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A British vote to leave the European Union would hit large German banks, the head of German financial watchdog Bafin said. » Read More
COSTA MESA, Calif.-- Hyundai Motor America said Tuesday that U.S. vehicle sales rose 15.3 percent in September, as rising sales of its Elantra sedan overcame a decline in its other big seller, the Sonata. BY THE NUMBERS: Hyundai sold 660,025 vehicles last month, up from 52,051 a year earlier.
CHERRY HILL, N.J.-- Subaru of America Inc. said Tuesday that U.S. sales rose 32 percent in September on strong gains for the Outback wagon and the Legacy sedan. BY THE NUMBERS: The Japanese automaker said sales rose to 27,683 in September, from 20,934 a year earlier. TOP SELLER: The company sold 10,583 Outbacks, an increase of 39.1 percent from a year ago.
NEW YORK-- Shares of Fifth& Pacific slid Tuesday after the clothing maker cut its guidance due to weak sales of Juicy Couture. Moody's Investors Service said the guidance cut is bad for Fifth& Pacific's credit, but said it is not making any immediate changes to its ratings. Moody's currently has a "B2" rating on Fifth& Pacific.
NEW YORK-- Stocks are struggling to a mixed close on Wall Street after spending most of the day lower, pulled down by weakness in materials and energy companies. Mosaic blamed poor demand from China and India. Rising stocks narrowly outnumbered falling ones on the New York Stock Exchange.
NEW YORK-- It's not even Halloween yet, but once again a slew of forecasters are out with sales predictions for the all-important holiday shopping season. Economists carefully study the numbers because they're an important gauge for merchants that depend on the period for up to 40 percent of their annual sales.
BUILDING FENCES: European bankers were urged to build a firewall between their retail operations and their riskier trading activities and be prepared to shoulder some losses when their banks fail, according to a report requested by the European Union to help head off another financial crisis.
CINCINNATI-- Laser eye surgery provider LCA-Vision Inc. said Tuesday that LasikPlus procedures decreased 8 percent in the third quarter, and the company said coverage of the upcoming presidential election is partly to blame. LCA-Vision reported 11,510 LasikPlus procedures in the third quarter, down from 12,444 a year ago.
Benchmark oil dropped 59 cents to end at $91.89 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, which is used to price international varieties of oil, fell 62 cents to $111.57 per barrel in London. At the pump, the national average for gasoline was unchanged at $3.78 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and the Oil Price Information Service.
DALLAS-- Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens and his fourth wife, Madeleine, are filing for divorce. Boone Pickens is an Oklahoma native who made much of his fortune in oil drilling.
NEW YORK-- Analysts for Cowen and Co. started coverage of a group of companies that make tests used to diagnose infectious diseases, assigning top ratings to companies including Cepheid, Hologic Inc., and Meridian Bioscience Inc..
KANNAPOLIS, N.C.-- Stewart-Haas Racing announced some much-needed sponsorship Tuesday when Quicken Loans said it will double its commitment to Ryan Newman. Quicken Loans, a new sponsor in NASCAR this year and the primary backer for nine races with Newman, will return for 18 races next year.
NEW ORLEANS-- A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed claims by BP fuel stations and convenience stores that the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico diminished the value of the oil giant's brand and cost them business.
November soybeans fell 29.75 cents to finish Tuesday at $15.305 per bushel. Sterling Smith, a Citi futures specialist, said exports sales have been slower this week because markets in China are closed for public holidays. Corn for December delivery rose 1.5 cents to end at $7.5825 per bushel and December wheat dropped 12.75 cents to $8.715 per bushel.
NEW YORK-- The financial losses are starting to pile up as a result of the NHL lockout. In speaking to reporters after talks finished up for the day between the NHL and the NHLPA, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly estimated that the league has lost $100 million in revenues from the canceled preseason.
NEW YORK-- An analyst cut his rating on shares of Starwood Hotels& Resorts Worldwide Inc. on Tuesday because of the weaker global economy. Raymond James' William Crow lowered his rating to "Outperform" from "Strong Buy" for the operator of the Sheraton, Westin, W and St.
MIAMI-- Dwyane Wade will not be wearing Jordan Brand sneakers and apparel. Wade said his time with Converse and Jordan has been an "unbelievable nine years." Wade made the switch from Converse to Jordan Brand in 2009. Both are owned by Nike Inc..
ATLANTA-- A drop in last-minute travelers in September hurt a key revenue measurement for Delta Air Lines Inc., the company said on Tuesday, although its fuel bill came in lower than expected, too. Per-seat passenger revenue rose 0.5 percent in September. Delta had previously said it expected an increase of 1 percent to 3 percent.
CLINTON, Iowa-- Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan said Tuesday that he and running mate Mitt Romney would help more Americans find jobs so that they can pay taxes. At a rally on the front lawn of a county courthouse, the Wisconsin Republican faced a question from a voter about why so many people don't pay federal income taxes.
CHARLOTTE, N.C.-- Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday criticized Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for proposing policies that Biden says would cut taxes for millionaires and raise them for middle-class families.


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Apr 13, 2015 "Game of Thrones" is the most pirated show in existence. Will HBO Now help or hurt?
Mar 26, 2015 Marketplace wants to know how you consume media.
Dec 23, 2014 Nine out of 10 of us will watch at least one holiday TV special this year.
Dec 11, 2014 Netflix's new show, "Marco Polo" is costing them $90 million. Where does it rank among other shows?
Nov 5, 2014 Logistics and economics mean our screens can only get so big. Why oh why?
Oct 28, 2014 The trickle-down effect of a cash infusion started even before the deal.
Jun 26, 2014 U.S. professional soccer is gaining in popularity, especially in Sacramento.
Jun 23, 2014 A look at the tech behind (hopefully) better referee calls at the World Cup
Jun 17, 2014 Netflix will stream some of its shows in 4K Ultra HD, whatever that means.
Jun 13, 2014 An economics lesson in every World Cup sticker.

domain: news


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Throughout this month, the vaping crisis has riveted the nation. For millions of Americans, this was the first real exposure to the tobacco alternatives industry. As such, a legitimate but deeply nuanced issue had devolved into mainstream hysteria. At first, counterarguments seemed laced with self-interested agendas. But now, the situation is intractable: the vaping crisis has become fake news.
How can I make such a pronouncement? Primarily, both the federal and state governments have proposed – and in some cases, imposed – draconian measures ahead of the facts. While hundreds of injuries and a worrying number of deaths have occurred, from the beginning, no investigating agency had (or has) a clear culprit. To quote the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
The specific chemical exposure(s) causing lung injuries associated with e-cigarette product use, or vaping, remains unknown at this time.
No single product or substance has been linked to all lung injury cases. More information is needed to know whether a single product, substance, brand, or method of use is responsible for the outbreak.
Yet the kicker is that individual states – most conspicuously Massachusetts – have imposed vaping bans to various degrees. Under these emergency orders, government bodies have stated their reasoning for doing so is time: they need to give investigators some margin to truly find out what’s going on.
But as evidence emerges that exonerates the vaping platform, state governments are still pushing the idea of a ban. How is this not fake news?
Media Pushes Vape Ban Narrative Despite Risk of Promoting Fake News
From the onset of the vaping crisis, proponents of vaporizers and e-cigarettes claimed that illegally sourced materials mostly contributed to the surge in acute lung illnesses. Sure enough, that’s what the most recent data indicates. Even the CDC admits as such, stating the following:
The latest findings from the investigation into lung injuries associated with e-cigarette use, or vaping, suggest THC products play a role in the outbreak. Most of the people (77%) in this outbreak reported using THC-containing products, or both THC-containing products and nicotine-containing products, according to a report published today in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).
Even more damning for the fear-mongers, U.K. health officials claim vaping is 95% less dangerous than smoking. In fact, they’ve stepped up their advocacy for vaporizers and e-cigarettes, recommending them as smoking-cessation devices. That flies in the face of all the fake news (i.e., aggressively slanted reports) distributed in mainstream circles.
Despite this overwhelming library of evidence, many politicians still push the vaping ban. Unfortunately, this is no longer about health but about enforcing an agenda.


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- Driscoll's and Plenty are building an indoor farm to grow the berry giant's strawberries using the CEA firm's vertical growing platform. The farm will supply strawberries to consumers in the Northeastern United States close to highly dense, urban areas, according to a press release.
- The companies shared few other details on the new facility, including its exact location, size or production capacity. In an interview with CNBC, Plenty CEO Arama Kukutai said the farm will be operating by the end of 2023, and the partners hope to sell the berries in grocery stores by early 2024.
- Since the two first partnered about a year ago, they have been growing Driscoll's strawberries in Plenty’s Laramie, Wyoming, indoor vertical farm. The plan for the dedicated facility comes as other controlled environment agriculture firms expand into berries for greater growth.
Both Driscoll's and Plenty benefit by partnering on a vertical farm dedicated to strawberries. For the berry giant, which already has made an unspecified "major investment" in Plenty, it provides an opportunity to tap into the food tech firm's data analytics and machine learning expertise to boost yields potentially 150 to 350 times higher per acre than it could achieve in a conventional field setting, according to the companies.
Plenty can learn from the plant genetics expertise of Driscoll's, which commands roughly a third of the North American berry market, and continue to prove the potential of its growing platform far beyond salad greens.
In a statement, Kukutai with Plenty noted that the partners targeted the Northeast because it is the largest berry consumption region in the U.S.
“Our partnership with Driscoll’s, coupled with Plenty’s optimized technology platform, ensures we can consistently grow premium berries closer to where these consumers live, providing fresh, consistent quality," he said. "We’ve successfully leveraged the expertise of the world’s largest strawberry breeding program within Plenty’s own controlled growing environment, maximizing the flavor of each berry and optimizing for both texture and size.”
Other CEA companies have eyed the opportunities in growing berries as the leafy greens segment gets increasingly crowded. Manhattan-based vertical farming startup Oishii launched with a focus on strawberries. It claims to have a proprietary approach to pollinating the berries indoors through bees, and plans to develop new varietals of the fruit. In March 2021, it closed a $50 million funding round to help it build new strawberry farms in new markets.
New York City-based Bowery Farming plans to launch strawberries as a new product line this spring, supported by a massive $300 million funding round that it dedicated to building new farms and growing beyond leafy greens, kale and basil. In February, Bowery announced it had acquired Traptic, a company that uses AI, computer vision and robotic arms to harvest delicate crops such as strawberries and tomatoes.
And Montana-based Local Bounti, which just went public through a special purpose acquisition company, has said it may expand into berries to drive future growth.
Vertical farming offers the potential to move strawberry growing closer to the end consumer, lowering not only the crop's environmental footprint but also saving costs for providers such as Driscoll's. According to USDA figures, roughly 90% of the berries are produced in California, far from the densely populated East Coast cities that the company is targeting. This distance demands high fuel and transportation costs to ship the highly perishable produce across thousands of miles. Strawberries are also said to be one of the costliest crops to grow, in large part because the fragile fruits need to be planted and picked by hand. Being able to grow the berries in a more efficient, cost-effective setting makes them custom fit for vertical farming.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the headquarters of Bowery Farming. The company is based in New York City.


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Textile industry is labor intensive. India is one of the largest producers of cotton in the world. Both make India and textile industry made for each other. Progress has been made in the industry, but much more needs to be done. Problems of Textile Industry in India needs to be understood in the context of historical evolution of the sector.
In last few years, India’s textile industry has grown rapidly. According to a report published in UN Comtrade, the industry has potential to overtake China soon. In 2013-14, India left Italy, Germany and Bangladesh behind and is now the second biggest exporter. Overall Indian textile export grew last year by 21 per cent, while garment export grew by 23 per cent.
Textile industry is the biggest employer after agriculture, with 3.5 crore people working in it. Even in terms of overall production, India is now second after China. After India increased minimum wage, minimized child labor and took steps for worker’s security in accordance with international standards, more buyers like Walmart, Gap etc are coming to India. For 2014-15, total export target is set as $50 billion.
Despite all these good news, there are ample of problems with the industry.
Power shortage is the biggest problem of all. On top of that diesel prices are constantly rising, making alternate arrangement costlier. This leads to loss of production hours and increases cost of production.
There is severe shortage of trained manpower. Designers who understand requirements of western customers are scarce in the market. Even among the factory workers, the productivity is dismally low. If productivity of an American worker is 100, then an Indian is only 13 in productivity. On top of that strikes and union hooliganism makes textile a bad investment destination.
Raw materials account 35 per cent of the total production cost in India, much higher than other countries. Despite having largest area under cotton production (26 per cent), India only produces only 9 per cent. High yielding cotton variants need to be introduced, so to increase the production. Fluctuating prices and uncertainty regarding availability of raw material is big headache for the producers.
Most of the India’s textile mills (58 per cent) are working with obsolete machinery, more than 25 years old. The automatic looms are only 20 per cent of the total number of looms. This is much less than the global average of 65 per cent. Problem with obsolete machinery is that they have low efficiency and produce poor and inconsistent quality products. This causes loss of face for the industry in the international market.
Custom and exercise duty on machines, readymade products, and raw materials increase cost of the production. Due to government’s incentives to SMBs in textile industry, consolidation is not happening. The industry is totally decentralized. Consolidation will help in bringing economies of scale and bring standardization.
The short term problems of the industry are high raw material costs, and high interest rates on loans. While the long term problems include outdated machinery, low productivity of manpower, power outages and back breaking taxes.
Right now, Indian products are facing stiff competition from high quality and cheaper products from Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. It is paradox that in a labor intensive industry and raw material is readily available, cost of the production is so high. If these problems are taken care of by the government, then India’s textile industry can also become mega industry just like China’s.


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Movierulz is an online piracy website that leaks to stream and download online free of charge the new Indian films. The website is run by a small group of undisclosed geographic location anonymous participants. Filmmakers and film industry owners have lodged a separate petition to block the website. The online piracy website of 2Movierulz targets mostly all new films released in Telugu, Tamil, Bollywood, Malayalam and Hollywood movies.
Besides films, Movierulz, the popular online piracy streaming platform, also releases the new TV series and Indian TV series. For Telugu, Bollywood, Tamil, Malayalam film industry, they were a big thread. Government of India, with the aid of Internet providers and search engine sites, has taken various steps to block the 2Movierulz website.We ask our readers not to encourage the streaming and download of movies online pirate websites. Alternatively, from various resources such as Netflix, Amazon prime, Hotstar, Zee5, Youtube and more, you can stream them legally. We never support people from pirate sites such as Tamilrockers, Movierulz, Tamilgun, Altbalaji, Tamilyogi and more to access content.
How Movierulz Works
Some bunch of unknown people are running the popular online pirate website. Movierulz team members are collaborating with a specific network to get films on the release date. According to the source, the website’s operations have stored all the films in their own repository that are remotely accessible from an unknown location.


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Back in 2005, when IBM first encouraged its employees to blog publicly about their work, the company explained the initiative in part by noting that no marketing campaign could evangelize the company’s work better than its own employees.
In recent years, it has become more common for organizations to find ways to get employees into the social media space to represent the company.
Coca-Cola has a certification program. Dell has its Social Media and Communities (SMaC) group. Sprint has its ninjas. And virtually every social media policy you see—hundreds of which are posted publicly—includes a clause instructing employees talking about work to identify themselves as employees.
Apple’s social media policy for employees is not among those you can find online—until now. Reports have surfaced today that the policy has been leaked. This should come as no surprise, because that’s what happens to non-transparent organizations in a world gone increasingly digital and social.
It’s also no surprise that the policy doesn’t reflect the trend in most organizations. Whereas most employees are asked to disclose their affiliation when writing a blog post about their companies, Apple allows employees to have blogs but forbids them to discuss the company at all. Employees cannot post comments on third-party Apple- and Mac-related sites.
There are more reasons than those cited nearly seven years ago by IBM for using engaged employees to spread the company’s messages through social channels. For example, The Altimeter Group’s social media preparedness study demonstrates that trained employees who are permitted to engage lead to fewer and less-damaging crises.
Apple, conversely, is all about secrecy. When it comes to opacity, Apple makes Enron look like a poster child for transparency. As for engaging employees, Apple lore includes tales of unsavory tactics that target all employees in an effort to hunt down the few bad apples (pun unintentional) who leak information.
I don’t have a clue what kind of engagement scores Apple would earn (or whether the company has ever assessed how engaged its workforce is), but because trust is a foundation of engagement, you have to believe that being spied on doesn’t do much to make employees feel engaged.
When Steve Jobs died, mainstream and social media sources were filled with items about how to be a CEO like Jobs. What a terrible idea. The fact is that Apple’s ability to crank out stunning products that people just had to have enabled corporate behaviors that would be reviled and decried anywhere else.
There were Jobs characteristics that are certainly worth emulating. His passion for product excellence, his focus on gorgeous design, and his uncanny ability to invent markets where one had never existed before would be enviable traits in any leader.
But when it comes to leadership, emulating Jobs would mean:
- Not trusting your employees.
- Not giving anything back. Jobs said he didn’t believe in giving money away. Interestingly, those on the political right argue that government doesn’t need entitlement programs for those unable to take care of themselves because business, if freed of onerous taxes, would take care of those programs themselves. Not under Apple’s philosophy.
- Not giving much of a crap about the environment.
- Sending jobs offshore.
- Flat-out lying as a marketing tactic.
- Suing its fans.
- Not listening to customers, whose job it wasn’t, Jobs said, to know what they want. The sound principles covered in The Social Customer Manifesto would carry no weight in a company seeking to emulate Jobs’ approach.
- Not engaging customers at all. Apple doesn’t blog, isn’t on Twitter, maintains no Facebook page. (Some of Apple’s services—such as iTunes and the App store—are on Twitter.)
- Engaging in questionable activities. For instance, searching an employees’ home by getting the San Francisco Police Department to accompany Apple security to the employee’s house and not doing anything to let the employee know the security personnel weren’t also SFPD.
And this is just a starter list. (Here are more reasons.)
I raise all this because, as we move toward Jobs’ deification, some leaders may look at Apple’s social media policy and think it’s the right approach for their own organizations.
Unless your company is made of Teflon, as Apple is, and can withstand any criticism or crisis because people will line up for your products no matter what, engagement and transparency will serve you better than closing the windows, locking the doors, and isolating the organization.
The U.S. military has figured that out. So have a lot of very large and successful organizations.
In short, adopting Apple’s product focus is great, but not so much for its other business practices.
Incidentally, early word is that Apple’s new CEO, Tim Cook, is already taking steps to turn a lot of this around. If he succeeds, I’ll look forward to reading the contributions of Apple employees.
I’ll probably buy an iPad, too.
A version of this story first appeared on the Holtz Communication + Technology blog.


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United Airlines is the first airline in the world to accept PayPal QR payments aboard its flights. The airline will use QR codes to allow passengers to pay for in-flight items with a simple scan, making the entire procedure touch-free.
The collaboration with the electronic payment giant will begin in Chicago and be pushed across the network by the end of the year.
It is the first time an airline has accepted PayPal payments using QR code, making it quicker and faster to make a comfortable and touch-free purchase.
It’s the latest addition to United’s array of contactless payment options, which includes anything pre-ordered food and beverages to purchases made via the airline app.
“Our contactless payment offering is built on simplicity and choice and it’s another way we’re improving the overall experience of flying United. PayPal is a terrific partner and the technology gives our customers another easy way to make purchases, even when they’re not online. We expect to introduce even more new and innovative options for our customers in the future through our collaboration with PayPal.” Stated Toby Enqvist, Chief Customer Officer for Untied.
While PayPal is a popular payment method on the ground, its use in the air has been hampered by spotty Wi-Fi access and the fact that not every aircraft has internet aboard. However, PayPal claims that the QR technology will function even when Wi-Fi is unavailable
“We’re thrilled to be collaborating with United to launch our new offline QR code feature, which expands the number of sites where consumers may check out with PayPal, particularly in offline or low connectivity situations”, commented Frank Keller, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Segment Solutions and Digital Commerce at PayPal.
To prevent any mishaps with loss of connectivity, passengers are advised to download the app prior to take-off and have payment methods linked to the QR code facility.
Reconciliation will take place once the aircraft is landed on the ground. At this point, passengers will receive an email receipt of their purchases. It’s a simple, familiar and great way to reduce contact onboard.


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Microsoft has swung open the gates to indie developers by making the Xbox One a development kit in its own right. But how much does it cost to start creating indie games for Sony's rival PlayStation 4?
Microsoft promises the Xbox One will be more than just a game console, but a "living room" with a TV tuner and cable box. Users will be able to switch between watching TV and gaming instantly through Kinect
Xbox One users will need to download a launch-day patch before they can begin using the console, and the update is "not tied directly to enabling offline functionality," a Microsoft representative told
Update: The 4.45 firmware update has been taken down from the site. Sony Computer Entertainment is currently fixing the problem. Users are advised not to update their PS3s until further notice. Problems
It wouldn’t be E3 week (or any other week in the video game industry) without some controversy. The latest alleged nail in Microsoft‘s Xbox One coffin comes in the form of this image from CinemaBlend,


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Ukraine: increasing of purchasing prices for grains - Ministry of Agrarian Policy
Ukraine showed some increasing of purchasing prices for grains, which was supported by the measures taken by the Government, in particular forward purchases of 2 mln tonnes of grains by the state operators (Agrarian Fund and State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine), declared Vitaly Sabluk, Director of the department of agrarian market development of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, on February 7.
According to him, to date traders actively realize export shipments of domestic grains, thereby increasing the profitability of its production. The high export potential confirms the competitiveness of domestic grains on the global market. In particular, the measures taken by the Government to improve functioning of the grain market and optimize its logistics function, contributed to the trend development, he said.
V.Sabluk stressed that Ukraine started the current grain year with the minimum beginning stocks on the market, and the maximum rates of export shipments.
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Container train Ukraine-China to start working in business mode since March – A.Pivovarsky
Ukraine: Ministry of Agrarian Policy increased the forecast of grain exports in 2015/16 MY
Ukraine: in 2016, agricultural production is expected to stabilize – expert
Ukraine to increase the planted areas of spring crops to 15.2 mln ha - APK-Inform
In 2015, the share of Ukraine in the global exports of sunflower oil totaled 57% - Ukroliyaprom
LLC “Sunaco” became the sponsor of Middle East Grain Congress
February 9, 16:30


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FDA determines that lettuce is bad for you
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released startling news about lettuce, determining that it is actually not good for people to eat.
“Hoo boy, we really blew it this time!” said scientist Dr. Edmund Brunchfaster from the FDA’s lab in Tampa. “I mean big time. Just huge. Wow!”
The findings that directly contradict decades of commonly held wisdom about the healthy attributes of what is a popular ingredient in bacon sandwiches with tomato were published in a new study titled, “Lettuce: the Crisp, Leafy Menace”.
It has now been determined that a single serving of lettuce like you might find on an otherwise perfectly healthy menu item like a double Texas chili cheeseburger with mayonnaise contains as much sugar as four bowls of Kellogg’s Honey Smacks breakfast cereal.
“The fact that it doesn’t taste sweet is further proof of how bad it is”, said Dr. Brunchfaster. ”It has NO redeeming qualities.”
“Ordering a salad with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing should be considered a suicide attempt,” he added.
When asked how the once-highly trusted government agency could be so egregiously wrong about something like this, he said, “Apparently somebody doing the original research way back in 1906 didn’t carry a one somewhere. It happens.”
The FDA wants people to be fully aware of just how dangerous lettuce is and that they should avoid it whenever possible or at least limit themselves to extremely small portions. They also say that the only way to counteract or lessen the detrimental aspects of lettuce is to eat it with copious amounts of ranch dressing, which they have also recently determined upon further review, is actually the healthiest food anyone can ever eat.


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Back in December, HTC announced that it was going to change up its smartphone strategy for 2019. Part of that strategy is extending the life-cycle of the HTC U12+ and U12 Life. It also vowed to focus on flagship and midrange smartphones for this year.
A new listing appeared on GeekBench for an unknown HTC device running a MediaTek Helio P35 paired with 6GB RAM. The device has a model number HTC 2Q741 and runs Android 9 Pie. We wonder if this could be an upcoming mid-range smartphone from HTC.
It could perhaps even be a MediaTek variant of the same smartphone that was spotted on…


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ARLINGTON, VA - Labor shortages in the union construction and maintenance industry were still prevalent in early 2020, but respondents to a survey conducted between mid-January and mid-February reported that the problem had leveled off somewhat. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, upending conventional wisdom and compelling contractors, labor representatives and owner-clients to deal with a dramatically altered business landscape.
Nevertheless, the wealth of data generated by the sixth annual TAUC Union Craft Labor Supply Survey gives construction professionals an in-depth understanding of the "state of play" in the industry before the crisis. This information - especially the detailed charts and analysis on regional labor supply levels broken down by industry, region and individual crafts - will assist contractors and labor as they begin the long post-coronavirus recovery process. Knowing which areas of the country were experiencing labor shortages or surpluses pre-COVID-19 will be especially helpful in gauging where to allocate scarce resources.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE REPORT
The Association of Union Constructors (TAUC), in conjunction with the Construction Labor Research Council (CLRC), utilized a rigorous scientific methodology to analyze more than 800 responses to a multi-question survey sent earlier this year to a cross-section of contractors, union representatives and owner-clients. The large sample size and carefully worded questions combine to make this one of the most useful labor supply reports available, and the only union-specific study focusing on construction and maintenance.
In terms of the labor shortage, the survey found that the pre-COVID-19 narrative had shifted from a growing shortage to a stable shortage. That is, after a number of years where the industry saw increases in shortage data, in 2019 there was a "leveling off" Over the past three years of survey results covering 2017-2019, the range of responses (varying from large shortages to surpluses) has been quite consistent. But while the data has plateaued, the labor shortage issue hasn't disappeared; it has just stabilized. The big question is how the COVID-19 pandemic will impact labor supply levels in 2020 and beyond, a topic we will cover extensively in next year's survey.
Also, new to the study this year is an examination of the prevalence of per diem payments in the industry. Nearly half of the respondents said their organization paid per diems in 2019 and the average amount was $84.50. These payments were most common in the civil, manufacturing and utility industries; in terms of regional distribution, per diems were more prevalent in the New England, Southeast, and South Central areas of the country.
For more details and previous years' studies, go to tauc.org.


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Harley-Davidson is making an electric motorcycle
Harley-Davidson appears to be just a day away from unveiling an electric motorcycle, and it’s teasing the new bike on YouTube. In a video, a (relatively) quiet motorcycle whizzes down a highway, letting out a sharp, almost sci-fi sound that you certainly don’t hear from noisy gas vehicles. That it’s an electric cycle is all speculation for now, but there’s some reason beyond the video to suspect that this is in fact what’s coming. Fueling the suspicion are spy shots published from the set of the next Avengers film that show a stunt double riding an electric bike from Harley-Davidson, which auto publications seem to think looks street legal and surprisingly realistic for a supposed prop.


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‘Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout’ lives on; Nintendo Switch, Xbox launch in summer confirmed for the colorful battle royale game
This week proved that “Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout” is far from dead. Mediatonic’s a refreshing take on battle royale is heading to more gaming platforms after Nintendo and Microsoft announced it is launching on the Switch and Xbox consoles in summer.
‘Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout’ is not dead as the game gets more console launches
Nintendo just announced that “Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout” is being ported to the Switch console earlier this week. Just a day later, Microsoft came in with its own announcement that the game will be released on the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S systems as well.
“Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout” was originally released in the middle of a pandemic last August. The game was initially available on PC while developers may have had an exclusivity deal with Sony as the title’s only console launch at the time was on PS4. Sony also offered the game at no cost during its launch month for PS Plus subscribers. The game is now backward compatible with PS5.
Nintendo and Microsoft did not provide a specific release date for “Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout,” and only said it is arriving sometime in summer. It would not be surprising if these new console launches around the first anniversary of the game’s arrival on PS4.
The Nintendo Switch and Xbox launches are much-needed confirmations that “Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout” is far from being dead unlike what earlier reports and fan comments suggested. The game immediately sold millions of copies on PC via Steam during its first weeks in the market. However, people started to notice its active players on Steams started to plunge between September and November.
The game’s number of active players on Steam went down from more than 150,000 in early September to around 22,700 in late October. Meanwhile, “Among Us” was becoming the biggest game of 2020 in the same period. Despite the game’s gameplay differences, they have often been compared.
What Xbox and Nintendo fans can expect from ‘Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout’
“Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout” is categorized as a battle royale game, but it is unique from other popular titles under this genre. Instead of running around shooting other players until one last person or team is standing, 60 jellybean-like figures go through a series of obstacles trying to win one match after another. The game draws inspiration from popular TV game shows like “Takeshi’s Castle” and “Wipeout.”
This is the gameplay format Nintendo Switch and Xbox players can expect. But, interestingly, Nintendo and Microsoft’s announcements were both silent about “Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout” having a cross-platform matchmaking feature, which both systems have been offering on other battle royale games like “Fortnite.”


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Technology company Cleveron has signed contracts with three new distributors to expand in the US market. Cleveron’s new partners Lozier+CASI, Luxer One, and Telaid are all established companies within the American retail industry and have the largest retail players in their client portfolio.
Parcel pickup automation solution provider Cleveron has been active in the USA for more than five years. During the pandemic, US e-commerce saw tremendous growth, and retailers’ interest in pickup automation has grown significantly, providing Cleveron an opportunity to expands its business in the region. Cleveron’s solutions turn parcel pickup into a self-service, which saves time for both retailers and end-customers; they also help to save on costs.
Five years into the future
“In the US, our main client is the world’s largest retailer who is open to testing advanced technological solutions. But despite parcel lockers and robots being very common in Estonia, parcel lockers even being the most preferred delivery method here, they are still considered a thing of the future in the States,” explained CEO of Cleveron, Arno Kütt. “Today, due to the pandemic, the US e-commerce market has jumped five years into the future within just a couple of months. Retailers are very interested in technologies that will help make parcel handling more effective. Having local and experienced distributors with an already developed client portfolio will help us expand,” said Kütt.
Cleveron has selected three renowned US companies, Lozier+CASI, Luxer One, and Telaid, as distributors since all three companies have extensive experience in the local retail sector. In addition to selling Cleveron’s products, the companies will also be installing them and providing on-site maintenance.
Lozier+CASI combines Lozier Corporation and Cornerstone Automation Systems, LLC (CASI). Lozier Corporation, a leading manufacturer of store fixtures, has been a key supplier and developmental partner in retail markets since 1956. CASI designs, manufactures, installs, and services state-of-the-art turnkey automation systems for retail and e-commerce.
The USA leader
California-based Luxer One pioneered smart locker systems for package management more than a decade ago. They are the USA leader in pickup/drop-off with their custom-built software in a variety of industries, including retail, university, and office. Luxer products are considered the standard in durability and design for the contactless management of goods.
Telaid makes IT simple with rapid rollouts, product lifecycle management, and managed IT services. The company deals with all the technologies in a business, from wireless to physical security solutions, infrastructure, and cabling to emerging IoT and automation.
Walmart as the largest client
Cleveron’s largest client in the USA is Walmart, which uses more than 1,600 Cleveron robots to hand out their online orders in their stores across the country. The parcel lockers and robots help retailers to efficiently handle large parcel volumes and hand over online orders quickly, as a self-service, saving time and money for everyone. Cleveron’s robotic solutions also offer a contactless handover, which in today’s circumstances, is extremely important.


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Mahindra PV sales reported at 17 percent growth in August 2021 when compared to same month last year
Following disruptions owing to Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns and economic outcomes, the auto industry is currently faced with another behemoth of a niggle. Everyone needs semiconductors, and semiconductors are in short supply.
Despite this, auto manufacturers have been able to see fairly positive results where sales is concerned. Last year this time, the market was coping with having been totally shut for weeks at an end.
Mahindra PV Sales Aug 2021
YTD PV sales reported by Mahindra stand at 79,153 units, up from 36,008 units. The number for cars and vans is up at 1,068 units from 610 units. Total PV wholesales for the last 5 months is reported at 80,221 units, up from 36,618 units.
UV wholesales for August 2021 is reported at 15,786 units. Sales growth is reported at 18 percent, up from 13,407 units YoY. Top sellers include XUV300, Bolero, Scorpio, XUV300. In addition to this, Alturas, KUV100 and Marazzo also posted decent sales. XUV500 will soon be discontinued, and will be replaced by XUV700.
Mahindra Electric Mobility subsidiary sales for cars and vans fell by almost a quarter, down at 187 units from 244 units. Total sales was just shy of 16k units, at 17 percent growth, up from 13,651 units YoY.
Thar, XUV300 booking numbers
Veejay Nakra, Chief Executive Officer, Automotive Division, M&M Ltd., “We sold 30,585 vehicles overall and registered a growth of 17% in the Passenger Vehicles segment, over same period last year. Demand across our product portfolio continues to remain strong with Thar, XUV 300 and our recently launched Bolero Neo and our Bolero Pik-up range clocking in impressive booking numbers.”
“Growth momentum in exports continued with sale of 3,180 vehicles, registering an increase of 172%. August has been an exciting month with the reveal of the much-anticipated XUV 700 and the all-new visual identity crafted exclusively for our SUV portfolio. Supply of semiconductors continues to be a global issue for the auto industry and has been a major area of focus for us.”
Supply of semiconductors
Mahindra has for long stood its ground when it comes to the type of cars it wants to sell. Only recently, the company used the showcase of its XUV700 to introduce the brand’s new logo. The logo will be rolled out on all vehicles, communication and branding in a phased manner. This is one of many updates that the auto manufacturer hopes will help brand identity, outlook, and growth.
While suppliers, and consumers are all looking forward to this change, one can’t but ponder upon a more pressing need. Just how bad is the supply of semiconductors going to hit the auto industry. Mahindra has in the meantime announced the price for select variants of its newly showcased XUV700. The complete price list will be made available at the time of actual launch. Bookings too will begin at a later date. The question now is how well will Mahindra nee able to negotiate on its requirement for semiconductors to ensure timely delivery of XUV700.


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SNYDER, Texas (AP) — Amazon has unveiled plans for a more than 100-turbine wind farm in West Texas.
Seattle-based Amazon on Thursday announced the 253-megawatt wind farm in Scurry County will be the company’s largest renewable-energy project. No cost estimate was immediately provided.
Officials say the Amazon Wind Farm Texas should create about 250 construction jobs and open in late 2017. Lincoln Clean Energy will build, own and operate the Texas wind farm. Amazon plans to buy about 90 percent of the generated power. Other technology companies including Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc. have made similar announcements. For Facebook’s Fort Worth datacenter project, currently underway, the social media networking company partnered with Citigroup and Alterra Energy to use power from a 202-megawatt wind farm on 17,000 acres northwest of Tarrant County.
Amazon previously announced wind and solar farms in Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia. The company, in a statement, says the farms help deliver energy to electrical grids supplying Amazon Web Services Cloud data centers.
Chicago-based Lincoln Clean Energy has operations in Austin. – This report contains information from the FWBP archives.


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Blockchain Currency Ready for Container Shipping
The Hong Kong-based company 300cubits aims to partially replace U.S. dollars in the container shipping industry with a token soon to be launched on Ethereum - an open-source, public, blockchain-based platform.
Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts – apps that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third party interference. These apps run on a custom-built blockchain, a shared global infrastructure that represents the ownership of property. Ethereum can do what Bitcoin does in acting as a distributed ledger. It can be digital money too, but unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum is highly programmable and therefore designed to accommodate the construction of complex applications.
“300cubits uses Ethereum to tackle problems in container shipping,” says co-founder Jonathan Lee. “The container shipping industry is a $150 billion industry, but it has been in constant distress since 2008. Unlike ticket booking in airlines, customers in container shipping do not bear any consequences for not showing up for bookings. Industry people complain about the lack of trust between liners and customers. We think the trust-free nature of Ethereum.”
In a few weeks, 300cubits will issue a token called a TEU. The number sold in the initial coin offering will assign value to the tokens. The company will then give a portion of tokens to industry practitioners. The TEU tokens will be used as booking deposits for container shipping where value could be lost if a customer does not turn up with a cargo or a container liner does not load a cargo according to a confirmed booking.
“Industry practitioners will be incentivized to use the TEU tokens because the tokens are given to them for free; they have this so called "ghost booking" issue to fix and their ownership of TEU tokens will appreciate if they use them,” says Lee. “Their recognition and day-to-day use of TEU tokens will further enhance the value of the tokens.”
As booking deposits, the TEU tokens’ value will naturally be linked to the value of actual freight rates. Hence, the trading of the tokens will become a leading indicator for freight rates, serving much like a peer-to-peer crowd prediction platform for container shipping, says Lee.
In the long term, Lee says the TEU tokens may become a defacto settlement crypto currency in container shipping, much like U.S. dollars. “We see the TEU tokens being adopted as a settlement currency for the container shipping industry, which could move the whole industry’s transactions or even the entire logistics industry’s transactions onto the blockchain.”
Lee was a bank regional treasurer and is well versed in fiat currencies, programming and systems and organization build-up. His business partner, Johnson Leung, comes from a shipping background with 20 years’ experience in container shipping both inside the industry with Maersk Line and covering the industry in investment banks like Jefferies and JP Morgan.
Earlier this year, Maersk and IBM have announced a new collaboration to use blockchain technology to help manage the paper trail of tens of millions of shipping containers across the world by digitizing the supply chain process from end-to-end.


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He helped giving virtual reality a definite shape and to start a craze of VR technology among common people. Facebook has officially announced the departure of Palmer Luckey via a statement that Palmer will be dearly missed. His legacy extends far beyond Oculus. His inventive spirit helped kickstart the modern Virtual Reality revolution and helped build an industry. We are thankful for everything he did for Oculus and VR and wish him all the best.
Although facebook has further declined to comment any further details and also did not mention that whether Palmer would provide an official statement too.
Conception and growth of Oculus
Palmer Luckey was interested in Virtual Reality since childhood and was quite disappointed with the inadequacy of the head-mounted display units of that time. They used to suffer from low-quality contrast, high latency, high cost and extreme weight and improper size. Palmer developed his first prototype called PR1 at the young age of 17. It featured a 90-degree field of view and low latency.
After that, he developed a series of prototypes exploring different features like the 270-degree view, 3D environment, wireless, and also decreasing the size and weight of the units. He actively updated his progress on MTBS3D, a virtual reality forum with a limited number of virtual reality enthusiasts.
Later, he named the 6th generation VR unit as "Rift", and decided to be sold on a Kickstarter crowdfunding to other fellow VR enthusiasts. He further started working on an Oculus VR to further polish it better before facilitating an official launch of the Kickstarter campaign.
John Carmack, a software engineer, quite notable for developing video game applications and has famously worked on Doom and Quake application, asked for a prototype and used it to demonstrate a refined version of Doom 3 BFG Edition at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012. It was the first time when thousands of people got to know about Rift, and eventually, Palmer dropped out of the University and started working on Oculus Rift for full-time.
Now was the time of focusing on the Kickstarter campaign. Palmer managed to get a funding of some hundred thousand dollars from Brendan Iribe (a former executive of Scaleform). Later Iribe joined Oculus as the CEO. During the Kickstarter campaign, Palmer demonstrated the Oculus Rift to the different crowd at various conventions like PAX, Gamescom, and QuackCon 2012.
The Kickstarter campaign was proved hugely successful and they raised approximately $2.4 million dollars which were more than 900% of the expected outcome. Later in 2014, Oculus Rift was acquired by the Facebook in 2014 for the US $3 billion dollars, and Forbes magazine had predicted that Palmer's Net worth to be around $700 million dollars. He was working continuously at Oculus VR on the core Virtual Reality technology until March 2017.
When did problems start?
Palmer had been the public face of the Oculus VR but his public appearances had been reduced since September last year. He was financially linked to a Donald Trump Supporting "shitposting" group named "Nimble America". It was found that he had given $15,000 dollars to the group. It created a backlash among the VR community and Palmer quickly apologized for the impact that the Oculus had to face. He did not appear at Oculus's Annual Connect Conference although he had appeared previously as the keynote speaker.
In January the id Software owner Zenimax Media accused Oculus of stealing their technology but Oculus was cleared of the worst charges, but they were liable to pay $300 million dollars for various charges. Palmer was himself liable to pay $50 million dollars for damages.
Luckey's departure is quite shocking as it comes just after the first anniversary of the user launch of its flagship VR device, the Rift. It came after years of limited release of different prototypes and developers kit.
At the time of launch, the Rift was priced at $600 which was way more than $350 dollars which Palmer had earlier promised. It led to negative reviews from the customers too. Another reason for the departure of Palmer could be the unexpected lower number of units sold of the Rift. Oculus shipped approximately 2,40,000 units of the Rift in 2016 only. If we compare it to the Samsung's VR unit then it sold approximately five million units. Ironically Samsung is using the same technology developed by Oculus itself.
Public image of Luckey Palmer
Luckey Palmer has been considered a poster boy of Virtual Reality in Gaming and is considered a celebrity among the virtual reality enthusiasts. Although Luckey does not consider himself a celebrity and is known for sporting a casual appearance even in the public meeting and seminars. He was been awarded the Royal Photographic Society's Progress medal and Honorary Fellowship. This award is given to the person in recognition of any invention, research or publication or other contribution in an important advice in the scientific or technological advancements.
Ruchhir Agarwal is the Chief Executive and Technology Officer at E2logy and providing mobile app development services to the digital world. He is a technology enthusiast and a passionate blogger. Ruchhir leads the company in developing custom web and mobile applications that exhibit powerful features and latest technology.


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Xiaomi releases kernel sources of the Android 10 update for the POCO F1, Mi Mix 2S, Mi Mix 3, and Mi 8 series
Back in October, Xiaomi started rolling out a stable release of MIUI 11 for several Xiaomi and Redmi devices. Since then, the company has released its latest Android skin for devices like the POCO F1, Mi Mix 2S, Mi Mix 3, Mi 8, Mi 8 Pro, and Mi 8 Explorer Edition. Now, the company has released kernel sources of the Android 10 update for these devices.
If you’re a developer looking to release an Android 10 based custom ROM for these devices or if you’re a power user looking to improve your phone’s performance, you can now access the kernel sources from the link below. The dipper-q-oss branch on Xiaomi’s GitHub contains the kernel source code and device tree source for the Android 10 updates released for the aforementioned devices.
Xiaomi has been doing a great job of releasing kernel sources for its devices over the last couple of months. The company recently released kernel sources of the Android 9 Pie build for the Xiaomi Mi Note 10/Mi CC9 Pro, along with kernel sources of the Android 10 build for the Redmi K20 and Redmi K20 Pro. At this rate, the company is expected to release kernel sources for more of its devices in the coming weeks.


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DSP Group Inc. (DSPG) Reaches New 12-Month High at $11.99
DSP Group Inc. (NASDAQ:DSPG) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $11.99 and last traded at $11.96, with a volume of 31,940 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $11.78.
DSPG has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Canaccord Genuity assumed coverage on shares of DSP Group in a research report on Tuesday, August 9th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $14.00 price target for the company. TheStreet upgraded shares of DSP Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 1st. Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on shares of DSP Group from $11.00 to $12.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 1st. Finally, Zacks Investment Research downgraded shares of DSP Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. The stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $11.88.
The firm’s market cap is $261.41 million. The company has a 50-day moving average of $10.83 and a 200 day moving average of $9.73.
DSP Group (NASDAQ:DSPG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 1st. The company reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $36.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36 million. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.10 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that DSP Group Inc. will post $0.31 earnings per share for the current year.
In other news, CFO Dror Levy sold 11,937 shares of DSP Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.72, for a total transaction of $139,901.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 149,060 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,746,983.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.
DSP Group, Inc is a provider of wireless chipset solutions for converged communications. The Company delivers semiconductor system solutions with software and hardware reference designs and enables original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), original design manufacturers (ODMs), consumer electronics (CE) manufacturers and service providers to develop products.
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The U.S. Government has decided to ban products from four Xinjiang-based solar manufacturers over alleged forced labor allegations, according to Reuters which cites two unidentified sources close to the matter.
According to the article, the U.S. Department of Commerce has decided to ban product imports from China's largest silicon manufacturer Hoshine Silicon Industry Co, which is the main provider of all major polysilicon producers based in Xinjiang, and three polysilicon makers – Daqo, East Hope and GCL New Energy Material Co., which is a unit of GCL New Energy Holdings Ltd.
The ban also includes state-owned Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, which is involved in agricultural, industrial, transportation, construction, and commercial operations and undertakes economic construction tasks in the Xinjiang province.
According to Reuters, the Department of Commerce has explicitly mentioned human rights violations, mass arbitrary detention, forced labor, and high-technology surveillance against Uyghurs and Kazakhs, among the reasons for the banning of the five companies' products.
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When Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant spoke at Mississippi State University's 2015 Manufacturing Summit on Wednesday [March 18], he emphasized the Magnolia State is fostering a positive environment for manufacturers.
"We are competing with the fastest growing states in manufacturing," Bryant said. "We already have almost 40,000 working in the manufacturing industry, but what if we had 80,000? It's possible."
The state's manufacturing exports have increased by 380 percent over the past decade, Bryant said at the university's Franklin Furniture Institute. However, he still feels a sense of urgency to increase economic development. He emphasized the importance of training workers to use the latest tools and technology so the state will remain competitive.
"Volume is about where we are and where we're headed," Bryant said. "We'll bring this future to Mississippi."
Another featured speaker was Hal Sirkin, senior partner and managing director of the Chicago-based Boston Consulting Group. Like Bryant and the other featured guests, his presentation focused on the summit's theme, "Focus on the Future."
"We're at the beginning of a manufacturing renaissance in the U.S.," Sirkin said. "The U.S. consumer and the nation's low-cost productivity make the U.S. more appealing than other developing economies."
Sirkin said, in July 2013, 53 percent of manufacturing companies were considering or planning to reshore—the organized process of returning well-paying manufacturing jobs back to the United States.
Former MSU President Malcolm A. Portera joined the governor and Sirkin in addressing the reshoring issue. The West Point native said the trend toward reshoring businesses in the U.S. is extending to Mississippi.
"The Mississippi business climate is strong and ranks in the top 10 in Area Development magazine," Portera said. "We need to recognize that manufacturers are our wealth creators in this state."
MSU has a long-standing tradition of assisting manufacturers, said David Shaw, vice president of research and economic development at the university.
"We're driving economic development and manufacturing excellence here at Mississippi State," he said. "We want to be sure that we're educating young people to be employable."
Chad Miller, director of the Center for Logistics, Trade and Transportation at University of Southern Mississippi, led a panel discussion about the future of logistics and transportation in manufacturing. Panelists included Bryan Hunt, Seacor AMH (America's Marine Highway) LLC; Steve Puryear, with MSU's Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems Extension; and Dan Pallme, of the University of Memphis' Intermodal Freight Transportation Institute.
Miller emphasized the future of manufacturing in the U.S. and in Mississippi is directly tied to intermodal transportation. Manufacturers need to use a variety of transit, including truck, rail and water, to export goods, he said.
Additionally, Bill Perdue, vice president of regulatory affairs at American Home Furnishings Alliance, shared the latest regulations furniture manufacturers must meet to remain competitive nationally.
The fifth annual Manufacturing Summit, held by MSU and AHFA, was sponsored by Mississippi Manufacturers Association, MSU Extension Service, MSU Franklin Furniture Institute, MSU Forest and Wildlife Research Center and the Rural Jobs Accelerator Grant Program.


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Half of restaurants and hotels forced to shut during lockdown may not have enough cash to get through the next three months, official data reveals
- ONS today published latest business survey data for period from 14 to 23 Dec
- Many surveyed food service and accommodation firms shut over period
- But, restaurant owner Sam Berry in Surrey tells MailOnline he's still hopeful
Over three-quarters of businesses in the accommodation and food service sectors, including hotels and restaurants, experienced a drop in profits and turnover over the last few weeks compared with expectations in normal times, new data suggests.
The Office for National Statistics found that half of businesses in the accommodation and food service sectors who took part in the latest poll had less than three months' worth of cash reserves left.
Twenty-eight per cent of surveyed accommodation and food firms said they had no or low confidence that they would survive the next three months, the ONS' latest voluntary fortnightly business survey covering the period from 14 to 23 December said.
Suffering: Businesses like restaurants and hotels have been hard hit by the pandemic
Sector updates: A chart showing turnover and profit results in different sectors over a select period
In the latest survey period covered, 41 per cent of businesses in the accommodation and food service sectors were temporarily closed or paused trading, compared with 13 per cent across all industries .
The ONS said today: 'When splitting the industry into finer detail, the accommodation industry had 28% of its businesses temporarily closed or paused trading, compared with 43% in the food and beverage service activities industry.
'We'll continue to grow and learn from this experience'
Restauarnt owner Sam Berry spoke to MailOnline about his experiences over the past year
Determined: The No 97 restaurant team are determined to plough on and thrive
Speaking to MailOnline, Sam Berry, owner of the No 97 restaurant in Surbiton and One One Four restaurant in Teddington said: 'At the moment, we’re all navigating this difficult period together. 2020 has been a crazy and unpredictable year.
'The hospitality sector along with many others has been hit hard by Covid-19 and has definitely been an interesting, confusing, and often frustrating time for us!'.
But, he added that he and his team had leaned a lot from the experience and is convinced that thinking positively in tough times helps people and businesses become stronger over time.
Mr Berry said: 'We have learned to adapt quickly, think on our feet, move with the times on short notice, keep our customers happy and stay ahead of the trends to keep our restaurants alive and of course take nothing for granted.
'Never in a million years would we have thought we would be offering fine dining takeaway meals from No 97 and OneOneFour - but here we are, a year on, providing at home five course takeaway tasting menu for our amazing and loyal customers in the comfort and safety of their own homes.
'There is light at the end of this long, unpredictable tunnel. We will continue to grow and learn from this experience and if we were able to get through last year - I have all the faith in the world that we will continue to adapt and survive going forward.
'The latest lockdown is of course another devastating blow for us but if everyone respects the rules we can hopefully start getting some normality back in our lives in the not too distant future.'
'The arts, entertainment and recreation industry and the education industry (private sector and higher education businesses only) had the next highest percentages of businesses temporarily closed or paused trading, at 23% and 20% respectively.'
Open or closed? A chart showing the proportion of firms surveyed in the food service and accommodation sector open or shut
Business impact: A chart showing that 41% of businesses surveyed in the food service and accommodation sector were closed between 14 to 23 December
The proportion of people on furlough leave across all industries has fallen from 16 per cent between 16 to 29 November to 11 per cent in the latest period, the ONS said.
It also revealed that 16 per cent of businesses intend to use increased homeworking as a permanent business model in future.
The hospitality sector has been hammered by the pandemic, with all manner of companies including hotels, bed and breakfasts, nightclubs, pubs, restaurants and cafes forced to stop-start their businesses since lockdown started in March last year.
Amid a new stringent lockdown, earlier this week Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a fresh £4.6billion support package for embattled businesses.
What's been happening? Impact of Cobid-19 on business profits in recent weeks
Sunak said the Treasury would dole out £4billion worth of one-off 'top-up grants' for around 6,000 companies in the hospitality, retail and leisure sectors, with each firm able to receive up to £9,000.
In response to the new finance package, UK Hospitality boss Kate Nicholls, said: 'This is obviously a very positive step to keep businesses afloat in the immediate term and, for that reason, must be welcomed.'
She added: 'However, while this announcement is most welcome, make no mistake that this is only a sticking plaster for immediate ills – it is not enough to even cover the costs of many businesses and certainly will not underpin longer-term business viability for our sector.
All set: The team at The Talbot Inn in Ripley, Surrey, is looking ahead to better times
'Stop-start Government restrictions have been tough'
The team at The Talbot Inn in Ripley are looking forward to welcoming customers again
Speaking to MailOnline, a spokesperson for The Talbot Inn hotel in Ripley, Woking, said: 'Like many hotels, The Talbot has suffered from the "stop start" nature of the government restrictions.
'After the initial lockdown in March , the hotel spent significant time and money to ensure that it was a Covid secure environment for both customers and staff and enjoyed some return of business in July and August, however the introduction of the tier system, Lockdown 2.0 and having to close for Christmas and New Year put paid to any recovery and sadly the hotel is now shut awaiting a date for re-opening.
'We feel truly sorry for the teams who have worked so hard to do everything to make the hotel safe and whilst thankful for the furlough scheme that can continue to pay some wages, this does not make up for a loss of hours for those on more casual contracts.'
The spokesperson added: 'We can only hope that the vaccination roll out allows the restrictions to be lifted as soon as possible and our hotel and others like it to re-open in time for the Easter and the key summer months.'
To address the inevitable and existential challenges that hospitality faces, we need confirmation of extensions to the business rates holiday and of the 5% VAT rate.
'On its own, today's support is not enough. Businesses need a longer-term economic plan and it would befit the crisis that we face if the Chancellor brought forward his Budget to make the announcements necessary to reassure businesses and allow them to plan their survival. Commercial certainty cannot come soon enough and only the Chancellor can deliver it.'
Figures published by the ONS in December revealed that there were 819,000 fewer workers on company payrolls in November than at the beginning of the pandemic.
Hospitality was the worst hit sector, accounting for a third of the job losses, followed by retail, the ONS said last month.
The country's unemployment rate rose to 4.9 per cent in the three months to October, with the jobless total up to 1.7million people. Redundancy levels also hit a record high over the period.
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At a special auction celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, Tupac Shakur’s gold, ruby, and diamond crown ring was sold for a staggering $1 million (€900,000) at Sotheby’s in New York.
The winning bid far exceeded the pre-sale estimate of $200,000 to $300,000, making it the most valuable hip-hop artefact ever sold.
Tupac wore the ring during his final public appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1996, just days before his tragic death in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. The design of the ring was inspired by Tupac’s admiration for Niccolo Machiavelli’s political manifesto “The Prince,” which he read while in prison.
He collaborated with his godmother Yaasmyn Fula to bring his creative vision to life, drawing inspiration from the crowns worn by medieval European kings.
Previously, in 2020, Sotheby’s hosted the first-ever international auction dedicated to hip-hop artifacts, where the plastic crown worn by Notorious B.I.G in a 1997 photo shoot sold for $600,000, becoming the most expensive hip-hop item sold at the time.
The auction also featured the Rammellzee vs. K-Rob “Beat Bop” sealed original 12-inch single with artwork by renowned artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, which fetched an astonishing $126,000, setting a record as the most expensive hip-hop record ever sold at auction.


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PepsiCo wanted to drive awareness around the new Soulboost products, a new line of sparkling waters that are intended to support mental focus and relaxation, on dynamic screens across the United States. The goal was to increase store visits to Walmart stores where the Soulboost was sold.
Adomni’s programmatically connected screens allowed PepsiCo to promote the new Soulboost products, Lift and Ease, launched at specific Walmart locations. The campaign targeted adults between the ages of 25-34 across seven venue types that were in close proximity to retail locations.
Request a consultation or submit a campaign brief


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There were a lot of rumors which were saying that Avensis will not be produced anymore. But, Toyota doesn’t agree with those rumors. As a matter of fact, the 2016 Toyota Avensis was spotted on the streets of Southern Europe, during testing. Even though it was heavily camouflaged, the changes that are made on this 2016 model were visible. It is still not completely known if the upcoming Avensis will get a facelift or full redesign, but some information about the changes are already available.
The exterior changes are visible even when the 2016 Toyota Avensis is completely covered in camouflage. The body structure, in general, is pretty much unchanged. The most of the changes for the 2016 model will be made on the front end. The Grille and headlights will have a different design when compared with the previous model. However, the car experts are divided into 2 groups when the question of the intensity of changes is concerned. One one side there are those who say that new model year will bring a new generation of the Avensis, while the others suggest that Toyota prepared only a minor facelift. We know that it is still too early to judge, but judged by the test mule, we have to agree with the facelift opinion for the moment. Tail lights will also be refreshed and modernized, which will additionally change the overall look of the new Avensis.
As far as the interior is concerned, little is known for now. Alongside the fact that the 2016 model year will bring several upgrades, it is unclear if Toyota will decide to redesign the dash arrangement, or the upgrades will be applied on materials and features, instead of the design. One thing is certain, both sedan and wagon body types will still be available.
Under the hood of the 2016 Toyota Avensis multiple changes and innovative solutions are expected. Toyota has not still confirmed if the current engine will be carried over to the 2016 model or not. The current Avensis has a various lineup of engines, which include both petrol and diesel units. This trend is expected for the new model as well. Few petrol and diesel units will be available, and a hybrid variant will be included. Although the specifications of the engines are not known yet, no major changes in numbers are expected, when it comes to hp and torque. The fuel economy is the first priority for the Toyota engineers when the new Avensis is concerned. That section of 2016 Avensis’s performances will be on a very high level, so the drivers that are looking for a real fuel-saving vehicle will celebrate the coming of this model.
2016 Toyota Avensis Release date and price
The release of the 2016 Toyota Avensis is not expected before the end of this year. Since the spotted test mule indicates that the model is still in early phases of development, it will probably be available for buying at the beginning of 2016. The price of the current model is around $28000, the amount of the money needed for the 2016 model shouldn’t be much higher than that. The starting price for the new Avensis is expected to be just under $30,000.


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New renderings were just released of four-time James Beard Award nominee Henry Moso’s latest project in Winter Park, a new hand roll bar serving temaki in Winter Park.
Moso Nori is moving into the former home of Bitebound at 1100 S. Orlando Avenue [GMap] and will feature just over 30 seats once complete, centered around a bar where guests can enjoy Moso’s take on the Japanese hand roll. Beer, wine, and sake-based cocktails will also be available for purchase.
Prices are expected to range from $5-$12.
The new restaurant is expected to open this October. Another Moso Nori location was just announced for Sand Lake Road’s Restaurant Row as well.
The concept is being designed by GDP Design Build.


text: development department non profit Additionally, some businesses tend to omit or neglect the after-sales service. /After putting the money into the pocket, businesses shoulder no responsibility for the successive service. This narrow-minded view wipes off the potential business based on customers' impression. When Businesses have been immersed in counting the temporary money, they have failed to gain more in future. /For example, the diamond of shoes from ABC I had purchased dropped off in two days. I had to head for the relevant repairing center. However, the repaired shoes broke again and irritated me to ask for the refund. What's more, they even charged more for the refunded money. Later I sworn never to offer a glance at this shop and dissuaded friends from visiting it. The customer's feeling directly decides on products' life in the market. The bank of England says Britain is a European banker, and the imf welcomes the progress of Brexit - and that's what happened What happens next? Opportunities in 2018 The Barnsley based REHAU fabricator has seen a surge in enquiries from installers and consumers in response to its ongoing advertising, PR and web campaign and these are being passed to its stockists and distributors nationwide. The fund said last year that it would grow 1.1% in 2017 and then increase its forecast to 2%.


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Economic development into 2011, China hardware industry is gradually emerging from the financial crisis, increasingly strong in the domestic case, the export situation is gradually restored.
Accept the lessons of financial crisis, China's hardware business in Europe to retain the international market,paper tissue but also to look increasingly to invest in other overseas markets, to avoid the recurrence of "all eggs in a cage installed," the lesson.
Live up to expectations, people in our hardware carefully cultivated and careful observation, the overseas people overjoyed, there are indications that China's hardware industry "take advantage of."
Central and Eastern European market infrastructure lead to hardware demand.
According to the British "Financial Times" reported on 24 affected by the crisis, Central and Eastern European companies looking for cheaper sources of supply, the Government also hopes to attract more foreign investment, paper napkins China is increasingly becoming their first choice. Chinese enterprises in business activities in Eastern Europe, mainly in electronics, automotive and infrastructure areas, such as building mobile networks in Hungary, in Poland, roads, investment in power plants in Serbia, such as making cars in Bulgaria, the influence is growing.
Comprehensive analysis, infrastructure can not do without the support of hardware industry. And I learned that Central and Eastern Europe is relatively less protectionist barriers to trade, also have good infrastructure and human resources, future economic development will be more rapid, with a strong attraction for investors is a good hardware business overseas home.
Brazilian auto parts supply.
It is understood that the Brazilian auto parts market in 2011 will total 45 billion rials (about 256 billion U.S. dollars), half of which will be the market value of imported products. But I believe that the positive side, this shows that Brazil's auto parts industry, there is a great investment.
Domestic enterprises to enter the parts of Brazil, to note that the manufacturing and suppliers to improve the quality of parts and components industry to meet the needs of the Brazilian car market. The quality to win new markets, or the adverse impact of the brand, the market is difficult to open up again.
African market demand can "take advantage of."
In most people's eyes, the beautiful and mysterious African continent, always war, poverty linked. In fact most of Africa is stable and secure. As of 9 million people, 56 countries and regions in Africa, is rich in resources but industrial backwardness, it is inexpensive, "China" comes into play.
Now China and Africa are in the 70s of last century a similar stage of development, particularly strong demand for consumer goods. Almost all African countries to light industry, textile, garments, hardware, watches, bedding, appliances, electronics and other products, demand is great. For example, a vice minister of Nigeria, before he was always buying things from Europe, but since he first came to China in 2005, you fell in love with Chinese products. He came to China every year 3 to 4 times, and his recently renovated home, decoration materials used are all made in China, including marble, sanitary ware, lighting, paint, hardware, home of mineral water machines, furniture and even metal stairs .


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How to make synthetic diamonds
Both makers and buyers of jewellery are embracing man-made gems
DESPITE SHIRLEY BASSEY’S refrain, belted out at the start of a James Bond film from 1971, diamonds may not be for ever. At least when it comes to natural ones. On May 4th Pandora became the first big jeweller to announce that it will no longer sell mined diamonds. Instead it will use gems made in a laboratory. Even mining companies are getting in on the act. In 2018 De Beers, the world’s largest miner of diamonds by value, launched a brand called Lightbox to sell jewellery featuring the synthetic stones. But how are these gemstones different from the ones found underground? And how can they be replicated in a lab?
Natural diamonds were formed more than 1bn years ago deep below cratons, the oldest parts of continents. There, between the planet’s core and its crust, the pressure and temperature were just right to crystallise carbon into its hardest form. Diamonds would have remained there were it not for molten rock rushing through the mantle, drawing them up towards the Earth’s surface. This provided the deposits that firms such as De Beers mine today. But in the 1950s General Electric, an American industrial conglomerate, developed a process to make diamonds by artificially crystallising carbon under ten gigapascals of pressure—equivalent to the weight of 64 African elephants placed on the point of a ballet dancer’s shoe—and temperatures above 2,000°C. This process was enormously expensive and energy inefficient. And until recently the stones produced were too unrefined, too uniform in colour and sometimes too unattractively yellow (because of excess nitrogen in their chemistry) to make attractive jewellery. The main uses for lab-grown diamonds are industrial, where they are valued for their strength, for instance as the tips of heavy-duty drills.
But now scientists have developed processes that can create synthetic diamonds at a fraction of the cost and time it took in the 1950s—and they look more like the real thing, too. Pandora’s new collection of lab-grown diamond jewellery will be produced using “chemical-vapour deposition” (CVD), a technique commonly used in the production of semiconductors. In a plasma reactor as hot as the sun, atomised gases produce carbon atoms that attach to the crystal lattice of a natural-diamond seed, known as a substrate, forming a new diamond good enough to set in a ring. On average it costs $300 to $500 per carat (equivalent to 200 milligrams) to produce a diamond by CVD, according to a report in 2018 by Bain, a consultancy. That is ten times cheaper than a decade earlier. And, in 2020, they cost shoppers about a third of a mined stone.
Jewellers hope that their lab-grown wares will help revive flagging sales of diamonds. Production of real ones has fallen by more than a quarter since 2017, according to Bain, to 111m carats last year. Demand has been hit in part because of worries about ethical sourcing. “Blood Diamond”, a film from 2006 starring Leonardo DiCaprio, highlighted how the diamond trade helps to fund criminal and rebel groups in Africa. Lab-grown diamonds provide a morally acceptable—and cheaper—alternative. Even so, until synthetic diamonds become truly cheap, there remain less noble reasons to avoid buying a pricey ring. Given the recessions caused by the covid-19 pandemic, newly engaged couples may prefer to spend their money on something less frivolous than a rock, no matter how it was produced.
Vladimir Putin is taking desperate measures to avoid defeat on the battlefield
No other developed democracy gives its legislators such little time
The economics of queuing—is it really the best system?


