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- The global CW price index for gray cement exports is forecast to increase almost 1 percent quarter-on-quarter in 1Q2023
- The Middle East region expected to see a decline in prices
- North America and the Caribbean to lead the CW price index for gray cement exports
Greenwich (CT), USA, February 15, 2023 – The global CW price index for gray cement exports is forecast to increase nearly 1 percent quarter-on-quarter in 1Q2023. The Middle East is the only region projected to see a decline in prices, while Asia-Pacific-Japan is expected to witness the highest increase, according to the 4Q2022 update of the CW Research's Global Cement Trade Price Report (GCTPR).
"Gray cement export prices are expected to maintain their upward trajectory albeit at a slower place than previous quarters. On-going geopolitical events, including the Russia-Ukraine conflict, stubborn inflation, and high energy prices continue to weigh on logistics and production costs", explained Lucas Pimenta, Junior Business Analyst at CW Group.
Middle East to see decrease in export prices until March
The CW price index for gray cement exports in the Middle East is forecast to marginally decrease by less than 0.5 percent. The region has been the least affected by geopolitical events, including the conflict in Ukraine impacting other regional markets.
Saudi Arabia´s export prices are forecast to decline nearly 1 percent quarter-on-quarter, while Pakistan is expected to see a marginal rise. Nevertheless, the region is still projected to have the lowest regional gray cement FOB price in 1Q2023.
Japan to lead increase in prices in the region
Asia-Pacific-Japan is forecast to see a rise of around 1.5 percent in the regional CW price index for gray cement exports. Japan is expected to see an increase of almost 3 percent, while China is forecast to see an increase of around 1.5 percent quarter-on-quarter. Taiwan is on track to see a decline of nearly 2 percent.
North America and the Caribbean with the highest CW price index for gray cement exports in 1Q2023
In North America and the Caribbean, gray cement export prices are estimated to increase by 1 percent compared to January. Following the trend of the previous quarters, the region is forecast to have the highest CW price index for gray cement export prices.
In the Mediterranean Basin, Italy is forecast to have both the highest gray cement FOB prices and the largest rise in export prices, with an increase of around 2 percent. Portugal is projected to see a marginal drop of less than half a percent.
Sanctions on Russia impacting Germany´s cementitious industry
In Western Europe, Germany is forecast to see the highest increase in cement export prices by March 2023, with an increase of more than 1.5 percent as sanctions on Russian energy supplies continue to negatively impact Europe's largest economy. France, meanwhile, is expected to see a drop of nearly 1 percent.
In Eastern Europe, Bulgaria is set to report the largest increase, at around 2 percent, while Russia is on track for a 0.5 percent rise in cement export prices. Slovenia is expected to post a drop of nearly 3 percent.
The Global Cement Trade Price Report is CW Research's benchmark price assessment for monthly gray cement, white cement, clinker and granulated blast furnace slag prices and volumes. The 150+ page report, published on a quarterly basis, serves as the industry go-to source for monthly price data for over 70 individual markets worldwide, including multiple cornerstone data series: import, export, ex-works and market prices.
Buy the report here.


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McCarthy acquires Ragan Tire
Pennsylvania-based McCarthy Tire Service Co. is expanding yet again, as the company says it has signed an agreement to purchase one of its competitors, Ragan Tire Group LLC.
Ragan Tire Group, based in Concord, N.C., provides off-the-road (OTR) tires and tire service to heavy construction, quarrying and mining customers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. This marks McCarthy's third acquisition thus far in 2015. McCarthy is the sixth largest commercial tire dealer in the U.S. and the seventh largest retreader in the U.S. McCarthy holds the No. 22 spot on the MTD 100.
“Ragan Tire Group is one of the premier off-the-road (OTR) service companies in the Southeast,” says John McCarthy Jr., president of McCarthy Tire Service. “When we combine our companies, McCarthy Tire Service will be one of the largest OTR service providers on the East Coast.
“We are very excited about this opportunity to provide unparalleled service to OTR customers.”
McCarthy Tire says Ragan Tire Group’s operations in North Carolina will be merged into four of McCarthy Tire’s eight locations in the state. The acquisition will add three locations in South Carolina and one location in Georgia to McCarthy Tire’s footprint, expanding it to a total of 49 service facilities in nine states.
Additionally, McCarthy Tire says all of Ragan's service and operational employees, including Ty Smith, will join the McCarthy Tire team. Smith will oversee the combined OTR operations in the southeast.
“We are excited Ragan Tire Group is joining McCarthy Tire Service,” says Smith. “Both of our companies’ core value is to service our customers to the best of our ability. We now can do this from New York State to Georgia."
The closing date for the deal is scheduled for mid July.
For more information, visit www.McCarthyTire.com.
To read about McCarthy's other recent acquisitions, see

domain: news


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Smaller items of litter were said to be most common, with cigarette butts and gum making up the bulk of the total litter count. According to Incpen and Zero Waste Scotland, these smaller items accumulate over time and are among the most expensive to clean up. Taking the results without gum and butts, the top five kinds of larger pieces of litter were paper (9%), sweet wrappers (6%), soft drink cans (6%), plastic soft drink bottles (6%) and cigarette packets (4%).
Carrier bags are said to represent under half a percent of the total litter count. The carrier bag charge was introduced in Scotland in October 2014 in a bid to tackle litter. However, the study suggested that charges do not change the behaviour of people who litter. It found that supermarket carrier bags have gone up, but other items that do not carry a charge have gone down - the number of drinks containers is reported to have decreased by 18% while coffee cups went down by 36%.
Jane Bickerstaffe, CEO of INCPEN, said “Two years on from the introduction of the carrier bag charge in Scotland and numerous campaigns to tackle litter, the problem is as bad as ever. This charge is not reducing the amount people litter. The study suggests that more charges and deposits on items such as disposable coffee cups and drinks bottles, will not make a difference. Unlike the bag charge which is avoidable if you take your own bag, imposing new charges would simply place additional financial strain on hard working families.”
According to Incpen's CEO, experience of litter prevention suggests that the issue is best tackled through more innovative approaches to engaging communities and changing behaviour. For example, Hubbub’s Neat Streets campaign, which is supported by INCPEN and launched in Edinburgh in July 2016, had significant impact in an earlier scheme in London.
Bickerstaffe added: “We have to look at fresh approaches to cleaning up our towns and countryside. There are many good local campaigns and initiatives but what’s needed is a long term national programme that makes it socially unacceptable to litter anything. INCPEN recommends that governments look at how we change the behaviour of litterers, so they are proud of their environment and put all rubbish in a bin or take it home.”


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Trendjacking is not a new concept to advertisers. If done well, a brand intent on trendjacking could gain a lot of attention from viewers, or even go viral. However, it could also backfire on the brand if done poorly. Placing this case in point are two of Singapore’s Breast Cancer Foundation’s recent ads, which used the trend of masking up and staying in to promote breast cancer awareness and prevention.
One of the ads which raised eyebrows had the caption: “To stop the spread, mask up. For your breasts, go up, down, in, out and all around.” The other said: “Staying home saves lives. Heading out saves breasts,” to encourage women to go for mammograms and regular self examination. The ad resulted in netizens scratching their head over the messaging with several calling it confusing and others questioning how the ad even got clearance to run in the first place. The ad was first called out by local theatre actress Pam Oei, who took to her Facebook page to express her confusion of the ads. According to Oei, the ads were placed at her lift lobby. Oei's post has garnered 167 reactions, 95 comments, and 165 shares, at the time of writing.
The Breast Cancer Foundation has since left a comment thanking netizens for their honest feedback and sharing its intent behind it. According to the organisation, the ads were done in an attempt to be proactive in the fight against breast cancer. It came around as many women were seen to be postponing their mammograms due to the Circuit Breaker and stay-home advisories.
“Since everyone’s attention has been on COVID-19, we decided to leverage that to remind people about breast cancer – another health crisis that also needs urgent attention. The juxtaposition between COVID-19 and mammogram/breast self-examination advice is meant to intrigue people to read on and scan our QR code (located within the same media panel) to know more,” the statement said.
The organisation also apologised for causing any confusion or offence to anyone. It added that it will definitely take the feedback into consideration for future campaigns. “It’s always challenging to talk about breasts, or breast cancer awareness for that matter. But we welcome the challenge and will keep doing our best to spread this important life-saving message,” the organisation’s spokesperson added.
To its response, several netizens also said that although they understood the intentions of the organisation, the ad is still one which is rather poorly done. One netizen added that the fact that the organisation had to post a lengthy explanation about its campaign message is perhaps proof that the advertising effort did not work. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to the Breast Cancer Foundation for a statement.
In previous conversations with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, industry players have warned brands that when it comes to trendjacking, they need to ensure the trend is a good fit for the brand. According to Freda Kwok, head of strategy and social media at digital agency Germs, said there needs to be a review of topics that are complementary to the brand personality. "Brands should not jump on every trending bandwagon. Research on the origins of the trend is also important to avoid misaligned associations," Kwok said.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson from creative agency Wild Advertising & Marketing, said the connection between the trend and the company should not feel like too much of a stretch. If it does not closely align with the brand, the company may be accused of simply creating "clickbait". This is considered an off-putting and cheap tactic to increase views, and can leave consumers with a poor impression of the brand.
Join us on week-long journey at PR Asia 2020 as we delve into topics such as diversity, cancel culture, future of PR, PR with a purpose and many others from 8 to 11 December. Sign up here!
(Photo courtesy: Pam Oei)
Singapore Kindness Movement explains race-related cleaning ad called out on social
Emily in Paris gets SEA tour as brands crop her in on their stunts
Brands and governments in SG and MY jump on 'Among Us' trend


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The Agricultural Commodities Exception to Foreign Base Company Sales Income
Bloomberg BNA International Tax Library
Lowell Yoder wrote this bylined article about a recent Chief Counsel Advice (CCA) regarding an exception for processed or manufactured agricultural products from the definition of foreign base company sales income. Mr. Yoder wrote that the CCA addressed whether a 2009 amendment to the foreign base company sales income regulations eliminated that limitation, and concluded that the limitation still applies. Read the full article.


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100 auction houses now subscribing for Art Loss Register due diligence
The Art Loss Register is delighted to announce that, as of this week, 100 auction houses are subscribing to its due diligence services.
This represents an increase of 50% in the number of auction houses checking their catalogues with the Art Loss Register in the last three years, reflecting the growing importance for art market professionals to carry out due diligence.
The Art Loss Register’s scope is worldwide, with subscribers based in the UK, USA, France, Norway, Austria and Holland, and with growing numbers from Germany, Switzerland and Italy. There has been a noticeable increase in the number of smaller and regional auction house subscribers. The Art Loss Register checks 400,000 items offered on the international art market each year, the majority of which are in auction catalogues.
The key benefit for auction houses of searching items with the Art Loss Register is that it significantly reduces the risk of selling items that are stolen or subject to a claim, and the reputational and financial risks associated with this.
For the victims of theft and insurers, the increase in the number of auction houses working with the Art Loss Register means that their chances of recovery are significantly improving.
Last year alone, the Art Loss Register located stolen items ranging from artworks by Matisse, Picasso, Warhol, Keith Haring and Anish Kapoor, to Rolex watches, tribal art, English furniture and Roman antiquities in the sale catalogues of auction houses.
James Ratcliffe, General Counsel and Director of Recoveries at the Art Loss Register said, “It is fantastic to see the huge increase in subscribing auction houses over the last three years. This is testament both to the hard work and skills of the whole team here at the ALR; and also the increasing recognition across the market of the need to carry out a recognised standard of due diligence on transactions. As a result, it is becoming more and more difficult for thieves to profit from the theft of art.”


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The magazine is being published by Mediascope Publicitas India
The cover story of the first issue will unveil American luxury entrepreneur Donald J. Trump’s bid to lead the Indian luxury market
Publicitas Digital has elevated Namita Sahu as chief operating officer. She will report to Marzban Patel, CEO and managing director, Mediascope Publicitas. Sahu's promotion follows the recent exit of Neville Taraporewala, who was CEO, APAC, Publicitas Digital. Taraporewala has moved on to join Microsoft.
Top news, insights and analysis every weekday
Sign up for Campaign Bulletins


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Selling indie games has become more complicated than ever.
As even choosing what store to sell from becomes increasingly difficult, finding the right publisher to navigate the market can be the difference between success and failure.
One such publisher is Good Shepherd, a new(ish) venture that emerged from Gambitious Entertainment in August 2017, who says that even figuring out what each of the myriad new storefronts has on offer is hard enough.
“Right now it’s a question of understanding what exactly the offers are from each of these stores,” says Good Shepherd producer Lélia Peuchamiel, speaking to PCGamesInsider.biz at the recent Ludicious event in Zurich, Switzerland.
"We need to understand what our devs are getting, and where we fit in.
“Things are really bubbling up, and nothing is really set right now. The first thing is making the right partnerships and understanding what is going on. The other aspect of that is now because you’ve got these different stores, what does that mean in terms of visibility for your games?
“You almost want to tailor your marketing strategies - that means maybe in some circumstances, Epic may do better than Discord. Which audience is going to which stores?”
What’s in store?
Working out what store is becoming an important consideration for indie developers, and marks yet another reason why publishers are becoming more and more vital for smaller studios and creators.
“Publishers are taking a bigger and bigger role, things are really shifting right now with Steam losing its monopoly," Peuchamiel says.
"That means our role is going to change in terms of understanding what that means for different devs and finding the right platform to position them.
“The thing that’s changing the way that we work right now is you have more access for indies to create their games. What we’re adding as value is getting the marketing, shipping, compliance process, and getting visibility on their games."
The publishing landscape isn’t the thing that’s changed. Good Shepherd has been scaling up in the past year thanks to recent investment and high-profile partnerships with silver screen studios.
“We had a strong focus on smaller indie titles, and that’s why we called ourselves Good Shepherd," Peuchamiel says.
"Since then we’ve grown and made some strategic partnerships - recently with a big Chinese player and US firms. We’ve got preferential relationships with Hollywood studios.
“Our portfolio is turning into a mix of those smaller indie titles with what we call ‘triple-I’ games. We’re happy that we’ve managed to secure those funds because it lets us work on those bigger projects”
Money isn’t everything
Those bigger projects are hopefully allowing Good Shepherd to take more risks with smaller games - ones that may attract critical praise and accolade, but fail to make much of an impact on the revenue stream. Games like last year’s Where The Water Tastes Like Wine (pictured, above).
“Where The Water Tastes Like Wine is an interesting one because we were so proud of that game," Peuchamiel explains.
"It had critical acclaim, it had an incredible team. Everyone is really proud of it, and I think it’s really important that games like this get published.
“Sometimes, we don’t sell because it doesn’t tick those boxes, that’s fine. But it’s important to have those titles that are critically acclaimed and give you that aura.
“Obviously, we can’t always do that. We’re not closing any doors, we are aware that we want games that can sell. We want something that allows us to take more and more risks. It’s a bit of both.”
The future of Good Shepherd looks to - like with many companies - lie in safer big-budget games propping up these kinds of award-winning risk-takers: ideally gaining profit in one hand and prestige in the other.
“Because we’ve made those partnerships with bigger actors, we’re trying to go with bigger scopes. We’re trying to gain a good mix between people who don’t have experience and people who do because it balances the risk. It’s exciting to work with someone who hasn’t made a game before you can’t wait to see the next one.”
There’s also hope that, by taking aboard both established developers and industry newcomers, Good Shepherd can provide a network where knowledge can be shared between veterans and new talent.
The company is at a turning point. As it tries to strike a balance between nurturing risky, unique projects and putting out safer, bigger-budget hits, it’s hard to tell where Good Shepherd could eventually wind up.
Peuchamiel concludes: “It’s really exciting because we’ve got a strategy, but we don’t know which direction it’ll end up taking.”


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"Loaded: Doodle in your Docs"
will start after this message from our sponsors.
Loaded: Doodle in your Docs
>> Natali: Google launches a Doodle tool, Twitter hints at how they will make money and TMobile launches a mobile USD laptop card to help
you stay online. It's Thursday, March 26th, I'm Natali Del Conte and it's time to get Loaded.
[ Music ]
>> Natali: The talk at the Game's Developer's Conference is San Francisco seems to be about mobile games game titles are battling
it out on the iPhone and the Nintendo DSI. EA Mobile says that it's working on releasing titles for the iPhone and the iPod Touch
such as Madden, Command and Conquer and MBA Live. Meanwhile, Nintendo is bringing classics to the DSI such as a new Zelda called
the Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks we can expect it later this year. We have a few Google announcements this morning the first one
involves Google Docs which we use every day here at CNET TV you can now Doodle in Google Docs with a feature called Insert Drawing
it lets you create colorful artwork into documents, presentations and spreadsheets. Google also launched a voice activated search
for BlackBerry; this feature has been out for a few months on the iPhone it means you can speak your search term into your phone and
get search results, although I have never found it to be very accurate, must be the lisp. MySpace launched an official tool bar which
will allow users to get notices of the activity on their page without actually going to the site; this has been in Beta since last
December but only for a limited number of users it's not open for any and all to enjoy it works on Firefox and Internet Explorer. For
now you can find it at MySpace.com slash tool bar. We knew ISP's were gonna be working with the Recording Industry Association
of America to fight music piracy now we know which ones. AT&T, Comcast and Cox all admitted that they have been issuing take down
notices accused of piracy by the RIAA; this is the RIAA's new strategy to stop music stealing instead of suing individual offenders
they go to the source of their broadband. Other ISP's are likely involved but we don't know which ones yet. Twitter may be ready
to answer the question we all have, how does it make money, the company's founder Biz Stone [assumed spelling] told the Wall Street
Journal that they would start to offer paid editions to the service soon the basic features will still be free but we'll see new
functions that Twitter will charge for such as search and metrics. It has not been a great week for Last FM the company which is
owned by our parent company CBS announced that it will be banning all third party mobile clients; this means no Last FM music anywhere
other than Last FM unless it's an official Last FM product such as the iPhone app for now at least. This is not good and unfortunately
a result of licensing agreements. TMobile launched the Web Connect USB Laptop Stick it's a USB dongle that will get your computer
online using TMobile's 3G Broadband service and WiFi networks across the country. If you're in an area where there is no TMobile
3G or WiFi the Stick can also access Edge and GPRSband it also has Triband 3G so it works internationally as well. It costs $49.99
with a 2 year contract that starts at $59.99 per month, $99.99 with a 1 year contract or $249 without a contract. Meanwhile Sprint
has its sight set on 4G with Wimax [assumed spelling] the company announced plans to deploy Wimax in 10 new cities in 2009 and 5 more
in 2010. The cities for 2009 include Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Fort Worth, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Portland
and Seattle. In 2010 they will include Boston, Houston, New York, San Francisco and Washington DC. Currently Wimax is only available
in Baltimore. March Madness is not the only streaming sport in town the National Hockey League announced that it will offer a full
day of live streamed games for $19.95 you can watch live games, older games and choose various camera angles and instant replays but
it's nearly $20.00 per day, that's expensive especially considering that March Madness is free. I'm assuming it's because advertisers
don't want to subsidize hockey the way they do for basketball. Fox News is launching a social network called the Fox Nation it's being
described as an online community that believes in the right to express your views, your values, your voice. I suppose it's a social
network of sorts but we won't really know until it launches on March 30th, but why would Fox launch another social network when News
Corp already owns MySpace did they forget about MySpace, I mean I know it's easy to do? B Square has announced that they will be
porting Adobe's Flash format to Google's Android operating system supposedly it's on behalf of a global tear one carrier, whatever that
means I'm just glad for the ability to watch Hulu and visit Flash enabled websites. So iPhone please catch up on this. Apple may'
be talking about Snow Leopard in the upcoming Worldwide Developer's Conference while the operating system was initially designed to
be a mostly under the hood upgrade reports are surfacing that Apple will be unveiling a new interface called Marble. Supposedly
it will be in the same vein as recent iTunes updates with darker greyer colors rather than the bright blues and whites of the previous
Aqua UI. The WWDC typically happens in June and most insiders expect Snow Leopard to be released shortly after around August. Those
are all your headlines for today and that wraps up your week of getting Loaded. Before I go I want to wish a happy birthday to Kevin
and a happy 30th birthday to Brian in Hawaii and Jeremiah. I will see you next week here on Loaded or today and tomorrow on Buzz Outloud.
Thank you for watching I'm Natali Del Conte with CNET TV and you've just been Loaded.
[ Music ]


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You’ve probably seen countless videos of outdoor concerts and breathtaking landscapes shot from cameras attached to quadcopters — remote controlled drones. The budding drone market is possibly the most interesting segment of the technology sector, and it’s projected to grow into a $91 billion market within the next 10 years.
This news is exciting for investors interested in drone stocks.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many publicly traded drone companies right now. A number of larger tech companies have experimented with drones, though, and dedicated impressive resources for R&D.
Here’s a look at how close we are to full-fledged drone stocks.
Recreational vs. Commercial Drones
Excluding drones (referred to by the FAA as unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS) that are developed and used by and for the military, all operations are categorized as either recreational or commercial. Due to the relative newness of the consumer drone market, the FAA is still in the process of devising specific regulations regarding drone use by the general public.
In February, the FAA issued a press release with proposed rules and regulations for safe drone operation. However, until a specific set of rules is officially in place, drones used by hobbyists are considered no differently than any other model aircraft. Provided that drone operation is within the confines of FAA Section 336, no license or other special permission is required.
On the other hand, using drones for commercial or business purposes requires prior authorization from the FAA. For example, news media use of drones would be considered a commercial application and require FAA approval under Section 333.
The realm of possibilities for commercial drones is quite significant, yet fraught with regulatory hurdles. Still, as of this writing, the FAA has granted 746 petitions for exemptions under Section 333, which authorizes those companies to use drones for commercial operations.
Of the 746 exemptions, there are surprisingly few publicly traded drone stocks, the most notable being AeroVironment (AVAV). The company manufactures drones and other UAS vehicles, and was granted exemption by the FAA for the purposes of inspecting fixed infrastructures, aerial survey, and patrol operations.
One of the few publicly traded drone stocks, AVAV hasn’t fared too well, down more than 15% in the past 12 months. With a market cap of only $655 million, AeroVironment isn’t a very large company compared to others involved in similar aspects of drone development, but it’s the only company entirely devoted to UAS.
The only other notable publicly traded company on the FAA’s list of Section 333 exemptions is Amazon (AMZN). Amazon received FAA approval in April to begin outdoor testing and R&D related to its Prime Air delivery system, originally announced by CEO Jeff Bezos in December 2013.
Delivering Amazon packages via drone is still a long way off, especially since the FAA hasn’t amended the rules regarding the flying of drones outside the line of sight of the operator. Amazon’s Prime Air concept can’t move forward without this ability.
However, it was reported earlier this week that Switzerland’s postal service has begun testing package delivery via autonomous drones that follow “clearly defined, secure flight paths, which are drawn up by cloud software.” If the Swiss post can demonstrate safe and effective parcel delivery via drones, an FAA amendment authorizing drone stocks to operate a UAS beyond line of sight would only be a matter of time.
Bottom Line on Drone Stocks
Although hundreds of drone companies have received authorization from the FAA to commence commercial operations, the vast majority of those businesses are privately held. AeroVironment and Amazon are the two major publicly traded companies with Section 333 exemptions — the only things we have that are anywhere close to legitimate drone stocks.
The consumer-focused drone industry is still in its infancy, and revisions to FAA regulations prohibiting commercial use and requiring special authorizations are still a long way off.
Regardless, pressure from industry groups and examples of working methodology outside the U.S. should help speed up the legislative process and ultimately remove restrictions that make for-profit use of drones near impossible in many practical scenarios.
As of this writing, Greg Gambone did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
More From InvestorPlace
- 9 Best Cheap Stocks to Buy Now for Under $10
- 7 Healthcare Stocks to Profit from Obamacare
- 5 Best ETFs Right Now


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The race is now on to see which company can launch their Quad Core Android phone first. We did think Meizu may have been able to beat everyone to it, but now it looks more likely HTC will be the first company to launch a Quad-core Android phone.Chinese newspaper the ‘Commercial Times’ is reporting that HTC are on the verge of releasing a new Quad core Android smartphone running Nvidia’s quad-core Tegra 3 CPUs and Qualcomm’s LTE-enabled MSM 8906 chipset.
Gizchina News of the week
The report claims HTC will have the new Tegra 3 LTE phone ready for a launch at this years Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2012, in February with production models making their way to stores by March.
We can’t wait to see what HTC have planned for their MWC launch line up especially if this news turn out to be accurate!


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- October 12, 2001, PRESS RELEASE
KENNESAW, GA, USA—"Women in Packaging" (WMPKG), may soon want to change its name to "People in Packaging"—or at least something that indicates its substantial male membership. According to the professional organization, nearly 20% of the group's membership is male.
WMPKG recently announced it will not cater to only female packaging professionals any longer. "What began eight years ago as a professional organization dedicated to encouraging the growth of women in the packaging industry has matured into a dynamic professional organization, which facilitates the career and professional development while building business for all packaging professionals," explains WMPKG. "The fact that more than 20 percent of [our] membership is male attests to the fact that all packaging professionals need the programs and resources provided by Women in Packaging."
The organization says it's making the change due to the recent transformation of the packaging industry and the use of the Internet. "WMPKG," reports group officials, "recognized that it needed to address career issues critical to the industry's development."
For more info. on WMPKG, visit the organization on the web at womeninpackaging.org.


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What a year it’s been.
Thankfully for many, 2020 will soon be a distant memory, although there are going to be more huge challenges for businesses in 2021.
The coronavirus pandemic will not just disappear into thin air because of the vaccine, and the way we live and conduct our daily lives is unlikely to change much until we are deeper into the new year.
Unfortunately, many businesses won’t have survived the current year and for any number of reasons related to Covid-19. However, there are still deals to be done, partnerships to be made and companies to be steered though the still stormy waters.
The future as always offers hope, and here at WGP Global we continue to remain positive. As we transition from one year to the next, let’s take a look at our top five expected business trends for 2021.
We’ve already seen companies looking into the ways in which automation can not only save their businesses money, but streamline their services. Whilst it’s ostensibly true that a human can’t be replaced for certain tasks, as technology becomes more and more sophisticated, there becomes a clear business need for automation to become part of various processes.
We are at the point already whereby if humans don’t add value to a business any longer, automation quickly becomes a consideration to able to take on the role. Chatbots on websites that deal with customer service enquiries and autonomous vehicles are just two examples of businesses moving in the direction of having automation fulfil certain key tasks.
In 2021, WGP Global expect the trend to continue on an upward trajectory. Automated interfaces that are able to interact and connect with real humans will save time, and therefore, cost. Implementation across all types of company, including white-collar jobs, will soon be seen as standard practice.
Blockchain has still to really capture the imagination of the masses, but in 2021, WGP Global believe it’s set to play a huge part in business. It’s our contention that raising capital in this manner, or via other decentralised options, will be easier than through what would normally be classed as the traditional channels.
The main reason for this school of thought is that the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak economical havoc, and as a result, the capital markets are still nervous.
Against that backdrop, it will become difficult for companies to raise capital in the usual manner.
Another piece of tech that can already be found at certain businesses is the ‘virtual interface.’
Covid-19 has again played a huge part in the acceleration of having to roll out this type of technology, as it has forced many consumers to stay indoors for fear of exposing themselves to the virus if they venture outside.
Companies such as ‘Specsavers’ have made use of smart phone cameras or webcams by using augmented reality to show customers what they would look like in a certain pair of glasses.
It negates the need to enter the store until such time as the glasses are to be picked up. Similarly, we are seeing a rise in virtual avatars, which work in much the same way as augmented reality in the sense that one can see what they will look like in certain clothes or make-up etc.
An entire ordering process, without the need for human intervention at any point, is likely to become standard practice well before the end of 2021 in our opinion.
If there’s one thing that 2020 has taught everyone, particularly those in business, it is that the power of social media, when harnessed correctly, can have unbelievable reach amongst current and potential clients.
More than ever, companies are relying on their social accounts to come up with content that is relevant and engaging. If there’s a trend that will come out of the social sphere in the new year, it will be one that is geared towards companies having an authentic presence on social that matches their brand online.
Too many companies (and individuals) try far too hard to ‘make it work,’ and they’re left with profiles that lack personality and awareness of what clients and customers want to see.
Real person introductions, conversations with industry heavyweights and a ‘trip down memory lane’ to understand the history of a company are just three basic concepts to spark interaction and conversation.
Many companies have looked to reduce their carbon footprint as a start point over the last couple of years, but sustainability isn’t just about ticking the environmental box.
There is a need to take a step back and really think about the way a company operates, what waste it produces, how their products are used (if applicable) etc.
Landfill sites are multiplying and the sites themselves are getting larger, and the need to build a sustainable future was evident well before the world had heard of the coronavirus pandemic.
That has brought things into an even sharper focus and 2021 will be the year when companies finally start to take the impact their work has on the environment seriously.


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Nigerian industrialist Abdul Samad Rabiu believes there are attractive opportunities to export certain products from northern Nigeria to nearby landlocked countries such as Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad.
Rabiu is the founder and CEO of BUA Group, a diversified group involved in industries such as cement, sugar, flour, real estate and construction.
Speaking during the Africa CEO Forum earlier this week, Rabiu highlighted the potential to sell cement produced at BUA’s plant in the northern state of Sokoto to Niger and Burkina Faso. He said Burkina Faso currently imports a lot of cement and clinker (an intermediary product used to make cement) from outside the continent. The cement is shipped to ports in Togo, Ghana or Côte d’Ivoire and transported to Burkina Faso on trucks.
The distance between Sokoto and Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou is roughly similar to the distance from Togo’s Lomé port to Ouagadougou. And, by buying from Nigeria, importers in Burkina Faso do not incur sea freight costs.
BUA Cement is increasing the production capacity of its Sokoto cement plant. According to Rabiu, much of the additional cement produced will be for the export market.
Rabiu described the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) – which came into effect in January 2021 – as “one of the best things that could happen to African businesses”. The AfCFTA initiative has the lofty ambition of increasing intra-African trade from less than 20% to more than 30% in just a few years by attracting investment into manufacturing, agriculture and other sectors as well as building regional value chains. However, according to some commentators, the free trade initiative will take years to gain traction, given the scale of challenges on the ground that may undermine its progress and potential.


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IBM intends to reorganize its sales force and increase spending on partner programs to boost sales of its software.
Over the course of 2004, the computing titan will take a number of actions to accelerate software sales with an industry-specific orientation, according to Tim Breuer, the director of public relations for IBM's software group. By the end of next year, the company plans to have over half of its sales force trained with both technical and industry expertise, he said.
At the same time, he said, IBM will increase investment in existing partner programs to accelerate the delivery of applications, built on its software, that are specialized for vertical industries. For example, IBM will extend its ISV Advantage program to entice partners to build industry-specific editions of their applications for small and medium-size businesses. Read


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Since our Voice of the Healthcare Industry Market Outlook report in December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected every single member of the healthcare community, both personally and professionally – and at every level of the supply chain, from manufacture to bedside care.
Manufacters, agents, dealers and distributors
Among the manufacturer, agents, dealers, and distributors sector, two thirds of respondents reported that they are now looking to expand the range of products they offer within their current market (66%) over entering new markets with the same product range (29%) or other strategies (5%). This is particularly true for companies with an export rate of below 50%.
Of the companies surveyed with a higher export rate (more than 50%), however, almost half see entering new markets as their strategy for growth. In Africa and the GCC, the strategy of expanding product range within current markets is even more prominent, at 75% and 77% respectively. Trade exhibitions were identified by this sector (and particularly manufacturers) as the main focus for driving new leads at 51%, over social marketing, email marketing, content marketing, digital advertising, society events, digital directories or print advertising.
However, the importance of trade exhibitions has reduced slightly from 59% in December 2019. Email marketing in particular has seen a high increase in focus, from 25% in December 2019 to 34% in May 2021.
Content marketing, social media, digital advertising, and digital directories have also seen an increase in focus, while society events and print advertising have dropped in focus slightly for driving new leads.
Trade exhibitions are particularly important for companies with higher export rates. This lead generation activity is especially important to manufacturers, agents, dealers and distributors based in Europe, with 69% of respondents choosing this over other activities.
Interestingly, the GCC region places more importance on digital directories than other regions at 27% – high above social media (15%), digital advertising (15%), society events (12%) and print advertising (19%).
Clinics & medical practices, private hospitals & public hospitals
When asked about the most important factor in ensuring a satisfactory patient experience, opinion came down firmly on understanding the patient’s needs. 45% chose this over other aspects, representing an increase from 39% in 2019.
These healthcare providers were also asked about attracting patients by location. The trend is clearly towards attracting local patients, with three quarters of the respondents stating they were very or extremely interested.
This compares to 54-58% that responded with the same levels of interest in attracting international patients from neighbouring countries or other regions.
When asked about the strategies deployed in response to the pandemic, the most prominent activity carried out by governments and healthcare regulators has been a nationwide vaccination programme, followed by quarantine measures, PCR testing, mask wearing and contact tracing technology.
Only 33% placed restrictions on domestic travel, and even fewer made border closures or carried out sterilisation of streets and public spaces.
About the report
The Voice of the Healthcare Industry Market Outlook 2021 survey was designed by Informa Markets to understand the impact that the pandemic has had on four key areas of the industry: manufacturers and agents, dealers and distributors; clinics and medical practices; private hospitals and public hospitals; government and health regulators; and charities, non-profits and NGOs.
Through GRS Research & Strategy Middle East we asked 1,600 respondents worldwide about the financial and operational impact of the events brought by the pandemic.
The survey also looked to assess how the industry has responded to the pandemic, and how key players have evolved their business strategy. We also asked participants to reflect on how the future will look, and what key trends they are now anticipating.


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Several items belonging to wild west entertainer Annie Oakley went up for sale this weekend at the “Legends of the Wild West” auction. Her gun, a Parker Brothers 12-gauge shotgun, was the big-ticket item at the auction, bringing in $143,000.
Annie Oakley’s Stetson hat, photographs, and letters also went up for sale. The entire “Legends of the Wild West” auction brought in close to $520,000.
Paul Fees, former senior curator at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, said:
“She was just sparkling as a public performer…. This petite person handling firearms was startling. She was a natural at it. She made it look easy.”
News OK reports that the Annie Oakley auction was put together by the Wild West entertainer’s great-grandnieces. Tommye Tait and Terrye Holcomb inherited the items from their mother, Butler Serene, who passed away in 2009.
According to the Associated Press, Oakley became famous in the 1880s as a sharpshooter in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. She passed away at the age of 66 in 1926.
In 1954, American Western television created a show based on the life of the famous sharpshooter.
Here’s an episode of “Annie Oakley.”


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Infiniti, Nissan's luxury brand, has ambitious plans for the future: Triple global sales by 2016.
Read This Article
Infiniti continues to flesh out its lineup with a focus on performance as the IPL G convertible is welcomed for the 2012 model year.
See how this BMW M-fighter performs on the track.
For those of us willing to wade through online patent drawings, you can dig up some pretty cool stuff.


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Latest update May 22nd, 2020 3:37 AM
Aug 04, 2015 Uncategorized Comments Off on Company to take legal measures against oil scandal rumor: Tingyi (China Daily)
A customer shops for Master Kong instant noodle of Ting Hsin International Group at a supermarket in Shanghai, Sept 18, 2014. [Photo/IC]
TIANJIN – Tingyi Holding Corp on Monday denied that its instant noodles sold on the Chinese mainland were ever affected by a cooking oil scandal.
A spokesperson for the company based in North China’s Tianjin municipality said the company will take legal measures against a rumormonger who had spread the story on the Internet.
In a video online, a Taiwan tour guide told tourists from the mainland to boycott all products from Tingyi as they were all involved in the latest food safety incident in Taiwan.
Last year, Ting Hsin International Group, the parent company of Tingyi, and many of Ting Hsin’s suppliers were found selling cooking oil tainted with animal feed.
However, Tingyi said none of its noodles produced and sold on the mainland used ingredients supplied from Taiwan.
All Tingyi’s products comply with national safety and hygiene standards, it added.
Tingyi has reported the case to the police and is awaiting an investigation.


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This week saw the launch of new digest magazine Distill. Back in June we revealed the plans for the publication, which is a collection of the best style press from around the world. It officially launched on Tuesday morning at London's trendy Sketch with a breakfast hosted by Editor in Chief Colin McDowell.
Colin called on his designer pal Giles Deacon for help with the launch as Giles stressed the importance of image, particularly within the creative industries.
Launching a magazine right now is being described as a 'bold move' but I think that the magazine is such a great idea, particularly if you love magazines but are on a budget. It could also introduce you to a magazine that you were not previously aware of. McDowell agrees announcing at the launch that, "It's such a brilliant idea, I was a little peeved I hadn't thought of it myself."


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Marking his introduction as the new global face of FIFA gamers who pre-order the upcoming FIFA Street release will be offered exclusive Messi content
FIFA developer EA Sports has offered an added incentive to wannabe FIFA Street owners with those who pre-order the title from “leading retailers” to be offered an exclusive all-star team featuring the world’s leading player Lionel Messi.
Making up one member of the ‘adidas all-star team’ the pre-order exclusive inclusion of Messi will see the Argentinean Barcelona ace partnered with 12 of the world’s greatest players.
Further tempting gamers to pre-order the FIFA Street revival those who splash out of the football sim prior to the official FIFA Street release date in March 2012 will also be rewarded with access to the ‘Lionel Messi Barcelona Venue’ a location inspired by the city’s iconic Placa de Catalunya and designed in collaboration with the man himself.
"The all-star adidas team will be a must-have for street football fans wanting to play with the most stylish and skilled team in the game," Sid Misra, Lead Producer on FIFA Street said. "Along with the iconic environment inspired by Plaça de Catalunya, our fans will enjoy the added flavour and depth that this special pre-order offer delivers."
Having previously been the poster boy for the franchise’s bitter rival, Pro Evolution Soccer, EA announced Messi as the new global face of FIFA last month.
Does FIFA Street warrant its own franchise or do you think it should be an option built in to the annual full FIFA release? Let us know via the comments box below.


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Specialty tea store
- Co. will send notices to terminate 124 leases, which will take effect in 30 days, after obtaining an initial order to pursue its restructuring plan from the Quebec Superior Court,
according to a press release
- It will seek “more favorable lease terms” for its roughly 100 remaining Canadian stores
- All of its stores closed in mid-March and have remained shuttered due to the coronavirus pandemic
- “We are moving forward with...


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- Filed Under
A local man and women were charged Wednesday in connection to the theft of more than a dozen video games from Kmart.
Kmart loss prevention employees alerted authorities after they detained a 27-year-old Fremont woman suspected of leaving the store without paying for merchandise.
The woman admitted to Fremont police that she attempted to steal three PlayStation Portable games and 11 Nintendo DS games. She told police she and her boyfriend selected the items and then ...


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Delta keen to go it alone
Takeover favourite Delta today calmly dismissed suggestions that it could be the next target for rival TT Group as the engineering firm pressed on with its restructuring by announcing a further 350 job cuts.
As many as 4300 staff have left Delta's payroll over the past two years, although many of these have gone as a result of disposals. The majority of the redundancies have been made in Britain.
Chief executive Jon Scott-Maxwell said there had been no discussions with TT, which holds a 1.6% stake, and stressed the company was coping well on its own.
Profits for the year, the second since he took the helm in December 1996, fell 13% to £41.7 million pre-tax as the group took a £10 million hit from the Far East and lost a further £8 million because of the strong pound and weak South African rand.
Restructuring will cost a further £3.5 million in 1999, with the key focus on the electrical and plumbing divisions. A further 50 jobs will go from electrical, and around 200 from plumbing.
The group has completed its £140 million disposals programme, announced in September 1997, while £157 million was spent during the year on acquisitions. The final dividend is cut savagely to 3.5p, leaving a rebased total of 8p, half last year's payout. The shares lost 1/2p to 1321/2p
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Dying girl, 10, secretly bought Christmas gifts for her grieving family
When 10-year-old Lily-Mae McKinstry finally succumbed to a rare and terminal tumour last month, her parents were forced to come to terms with the fact that they would have to face Christmas without her.
However, when Andrew and Vicky McKinstry and Ethan, her elder brother, began to receive presents at their Chelmsford home from Lily in the post, they were stunned.
In the weeks before she died, Lily had been quietly buying gifts for her family using her father’s credit card details.
Mrs McKinstry, 42, a hairdresser, said: “It’s helping us get through Christmas without her — it makes it feel like she’s still with us.
“Lily just loved this time of year. She still believed in Santa Claus, and we couldn’t wait to spend


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It has become common knowledge that there is a high demand for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and one of the biggest Russian banks has also noticed this.
Therefore, Sberbank has decided that it would now permit its users to make use of its blockchain platform for issuing these NFTs.
The financial institution is also planning on cooperating with galleries and art sites across the country for the same purpose.
Anatoly Popov, the Deputy Chairman of Sberbank, made an announcement at the Eastern Economic Forum that was being held in Vladivostok.
He disclosed that the fourth quarter of the year would see users find an option of issuing their own non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the blockchain platform of Sberbank.
According to the high-ranking executive, the Russian banking giant is also planning to cooperate with galleries, art sites and even sports organizations for releasing NFTs related to tournaments and games.
Popov stated that this move was new territory for the Russian bank due to which it will first be running some tests.
He added that they would keep the service limited in its initial stage because they would have to moderate content.
The blockchain platform
The largest bank in Russia in terms of assets, Sberbank had obtained authorization from the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) this year in March for issuing digital financial assets (DFAs).
Once it had obtained permission, it had developed its blockchain platform, which is currently only available for legal entities.
However, private individuals will also be granted access to the blockchain platform in the final quarter of 2022 and they would be able to issue, as well as sell and buy digital financial assets.
It was only a month later that companies were permitted to issue digital financial assets, buy the ones available on the platform and also conduct other transactions.
All of this was in accordance with the current legislation applicable in Russia, which is known as ‘On Digital Financial Assets’ that had been implemented in January last year.
DFAs will be listed on the Moscow Exchange by the end of the year. Popov said that NFTs do have a demand, even if it is still limited.
He also noted that Russians have been using foreign platforms for placing digital assets. He highlighted that the launch of NFTs would raise numerous questions that need to be answered.
This includes the content that these non-fungible tokens (NFTs) represent.
There is no comprehensive regulation that currently exists for cryptocurrencies in Russia, as the law is only applicable to coins with an issuer.
The coming months will see a new law by the name of ‘On Digital Currency’ scheduled for review in the lower house of Russian parliament called the State Duma.
Even though most government institutions are agreed upon the fact that the only legal tender in the country should be the Russian ruble, there have been increasing calls of legalizing DFAs as well, particularly for foreign trade.


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Samsung unveiled a new smartwatch and fitness band along with the latest version of its Galaxy smartphone on Monday, demonstrating how the battleground for innovation is shifting from the hand to the wrist.
The world’s biggest smartphone maker set a trend less than six months ago for wearable devices that link to mobile handsets with its Galaxy Gear watch, which has seen rivals like Sony and Huawei follow in its wake.
The switch in focus also underlines the challenges the South Korean firm is facing. Low-price Chinese rivals are churning out products that look increasingly similar at a time when smartphone sales have started to ease, taking a toll on Samsung’s earnings.
To fight back, Samsung is taking a less glitzy marketing approach to control costs. It has also performed a U-turn, abandoning its previous heavy focus on sweeping hardware improvements to highlight more subtle features in its devices and accessories in a bid to appeal to a wider audience.
“With the Galaxy S5, Samsung is going back to basics,” JK Shin, co-chief executive and president of Samsung’s mobile business, told an audience of Samsung employees, partners and media at the annual Mobile World Congress technology trade show in Barcelona. Samsung will roll out the S5 globally on April 11, with pricing details yet to be disclosed. – Reuters


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Kellogg’s is axing Ricicles as part of a wider move to drastically reduce the amount of sugar in its children’s products.
The cereals giant is cutting sugar by 20-40 per cent in Coco Pops, Rice Krispies, and Rice Krispies Multi-Grain shapes, while also putting a stop to on-pack promotions aimed at kids on Frosties.
The i newsletter latest news and analysis
The changes will come into force by the middle of 2018. The company’s decision to ditch Ricicles entirely is already proving unpopular.
In recent years, health groups and the government have put pressure on food manufacturers to cut sugar levels in a bid to tackle growing obesity in the UK.
Kellogg’s UK’s managing director Oli Morton told Radio 5 Live’s Wake Up To Money podcast on Thursday morning that “consumers are asking for a healthier way to start the day”.
Morton added: “Taste and health have to go hand in hand.”
More can be done
Nutritionist Dr Anna Robins, from the University of Salford, welcomed the move and told the BBC that anything helping the public to make healthier choices is “a positive step”.
But she thinks more can be done: “I don’t think they’re going far enough to be making these cereals a healthy option in the morning,” she added.
Sugar in Rice Krispies is set to be cut by 20 per cent per serving, while Multi Grain Shapes will see a 30 per cent decrease.
Coco Pops will have a new recipe by July 2018. A 30g serving of the breakfast cereal will contain 5.1g of sugar, which compares to 9g currently.
Kellogg’s said in a statement: “This is following a reduction of 14 per cent earlier this year, meaning that from 2017 to 2018, it will have halved the sugar in Coco Pops.”


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U.S.D.A. reverses Tyson antibiotic-free label approval
November 20, 2007
by Bryan Salvage
SPRINGDALE, ARK. ― In June, Tyson Foods, Inc. announced it would produce all of its branded fresh chicken from birds raised without antibiotics. The company further planned to promote the antibiotic-free birds as part of a $70 million advertising campaign. But Tyson Foods suffered a setback when The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had notified Tyson that it made a mistake when it approved the "raised without antibiotics" label.
In a letter dated Nov. 6, the U.S.D.A. gave the company 45 days to change its label or adjust the feed rations it provides its chickens. This reversal occurred after the U.S.D.A. realized Tyson’s feeding regimen includes compounds called ionophores, which long have been considered to be an antibiotic by the agency.
"The Tyson labels at issue were thus approved in error," the U.S.D.A. letter said.
In a statement issued on Nov. 19, Tyson Foods said it remained committed to its "Raised without Antibiotics" chicken program.
"We stand by the truthfulness of our product labels and remain fully committed to our ‘Raised without Antibiotics’ chicken program," Tyson said. "We also expect no disruption in service to our customers."
Tyson further explained that it has been in discussion with U.S.D.A. officials on the best way to resolve this matter, and it has submitted modified labeling the company hopes will be approved soon.
"The additional wording states no ingredients have been used that could create antibiotic resistance in humans," Tyson said.
"We do not believe ionophores are antibiotics," Tyson contended. "The F.D.A. is the agency Congress has authorized to regulate animal drugs and it specifically excludes ionophores from the list of animal drugs deemed as antibiotics.
"Ionophores are recognized and approved by the federal government as a safe feed ingredient. They’re permitted in chicken feed as a preventive measure against coccidiosis, an intestinal illness, and are in a different class than antibiotics."


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New Jersey regulators reportedly won’t make Saturday’s statutory deadline to begin accepting adult-use marijuana business license applications for the projected $1 billion market.
But they plan to publish a public notice that lists an application start date and the information an applicant will need to submit an application, NJ.com reported.
Regulators intend to provide businesses a clear picture of what materials they will need to submit an application so they can prepare to do so before the licensing round is opened.
The online news outlet noted that such a process could provide a more equitable opportunity for smaller entrepreneurs who likely won’t have the application assistance that larger companies can afford.
“It doesn’t mean we’re not going to open up applications soon,” an unidentified commission source told NJ.com.
New Jersey met its statutory August deadline to adopt initial program rules, starting a 180-day clock to announce a program launch date.
It’s unclear whether a more deliberate application process might delay the launch of New Jersey’s recreational marijuana market.
MJBizDaily projects New Jersey’s adult-use market will generate annual sales of $850 million-$950 million by 2024.
Sales appear likely to start around the spring of 2022, unless medical marijuana operators are given a head start.
Supply could be a problem in transitioning to an adult-use market, experts have said.
New Jersey has issued only 12 vertical medical marijuana licenses. Eleven are in operation, and a total of 22 dispensaries are open statewide, according to the state health department’s MMJ website.
State lawmakers in 2019 approved an additional 24 MMJ licenses, but that licensing was blocked by litigation.
A court ruling earlier this year freed up the licensing round, but regulators reportedly are reviewing around 150 applications.


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Having a Hurricane start off your week, especially when it’s a tech news week is very difficult to deal with, so hopefully everyone out there is safe and we can get back in to covering everything we love. Hurricane Sandy derailed Googles plans for a large press event on Monday but that did not stop the official launch of three new devices and an update to Android.
Google Announces New Nexus Device Lineup0
About the Author
Editor in Chief of Techstify.com. I've been building Techstify out of passion both for technology trends, and innovations along with gaming. If I'm not working you'll find me here trying to keep up with all the latest and greatest in phones, games, and computing, or on Xbox Live. I'm a nerd, I'm a tech junkie, I'm a gamer.


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Britain-based online streaming provider Eleven Sports Network will be taking the English Premier League off its menu from June 17.
The Eleven Plus channel, which has been carrying EPL content, will also removed from its suite of channels.
According to documents seen by ST, Eleven’s popular $19.90-a-month package will be reduced to $9.90. The new package will be renamed Eleven Sports Value Plan.
The new package will feature either MUTV or Chelsea TV in the place of the EPL. The new package will retain other existing sports content including Italian Serie A, Emirates FA Cup, NBA basketball and European, South American Fifa World Cup qualifiers.
Subscribers will be given the option to convert to the new plan, or cancel their subscription with a pro-rated refund.
Eleven’s $19.90-a-month package, which was no longer on sale on its website, allows users to watch three live EPL games and three delayed telecasts to be shown per week on its website at elevensports.sg or via the Eleven Sports app. Users however have to commit to a year-long contract. Customers can also pay $24.90 a month without contract.
Eleven’s decision to drop EPL from its offering means that the prized EPL content will now only be available on one pricing option.
Singtel has the exclusive EPL broadcast rights in Singapore for three seasons from last year (2016), offering all the matches live for $59.90 a month. StarHub cross carries the exact offer on its pay-TV platform as Singapore’s authorities require exclusive content to be shared.
Last year, Singtel sub-licensed parts of its exclusive rights to screen EPL matches here to Eleven, in what was reported as a multi-year deal. For the first time in years, EPL matches could be sold in smaller a-la-carte packages at a much lower price.
Eleven’s content is also resold by Internet service providers (ISPs) StarHub, M1 and ViewQwest, and national broadcaster MediaCorp’s Toggle.
M1 and ViewQwest have stopped selling Eleven’s selection of EPL matches. Meanwhile, StarHub and Toggle were still offering Eleven’s EPL plan on Friday (May 26).
- The Lorry – Expert movers and transporters in Singapore from $40 - November 28, 2018
- Singapore Customs warns of scam calls from its fax number asking for payment - October 26, 2017
- Ed Sheeran confirms his Singapore shows will carry on as planned - October 26, 2017


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Need to Know
- Amazon One will let people use their palm to contactlessly issue payments, present a loyalty card, or enter a venue.
- Amazon will be implementing the devices at Amazon Go stores; the device could later be used at the POS stations of third-party retailers.
- The company says palm recognition is more secure than other biometric alternatives, such as facial recognition, as it does not reveal the identity.
- Those who want to use Amazon One can sign up in less than a minute at participating Amazon Go stores by scanning their palm and inserting a credit card.
Amazon has upped the ante in the world of contactless payments, announcing a new device, Amazon One, that will allow users to issue payments, collect loyalty card points, and enter buildings by scanning the palm of their hand.
Amazon One is a small device with space for a card to be inserted, and a scanner above which a user’s palm is held. In order to sign up for the palm-scanning service, users need to insert a credit card and hover their palm over the device’s scanner, in order to associate their biometric identity with their credit card number, which will enable secure payments. According to a press release announcing Amazon One, this process takes roughly a minute. Users of Amazon One don’t need to be Amazon account-holders; all they need is a credit card, phone number, and…well, a palm.
In the press release announcing Amazon One, Amazon says it chose palm recognition because it is more private than biometric alternatives—such as facial recognition, for instance—”because you can’t determine a person’s identity by looking at an image of their palm.” Palm images are not stored on an Amazon One device, but instead are encrypted and sent to a secure, custom-built area in the cloud. Amazon believes that, in addition to this, the fact that a user must make an intentional gesture (holding out their palm) to access the service puts customers in full control of when they use Amazon One.
Amazon One is currently available at two Amazon Go stores in Seattle, where interested users can sign up for the service and use it to enter those stores. Amazon says it plans to make Amazon Go available to third-party retailers interested in using the technology alongside their existing point-of-sale systems, in addition to incorporating payment and loyalty card capabilities into Amazon Go stores in the future.
Amazon has been working on “cashierless” technology since at least March of this year when it unveiled a concept called Just Walk Out. That technology, which Amazon made available to small retailers at the time, enabled customers to enter a store by swiping a credit card, after which a series of cameras, sensors, and deep learning tracks what items they put into a shopping cart. The consumer can then, as the name implies, just walk out of the store without the need to see a cashier.


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Last week The Gossip dropped their new single, “Perfect World," with a video detailing the lyrics.
Now, the actual video has been released and it’s a visual love poem to Beth Ditto and her powers as a vocalist.
It seems like everyone is releasing “lyrics” videos for their singles. Cee-Lo Green used it to full effect a while back with "Fuck You." Now the Scissor Sisters have used this format to release their new single, produced by Calvin Harris and Alex Ridha, aka Boys Noize. It’s a mix of glam, filter disco and synth silliness. Not a bad way to whet appetites for new Scissor Sisters material.


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AFTER suffering double-digit losses due to the pandemic, the government has decided to reduce export projections for up to 2022 by a fifth to $103.9 billion, from the original $130 billion.
In a statement on Sunday, Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez announced his agency’s decision to bring down the medium term export targets set under the Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) 2018-2022. From a range between $130 billion and $122 billion, exports of goods and services are now just expected to reach $103.9 billion by 2022.
“Given that the Covid-19 disrupted several business models, it will be difficult to achieve our pre-pandemic targets; hence, we had to adjust our projections based also on the various inputs from our industry stakeholders,” Lopez explained.
According to Lopez, the decision to trim export figures was caused by a weakened demand for goods. Overall, he said travel items, garments and wood products were hit the most because of the change in consumer appetite and decrease in production.
“The new projection can also be viewed as a fighting target for DTI [Department of Trade and Industry], given the challenges of the pandemic and the emergence of new strains, and given that this is higher than the $86 billion set by the Development Budget Coordination Committee,” the trade chief added.
Based on the DTI’s forecast, shipments of goods and services will dip by 14.7 percent to $80.5 billion in 2020, then grow by 12.4 percent to $90.5 billion in 2021; and then expand by nearly 15 percent to $103.9 billion in 2022. The DTI’s Export Marketing Bureau reviewed the numbers as sought by Lopez to accommodate changes in the business environment.
Electronic products will continue to make up for more than half of merchandise exports, as the industry assumes a 7-percent growth for 2021.
On the other hand, services exports will be carried much by the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry. The sector is staring at a 3.5-percent growth for 2021 on the upswing in demand for health information, content development and creative outputs.
For Lopez, the export sector can rebound in the next two years if firms take advantage of the tax perks offered by the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act, as well as the extension of privileges in the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, or Bayanihan 2.
The CREATE Act lowers the corporate tax rate to 25 percent, from 30 percent, which used to be the highest in Southeast Asia. On the other hand, it reforms the menu of fiscal incentives from which investors choose from when locating in the Philippines.
“A whole-of-nation approach and a stronger support to the private manufacturing and services industries and academe collaboration are needed to work on achieving the fighting targets set,” Lopez concluded.


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According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization SEMPO, Video and mobile search is “sparking the interest of North American search engine marketers but they want to pay the same, or less, for these largely untested platforms, as they do for traditional search, according to the annual industry survey conducted by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), www.sempo.org. For the first time, SEMPO has collected data on the business potential of targeted video and mobile search advertising.”
Here’s more from the recent SEMPO press release today:
The State of Search Engine Marketing 2006
According to the survey results, two in five respondents say they want to pay the same for video search as they pay for traditional search advertising. Another 13% say they want to pay less than for traditional search. Of the remainder who have some willingness to pay a premium, most would prefer to pay 20% or less as a premium.
SEMPO reports 66% of the respondents say they would be interested in contextually targeted advertising attached to video search results. However there is much more interest in video advertising attached to video search results as opposed to strictly text-based contextual ads. Some 53% say they are interested in video ads compared to 33% who indicated an interest in text only.
There is even greater reluctance to pay a premium for mobile search. The SEMPO survey reports that almost half of the respondents will not pay any premium for mobile search. Almost 25% say they prefer to pay less for mobile search than for traditional search. Similar to video search, of those who are open to a premium, 20% is the cap.
The SEMPO report also shows 60% of the respondents are interested in contextually targeted advertising delivered to mobile search users.
The reluctance to hike budgets for video and mobile search reflects the industry’s trend toward an overall pricing plateau, based on survey respondent feedback. SEMPO’™s survey found that 25% of the respondents reported they had reached their pricing ceiling for paid placement, and of the remaining 75%, half said the most they could afford in a price increase was 30% or less.
“These numbers make sense,” says Kevin Lee, member of the Board of Directors of SEMPO and chair of its Research Committee. “They show that the search engine marketing industry has become more sophisticated, and thus keyword efficiency is at an all-time high.”However, Lee notes, the industry continues to grow, as evidenced by SEMPO’s report which shows advertisers spent $9.4 billion on search engine marketing (SEM) in 2006, a 62% increase over 2005 spending. SEMPO researchers also estimate SEM spending to double by 2011, at an aggregate total of $18.6 billion.
Speaking to the video and mobile search data, Lee says, “An emerging type of new media where no one wants to pay. Where have we heard that before? Cable TV, the first three years of PPC search ““ these frontier technologies all experienced initial skepticism in the marketplace. Now they are part of the essential fabric of our economy. Video and mobile search will go through the same evolution.”
SEMPO’™s report, “The State of Search Engine Marketing 2006,”is based on an industrywide survey of 587 respondents — both agency and in-house advertisers — conducted in November and December 2006 by Radar Research, LLC and Intellisurvey. The report includes data on spending trends in paid placement, paid inclusion, organic search engine optimization (SEO) and SEM technology platforms.


