities namely Aluva, Kannur, Kochi, Kollam, Kottayam, Kozhikode, Palakkad, Pathanamthita, Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur.