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Paris, 14 June 2021: Global Bioenergies today launches its LAST brand, the first range of longwear make-up with over 90% natural ingredients: the range’s 18 mascara, eyebrow mascara and eye shadow products can now be obtained on www.colors-that-last.com. Instrumental tests and clinical studies demonstrate performance on a par with the best conventional products on the market: this is the first time a brand with over 90% natural ingredients has delivered such a performance.
The LAST range of products will be available for purchase from 2 p.m. on Monday 14 June 2021 on www.colors-that-last.com.
Marc Delcourt, Chief Executive Officer of Global Bioenergies, explained: “This is a major step forward for us: Global Bioenergies had to reinvent itself to produce this range of ultra high-performance products of outstanding sensory and colour qualities. We are demonstrating our tangible commitment to the environment by establishing naturalness in the cosmetics segment, where it was still virtually absent.”
Independent laboratories conducted numerous instrumental tests and clinical tolerance and use studies on the products. The performance of the range was compared to leading products on the market in terms of hold, water resistance, level of transfer, sensory qualities and pleasure of application.
The results demonstrate 24-hour hold, waterproofness and low-transfer property for each of the product categories. Tests conducted over a long period (21 days) under dermatological and ophthalmological supervision validated tolerance to use. The products’ sensory qualities were also highly appreciated: for example, after blind testing, 85% of women said they would like to continue using LAST eye shadow and would recommend it to their friends, considering that, independently of naturalness, the product is equivalent to or better than their usual eye shadow.
Muriel Morelli, head of product development, said: “The launch of the LAST range is the culmination of 18 months’ hard work defining formulas, shades and packaging, testing them and then manufacturing them on an industrial scale. The numerous tests speak for themselves: today, there is no longer any need to choose between performance and naturalness in make-up.”
Romain Desfresnes, head of marketing and communications, concluded: “In creating LAST, our aim was to put a certain sense of optimism and vibrant energy at the centre of our proposition, thereby initiating a movement that truly celebrates colour. The timing of the launch is ideal: the identity of LAST echoes the deeply held desire to rediscover intensity, depth and volume in our exchanges and our means of expression. Our range is colourful, natural and respectful, formulated to last. We are proud of the result we have achieved, but this is not the end of the story: new must-have lipsticks are already in the pipeline for autumn.”
TG Communication – email@example.com – firstname.lastname@example.org


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Peru’s trade authority announced on Friday that it was evaluating fines for 17 maritime shipping companies for fixing prices to importers and exporters.
Peru’s antitrust regulator, Indecopi, said in a statement that it had sufficient evidence that the international shipping companies colluded to raise prices by 10% to 25% for shipments travelling between Lima’s port of Callao and Asia.
“The evidence collected comes from meeting minutes, emails and digital files obtained during inspections, which demonstrate that the investigated companies established a platform to coordinate and implement their decisions through shipping agents to set rates (freight and surcharges) for cargo transported along the Peru-Asia route from at least 2009 to 2013,” reads the Indecopi statement.
The shipping companies Indecopi listed among the conspirators include American President Lines, APM terminals CMA CGM, Compañia Maritima Chilena, CSAV, Hamburg Sud, Hapag Lloyd, K Line, Maersk, Mediterranean Shipping Company, Mitsui OSK Lines and NYK Line.
Possible fines under Peruvian law start at $560,000 and go up to 8% to 12% of each company’s revenue within Peru. The implicated companies have 30 days to appeal the Indecopi decision. The sanctions review can take up to a year and a half to complete.
“The Indecopi decision fits with what we perceive,” Juan Carlos Leon, a representative for Peru’s ADEX exporters association, told El Comercio. “Every dollar of overcharging that we pay means a loss of competitiveness for our exports.”
Leon added that shipping charges from Peru are on average 30% higher than in other countries.
“[The company] wholeheartedly rejects practices which violate the law in any of the jurisdictions in which it operates,” the Chilean firm CSAV said in a statement. “The company has made and will continue to give its best efforts to cooperate with authorities in order to demonstrate that it operated in compliance with current legislation.”
In 2009 Peru shipped $20.3 billion dollars of traditional exports including metals, fishmeal, fruit and coffee.
In December China fined eight companies including CSAV, K Line, Mitsui OSK Lines and NYK Line for violating antitrust laws to keep shipping rates artificially high. In October the United States charged executives from the K Line and NYK Line for price fixing. Both investigations came after similar raids on freight shippers in the EU and Japan.
Indecopi’s sanctions procedure against the shipping companies of Callao comes two months after the trade commission opened a similar sanctions proceeding against Kimberly-Clark and Protisa for fixing the price of toilet paper in Peru.

domain: news


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After many, many years and numerous successful betas, Diablo 4’s error codes and lines continue to block players from entering Sanctuary. Despite the multiple launch trailers building the buzz, the game is finally out in the open, at least in Early Access, but not without concern, and Blizzard is now addressing the difficulties.
GamesRadar+ has covered a lot of live-service launches, and we know all too well how the servers struggle under the weight of millions of users trying to access the site at once. Diablo franchise manager Rod Fergusson assured us that Blizzard was “ready” for the launch of Diablo 4, yet it’s not unexpected that players are experiencing issues like extended wait times and error codes.
On Reddit, in a thread with the ironic title “the best launch ever,” many players are complaining that they can’t get into the game during its Early Access period, despite the title. One error message that’s being noticed frequently by PS4 owners is one that says the user has “no legitimate licence.” Blizzard is aware of the issue and promises “more details” soon. Adam Fletcher, the Diablo 4 community manager, has made his major online forum post available here.
It’s my hunch. The launch will go off without a hitch. agree or disagree? origin: r/diablo4
I haven’t had any trouble with error messages when trying to start Diablo 4, but my RTX 3060-equipped laptop crashed as the opening cinematic was starting. Currently, the Battle.net launcher on my computer reads, “We are investigating reports of login issues affecting Diablo 4, and working to resolve these as quickly as possible.” After restarting the game, all I’ve seen is a “queued for game – begin video game pending…” screen for the past fifteen or so minutes.
As we learn more, we’ll update this article.
While you wait, check out our thoughts on Diablo 4 and why you shouldn’t hesitate to buy it.
Weekly digests, favourite neighbourhood stories, and more


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If you’re feeling adventurous, you can now hop on a train in Yiwu, on China’s Pacific coast, and arrive in London 15 days later, after passing through Kazakhstan, Moscow, continental Europe and the Chunnel.
You’ll need to be very adventurous, because you’ll have to find an open freight car or ride the rails, hobo style. It’s a freight train.
Last year, 1,702 trains made this trip, more than double the 2015 number. The service is a lot faster than ocean freight, though somewhat more costly, but far cheaper than air freight and much more environmentally friendly.
Globalization. It’s here to stay.
China is not going be sending trains here anytime soon, but if this venture is any indication, neither is it going to abandon its aggressive manufacturing and export policies. Campaign promises to return American jobs are going to be very tough to keep.
It started with Trump’s simplistic explanation and solution for manufacturing job losses, and, because his message was gaining traction, Hillary’s adoption of essentially the same rhetoric. She even reversed course on her support of the Trans Pacific Partnership, which she originally supported as “the gold standard.” Politics does indeed make strange (metaphorical) bedfellows.
Trade and related tariffs are hugely important subjects, not just limited to our election, but key to the global economy. You need look no further than North Carolina to understand how foreign imports have decimated the furniture and textile industries, to say nothing of the heavy manufacturing of the upper Midwest.
But it’s not that simple. First, the American consumer likes cheap stuff. Trade makes possible inexpensive Chinese furniture, inferior though it may be, textiles from Indonesia, television sets and all manner of electronic gadgetry from Asia and Mexico. You have to search conscientiously for American-made consumer goods.
Then there are exports. We export lot of stuff. Boeing is our biggest single exporter, along with heavy machinery, food, and raw materials. If we begin slapping tariffs on imports, what do you suppose our foreign customers will do? A trade war only raises prices for everyone as governments collect tariffs.
The politicians make it all about jobs, and certainly moving manufacturing offshore has eliminated a lot of jobs, most of which will never return. They have been replaced with fewer, very different jobs, requiring different skills and more education. The tech surge in Durham and the Research Triangle offers evidence of this change. This does little good for the middle-aged, laid-off factory worker, which is the constituency driving the current trade message.
Manufacturing jobs are being replaced by robots all over the world, and bringing back manufacturing would not bring back anything like the number of jobs lost. Booming tech companies produce far greater sales and profits with fewer employees than did their industrial predecessors.
The developed world, at least, seems to be heading to a place where there are simply more people than jobs as presently configured. How can we deal with this?
Solutions so far include welfare, retraining, homelessness and simply not counting the millions who have given up looking for work. These are costly and often unproductive solutions.
There is a radical alternative — one which we may begin to see as life becomes more automated and leisure time, wanted or not, piles up.
Suppose the normal work week were 30 hours, or even 20. It would require more people to accomplish the same work. The catch is that pay would have to remain constant so that people could maintain their standards of living.
This is not a crazy idea; it was predicted by John Maynard Keynes in the 1930s. The same thing happened during the industrial revolution as work weeks shrank from 60-70 hours to the now-standard 40 and standards of living actually improved, the result of a huge improvement in productivity.
If man’s historical imperative has been to work less and play more, we in the industrialized world have come a long way toward realizing it. The problem is, we have to be able to afford the play component, including retirement. That is going to be the challenge going forward.


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Eva Longoria and Victoria Beckham aren’t shy about calling themselves style icons.
While running errands in Beverly Hills on Thursday, the actress, 44, supported her fashion designer BFF, 45, by wearing a white “Style Icon” T-shirt ($110) from Beckham’s pre-fall 2019 collection.
The style is meant to be “a humorous take on slogan dressing,” according to the product description.
The “Desperate Housewives” star paired her top with navy floral-print pants, white pumps and a big black Chanel handbag.
Beckham previously advertised the same tee on her Instagram account in July, posting a selfie while sporting it with the caption, “Never know what to wear…”
The pair first met when the Beckhams moved to Los Angeles in 2007 for David’s career, and have now been close friends for over a decade.
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Lancia fans all over the world rejoice, as one of their most iconic cars is getting the restomod treatment.
Every once in awhile, a boutique firm works tirelessly to bring an old classic car back from the dead. Take Singer Vehicle Design, a California-based restorer that takes old Porsche 911s and brings them into a modern age. Mind you, they do that all without sacrificing the classic look, feel and experience of the older models.
In this case, it’s the Italian Lancia Delta HF Integrale hatchback. Rally fans out there will recognize this car – specifically, the high-performance HF version – as the car that dominated the World Rally Championship from 1987 to 1992. Overall, this hot hatch scored 46 WRC victories and culminated Lancia’s rallying heritage. Now, Automobili Amos plans to reinterpret the classic rally icon for a new age. Eugene Amos, an Italian racing driver, plans to integrate over 1,000 into donor Delta Integrale 16-valve cars rather than the rarer Evoluziones. To that end, they’ve released these renders of what the reimagined car will look like.
According to reports, this restomod will have a more powerful 330 horsepower engine. That’s way more than the original Evoluzione’s 210 horsepower, and it will still have all-wheel drive. As far as the design, Automobili Amos evidently looks to make subtle changes, but keep the overall shape the same. The biggest change, it appears, is the lack of rear doors on the restomod version.
Now, here’s the bad news. This sort of restomod Lancia Delta Integrale won’t come cheap. In fact, Delta HF Integrale Evo II models regularly change hands for upwards of $100,000. However, there is a bright side. As the donor cars are more than 25 years old, you can import them into the United States without having to comply with EPA or DOT standards.


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Out with the old, in with the new?
Out with the old, in with the new?
The medium and heavy-duty commercial vehicle market is expected to register a compound annual growth rate of 5,1% between 2020 and 2025, says Mordor Intelligence, a global market research and consultancy firm based in India. What will be the driving force? And will there be any new developments?
In its report “Medium and Heavy Duty Commercial Vehicles Market – Growth, Trends, Covid-19 Impact and Forecasts (2021 – 2026)” Mordor Intelligence notes that some of the major factors driving growth are the expansion of industrial sectors within emerging markets, growing demand from the logistics industry and rising demand from the construction sector.
“The market is expected to witness growth in the coming years, owing to growing economies across both developing and developed countries,” it points out.
This is in line with the positive economic outlook brought about by various fiscal stimulus packages across the globe.
“Owing to consistent technological advancements and enactment of stringent emission norms, automakers (OEMs) are shifting their focus towards electric vehicles (as well),” says the report.
“Across the globe, some countries have banned old commercial vehicles from running on public roads to tackle the growing levels of vehicle emissions. Thus, the possibility of freight businesses, adopting new commercial vehicles that are eco-friendly, cost-effective and align with the emission standards, will increase at the global level during the forecast period.”
It adds that OEMs are continuing to invest in research and development (R&D) activities and plans to successfully develop and launch more electric commercial vehicles. “For instance, Renault Trucks, after ten years of experimentation with its all-electric truck, unveiled medium and heavy-duty electric vehicles in 2018 – namely Renault Trucks D Wide Z.E and Renault Trucks D Z.E – ideally suited for use in the cities of France.”
But the electrification of medium and heavy-duty commercial vehicles brings its own set of challenges, as noted by the US Department of Energy in its piece “Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicle Electrification, An Assessment of Technology and Knowledge Gaps”.
“Distinguishing aspects of electrification of commercial medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, versus electric passenger cars, and market success of electrified MHDVs will require development beyond merely scaling devices and designs from light-duty EVs for passenger travel.”
The report adds that while technological advancement in LDVs can often benefit the MHDV market, key differences result in R&D gaps, which are limiting the electrification of commercial vehicles.
“The life expectancy of an HD vehicle can exceed 1 million miles (more than 1,6 million kms), and the average age of commercial trucks on the road is about 14 years. These miles are also often over more demanding duty cycles. Therefore, many components and systems must be more durable than those intended for LD applications of about 15 years and 150 000 miles (more than 240 000 km).”
Another aspect is the increase in energy consumption of MHDVs. These vehicles will require much larger batteries to obtain the same range as their fossil-fuel burning counterparts. “Today’s MHDV plug-in electric vehicle batteries have as much as 660 kWh, while near future concepts may exceed1 200 kWh. It is expected that freight duty cycles will result in deeper battery discharges than in LDV experience, tending to shorten the useful life of the batteries.
“Faster charging rates may impact cycle life as well. Goals for battery cycle lifetimes and total cost of ownership (TCO) analyses should consider these effects. Fast-charging these batteries will require substantially more power compared to current extreme fast-charging for LDVs (350 kW) at much greater than a megawatt. This presents new challenges and requires much higher power chargers, connectors and infrastructure than are currently considered for LDVs.”
There are also other challenges, as Jim Park, a journalist at Trucknews.com – trucking news from the editors of the Canadian magazine Today’s Trucking – notes in his article “Are electric trucks viable without government support?”
“The business case for medium- and heavy-duty electric trucks just doesn’t work, and there’s little if any public infrastructure in place to support the growth of the commercial electric fleet,” he writes. “If we are to see broad uptake of zero-emission transportation, manufacturers and consumers will need massive government support, possibly market intervention, and a serious examination of the regulations that apply to electric trucks.
“That’s the view of Sean Waters, Daimler Trucks North America’s vice-president of product compliance and regulatory affairs,” he says.
“People don’t buy our trucks because they want to,” said Waters, the keynote speaker at last year’s Green Truck Summit. “People buy our trucks because they have to. These aren’t toys. These are pieces of capital equipment, and capital goes where it can make money. If you found that an electric vehicle costs more than a diesel one and you can’t make that money back, you’re not going to buy it.”
Mark Wagner, product planning manager at the American-based truck manufacturer Kenworth, adds that with the current state of the technology, it’s hard to get a return on investment, “even for the green image”.
“With a purchase price [of an electric truck] two or three times higher than a diesel truck, along with the required investment in infrastructure, any energy or fuel savings is not enough to overcome the initial cost. That’s why local or federal incentives will be required to launch most fleets down the path to a zero-emissions vehicle.”
It will be interesting to see how the industry grows globally in the years ahead, and if governments will step up to meet the challenge.
SUCCESS FOR SOUTH AFRICAN
Mercedes-Benz Vans USA announced the appointment of South African Nicolette Lambrechts to the position of vice president and managing director of sales and marketing, effective May 1, 2021.
She will lead all van business operations including the sales, marketing along with service and parts for Mercedes-Benz Vans in the United States. Lambrechts succeeds Robert Veit, who will take over as managing director of Mercedes-Benz Vans UK.
“We are very pleased that Nicolette Lambrechts will take over the position as head of sales and marketing of Mercedes-Benz Vans USA. The United States is the largest market for our Sprinter vans, after Germany. With her many years of international experience in the field of sales and marketing, we’re confident she will further develop our van business,” says Marcus Breitschwerdt, executive vice president Mercedes-Benz AG and head of Mercedes-Benz Vans.
“I would like to thank Robert Veit for an outstanding job overseeing the US market. I am convinced that his wealth of experience and leadership skills will help to continue to drive our business ambition forward as managing director of Mercedes-Benz Vans UK.”
Lambrechts joined the Mercedes-Benz USA Vans team in October 2019 as the general manager for Mercedes-Benz Vans Sales. She built a talented, successful and diverse sales team and implemented new business processes and strategies across the entire value chain, which enabled the team to achieve profitable sales growth within the US market.
She joined Mercedes-Benz South Africa in 2001 as a graduate trainee. In 2002, she took over the position as sales planner for ChryslerJeep and was promoted in 2004 to distribution and logistics manager for commercial vehicles. Between 2008 and 2014, she held management roles as the national sales manager and brand manager for Mercedes-Benz Vans in South Africa.
In 2014, she was promoted to managing director of the Vans Division for Mercedes-Benz South Africa, where she led her team to consistently surpass targets and worked to build a strong relationship with the local dealer network. In 2017, she took over the role as managing director of Mercedes-Benz Vans Canada.


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Apple’s sales team is genuinely concerned that iPhone growth will slow due to the growing number of Android smartphones with larger screens — at least according to recently released internal documents.
The internal Apple documents, which came to light today during round two of the Apple v. Samsung trial, were prepared by a sales team member for a fiscal 2014 offsite meeting.
Specifically, the documents called out the variety of Android devices with screens larger than the iPhone that cost over $300 and others that are under $300. There was also some concern over the large amount of money Android makers are spending to promote and market their devices.
During the trial, Apple Senior VP Phil Schiller did note that he didn’t agree with the sales team’s assessment — suggesting that others on Apple’s leadership team might not be that threatened by the rise of Android handsets.


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Struggling to save Fisker Automotive from the of talons of bankruptcy, Henrik Fisker has teamed up with Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li to offer to purchase the company's outstanding U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) advanced vehicles loan for just a fraction of its $171 million balance (the company was originally loaned $192 million, but $21 million was seized last month by the Energy Department).
According to Reuters, there are at least two different investor groups interested in the company, but the DOE loan must be addressed before the automaker can be revived. (Satisfying the federal loan helps make Fisker Automotive more attractive to potential buyers, but it still leaves outstanding debt to suppliers.) The DOE would sell the loan to cut its losses – against slim odds of the loan being repaid – even though it would be recovering only pennies on the dollar.
While the Fisker/Li group has reportedly offered to buy the loan for between $25 - $30 million, another group led by Chinese automaker Wanxiang Group and Bob Lutz have teamed up to offer to buy Fisker for $20 million in a prearranged bankruptcy. That second investor group is likely working a different angle: remember, it was Lutz who unveiled his Corvette ZR1-powered VL Automotive Destino at the Detroit Auto Show earlier this year.


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Nissan has pioneered ‘state-of-the-art’ sweat-sensing car seats with the potential to prevent car crashes.
Aptly named SOAK, the new technology coating changes colour when it comes into contact with sweat.
The material will turn yellow if the sweat has a high salt content, signalling that the driver is dehydrated. It will revert back to blue once the salt concentration of the sweat is back to normal.
The material can also be applied to the steering wheel.
Loughborough University carried out research on the effects of dehydration on drivers and found those who are dehydrated make just as many mistakes behind the wheel as drunk-drivers.
Ron Maughan, professor of sport and exercise nutrition at Loughborough University, said: “To put our results into perspective, the levels of driver errors we found are of a similar magnitude to those found in people with a blood alcohol content of 0.08%, the current UK legal driving limit.
“In other words drivers who are not properly hydrated make the same number of errors as people who are over the drink drive limit.”
Nissan adopted the slogan ‘hit the bottle’ to raise awareness about the dangers of not staying hydrated on the roads.
The car company teamed up with Droog, a Dutch design brand, to test the technology on the Nissan Juke crossover.
Nissan said: ”Applying it to the Juke’s steering wheel and front seats, the result is a simple yet effective alert system to warn drivers that they need to drink more water."
Paulien Routs is a designer for Droog and the mastermind behind the new technology.
He said: “I originally created SOAK to be used on sports clothing. My vision is to create innovative solutions that aid the wearer in some way, using new technologies to bring function to fashion and textiles, as well as establishing new ways of interacting with our health and bodies.”
Nissan has said they do not have plans to roll out the technology into Juke models.
The new development was a means of Nissan demonstrating its approach to innovation and pioneering safety technology.
The Juke already features many advanced Nissan Intelligent Mobility technologies. These include Intelligent Around View Monitor with Moving Object Detection, Blind Spot Warning and Lane Departure Warning.


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I wrote about the T-Mobile Sidekick disaster a couple of days ago and there have been many other stories talking about the impact this has had on customers. My local news has some stories on small business owners who lost all of their contacts and calendar data for scheduled engagements and most everyone they interviewed was at a loss for words. I don't think this is a phase of T-Mobile's rumored dark project even though they left hundreds of thousands of Sidekick owners in the dark. We received word from T-Mobile that customers will be given a $100 credit to use for a phone or to pay their bill, along with the month's credit for data services if they were one of those impacted by the outage. As I said before, I think it is time that Sidekick users think about moving to a Google Android device on T-Mobile seeing as the Sidekick brand may be eventually phasing out anyways.
Smartphones and Cell Phones
It seems everyone in business has a smartphone today to keep connected to the office and enjoy their time away from the office. Matthew Miller provides you with news, commentary and in-depth reviews of the latest in mobile phones sporting iOS, Android, Wi
Matthew Miller started using a Pilot 1000 in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since.
Engadget tipped us off on the news that all Sidekick users may lose their data due to a failure of the server that backs up and syncs all the data. I started out my wireless data experience with the original T-Mobile Sidekick, but thankfully have moved on to using services that I back up both locally and in the cloud. According to the T-Mobile forums data services provided by Danger, a Microsoft subsidiary, were experiencing a major service disruption that has now results in a loss of contacts, calendar entries, to-do list, and photos that were backed up on the server. This is pretty bad news for Sidekick owners and maybe the remedy should be for T-Mobile to replace Sidekicks with Google Android devices and drop the Sidekick line for good, seeing as how they will soon most likely be phased out anyways with the ownership of Danger by Microsoft.
The biggest news in the mobile world this week was obviously the launch of Windows Mobile 6.5 and several devices so we had to spend some time during MobileTechRoundup show #185 talking about Windows Mobile again. We did go on to talk about the other hot news story of the further adoption of the Google Android operating system, including by Verizon Wireless. Kevin has been having some Google Sync for iPhone issues and also told us we should try out data roaming on the Palm Pre and HTC Hero.
Capturing thoughts and notes is something that many of us do with our smartphones and my favorite cross platform application to perform this is Evernote. I have been asking them for an Android client since I purchased my T-Mobile G1 last year. I read a Tweet about a beta appearing on the Android Market so I have been testing it out and using it on the Sprint HTC Hero the past few days. It is a great first start with support for a few ways to capture notes and I am sure it will get better over time, just like the other mobile clients.
After using the HTC Hero on Sprint now for over a week I have almost made the decision to add a Sprint account to my mobile arsenal, even though I don't have the strongest reception in my area. Sprint just has too many extremely compelling devices for me to resist and I may just have to figure out a way to make it work. The latest announcement brings us the Samsung Moment launching on 1 November for $179.99. This is the second Google Android device and it has a full QWERTY slide-out keyboard. I need to get my hands on it and see how it compares to the outstanding HTC Sense UI experience on the Hero.
As you all know, yesterday was Windows Mobile 6.5 and Windows Phone day. Mobility Site posted links to several articles on Windows Mobile 6.5 that you should check out. Microsoft is launching quite a campaign around the Windows Phone brand and Windows Mobile 6.5 and as stated in their press release they expect their hardware partners to deliver more than 30 phone models in 20 countries over the next three months.
I sync my PIM data (Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, and Email) with my work Exchange account, but have to manually manage my other data. Microsoft launched a new service with the Windows Mobile 6.5 update that is available for an Windows Mobile 6.0, 6.1, or 6.5 device. My Phone lets you synchronize your contacts, appointments, text messages, photos, videos, songs, favorites, and documents between your phone and their servers. If you use Exchange, then that specific data will not be backed up with this service. Most of the services are free, but there are some premium features available as well.
Even though I am quite disappointed with Windows Mobile 6.5 that doesn't mean that I still don't like Windows Mobile devices and personally find my T-Mobile Touch Pro2 with Spb Mobile Shell 3.5 (see my review) to be one of the best devices I have in my collection. I was excited to read the HTC press release announcing the HTC HD2 that runs Windows Mobile 6.5 with their HTC Sense UI (something I LOVE on the Sprint HTC Hero) on a huge 4.3 inch capacitive touchscreen display.
I posted some thoughts on the Pharos Traveler 137 back in June and at that time it was the first Windows Mobile device that supports the T-Mobile 3G wireless data network. We now have the T-Mobile HTC Touch Pro2 with keyboard available as an option for T-Mobile customers too. The Pharos Traveler 137 is one of those selected Windows Mobile phones that will soon be receiving a Windows Mobile 6.5 update and I was pleased to be able to try out this latest software implementation on the device.
Back in May I had the chance to check out the GSM HTC Touch Diamond2 and this weekend we saw AT&T jumping the gun and selling their new HTC Pure device that is the US version of the Diamond2. I won't go into all the details that I did back in that review since the specs are the same with a very similar form factor. I will instead focus in this post on some things specific to the HTC Pure on AT&T. You can read about my take on the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system that is preinstalled on the HTC Pure. I put together a small image gallery and a video of the HTC Pure so you can see what it is like.


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TECHNOLOGY HAS ENABLED people to fill every moment of their lives with a stimulus of one sort or another. It has eliminated the boredom of solitude, replacing it with a continuous need for instant gratification. Or rather, as Tristan Harris, a former product manager at Google, puts it, it is technology companies that have made this trade for humans, designing platforms, games and apps to keep them hooked.
Worries about the warping effect of technology are nothing new. Every tremor of progress in history has been accompanied by a moral panic. The printing press allowed “evil men” to “flood the market with anything that hints of lasciviousness”, warned a monk in Venice in the 1470s. Any form of entertainment is especially suspicious. Reading books, going to the theatre or cinema, listening to new music, playing video games—all have been presented as threatening to undermine authority, degrade human relationships and lure people into sin.
But the smartphone is different from all of them. Never before has one device combined every element of modern mass media: telephony, texting, music, video, the internet, social media, video games, even voice-activated artificial intelligence. It is a personalised delivery vehicle for every technological breakthrough that has ever caused concern. And consumers have taken it up with tremendous relish. Edison Research, in a survey last year of about 2,000 Americans over the age of 12, found that three-quarters owned smartphones, just nine years after the first iPhone was introduced. According to Pew, a research outfit, nearly half of American adults say they could not live without their smartphones. In two recent studies young adults were found to use their smartphones more than 80 times a day (see chart).
Sherry Turkle of MIT, who has been studying the effects of technology on users’ psyches for decades, believes that smartphones have made it harder for people to form connections with each other, or even to be at ease on their own. Some participants in one study, which required them to sit alone without a smartphone for 15 minutes, chose to give themselves a painful electric shock to escape the boredom.
Such findings might trigger yet more alarmist technophobia. Young people’s constant interactions on Snapchat and Instagram, and their Pavlovian responses to social-media notifications, may be the new normal. Mr Harris suggests that their devices were specially designed to encourage this change in behaviour. Tech companies have a responsibility, he concludes, to give users more power to turn off their screens. The availability of software that allows users to lock themselves out of the web shows that at least some people feel in need of such help.
Mass entertainment Winner takes all
- Mass entertainment in the digital age is still about blockbusters, not endless choice
- How to devise the perfect recommendation algorithm
- Traditional TV’s surprising staying power
- Alternative realities still suffer from technical constraints
- China’s new craze for live-streaming
- Nothing can beat a live event
- Smartphones are strongly addictive
- The battle for consumers’ attention
This article appeared in the Special report section of the print edition under the headline "Driven to distraction"


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A new study out recently from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) suggests kneecapping high speed rail on the federal level might not be the best move at the moment.
President Obama’s dream of high speed rail (HSR) in the U.S. may have been gutted for the year as part of federal budget deals, but other parts of the world continue to march forward with their plans.
California-based electric vehicle company T3 Motion has announced the completion of its prototype called the R3, which was previously known as the GT3.
Thirty-four different companies have come together to create a Japanese, all-electric prototype vehicle called the SIM-LEI which claims to have an impressive range of over 200 miles on a single charge.
We’ve reported on a veritable landslide of electric vehicle (EV) related hubbub from manufacturers and federal agencies.
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 (IE 9) claims to conserve power in ways that no other modern browsers have before.
Demand for rare earth metals in high-tech products is higher than ever, as they are used in everything from smartphones to missiles. Indeed, the price of some rare earth elements skyrocketed by 500% over the last year.
The Taiwanese-based Green Diamond Power has launched its latest electric scooter dubbed the "Green Baby."
Queen’s University researchers have discovered that nanoparticles - now found in everything from socks to suntan lotion - may be causing irreparable harm to soil systems and the environment.
Batteries are often thought of as energy storage devices because that is how we use them on a day to day basis.
Melting mountain glaciers are pushing up sea level rises faster than at any time in the last 350 years, say scientists - indeed, many are melting up to 100 times faster.
Duke’s Garage, a Colorado company specializing in the restoration of classic cars, has announced that they are adding an electric conversion model to their line of replica vehicles.
The idea of racing motorcycles is certainly something that sounds exciting to many, as it certainly is also fun to watch them zipping around a track.
Toyota announced a series of production date changes following the devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Japan in early March.
Nevada Senator Harry Reid and U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently publicly announced the Federal Railroad Administration's final environmental impact statement for the $6 billion high-speed DesertXpress project, which will connect Las Vegas to Southern California.
Aircraft contrails do more to warm the planet than their exhaust fumes, a new study has found.
Satellite data is revealing an Amazon rainforest that's decidedly less green than usual, showing the catastrophic effects of last year's record-breaking drought.
Temperature extremes, be they hot or cold, generally cause problems for vehicles of all types, but even moderately cold weather can be crippling to both electric and fuel cell vehicles.
Much has been made recently about electric vehicle charging stations and attendant public infrastructure - but what about all of our power-hungry gadgets?
MIT scientists have created what they say is the world's first practical 'artificial leaf', a solar cell the size of a playing card that mimics photosynthesis.


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FCRC Virtual Business Summit
Save the date! Fraser Coast Regional Council will be hosting the Fraser Coast Virtual Business Summit on Thursday 23rd July 2020 from 9am to 10.30am.
The online summit will be FREE to all business operators on the Fraser Coast and will provide the opportunity for local businesses – from microbusiness to large business – to hear and connect with a range of high profile speakers discussing opportunities to recover and build resilience post-COVID-19.
So, save the date and watch this space for more details and announcements.


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What’s the biggest waste of money in your household?
By Andreas Wilson-Späth
Perhaps a little surprisingly, it may well be the spoiled food that ends up in your garbage bin — from last week’s half-forgotten dinner leftovers and the head of lettuce that’s wilting away in the fridge to the gammon from several seasons ago that’s hiding somewhere in the deep recesses of your chest freezer.
The statistics on food waste are frightening. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) estimates that about 9 million tonnes of food are wasted in South Africa every year. That’s more than 30% of our entire agricultural production and amounts to a cash value of over R60 billion.
In a country where millions go hungry on a daily basis and food shortages are common for many poor families, that’s a tragic situation. Add to that the large quantities of valuable resources, like water and energy, that are used to make the food which ends up in rubbish dumps, and the image of a throw-away society is complete.
Globally, the picture is even more disturbing. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, over a billion tonnes of food are wasted annually — that’s enough to end world hunger twice over.
It’s true that most of the waste happens during production, processing, transport and storage and while it may appear that ordinary folks like you and I can do little to change the situation, we should remember our power as consumers: it’s our purchases that tell producers what to supply us with. If we send the message that their carrots are a bit funny-looking or their bananas are too short, too long or too curved, it’s no wonder that so much food ends up in the bin before it ever reaches the supermarket.
Apart from that, there’s a perfectly good selfish reason why you should be concerned with food waste: the fact that it probably costs you a substantial chunk of hard earned cash every year.
Research by the CSIR suggests that we consumers are directly responsible for about 5% of all food waste in South Africa. That sounds like a small percentage, but it amounts to somewhere in the order of 450 000 tonnes of food worth around R3billion that ends up in our collective trash cans every year. And it’s money we spent on, effectively, nothing.
Making a difference while saving money isn’t particularly difficult.
Plan better, shop better. You can plan your weekly home-cooked meals a little bit more carefully, make shopping lists accordingly and stick to those when you hit the supermarket. This way you’re more likely to avoid buying things that you’re not going to use before they go off.
Don’t judge a fruit by its cover. Why ignore slightly blemished or oddly shaped fruits and vegetables at the grocery store? They taste the same as their more conventionally beautiful counterparts. If you get home and find some fruits or veggies bruised, you can blend them into healthy smoothies or add them to tasty soups and sauces. Also, frozen food products are a surprisingly good option because they tend to suffer fewer losses on their way from the farm to the store.
Support stores who support charities. Find out if your local supermarket (as well as your favourite restaurant) donates its leftovers and post sell-by date produce to charities. If they don’t, why not suggest it to the manager.
Waste not. At home, it pays to not cook more food than necessary. If there are any leftovers, they make for great additions to the following day’s lunch boxes or can be frozen for another meal.
Let technology help you. You can download smartphone apps to help you minimise food waste and save money. Try the free FoodKeeper app developed by the US Department of Agriculture. It’s available for Android and iOS devices and, among other things, reminds you which of the items in your fridge, freezer or pantry cupboard are nearing the end of their storage life.
Originally published at blog.22seven.com on May 11, 2016.


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AT&T has developed a Credits System for the purpose of limiting file-sharing bandwidth as reported by TorrentFreak. The telecom company filed a patent on September 12, 2013 that revealed consumers would be given a number of credits to be used when downloading data. In turn, the data would be checked to see if it is permissible or non-permissible.
Rockstar Consortium under fire after targeting Android
Google has decided that enough is enough. The company has filed a lawsuit against Rockstar Consortium—a patent group backed by many of Google’s biggest competitors—claiming that the group’s patent campaign is unfairly targeting Google and its Android partners.
Patent disputes are unfortunately a common occurrence in the tech industry, but boy-oh-boy, the patent lawsuit filed by Rockstar may take the cake. In this case, Rockstar doesn't refer to Rockstar Games, makers of Grand Theft Auto V, but a consortium made up of Apple, Microsoft, BlackBerry, Ericsson, and Sony. At the heart of the dispute are thousands of former Nortel patents Rockstar purchased for $4.5 billion, and according to the lawsuit, several Android players infringe on these patents.
Research In Motion (RIM) managed to escape from having to pay a hefty patent infringement fine when the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California overturned an earlier verdict that would have had the company pay $147.2 million in damages to Mformation, a software company that deals with mobile device management. According to the presiding judge, there wasn't enough evidence to support the jury's findings of patent infringement.
Don't feed the trolls; the axiom may work well for avoiding Godwin's Law in forum postings, but it isn't working so well in courtrooms around the globe. In fact, a new study from the Boston University School of Law says patent trolls -- companies that deal solely in IP litigation rather than actual services and products -- are fatter and hungrier than ever before, costing the economy a whopping $29 billion in 2011. To put things in perspective, trolling "only" cost the economy roughly $6.7 billion in 2005.
Software patents, to put it mildly, are a bit of a mess. Its difficult for us to say that innovation which happens in bits, rather than hardware shouldn’t be protected, but naturally a line must be drawn if progress is to be made. On Friday US federal Judge Richard Posner rendered a verdict that not only left the executives over at Motorola sleeping a bit easier, but could actually be an important precedent for patent litigation going forward.
It's said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but when you're Apple, a company that thrives on form just as much as it does on function, there's nothing flattering about other companies designing products that look even remotely like existing iDevices. And make no mistake, today's Ultrabooks share design DNA with Apple's MacBook Air, DNA Apple doesn't want anyone else using, so the Cupertino company went out and snagged a broad patent for the MBA's wedge shaped design.
Google and Oracle sat down for a last-ditch, court-ordered settlement conference over the weekend, but their latest attempt at settling their longstanding patent dispute failed to yield any results even after six hours of parleying. With the latest settlement conference between the two companies proving just as sleeveless as those before it, their protracted patent dispute is now all set to go to trial.
If you own a cellphone, there's a good chance you've encountered phantom vibrations; you know, when you could've sworn you felt your phone vibrating in your pocket when it really wasn't. Nokia's poised to either eliminate phantom vibrations completely or take them to new (and possibly somewhat creepy) heights with a new patent application for haptic tattoos that vibrate when your phone rings.
When it rains, it pours, and as if Kodak didn't have enough to worry about already as it ditches the camera business and tries to figure out how to pay back movie studios millions of dollars it owes in unpaid rebates, all while declaring bankruptcy, Apple has decided it wants to dump a patent infringement suit to the company's pile of problems.


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LOS ANGELES – A San Gabriel Valley man who coordinated the importation of 11 shipping containers of counterfeit designer apparel valued at more than $2.3 million was sentenced Thursday to 31 months in federal prison.
The sentencing in Los Angeles federal court was the second in the past two weeks in which a smuggling operation involving knockoff goods resulted in a prison term.
Last week, a Glendale man who brought bogus AMG wheels into the country received a one-year sentence.
Kevin “Peter” Wang, 54, of Rosemead, was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt, who also ordered Wang to serve an additional six months of home detention and to pay a $10,000 fine and $50,000 in restitution.
The goods included fake Nike shoes; counterfeit Coach, Gucci and Louis Vuitton handbags; and bogus NFL, NBA and NHL jerseys.
Wang helped Chinese exporters bring counterfeit goods into the United States from 2008 to 2012. According to court documents, they were smuggled through Los Angeles and Long Beach ports.
In April, Hamlet Ayvazyan, 37, of Glendale was sentenced to one year in federal prison and ordered to pay a $4,000 fine in connection with the knockoff AMG wheels. AMG, a German company, makes products for Mercedes-Benz vehicles.
Ayvazyan, owner of Speedvision Motorsport in Glendale, imported counterfeit wheels from Chinese business Shandong Chiping Xinfa Aluminous Product Co. Ltd.
Both defendants pleaded guilty to trafficking in counterfeit goods.
- Update: 11 killed in tour bus crash north of Palm Springs
- Teen shot three times in Fullerton
- 'There's no better setting for this:' Beach-side air show wows thousands of spectators
- Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers can't deny Cubs their 1st World Series trip since 1945
- 22-year-old passenger killed in crash involving DUI suspect


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For his birthday, CeeLo Green — rapper, “singer,” and one of the team leaders on The Voice — got a portrait of himself and his cat Purrfect made out of Cheetos. Other celebs that have been immortalized in the orange snacks are Conan O’Brien and Rachael Ray, who unveiled her portrait on her show with a package about the artist Jason Baalman. Visitors to the Cheetos Facebook page can also enter their email address to win a chance to get their own Cheetos portrait.
Random no? Actually, according to Chris Kuechenmeister, a spokesperson for Frito-Lay and the Cheetos brand, this is all part of a master plan.
The idea of taking the fine art of portraiture and “turning the traditional approach on its head” is the Cheetos marketing sweet spot.
“The Cheetos brand is about having fun, being playful, and inserting a little mischief in life. We’re always looking for opportunities to live that out,” he told us over the phone. The brand doesn’t have a list of celebs in mind, so the portraits are happening as the opportunities present themselves.
According to Kuechenmeister, Ceelo “embodies what the brand is all about.” The fact that it was his birthday made the timing ideal.
Between the kooky mascot who stars in the kooky ads, the portraits, and the natural weirdness of eating a snack that turns your fingers orange, we wondered whether there’s a risk that the brand could get too gimmicky with its programs.
“When we do something that brings the brand to life in a unique way, the feedback is always positive. It’s not being received as gimmicky. It’s the brand being true to itself,” Kuechenmeister said.
He even used the word “authentic,” a pretty serious word to use with reference to pictures made out of cheese curls.
“Authenticity applies to any entity that’s looking to build a mutually beneficial relationship,” he said. “It’s something that anyone can benefit from.”


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A new partnership to improve nutrient utilization of swine has been announced by the National Pork Board and the Illinois Pork Producers Association. The partnership will sponsor swine industry research on distillers’ dried grains and other biofuel co-products. The Illinois Corn Marketing Board will also be a partner in the consortium effort.
The consortium sets research priorities and recommends funding for research projects that study ways to reduce feed costs and maximize production efficiencies. NPB’s programming budget for nutritional efficiency efforts is $500,000. The ICMB has dedicated up to $500,000 of its 2008 budget to develop and improve DDGS for the pork and livestock industry.
The National Corn Growers Association, Iowa Corn Growers Association and Kansas Corn Growers Association are also members of the consortium.
“The bottom line is that corn growers benefit by understanding how they can make their product and by-products better for pork producers and pork producers benefit by understanding how they can use co-products more efficiently.” said Mark Boggess, director of animal sciences for NPB.
“This partnership will ensure that industry priorities for both pork and corn are addressed and we are eager to get started,” says Ron Gray, ICMB chairman. Brian Sturtevant, president of the Illinois Pork Producers added, “this is an opportunity for industry stakeholders to leverage combined funding for the good of everyone involved”.
The NPB Consortium and the ICMB are currently in the process of reviewing research proposals for 2008. Funding decisions will be made in early March.
More information on the nutritional efficiency consortium can be found at http://www.pork.org/PorkScience/NutritionalEfficiency/NutritionalEfficiency.aspx.


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With this holiday season in full swing, it appears that the way retailers use mobile devices will be incredibly different to the methods previously used in 2012. Whilst 2012 was the year of flash sales and daily deals only 5% of retailers will stay faithful to this method. Retailers have been slow to use ecommerce as an advantage but using texting to communicate discounts is an effective idea.
Mobile shopping has increased in popularity in recent years but the shift for retailers can be felt as they move towards text messaging and mobile coupons. BDO USA suggests this is the main method for companies in 2013. It is apparent that aside from flash sales and daily deals all other mobile marketing channels with became more popular. The limited time offers of last year apparently did not perform well as evident in this swift change of marketing.
With the widespread popularity of smart phones in recent years, these devices have become the main source of getting coupons and discounts to consumers effectively. Data from Placed state this was the most common way customers shopped on Black Friday, with half of all the smart phone users shopping like this in October.
Research from Black Friday and Thanksgiving weekend showed that the major source of web traffic connected to retailers came from mobiles devices. A large portion of Christmas commerce has been conducted via mobile. At the end of the holiday season eMarketer expects overall ecommerce sales to reach $61.8 billion. This will be the combined total for November and December, up as whopping 15.1% from 2012. This percentage increase can be seen across the board in all facets of ecommerce revenue.
As ecommerce is the way in which consumers shop; the difference in accessing coupons or discounts on mobile devices is a way to still encourage customers in store. Texting is the quickest and easiest way for consumers to receive the information the company needs to provide. Flash sales can be effective but unfortunately consumers are finding it more convenient to shop within their own time. With technology moving as such a rapid pace, retailers can find difficult trying to keep marketing in line with how fast it moves. However a brand can use both ecommerce and in-store promotions collectively will be the most effective step in moving forward.
Read more at http://www.emarketer.com/


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Termination Fees--Poor Policy Or Business Necessity?
At last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin reiterated the possibility that the FCC would decide this year whether or not to regulate early termination fees--these are the fines operators impose on subscribers when they break their service contracts. These controversial and un-consumer-friendly fees run around $175 to $200--depending on the operator.
At issue is whether the FCC should declare that states have no jurisdiction over ETFs. Some believe allowing state regulators to oversee early-termination fees will force carriers to abide by contracts signed by their customers. However, others believe that having state regulators oversee ETFs would lead to inconsistent policies and actions.
ETFs have long been a controversial subject in the wireless industry. Consumer advocates vehemently oppose them, but wireless operators--at least most of them--maintain that they are a necessary part of doing business. Without them, operators could lose the ability to recoup customer acquisition costs, namely costly phone subsidies.
Isn't it time the industry took a closer look at early termination fees--before regulators step into the mix and possibly adopt unwanted policies?
One carrier has taken a stand on early-termination fees. In November, Verizon Wireless scaled back its termination fees by deducting $5 per month from the original $175 fee. In other words, the longer a customer fulfills his or her contract, the less they have to pay to break the contract. The new rule only applies to new contracts or renewals that took place after Nov. 15, 2006, but at least it is a step in the right direction. When Verizon Wireless announced the company's decision to pro-rate termination fees, then-CEO Denny Strigl (now the president and COO of Verizon Communications) said the change was necessary because customers are unhappy with the fees. "Early termination fees are tarnishing the industry," Strigl said. And he was confident that the change wouldn't adversely impact the company's low churn rate.
Of course, this isn't the first time Verizon has upped the ante when it comes to customer service. The carrier was the first to oppose a wireless number directory and it broke rank with the rest of the industry when it embraced local number portability.
Other wireless carriers need to take a cue from Verizon and rethink their ETF fees. Instead of relying on costly fees to keep customers loyal, why not concentrate instead on providing superior customer service, great network technology, state-of-the-art handsets and competitive rate plans? Consumers will respond favorably to companies that treat them well and provide great service. I agree with Strigl, early termination fees are tarnishing the industry and it's time that wireless carriers remove this black mark from their business plans.
P.S. I'm very excited to be the newest member of the FierceWireless editorial team. I'm anxious to hear your thoughts on how we can improve our editorial coverage. Please email me your comments, criticisms, etc. to [email protected] -Sue


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Movistar Plus, the pay TV division of giant European telco Telefonica, in 2016 started producing and releasing its own original series. In a second phase, it linked to prestige European production partners, first with Arte France on “Hierro” and now, with “Tell Me Who I Am,” a woman’s emancipation epic made with Telemundo Intl. Studios, and Alejandro Amenábar’s upcoming “La Fortuna,” an adventure thriller made with AMC Studios, Movistar Plus is quickly building its U.S. connection.
The Beta Film-sold “Tell Me Who I Am” is one of the biggest series Movistar Plus has ever made. It charts a woman’s battle for freedom from traditional gender roles and totalitarianism. It spans 60 years, from heroine Amelia’s conservative upper-class Madrid youth in 1934 through Stalin’s 1938 Moscow elite purges, to Mussolini’s Italy, the decline of Nazi forces’ grip on Athens and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. It shot for eight months in more than 300 locations across Europe, employing more than 3,000 actors and extras and choreographing action scenes on a level rarely seen in Spanish TV. The dialogue is in Spanish, French, Russian, Italian and Polish.
“The casting and production design on this series were two of the most complicated things we’ve ever done,” producer José Manuel Lorenzo from Banijay-owned, Madrid-based DLO Producciones told Variety just before San Sebastian, where the nine-part series had its world premiere.
U.S. players have by far the deepest pockets of any companies in the business. By co-producing, companies ratchet down risk, says Guy Bisson, at Ampere Analysis.
That said, money is not really the issue when co-producing “Tell Me Who I Am,” says Movistar Plus Sergio Oslé. Movistar Plus parent Telefonica, after all, posted revenues of €48.4 billion ($56.6 billion) in 2019.
More to the point, both the Telemundo and AMC Studios co-production deals guarantee distribution in the U.S. market via the U.S. partner, as the challenge Movistar Plus faces is not so much financing as the muscular international distribution of its banner series.
As TIS president and “Tell Me Who I Am” producer Marcos Santana pointed out, when the Movistar Plus-Telemundo deal was announced at 2019’s NATPE trade fair, the U.S. Hispanic market is the seventh-biggest economy in the world.
Clinching a U.S. deal, even if a partner retains distribution rights and revenues, can have large marketing value and benefit sales to other territories, Bisson says.
However, “entering the U.S. market is difficult for us,” Oslé says, since global platforms will demand a global deal and a window in Spain, bringing them into direct competition with Movistar Plus.
“We really need to find strong local partners to have some impact in the U.S. This within the context that our true concern is to be relevant in Spain,” Oslé adds.
A second payoff may be the creative and commercial upside from joining companies in the U.S. and Europe.
“Especially for people like ourselves, where we strive to have something that’s mass-reaching but not obviously commercial — getting feedback from people that have intuitively a more commercial approach to content is really useful,” Oslé notes.
That type of appeal plays out through “Tell Me Who I Am,” says Movistar Plus head of original programming Domingo Corral.
The series was created by Lorenzo and director Eduard Cortés, based on Julia Navarro’s best-selling novel of the same title.
Says Corral: “It’s thanks to women like Amelia that women today can dream like her. That’s a huge reason for the success of the book, and something the series picked up on well.”


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Ebay Will Make Huge Sales On Mobile Devices:
In a keynote speech delivered on Wednesday, Ebay CEO John Donahoe turned fortune teller, quite literally.
As the prediction he told was that Ebay would be making 2012 a record year for mobile payments on Ebay and that the 2012 GMV (Global mobile gross merchandise volume) would increase dramatically. He then went on to suggest that the actual figure in sales via mobile devices for 2012 may top a staggering $8 billion.
With Ebay and Paypal very much hand in glove, it is interesting to see that Paypal expect to see a global mobile TPV (Total Per Volume) of $7 billion over the same period, which is again growing steadily over 2011.
Ebay more than doubling mobile sales year on year:
“Mobile plays a significant role in how eBay Inc. is enabling commerce and using technology to connect consumers and provide new ways for them to shop when, where and how they want, the success of eBay and PayPal mobile in 2011 surpassed our expectations and we’re confident that this success will carry into 2012 as more shoppers turn to the convenience of shopping and paying via mobile at the moment shopping inspiration hits.”
With Ebay doubling their 2012 GMV with a $5 billion figure in 2011, up from $2 billion in 2012, it seems like the sky is the limit for mobile payments right now.
Have you been using your tablet or smartphone to make payments you might have normally done over an actual phone or on a computer or laptop? I certainly have.
There is no doubt that mobile growth will accelerate all forms of payment systems including NFC which I predict will catch on much more this year as more and more devices and retailers catch on to the simple idea of making it less difficult to part with your cash…wallets say goodbye, the next credit disaster say hello!Anthony Munns


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Already one of the largest industrial segments in South Africa, the automotive sector is gearing up for some major changes scheduled to take effect in January 2013, when an import-incentive scheme that successfully expedited the development of the industry will be replaced by a programme designed to foster more local production of components. The step is a crucial one, and while the details have yet to be finalised, it has won the support of major stakeholders. South Africa’s goal is to more than double annual production by 2020, and this policy change is aimed at meeting that target as well as deepening the local labour force’s role in the process.
MIDP: During the apartheid era, South Africa’s automotive industry was small and highly protected, and import replacement was a major economic goal. In 1995, priorities shifted to employment as a driver of economic policy and the new government introduced a scheme designed to take advantage of the increase in access to global markets.
The Motor Industry Development Programme (MIDP) provided global automakers with financial incentives to set up plants in South Africa, primarily with exporting in mind, but also to service local demand. Total production was about 472,000 vehicles in 2010, which is roughly average for the last several years, although depending on global demand production can range between 350,000 and 600,000 units. The goal is to get up to 1.2m vehicles annually by 2020. In terms of global production, the country’s current output represents a market share of between 0.6% and 0.8%, and comprises approximately 11.9% of the country’s total exports.
Under the auspices of the MIDP, the number of cars produced per automotive employee on an annual basis has reached 16.6 from a figure of less than 10 before the plan’s introduction, according to figures from the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa. A common industry measure of quality is the number of problems per 100 vehicles, which sunk from 182 in 2001 to 93 in 2009. Efficiency can also be measured in terms of the number of cars per model produced in the country, which has increased from 9000 to 29,900.
CHALLENGES AHEAD: Maintaining this level of rapid development over the coming years may become more challenging, however. South Africa is no longer thought to be as much of a low-cost labour destination as it used to be, for example, as a result of steadily increasing wages and a robust tradition of collective bargaining. A lack of new investment into existing infrastructure has also become an issue, as costs and congestion at the port of Durban, which handles most of the automotive sector trade, continue to increase. Costs there are as much as 60% higher than in similar ports in countries against which South Africa benchmarks its auto industry’s competitiveness, including major South-east Asian auto producers such as Thailand.
Electricity costs have also climbed as a result of the national electricity authority, Eskom, raising rates to help fund a capital campaign that will add new capacity and upgrade existing infrastructure. Electricity costs increased by 26.3% between 2010 and 2011. Prices have been rising at roughly the same rate since 2007. “The success of the industry is vitally dependent on first-class logistics, said Bodo Donauer, managing director of BMW South Africa. “Goodwill only goes so far, and we need to see tangible improvements. The ports are expensive and productivity is low, and infrastructure to export to the rest of Africa is virtually non-existent.”
A RESPECTED PRODUCER: In spite of the challenges, South Africa shows no signs of losing favour among leading global automakers. It was a vote of confidence when Mercedes Benz opted to keep production of its C-class sedan in the country, for example. The German firm produces cars for US consumers at East London, in Eastern Cape State, have won multiple awards as the top-quality cars in the market from JD Power, a US market research firm that specialises in consumer-satisfaction surveys.
What is clear, however, is that building on the past successes and current activity will require a new strategy, which is what prompted the Department of Trade and Investment (DTI) to replace MIDP, which expires in 2012, with a new policy and incentive schemes come January 2013.
ROSY OUTLOOK: The new plan is called the Automotive Production and Development Programme, or APDP. The idea is to ensure the sector has a greater impact on the economy and on national employment levels by increasing local components manufacturing, and sourcing more of the semi-finished goods in the domestic market.
Unlike the MIDP, which targeted its incentives at the car manufacturers themselves, the ADPD aims to incentivise suppliers as well. The programme has four main mechanisms to develop the sector’s domestic supply chain. Final details were not expected to be known until early in the second quarter of 2012, but the broad outlines of the new plan are clear.
The first aspect of the plan is the Automotive Investment Scheme, which has already been put in place and backdated to July 2009. It is available to both manufacturers and component suppliers, and allows them to claim 20% of their investments into domestic production against their tax burdens. This has already encouraged new investment, including commitments of R13bn ($1.6bn) from carmakers and their suppliers, which will support the creation of 24,000 jobs, according to the DTI.
The second aspect is a freezing of import tariffs on vehicles and parts at 25% and 20%, respectively. An exception will be made for vehicles from the EU, which will be taxed at 18%.
The third category of incentives is a local-content allowance, which will apply to all facilities producing at least 50,000 vehicles a year. It will allow them credits against taxes paid on relevant imports in 2013 equivalent to 20% of the sales value of their production. That number will fall over the course of the ADPD, making local production more attractive in the coming decade. The rate is scheduled to drop to 19% in 2014 and 18% from 2015 to 2020.
The final of the four main incentive programmes also offers credits against import taxes. These will be determined according to the levels of local content in parts and components. There may also be additional incentives to protect local industries that are more marginally competitive, such as alloy wheels and leather upholstery, which are unlikely to be spelled out until full details of the plan are released.
Automakers in the country appear supportive of the new incentive regimes. CEOs and managing directors such as BMW South Africa’s Bodo Donauer and Toyota South Africa’s Johan van Zyl have told local media in recent months that boosting production will be made easier with a steady supply of quality components at competitive prices. According to Donauer, the success of the industry is also dependent on improvements to infrastructure and logistics. “We need to see tangible improvements to grow the industry,” he said. “The ports are expensive and productivity is low, and infrastructure to export to the rest of Africa is virtually non-existent.”
TRUCKS WAITING: The ADPD’s scope is limited to covering the production of cars, light trucks and other commercial vehicles. However, the DTI is, according to local media reports, considering a set of incentive programmes similar to the ADPD to stimulate production of heavier commercial vehicles of more than 3500 kg of gross mass.
This segment of the automotive market has historically received less attention from government – a local content programme that set high standards for engines and transmissions was taken out of effect in 1994, and the MIDP only addressed rates for imports. As the ADPD comes into play, industry players expect to see more domestically produced cars – with more locally produced parts – on the roads. If the plan proves successful, it may pave the way for the further production of larger vehicles as well.


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MasterCard has opened a digital security facility to its customers. Located in England, the MasterCard DigiSec Lab is focused on proactively testing threats to all forms of digital payments in coordination with government security agencies and leading academics.
“While payments have never been safer, criminals have never been smarter. We’ve now opened the lab to our customers as part of an ongoing commitment to share insights, solutions and best practices to deliver the highest levels of security,” said Ajay Bhalla, president of Enterprise Security Solutions at MasterCard.
The MasterCard DigiSec Lab team deconstructs the technology to identify opportunities to strengthen it and continue to protect consumers, merchants and financial institutions from fraud.
The MasterCard DigiSec Lab works in close partnership with other groups – including Information Security, Emerging Payments and MasterCard Labs.
Mastercard is working with Stripe to expedite the payment process for American sellers on the latter's marketplaces using the instant payouts feature from Stripe.
Lloyds has launched biometric finger print authentication for mobile banking.
Barclaycard has partnered with Case Station, a company that makes personalised phone cases, to embed contactless technology in the latter's smartphone cases.
Digital challenger bank, N26, which has been live for one and a half years and has more than 200,000 customers, rolled out a new feature that allows its customers to transfer money using Siri. All they have to do is talk to it.


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Nissan finally has a contender to tap into the lucrative top-end of the dual-cab ute market.
Mitsubishi has revealed a limited-edition Triton honouring brand ambassador and two-time Dakar Rally winner Toby Price.
Four-wheel drive utilities are extremely versatile vehicles but if you want to set them up as touring rigs there are several modifications to be made. Here’s the gear you need to transform your 4×4 ute into a tourer.
Haval has made no secret of its intention to play in the fast-growing premium trade ute segment, but now it’s released an image of what we might expect.
The Fiat Fullback ute has been revealed overnight at the 2015 Dubai International Motor Show with the 4×4 ute only available as a double-cab.


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Georgetown Police arrest man for attempted theft and criminal impersonation after he dressed as a Wal-Mart employee and attempted to take electronics, according to Georgetown Police Spokesman Joseph .Melvin.
Melvin said at approximately 3:30 p.m. on May 25, 2017, officers were dispatched to the Georgetown Wal-Mart for an attempted theft complaint. Officers learned that a Wal-Mart employee, upon entering a rear storage room, viewed a subject wearing a Wal-Mart vest who was attempting to remove two televisions.
The employee, recognizing the subject wasn’t an employee of the store, contacted other store personnel, said Nelson. When contacted by other Wal-Mart personnel, the suspect fled the store on foot and then in a vehicle, according to Melvin.
Officers utilized store video footage to identify the suspects’ vehicle. Further investigation revealed the identity of the operator who had been driving the suspect vehicle on May 25, 2017. On May 29,2017, officers responded to a residence in Georgetown where they located the suspect, hiding underneath a mattress in the attic, according to Nelson. The suspect was taken into custody by officers without incident.
26-year-old Chaz Huntington, of Georgetown, Delaware was arrested for two counts of attempted theft under $1500 and one count of criminal impersonation. Huntington was arraigned at Justice of the Peace Court #3 and committed to Sussex Correctional Institution in lieu of secured bond.
Image Credits: Georgetown Police


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According to an abstract of a report published by the China Internet Network Information Center, mobile phone has become # 1 internet access terminal in China.
Alibaba has blamed Google for blocking the launch of a smartphone powered by the Chinese firm’s operating system.
Foxconn has responded to an accusation that vocational students are forced to work in its factories by saying its agreement with schools allows them to leave.
A UK scientist has questioned China’s plans to send eight satellites into space to monitor the ocean around the country.
Microsoft to hire more than 1,000 new employees in China & boost R&D spending by 15% in an effort to catch up with Apple & Google in the mobile Internet market.
Samsung Electronics Co. now finds itself accused by a labor rights group of mistreating workers in China and illegally using child labor.
A Chinese dissident imprisoned for 10 years on a state subversion conviction supported by evidence from Yahoo was released Friday after completing his term.
A report by security company TrustGo says that Android app marketplaces in China are vulnerable to malware, including trojans that send premium SMS messages.
Xiaomi has just made its much-anticipated launch of the Mi2 smartphone, promising impressive specs at a low price.


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Sarah Stellini has been appointed CEO at Hero Gaming, as it continues its process of reorganisation following the sale of its Swedish B2C assets. While the announcement was made on Monday, she started her new position at the start of November.
Hero Gaming remarked that Ms Stellini will be taking the company “through its next phase whilst aiming to reach new heights”, together with a “new management team and an amazing group of talented heroes”.
She first joined the iGaming company as Commercial Director – All Markets in April.
Ms Stellini has over 13 years of experience within the digital entertainment industry, and is particularly skilled when it comes to marketing and acquisition. Indeed, Hero Gaming remarked that she brings “significant knowledge and a fresh perspective to the business”.
Hero Gaming has been working through its strategy and structure since the sale of its Swedish brands in August 2021. “In recent months, the company had been looking at ways in which it could focus more on the core markets and deliver the best gaming experience for its customers”, which prompted Hero Gaming to undertake a reorganisation to achieve “a more streamlined company whilst at the same time bringing more focus to its activities”.
“We regret to see some of our heroes moving on and we’re thankful for their work and contributions to the company’s journey so far. However, the reorganisation in itself was a much needed process for the company to ensure its long-term future,” Ms Stellini explained, before thanking former CEO Patrick Jonker and his team for their “hard work” as the company is now in a “better position to react with agility with respect to the core markets which it operates in”.
“The future of Hero Gaming now lies in its core markets with the aim of continuing to deliver the best customer experience and innovative products to its customer base,” she added.
Hero Gaming Founder and Chairman George Westin joined Ms Stellini in her optimism, saying that he has “as much faith in Hero Gaming as ever and with the great people, technology and brand, we have a thriving future”. He added that Ms Stellini has the “energy” to form the new organisation and will be a “great CEO”.
Aside from her experience at Hero Gaming, Ms Stellini also had two spells at Betsson Group, where she served in various senior roles, including Head of Growth Optimisation and Head of New Business. She also worked as Commercial Product Owner at Catena Media for over a year, and a number of managerial and senior roles at software vendor Uniblue Systems Ltd. She holds of a Bachelor of Psychology degree from University of Malta, and a Master of Arts in Events Marketing and Management from London Metropolitan University.
Hero Gaming was founded in 2013 by Mr Westin, with an initial focus on the Scandinavian market. Over recent years, the casino company has grown to include the launch of a number of new brands to its portfolio, as it aims to continue expanding its services to a global level.
MaltaCEOs.mt takes a look at the options available to travellers, as well as key business destinations, in the wake of ...
Valletta Cruise Port CEO Stephen Xuereb celebrated the recently finalised restoration of the historic Forni Stores.
For Lewis Zammit, painting is a form of meditation and part of his daily life.
Vice President of Corporate Strategy Pierre Cadena has taken over from Michael Daly, assuming the role of interim CEO.


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Mia0 Chun Qi, 54, a Chinese tourist was beaten to death after “shopping affairs” at DZ Jewellery located at Hung Hom. Miao joined a low cost shopping tour to Hong Kong. Police said he was attempting to mediate in the dispute between the tour leader and a fellow tourist over “shopping affairs”, while the tour leader was being slapped. 4 men saw the dispute and dragged Miao out of the jewelry shop and beat him to a point of coma. He was then sent to hospital and later certified death. 4 was under arrested including 2 tour leaders, a tour guide and the tourist, and 2 other men are wanted.
Chinese authorities unusually publicly urged Hong Kong to have a fully investigation of the incident and protect the rights of mainland tourists. The death also spurred calls in China for a boycott of travel to Hong Kong.
Mainland Chinese tourist have been complaining about Forced-shopping in Hong Kong. The Travel Industrial Council of Hong Kong reminded tourist to avoid deeply discounted group tours, which is usually pressure tourist to purchase merchandise at selected should that pay them commission in order to recoup their costs.
Mainland Chinese travelers have been the major driving force for Hong Kong’s tourist industry in recent years, but the explosive growth has caused great tensions between them and the locals. Hong Kong residents blame them for driving up prices, bad behavior such as blocking sidewalks with oversized suitcases, smoking in non-smoking area, etc.


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May 7, 2014 | Technically Philly by Juliana Reyes
The beginning of a startup is “a huge software problem,” as the cofounders of venture-backed adtech startup Vistar Media put it.
That’s why Mark Chadwick and Michael Provenzano wanted to hire engineers in a city they were comfortable in. That city was Philadelphia. It was the place they learned the ropes of running a startup, while working at Invite Media, the Center City online advertising company that sold to Google in 2010 for $81 million.
Today, Vistar Media’s six-person engineering team is based in Rittenhouse Square, while the rest of their team (eight staffers) is based in New York City. They’re currently hiring in both cities.


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Interested in linking to "Editor's Plate: Heinz, Naturally"?
You may use the Headline, Deck, Byline and URL of this article on your Web site. To link to this article, select and copy the HTML code below and paste it on your own Web site.
By Dave Fusaro, Editor in Chief | 12/01/2011
I don't want to say we were predisposed to a heavily international company for this year's Processor of the Year. But it does seem we've done a fair amount of writing about international expansion over the past 12 months. And our past Processors of the Year have, intentionally or not, followed themes.
When the recession was just starting and Americans and Canadians seemed to return to simple prepared foods and home cooking, we featured Hormel (2008). Despite a rocky economy – maybe because of it – 2009 was a year of blockbuster mergers & acquisitions, so we focused on Nestle USA. Last year, when it was apparent private label had made a huge dent in the market, we turned to TreeHouse Foods.
International expansion and especially emerging markets seem to be on every food executive's mind these days. No company exemplifies – or has succeeded at – that strategy better than H.J. Heinz Co.
Interestingly, overseas markets are nothing new to Heinz. As we dug into this story, we learned that just 17 years after founding the company, Henry John Heinz received a big order, the first of many, from London retailer Fortnum & Mason. At a time when his domestic business began to sag, H.J. opened a London office. By 1896, Heinz was a global company.
Nearly two-thirds of the modern Heinz's $10.7 billion in sales come from outside the U.S., and 20 percent are from emerging markets. That's double their contribution as recently as 2005, but maybe half of what the company expects in the future.
And Heinz remains its own manufacturer. Company officials wouldn't provide an exact figure, but the overwhelming majority of its products are manufactured in its own plants. That's something we admire.
Something else admirable: Micronutrient malnutrition, particularly iron deficiency, affects more than 2 billion people worldwide, roughly a third of the world's population, Heinz officials quote the World Health Organization. Young children in developing regions are the most susceptible. So Heinz in 2001 started the Heinz Micronutrient Campaign, supported by the H.J. Heinz Co. Foundation, which distributes packets of vitamins and essential minerals that can be added to regional staple foods to supplement them without altering their taste.
The project focused on three key regions, and the campaign is named after a child the team met in each country:
In 2006, Heinz received the first Helen Keller International Global Visionary Award for this work. And while it exited the baby food market here in the U.S. in 2002, Heinz is a big player in infant nutrition in the rest of the world, and the company is at the vanguard of scientific advances that enhance baby and child development in those markets.
One small disclosure: For those of you who don't know my background, I'm a native of Pittsburgh, although I've been living in and around Chicago for more than half of my life. Heinz has always been a hometown favorite, a world champion as much as the Steelers and Penguins (and, long ago, the Pirates … sigh).
We profile Heinz in this issue as we do all our Processors of the Year:


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March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Visteon Corp., the auto-parts maker shopping two of its four units, agreed to sell its lighting division to Varroc Group of India for $92 million, Visteon said today in a statement.
The unit, which supplies automotive exterior lights, had revenue of $531 million last year. Visteon said it expects the transaction to close in the third quarter. Visteon said last month it took a noncash writedown of $66 million for the lighting unit in the fourth quarter.
“This transaction allows Visteon to focus on our core climate and electronics businesses and our joint venture relationships, which are positioned for profitable growth and market leadership,” Don Stebbins, Visteon’s chief executive officer, said in the statement.
Shedding the unit is part of management’s plan for Visteon, which exited a 16-month bankruptcy in 2010, to pare lower-margin revenue in interiors and lighting and focus on faster-growing operations in Asia, five people familiar with the sales process said in October.
Varroc is an Aurangabad, India-based supplier of parts for passenger and commercial vehicles and motorcycles. Varroc’s customers include Honda Motor Co., Yamaha Motor Co., Fiat SpA, General Motors Co., Caterpillar Inc. and Visteon, according to its website.
Unit Employs 4,200
Visteon slipped 0.4 percent to $52.89 at the close in New York. The shares have gained 5.9 percent this year after dropping 33 percent last year.
The unit employs about 4,200 people and has facilities in Novy Jicin and Rychvald, Czech Republic; Monterrey, Mexico, and Pune, India.
About 81 percent of the unit’s revenue comes from North America and Europe, the company said in a July presentation. The unit’s gross margin, which measures gross profit as a percentage of revenue, is 2.6 percent, according to the presentation.
Visteon, based in Van Buren Township, Michigan, is a former unit of Ford Motor Co.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Clothier in Southfield, Michigan at firstname.lastname@example.org
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jamie Butters at email@example.com


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Utah Rocking Updated Ute Proud Look Against San Diego State
Sep 13, 2022, 7:25 PM
(Utah Football Twitter)
SALT LAKE CITY- Utah will wear their Ute Proud uniforms in week three against San Diego State. The attire has a new take on the Ute Proud helmet they have worn the past few seasons.
Game 3#22Forever @Utah_Football @andrew_mataafa pic.twitter.com/kQF6RyDvpD
— UtesEquipment (@UtesEquipment) September 13, 2022
Per usual, the Utes will be wearing a Drum and Feather logo and stripe down the middle of the helmet that both feature a Ute Tribe design. However, instead of using the white helmet like they have been, they’ve decided to go with a black helmet in 2022. The Utah equipment staff added a red face mask and a “22 % Better” chin strap as well. Utah will wear their black base jersey with red pants.
View this post on Instagram
It’s a much needed refresh to a look and game that has become a fan favorite over the years. The University of Utah in conjunction with the Ute Tribe introduced Ute Proud games in 2014 among the athletic department as a way to celebrate and educate the public on the Utes. The Tribe has been heavily involved not only in the designs used for the Ute Proud games/apparel, but also have contributed a halftime show that showcases their tribal dances and culture for everyone in attendance.
Utah Utes Scoreboard
Utah Utes Team Leaders
Utah Utes Standings


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Note: The following article includes information from a Giant Food Stores news release.
Following a recall by TreeHouse Foods, Giant Food Stores announced Thursday that it has removed from sale Giant brand Sweet & Salty Almond Chewy Granola Bars due to the potential for them to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
The following product is included in the recall:
Giant/Martin’s Sweet & Salty Almond Chewy Granola Bars, 12 pack/7.4 oz, UPC 068826709280, with a best by date of DEC 07 16 and the lot code 2151607200
Giant said it has received no reports of illnesses to date.
“Listeria is a common organism found in nature,” the news release said. “Consumption of food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes can cause listeriosis, an uncommon but potentially fatal disease. Healthy people rarely contract listeriosis. However, listeriosis can cause high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness and nausea. Listeriosis can also cause miscarriages and stillbirths, as well as serious and sometimes fatal infections in those with weakened immune systems, such as infants, the elderly and persons with HIV infection or undergoing chemotherapy.”
Customers who’ve purchased the recalled granola bars should discard any unused portions and bring their receipt to any Giant store for a full refund, Giant said.
Consumers looking for more information about the recall should call TreeHouse Private Brands at 1-800-756-5781, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. (CST). Customers can also call Giant Customer Service at 1-888-814-4268 for more information.


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Ford Motor Company and Alibaba Group yesterday signed a letter of intent to collaborate strategically in mobility services, connectivity, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and digital marketing.
The three-year agreement will drive Ford to work with four of Alibaba's business units — operating-system developer AliOS, cloud-computing platform Alibaba Cloud, digital-marketing arm Alimama and business-to-consumer (B2C) shopping site Tmall, to leverage digital channels and identify new retail opportunities.
Initially, the two companies will pilot a study on digital solutions for new retail opportunities from pre-sales to test drives to leasing options, according to a statement from Ford.
"China is one of the world's largest and most dynamic digital markets, thriving on innovation with customers' online and offline experiences converging rapidly," said Jim Hackett, president and chief executive officer of Ford Motor Company. "Collaborating with leading technology players builds on our vision for smart vehicles in a smart world to reimagine and revolutionize consumers' mobility experiences.


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MASON CITY — North-central Iowa congresswoman Ashley Hinson stopped in Mason City on Monday afternoon to tour the Cargill Kitchen Solutions plant.
Hinson says she wanted to learn more about the producer of 155 million pounds of eggs annually, which are then turned into over 30 different egg products. “I’ve been a very big advocate of understanding that food does not come from a grocery store, it comes from chickens, it comes from pork, much of which is produced right here in Iowa. Five million eggs a day go through the Cargill plant here, and when I looked at the process of how they get those logistically into their plant, all the different products that they are producing, the food safety, the biosafety, just all of the different industry standards they have to meet, it was quite an eye-opening experience.”
Hinson has introduced the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression Act, or EATS, after the US Supreme Court upheld California’s law that bans the sale of pork in California from farms anywhere in the country that confine pregnant pigs in gestation crates for almost their whole lives. “There’s been kind of a war on breakfast coming out of the state of California with people trying to overmanage how we produce our food here in Iowa, so I’ve been a big proponent of educating myself so I can go out and share with my colleagues what we really need to be focused on in the food production space.”
Hinson says California lawmakers have no clue about agricultural production. “The liberal activists who have been pushing back against this bill don’t know the first thing about how food is actually made, and the industry standards, for instance what pork producers have, are in the best interest of animal health and welfare. Our farmers are the best stewards of their animals and their land, and that’s a big reason why I felt it was very important to introduce this piece of legislation.”
Hinson says the US Supreme Court in its ruling stated that Congress needed to do something to address this issue, and that’s why she introduced the bill.
23 (ashley4) “in Iowa”
(as above — “I look at this as an interstate commerce issue, the state of California overstepping its bounds in interstate commerce trying to regulate what’s happening in other states. I think it’s a dangerous creep actually. The unintended consequences I think come if we don’t do something. It will be manufacturing, it will be food. What’s to dictate that they can’t say ‘hey, we’re only going to buy pork from places that pay a certain amount per hour’. That may not work here in Iowa.”) Prior to her stop in Mason City, Hinson stopped to talk to the Charles City Rotary Club.


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Taiwan Invests Millions in Development of new Battery Technology & Hub Motor
Taiwan’s environmental problem is clear to everyone who has visited the island. Too many polluting scooters. To change that the countrys research institute ITRI is developing new electric motors and new battery technologies. This years Taipei Cycle will show
HSINCHU, Taiwan – Taiwan’s environmental problem is clear to everyone who has visited the island. Too many polluting scooters. To change that the country’s research institute ITRI is developing new electric motors and new battery technologies. This year’s Taipei Cycle will show the results.
Taiwan has more than 12 million polluting scooters for a total population of 23 million! To bring pollution levels down the Taiwan government is urging its citizen’s to turn to (electric) bicycles and is also investing millions into turning the 2 and 4 stroke scooter engines into electric ones. This year’s Taipei International Cycle Show will feature the results of the multi-million dollar investment the Taiwan government has made in its ‘Green vehicle Development Program’.
As Taiwan aims at becoming a global industrial partner for green vehicles, it is focusing on getting the right products in place. All of this is to establish the country as the world’s leading high-tech products supplier. Bike Europe visited the country’s Industrial Technology Research Institute and was introduced to a super slim hub motor for electric bicycles, as well as to the STOBA technology for lithium batteries.
At ITRI some 60 engineers are devoted to the development of new battery technologies. Their first major accomplishment is STOBA. This stands for Self-Terminated Oligomer with Branded Architecture. Simply put, it is a new polymer developed by ITRI that effectively prevents lithium batteries from exploding when damaged, as has occurred in several high-profile cases in recent years. Those incidents took place with laptop computers, where lithium batteries are commonly used. Nowadays, they’re also found in higher priced and better quality e-bikes. And with iPhones, iPads, and tablet computer sales soaring; all of which are all fitted with lithium batteries, it’s clear that the STOBA technology is very valuable.
Another major accomplishment by ITRI is the development of a super-slim hub motor. According to the research institute it is 50% lighter and 70% thinner. As well, the new motor produces two to three times the torque generated by traditional units of the same weight, with comparable production costs.
The new motor features Axial Variable flux technology. This technology is based on the principles of electro-magnetism and permanent magnetism, which not only contributes to the motor’s power but also to the motor speed control.
More on STOBA and the Axial Variable flux technology is in Bike Europe February edition which will arrive this week at its international readership.