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OPINION: John R. Smith
“This is a deep clash of cultures,” said the TV Talking Head. He’s referring to the U.S./China trade war. He’s right, but too many Americans don’t understand what’s at stake.
This is a deadly serious contest between one nation that acts in good faith and one that doesn’t. This trade war is not new, it’s been waged for 30 years. China has never lived up to its commitments, since at least 2001. The Sleeping Dragon can’t feed all of its people and needs U.S. food, and yet it engages in unfair trade practices, harming the U.S.
Our country needs a major re-set in nearly all global trade agreements, which have turned into a series of chronic disasters for us. Over the decades the trade deficits have eaten away at our GDP and economic growth. The 2.9% GDP in 2018 would have been 4% if trade had been neutral and not unbalanced. And the U.S.’s biggest bogeyman is China and its communist dictators.
Global politics is full of scoundrels and liars. This includes the “diplomats” as well as the countries they represent. Most of these emissaries are smug, professional liars in expensive suits. Making it worse, international groups of nations, like the U.N., the World Trade Organization, and the International Court are infamous for coddling violent dictators, human rights violators, and banana republics. But not many nations conduct themselves more egregiously than China.
China has been manhandling America for decades on trade, stealing U.S. technology and intellectual property, patent violations, manipulating their own currency while the incompetent Washington establishment lets them do it–people like Chuck Schumer, a guy who’s been in Congress for 39 years and has done bupkis to stop Chinese thievery, whether his party was in power or not. Or Joe Biden’s financial misdealings benefitting his son.
Enter Donald Trump.
Trump quickly saw that China is “dumping”, paying dirt-cheap wages to Chinese workers and shipping their products to other world countries, including America, at prices that are cheaper than the prices in their domestic markets. This wipes out thousands of jobs in other countries and causes negative trade balances. Trump said “No more”, and launched a new ball game that compels China and other countries to re-negotiate trade prices. Trump imposed tariffs, to force countries to the negotiating table to unwind unfair trade deals.
Trump has already re-negotiated trade agreements with several nations. This happened after the other countries tried to test Trump over his tariff sanctions, but they learned quickly that the president negotiates by sticking to his guns, not bluffing. The other nations already had tariffs on us, so Trump insisted on two-way tariffs if tariffs must exist at all. Other countries wanted only one-way tariffs, but Trump stopped those lopsided deals and now collects tariff revenues from countries taxing us. For example, as one pundit explained, “Germany charges us a 10% tariff to sell American cars in Germany but Germany pays only 2.5% to sell cars to us.” Trump ended that kind of unfair imbalance by creating fairer playing fields for America.
China, not Russia, is the most significant longer-term threat to the U.S. China wants to position itself as the sole dominant superpower, the global hegemon. It seeks to replace America in that role. As such, China is the real long-term enemy of this country.
Our country’s Trump-haters are complaining that the tariffs are only hurting America’s consumers and companies; they say China will increase its prices to us, to pay the tariffs.
Not so fast. That isn’t playing out across the board.
Owners of many American businesses are simply refusing to pay 10% to 25% more for China’s tariffs on its products. Instead, American companies demand that Chinese factories lower their prices, or American businesses will find other factories or another country to buy from. In China, “shipping quotas are more important than profitability” and the factories MUST maintain output levels (remember, it’s a communist country). This threat by American companies to yank their orders heaps huge pressures on Chinese manufacturers, so the Chinese are lowering prices left and right. Our tariffs are working. Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury has collected $63 billion in tariffs from other countries, during the last year!
Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of BizPac Review.
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RAC calls for fairer fuel prices after seventh monthly rise
Fuel prices increased for the seventh consecutive month in May 2021, according to the RAC Fuel Watch, returning to levels last seen before the first lockdown.
Average prices for unleaded increased by 2.24p/litre in May, reaching 129.27p/litre – higher than it was in January 2020. Increases were similar for diesel, which was up 1.95p/litre to a 131.59p/litre nationwide average and within 1p/litre of prices at the start of 2020.
In each case, this equates to roughly an £8 increase to fill a 55-litre fuel tank. Based on fuel efficiency figures used by HM Revenue and Customs to set AMAP rates, a mid-size petrol car would cost 1.6p/mile more to run than it did six months ago, and a diesel 1.2p/mile.
Prices vary significantly by location. Drivers filling at a supermarket forecourt – where 60% of fuel is now sold, according to the RAC – will pay 124.83p for petrol and diesel 127.36p, saving around 4p/litre compared to the national average. In stark contrast, motorway service area forecourt averages were 146.78p/litre for petrol and 149.9p/litre for diesel.
RAC fuel spokesperson, Simon Williams, urged retailers not to “take advantage of drivers” and to “fairly reflect” wholesale prices. Oil producers had curbed supply due to lower demand during periods where travel has been restricted, he added, but this has increased as people start to drive more.
“As always, the future of fuel prices is hard to predict more than a few weeks in advance and even more so now as the pandemic appears to have altered the dynamics of fuel retailing, with the supermarkets having an even greater stranglehold on the market,” Williams explained.
“Looking at the wholesale price of both fuels, in normal circumstances unleaded definitely shouldn’t be continuing to rise with the numbers actually pointing to the potential for a 2p reduction. And diesel is currently 4p too expensive which suggests retailers are using the saving in the wholesale price to help make up for lower fuel sales over the last year.”
Regional prices (p/litre) are as follows:
|Yorkshire and the Humber||125.92||128.09||2.17|
|Yorkshire and the Humber||129.05||131.09||2.04|


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Apple will likely announce the new line of iPads and iPods next month. At least that’s what the rumors say, and it makes sense as it’s the usual Apple announcement season.
The rumor is that Apple will host an event on October 15 in which it will announce the new tablets. We expect to see the iPad 5 and its thinner bezel alongside a Retina-equipped iPad mini. This is also likely when Apple will announce release dates for the new Mac Pro and any of its other devices or computers due for an upgrade.
That said, the original source, MacGeneration, is known for being hit or miss. It’s not always right, but it’s not always wrong. Still, the device is due for an upgrade this year, and October would be one of the best times. Unless Apple aims for very early November, which is possible, but cutting it close to the holiday season.
Regardless, it seems more like a guess based on Apple’s past announcement schedule.


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Executives at the troubled Japanese auto maker are looking at future product plans and determining which vehicles to build and which to scuttle.
Those decisions could determine whether (See related story: Global Engine Saves DC $100 Million)fulfills its engine volume commitment to Dundee, or whether the plant will have to look elsewhere to take up the slack, Bruce Coventry, president of GEMA, tells Ward’s during an interview at the Management Briefing Seminar here.
GEMA operates the plant as part of a joint venture between Mitsubishi, DaimlerChrysler AG andMotor Co. Ltd. Coventry acknowledges Mitsubishi is studying whether it will take the full 15% capacity allocation it has reserved at the plant.
GEMA President Bruce Coventry
“They (Mitsubishi) are in the midst of trying to go through top to bottom assessment of their product program,” Coventry says.
“We’ve been working very closely with them to try to look at what options there are available (in terms of volume changes). What they have been looking for are potential options. At this point, I think it’s probably too early to say whether or not that is going to be the case.”
Coventry says Mitsubishi is not considering scrapping its involvement in GEMA, but rather whether it needs to delay achieving full engine capacity at the plant.
Regardless of the decision, Coventry says the auto maker has a contractual obligation to take the 15% volume allotment, and that the contract will be enforced.
“It’s just like our Tritec plant with(AG in Brazil),” he says. “We’re not taking our full volume there, but we have an obligation, just like Mitsubishi has a contractual obligation here. They’re signed up for a percentage of the volume, and contractually they are obligated to take that.”
All the same, GEMA is considering alternatives in the event Mitsubishi does make radical changes in its engine volumes.
“One scenario is that Mitsubishi’s volume goes down – certainly not to zero – but goes down,” Coventry says. “Another scenario is thatwould come in and offset that volume with the need to take engines for its Montgomery (AL) plant. Another scenario is that we (DC) could always increase our capacity reservation or could take more engines on a year-by-year basis.”
Additionally, GEMA is studying the possibility of selling engines to an outside auto maker to make up any potential volume losses.
Coventry says it would be “premature” to outline any initial discussions broached with potential third parties at this time, although he admits there have been some discussions with DC’s Mercedes-Benz unit.
“We (GEMA and Mercedes are looking) at all options,” he says. “The product program is being assessed on an annual basis, and it’s looking across the globe. We look at any potential applications at this point.”
One stumbling block could be engine size. GEMA is set up to produce engines ranging from 1.8L to 2.4L, which Coventry says may not be suitable for Mercedes vehicles.
However, as Mercedes looks to expand its entry-level lineup in the U.S. with the all-new A-Class and other models, GEMA’s engines could be the answer.