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New stores coming to NZ in 2017: Aussie chains on the way but speculation about Ikea is just that
New names, smaller stores, and flashier signage - all trends the New Zealand shopper can expect to see this year.
Competition is fiercer than ever in retail.
"It's extraordinarily competitive domestically and we've got big global players as well dabbling in the New Zealand market," Retail NZ spokesman Greg Harford said.
The good news is that retailers have had a bumper year, with spending up 6.7 per cent, and a stable economy forecast for this year.
So what lies ahead?
Last year was disastrous for several well-known retailers, including Pumpkin Patch, Shanton, Valley Girl and Dick Smith.
And Paul Keane, retired executive chairman of consultancy RCG, fears there will be a few more collapses.
Competitive pricing, shrinking margins and rising rents would no doubt claim at least another couple of fashion store scalps, he predicts.
"This will force some to rethink their strategy and the need to diversify from their current trading arrangements," he said in his recent Christmas blog.
"Let's not forget the multitude of fashion retailers owned by major conglomerates just waiting to add to their stable of retailers."
More big names
2016 was the year of new entrants.
Top Shop opened a second store in Wellington, and Australian department store David Jones opened its first, while Tiffany's and fashion mega-brands H&M and Zara took up residence in Auckland.
The arrival of big global brands - eyeing up New Zealand's strong economy and growing population - is expected to put local retailers under pressure.
They include a growing cluster of Australian chains.
Homeware chains Nick Scali, Adairs and King Living, petcare brand Petstock, footwear chain Wittner and eyewear store Bailey Nelson are just some of the Aussie newcomers.
K-Mart will also roll out more stores this year, upping the ante against The Warehouse.
But perpetual speculation about Swedish furniture giant Ikea crossing the ditch appears to be just that.
Aldi, the cut-price grocery upstart hurting Coles and Woolworths in Australia, has also repeatedly said it has no plans to come to New Zealand.
However, in September it was reported that Aldi's rival, German discount supermarket Lidl, was increasingly applying for trademarks in Australia, a sign it might be readying to enter the market.
Walk down Auckland's Queen St and you can't miss the number of video showing in shop windows, commanding your attention.
Interactive technology is also improving all the time - increasingly your mobile phone will flash up with specials for stores you're passing and stores will email your receipts.
That won't seem strange because we're using our phones increasingly to compare prices in-store. How much of this will happen this year is hard to say, but it's coming.
Fresh energy in the retail scene is putting a bounce in the retail property market as well.
"We are seeing occupancy highs in many locations – albeit retailers sticking to basics are the winners," Keane said.
Because many retail rents have an inflation component to them, retailers leasing in less exclusive locations can expect rent hikes to be modest.
But low interest rates have also made retail property more popular with investors with several big transactions last year. As of the start of 2017, that's looking unlikely to change.
Another trend in retail property right now is the changing footprints of stores.
In Australia, there's talk of "micro-stores" as retailers strive for more central city stores at the expense of size.
Competition for space has pushed up rents, forcing many retailers to get creative.
A recent report by CBRE said a myriad of Melbourne retailers were moving into stores sized at 60sqm or less – with some spaces as small as 18sqm.
"Retailers are saying that it's better to have three small stores in three pockets of the CBD then having one big store because you get to touch onto three different demographics and three groups of foot traffic," CBRE's head of retail leasing in Victoria, Zelman Ainsworth, told Australian media.
The downsizing trend can already be seen here in the supermarkets sector, where "metro" outlets are springing up in CBDs.
For customers this can be frustrating, since shrinking footprints means department and fashion stores have started to offer "curated" ranges.
However, the "smaller is better' movement is not for everyone. Some popular brands are getting bigger, creating "hero" stores which are aimed primarily at drawing customers wanting greater choice.
Already at Sylvia Park, Glassons has opened a much larger store to ward off the likes of H&M and Zara.
It's an old story but Kiwis are expected to continue being adventurous buyers online, both locally and overseas.
"People are widening their vision in terms of where they can be buying from," First Retail Group's Chris Wilkinson says.
"I don't necessarily think it's a value thing, because whether the exchange rate's up or down, the online spending continues to grow."
Retailers are stepping up the pressure on the Government to join Australia in bringing in a tax on "low-value" imports this year.
It's becoming more pertinent as giant online traders Amazon and Alibaba step up their presence in this part of the world this year.
If Amazon opens a distribution centre in Sydney as rumoured, "that make a material difference to how Amazon can service the New Zealand consumer and will be something that retailers will be watching pretty closely," Harford says.


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Two proposals for reforms to how the U.S. handles safety recalls and penalizes automakers are winding through a Senate committee.
A proposal backed by three Senate Democrats would make automakers include a recall warning light in the dashboard of new cars to notify owners of a safety recall and lift the cap on delayed recall fines and more. A less-aggressive proposal put forward by Republicans would require dealers to notify owners if their cars have been recalled, something most automakers already do but aren’t required by law.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 25 percent of recalls are never completed.
Ride-sharing service Uber has hit a few rough patches as of late, mainly from taxi operators and city and state officials who believe Uber and others like it are too disruptive for its own good. However, the Teamsters — who supported European taxi drivers in their protest of the service earlier this month — are throwing their support to Uber drivers wishing to organize.
Foreign suppliers could produce the final nail in the coffin of struggling Saab, the head of a European supplier association fears. “I think that the patience has more or less run out,” Lars Holmqvist, CEO of CLEPA, the European Association of Automotive Suppliers, said to Swedish news agency TT [via The Local]
Foreign suppliers “probably have less feeling for Saab than many Swedish companies which have grown up with Saab in a different way. Many also have a personal connection to Saab because they might have driven one at some point in their life. But the foreign suppliers are tougher,” Holmqvist, himself a Swede, told TT. (Read More…)
Yesterday, Spyker CEO Muller said everything is peachy. Saab “is not on the verge of collapse,” Muller said to a rapt audience of reporters, while, as Reuters snidely remarked, “Saab was presenting new vehicles already shown at the Geneva auto show.” Muller promised that “a small glitch does not change the fact that cars are being made,” and that Saab would have the widest and newest range in its history next year. This year? No problem at all. Just that output would be more weighted towards the second half of the year. Which in itself would be a miracle, and outpacing the competition, because in Europe, auto sales are more weighted towards the first half of the year. This was yesterday. Now is today. (Read More…)
While other manufacturers have problems getting parts, Saab has problems getting parts. But for different reasons.
“Production at Saab stopped for a second day on Wednesday as the money-losing automaker faces payment problems with its suppliers,” reports Automotive News [sub]. They add that Saab said it will start production again on Thursday, after money problems have been settled. According to the Automotive News report, Saab made a very inadvisable move: They did not pay their shipping company. (Read More…)


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A Volunteer Labour
Love public service activities
2020 Chinese Special Tourist Commodities Contest Awarding Ceremo...
The 22nd Chinese Tourist Commodities Contest was held by Chinese Tourist Association.On 22nd Dec.2020,Shaanxi Participating enterprises awarding ceremony took place in Shaanxi prov...
Make gratitude an action
Chins licKING public welfare line
The 8th National Brand Story Contest
“The 8th National Brand Story Contest Final (Xi’an Contest Area)”was held at 2:00pm on Oct. 13rd in Xi'an Silk Road Art Theater.With the theme of “build an overall well off society...
Gather High-quality Products for Export·"Chins licKING " Waiting...
Xi'an Chunhefang Import & Export Co., Ltd., as the first company in Shaanxi that promotes processed food products to overseas markets, was invited to participate in this exhibition...
A taste of home
It has been more than a month since 1,460 medical workers from shaanxi medical team sent reinforcements to Hubei province on the frontline of epidemic prevention and control.
A Volunteer ...
The 8th Nati...
A taste of h...


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by Burke Speaker | October 10, 2013 9:31 am
On Wednesday, Maine became the first U.S. state to allow purchasing online prescription drugs from foreign pharmacies.
Proponents of the move say that allowing the online sales from other countries — where the prices are cheaper — may force American pharmaceutical companies to cut costs of prescription drugs.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not allow the importation of foreign drugs. The agency echoes pharmaceutical industry concerns that products procured abroad might be risky. But as the Wall Street Journal points out, that hasn’t stopped U.S. consumers — including the city of Portland, Maine — from importing drugs from Canada anyway, often at heavily discounted prices compared to the U.S.
Officials and foreign companies that ship medication to the U.S. say that such drugs aren’t risky at all, and the U.S. pharmaceutical complaints are rooted more in profit-protection than they are in consumer protection.
“It’s not a safety issue,” Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. “It’s turf.”
Maine pharmacy groups and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America are both challenging the Maine law in federal court.
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?The Northwoods of Wisconsin? receives $39,550 tourism grant
The Grow North project continues to brand and market five counties in northern Wisconsin with the help of a $39,550 Joint Effort Marketing (JEM) grant from the Department of Tourism. Presented by Regional Tourism Specialist Sarah Pischer, this Year-2 Destination Marketing grant will implement a marketing strategy based on research uncovered from the Year-1 grant for $39,550.
Oneida, Vilas, Langlade, Lincoln, and Forest Counties have all banded under “The Northwoods of Wisconsin” brand, with an estimated economic impact of $6.65 million for the five-county region from traveler spending at area hotels, restaurants and stores.
“We’re thrilled with the outstanding collaboration among these five counties to build a lasting brand for their area in the minds of travelers,” said Secretary Stephanie Klett. “This is the perfect opportunity for the area to market its strengths, including the abundance of outdoor recreational opportunities, charming small towns and exceptional hospitality. By developing and marketing a brand based on strong research, they’re poised to attract more travelers to the area which will result in positive economic impact for the area.”
The Year-1 marketing grant allowed the Grow North project to identify their brand, “The Northwoods of Wisconsin,” based on research including business, lodging, and visitor surveys, and strategic planning. In addition, an interactive mobile phone App was developed that allows travelers to take a quiz to determine what their Northwoods personality is. The results of the quiz feature corresponding itineraries with suggestions of things to do, and where to eat and stay. Year-2 of the project focuses on implanting the brand in target markets, specifically the St. Paul/Minneapolis area. Marketing efforts include website development, online and social media advertising, and email marketing. All marketing efforts are being tracked with the goal of driving travelers to their website, thenorthwoodsofwisconsin.com.
In fiscal year 2012, the Department funded 53 Joint Effort Marketing projects, awarding a total of nearly $1.2 million dollars. Visitor expenditures driven by the marketing from these projects will exceed $20 million.
“It has been the vision of several tourism leaders in the five counties to see this effort become a reality”, said Diane Geis Hapka, Oneida County Tourism President. “We realize our visitors are very savvy and look for many experiences when traveling. By pooling resources and promoting the variety of things to do in The Northwoods of Wisconsin, we can attract from a larger pool of potential travelers to the region. It is a Win-Win for all of us.”
JEM grant funds are available to non-profit organizations for the promotion of Wisconsin tourism events and destinations. The state can fund up to 75 percent of a project’s first-year advertising and marketing costs, and provide support for second- and third-year projects with decreasing amounts for funding until projects become self-sustaining. For information on the JEM Program and application materials, visit industry.travelwisconsin.com.
The mission of the Wisconsin Department of Tourism is to market the state as the Midwest’s premier travel destination by executing industry-leading marketing programs and establishing strategic partnerships. The Department plays a significant role in generating greater economic impact and jobs for Wisconsin. The portal for traveler information can be found at travelwisconsin.com.