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In view of recent public announcements at the CES show by GOogle and Yahoo, the content distribution landscape is going to be shaken up over the next few years, with the Web juggernauts of Google-Yahoo-MSN-iTunes snapping away at the huge profit pie that Hollywood studios had dominated for decades. Sad thing for the studios is, there’s not much they can do to prevent their demise, because they simple didn;t get IT fast enough.
Whats “IT”? Its the digital revoultion, spearheaded by the Internet medium as the most efficient distribution channel of the products of these Hollywood studios – their movies, documentaries, short films, cartoons and any other copyrighted content they have been naively protecting through MPAA these couple of years.
Online P2P file-sharing or the “Napster Effect”, heralded a shift in consumer needs for media content. Consumers did not really want it free, their primary objective for downloading illegal music was not because of a conscious (or criminal) intent to steal copyrighted content. No, all they wanted was the media file, anytime, anywhere. They were still the same type of customers that the Hollywood studios have been targetting for decades. But the key difference was: they had new tools — the Computer and the Internet. The Hollywood stiffs didn;t get that, they thought this new breed of downloaders was DA ENEMY, hence, they railed and fumed with fire and brimstone at every opportunity at them, bringing upon tsunamis of lawsuits in a futile attempt to stem the ever-growing tide of illegal media downloaders through the digital universe. Napster died, then Kazaa came, Grokster, Bittorrent, Aries, eDonkey.. the list never stops… Digital democracy is here to stay, like it or not, the tech-punks from Silicon Valley (SV) have crossed over from their hardware-software wizardry to create disruption in the Internet services realm. SV is the savior to the consumers, the same old customers that Hollywood thought they had wrapped up in their vaults for centuries to come and were worth gadzillions in future revenue.
It took a tech-punk in the form of Apple’s Steve Jobs with iTunes to make Hollywood sit up from their delusional bubbles of reality that music and movie lovers were not evil at all. NO, they still wanted the same content and were willing to pay for it. This must have been a seismic moment for them. Rupert Murdoch, ever the opportunist, jumped right on the bandwagon with the re-organization of FOX, creating an interactive media unit that would explore and push the frontiers of distributing their content over the Internet. Of course, they also bought MySpace, a popular social network, that would bring them into control over a major piece of virtual Internet estate that has millions of users returning everyday for snippets of gossip, music, some video and whatsnot.
We know the story later, iTunes paired up with Disney and ABC. The tipping point was reached. Fools rushed in. CBS, NBC, WB all frantically signed their deals with the technoracy, signing away lucrative deals that also ceded away property they used to own exclusively. Its just a moment of time before the movie studios begin selling their content online. There’s always Google Video Store or iTunes or whatever will arrive to shake up the industry in a few years time. Change will now pervade through the Jurassic-esque Hollywood circles. Welcome to the tech revolution and its tumultous cycles that gave us the 2001 tech bust! What dominates today, such as Google and Apple, may dramatically wither and fall in the next decade. Look at the fumbling juggernaut that is Microsoft scramble in the wake of tech heir-apparent Google’s meteoric rise to power.
The digital revolution is not complete yet, we still have not conquered the mobile realm, where Internet is freely available on handheld devices that frees humans from wires, clunky desktops/ laptops.
Welcome to the Brave New World, powered by Silicon Valley and Goodbye to the Hollywood Zombies.
Was reading this article.


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New York (AFP) – A well-kept Mickey Mantle baseball card sold for $12.6 million on Sunday, spreading through exploit books as the most paid interprétations memorabilia ever in a market that has grown exponentially in recent years.
The inhabituel scarf card broke the exploit published a few months ago – $9.3 million for the shirt worn by Diego Maradona. When he scored the controversial “Balle à la main of God” gardien de but in the 1986 FIFA World Cup.
She easily topped $7.25 million for a century-old Honus Wagner baseball card that was recently sold in a private nauséabond.
And just last month, Muhammad Ali regained his heavyweight boxing belt During 1974, “Rumble in the Jungle” sold for emboîture $6.2 million.
They are all fragment of a thriving interprétations collectibles market.
Prices went up not only for inhabituel items, but also for pieces that might have been gathering dust in garages and attics. Many of these items are offered on calciner auction sites such as eBay, while others are put up for auction by auction houses.
Bicause of its near-perfect situation and legendary theme, the Mantle Card was destined to be a bestseller, said Chris Ivey, director of interprétations auctions at Heritage Auctions, which ran the bidding.
Some have seen the collectibles as a way to hedge against augmentation over the past two years, he said, while others have rekindled childhood feelings.
Ivy said savvy investors have seen augmentation heading into the future — as it has. As a result, interprétations memorabilia has become an occasion to traditional Wall Street investments or real estate—particularly among members of Generation X and older millennials.
“Only many viewers of Netflix and ‘Tiger King’ can watch it (during the pandemic). Ivey, who has noticed a spike in calls between potential sellers, said:
Add to that the interest from wealthy collectors overseas and you have a host of factors that made interprétations collectibles particularly attractive, Ivy said.
We’re kind of starting to see some growth and some price hike which has led to some media coverage. And I think all of this is all just kind of immeuble on itself,” he said. “I would say the start of the pandemic really added gasoline to that fire.”
Before the pandemic, the interprétations memorabilia market was valued at more than $5.4 billion, according to a 2018 Forbes conversation with David Yuken, founder of Collectable.com.
By 2021, that market has grown to $26 billion, according to research firm Market Decipher, which expects the market to grow astronomically to $227 billion within a decade — spurred in fragment by the emergence of so-called NFTs, Or non-fungible tokens, which are quantitatif holdings with exclusif data-encoded fingerprints.
Plaisirs cards were particularly in demand, as people spent more time at maison and had the opportunity to dig through potential treasures of childhood memories, including old comic books and small stacks of gum cards featuring marquee interprétations stars.
The temptation to make money from something that might have been in a childhood vault has been irresistible, according to Stephen Fischler, founder of ComicConnect, who has watched the increasing — and profitability — of collectibles traded across auction houses.
“In caleçon, the world of modern card interprétations has been crazy,” he said.
The Mantle baseball card dates back to 1952 and is widely considered one of a handful of baseball legends in near-perfect situation.
The auction made a huge rapport for Anthony Giordano, a waste conduite électrode from New Sous-vêtements who bought it for $50,000 at a New York City fair in 1991.
“Jaguar I hit 10 million, I just turned in. I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore,” Giordano, 75, said Sunday morning. His sons watched his auction. “They stayed up and called me this morning bright and early to tell me he’s got to where he is.”
The card was one of dozens of interprétations collectibles up for auction. In all, the items have raised emboîture $28 million, according to Derek Grady, executive licence president of interprétations auctions at Heritage Auctions.
“Plaisirs collectibles are finally getting their due as an investment,” Grady said. “The best interprétations items are now beginning to compete with artwork, inhabituel coins and inhabituel artifacts as a great investment vehicle.”
He was a knockout mantle who won the Triple Crown in 1956, a three-time NBA Most Valuable Player and a seven-time world virtuose. The Fenil of Famer passed away in 1995.
“Some people might say it’s just a baseball card. Who cares? It’s just Picasso. It’s just Rembrandt to other people. It’s an artistic thing for some people,” said John Holden, a professor at Oklahoma State Plaisirs Chemin Law and interprétations card collector.
Like pieces of art that have no intrinsic value, he said, when it comes to interprétations cards, their value is in the eye of the beholder — or in the pocket of a potential bidder.
“Value is whatever the market is willing to pilier,” Holden said.
Follow Bobby Caina Calvan on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BobbyCalvan


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In China, Two Cities Mirror Blockchain-Bitcoin Divide
Beijing and Shanghai, China’s two most populous and developed cities, are often reminiscent of two siblings. They are similar, but each has its own distinct character.
In this light, some rivalry is as inevitable, and it’s now spilling over into the country’s blockchain industry.
In Beijing, visitors are likely to meet “bitcoin maximalists”, those who shrug at the idea an alternative blockchain or bank consortium could challenge the network effect of a $10bn digital economy. In Shanghai, the difference of attitude is pronounced – there, you are more likely to be told that bitcoin is pass.
Metaverse, a company based in the Shanghai’s Huangpu district, is in many ways representative of the city’s new blockchain startups.
Relatively unknown even in its home country, Metaverse has over 20 employees – no small feat for a blockchain startup that has been around for less than a year, and it recently held a blockchain token crowdsale, raising over 10m within weeks.
The sight of a roomful of busy developers gives the impression the startup is onto something big – which is exactly what Eric Gu, CEO and co-founder, wanted to convey in interview. But he is also candid about his personal transition and what it says about the state of the blockchain industry.
Gu told CoinDesk:
This post was published at Coin Desk on October 16, 2016.


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Carl von Clausewitz was famed for his adage that war is the continuation of politics by other means. This week at Paris Photo and in multiple photo exhibitions, photography is the continuation of politics by other means.
The creative director of Louis Vuitton’s womenswear has distanced himself on Instagram from the US president, after the latter inaugurated with Bernard Arnault a factory operated by the French luxury label in Texas.
President Donald Trump will this week visit a new Louis Vuitton facility in Texas, which is being bolstered by local government financing, underlining his close relationship with Bernard Arnault, Europe’s richest man.
LVMH unveiled a major new plan on the environment Wednesday, guided by Antoine Arnault. Here, FashionNetwork.com discusses with Antoine all things LVMH, handling multiple jobs and his views on Greta Thunberg.
The Council of Fashion Designers of America, American fashion’s governing body, has announced the nomination of four new members to its board in the latest managerial move by its new chairman Tom Ford.
U.S. retailer Walmart Inc reported strong second-quarter results and raised its earnings expectations for the year, temporarily sidestepping concerns around consumer demand in the wake of tariffs on imports from China.
Macy’s cut its full-year earnings forecast on Wednesday after missing estimates for quarterly profit for the first time in at least two years, as it discounted merchandise heavily to clear spring inventory.
Levi Strauss & Co has been "deliberate and diligent" in moving production out of China because of uncertainty hanging over tariffs on goods imported from China, Chief Executive Officer Chip Bergh said.