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When the first consumer drones debuted at the Consumer Electronics show in 2010, no one knew they would take off. But according to the Consumer Technology Association, more than 2.4 million personal drone units were sold in 2016, and sales are only expected to climb in the years to come. Business Insider, for example, projects sales will pass $12 billion in 2021.
After their introduction and wide acceptance from hobbyists, drone technology immediately began filtering into industries such as agriculture, media and law enforcement. It was only a matter of time before they made their way to the pool and spa industry for their ability to take aerial pictures of pools.
"When we're designing pools and backyards and home resorts, we're always drawing a plot plan or top view," says Scott Cohen, president of The Green Scene Landscaping & Pools (Chatsworth, Calif.). "We're showing the client the top view, but we never actually get to see that house from above like that. A drone, though, changes everything. Now we can see it from above. We can capture the photographs of a project or a video that we could never get without a drone."
Video courtesy of Custom Design Pools & Landscaping
Getting People Talking
Cohen isn't the only pool builder to use drones for his work. David Owens of Owens Pools (Junction City, Ore.) brings his drone to photograph clients' properties before, during and after construction. Using it in the early stages of the design process, he says, can provide valuable images to assist in CAD designs while also stoking the customers' excitement — an essential element of the homeowner/designer relationship.
"Really, it's just for fun for the customers. They like seeing their house from above and seeing overhead shots of us working. The drone flying over seems to get everyone pretty excited when I show up with it."
And, of course, drone footage yields captivating social media fodder.
"Right now, we have film students that work with us part-time and photograph projects for us on completion," Cohen says. "Then they create a video for the project before and after [construction]. We use that to post on our social media and our website."
While drones have much to offer industry pros, they come with an inherent risk: crashes. Christopher Anderson, senior designer at Custom Design Pools (Houston, Texas), learned the hard way.
"I went out and bought a drone," he says. "It was exciting, it was fun, cost me $1,200 or $1,500. Of course, I ran it into a tree and replaced it. Then one of my friends was flying it and ran it into another tree."
With a dizzying number of drones on the market, all at a wide range of price points, it can be hard to decide which one to invest in. Owens suggests starting small.
"I tell people to go out and get a small, cheap drone to start out," he says. "I got a tiny one and played with that first. It was only $5. And then I flew it and thought maybe I can get a more expensive one."
When you're ready for a more expensive device, take a look at mid-level models that offer many of the benefits of more expensive units, without the price tag.
"If you're starting out in this, you do not need the most expensive drone," Cohen says. "People get all caught up in the definition and the quality of image and that sort of thing. Some of the lower-end drones that are under $500 will still do a fine job of taking pictures and video for you. We spent $2,000 to $3,000 on the drones we purchased. And the third one I bought was about $1,200, and that $1,200 one takes quality images and quality video just as well as a $3,000 one."
Again, investing less can be a smart move initially. Cohen lost his first two drones after they each took an unexpected dip in a swimming pool. "Yeah, they don't swim well," he says with a laugh.
Owens opted for a 3DR Solo, a relatively inexpensive drone that starts at about $230 and goes up from there, depending on accessories. (Part of the appeal of the 3DR, according to Owens, is that it is designed to accommodate GoPro cameras, which are sold separately.)
"The more expensive ones are easier to fly because they use satellites to keep it in position. [The 3DR], when it's going, has eight or nine satellites to keep it in the position all the time. You control it left or right, up and down, but it's always stable, even if the wind comes up. I think that's a key feature to have opposed to one without any of that, like my micro [drone]. I took the micro one outside and lost it because it got up in the wind and it was gone. Never seeing that one again."
Rules and Restrictions
Drones are regulated by the FAA, but the regulations vary depending on the reason for flying. For instance, a drone being used for work "must undergo a pre-flight check to ensure Unmanned Aircraft Systems is in condition for safe operation" (via FAA.gov). Regardless, drones over .55 pounds must be registered through FAA and cannot be over 55 pounds. Of course, these aren't the only restrictions to consider.
"When we're flying a drone, we want to be respectful of people's privacy," Cohen says. "It's not our intention to capture anything other than the pool and backyard that we're looking to work in. FAA regulations have mostly to do with flying them safely and at lower altitudes. We have no reason to be up that high. Most of the photography we do is within 40 feet of the ground."
"The 3DR has an app that locates the area and tells you if you need to call a local airport," Owens says. "It'll come up with a phone number. If you're going to fly in that area, you have to call the tower at the airport and tell them that you're going to fly. They have to approve it. If there's no number on the airport, you're usually pretty good."
However, it's always good to play it safe. Registering for a drone license costs only $10. The consequences for violating an FAA regulation range from fines to prison sentences.
"People do stupid things with drones," Owens says. "They float to the top of a skyscraper and post it on social media. FAA finds it, and the next thing you know, they're in jail or fined. You have to careful what you do and post."
RELATED: Hot Tub Sets Flight Record!
Keep it Professional
While drones are fun and yield awesome shots, they're not a shortcut to great photography. If you're a novice with a camera, you'll still be a novice with a drone camera, meaning it may be in your best interest to bring on a professional on board to assist.
"A lot of people think drones are used to fly up really high and take a shot looking down," Anderson says. "In reality, it's actually one of the worst ways to use a drone because it doesn't portray a beautiful image in most cases."
If you have a marketing budget, consider diverting some of those funds to hiring a professional videographer, who can help not only with shooting, but also editing and polishing it for extra wow factor.
"I will say that the fun wears off as a pool builder," Anderson says. "You buy a drone, you shoot three or four jobs and the fun wears off. It's new and cool and fun and you scratch your itch and all of the sudden you put it away in a case and it doesn't come out. In the end, you didn't do very much.
"Our job is to build and design swimming pools, that's what we're good at. We need to let other people do what they're good at. In the end, the reward will be much greater."
Video courtesy of Custom Design Pools & Landscaping
Don't Do This
3 Tips For Better Drone Photography
Brett Abbott, president of Pool Builder Marketing (Austin, Texas) is teaching a course on drone photography at the 2018 Pool and Spa Show in Atlantic City. Here, he shares a sneak peek of just a few tips to keep in mind for your next drone shoot:
For more drone advice, attend Abbot's class, "Taking Better Photos and Videos with a Drone," Wednesday, Jan. 24, at 10:15 a.m. at The Pool and Spa Show in Atlantic City.


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Aluminium cup newcomer Lumi closes seeding round
Lumi, an innovative newcomer in the food and beverage packaging sector with a mission to combat the global surge in single-use plastics, has successfully closed its seed round of funding.
Lumi hopes to revolutionise the disposable beverage packaging industry with its groundbreaking product, the LumiCup – the lightest disposable and endlessly recyclable aluminium cup on the market. Founded in 2021 with a vision to combat the global surge in single-use plastic, Lumi’s innovative beverage solution offers a superior alternative to plastic cups.
Proceeds from its oversubscribed seeding round will enable Lumi to fully launch production of the LumiCup, the lightest disposable and endlessly recyclable aluminium cup on the market. Initial investors include Innovent Group, LLC, Hydra Group, LLC and Responsibly Fund, LP.
With shipments to hospitality, entertainment and travel & leisure consumers beginning in early 2024, the LumiCup is poised to disrupt the beverage packaging landscape with a environmentally conscious product available in 9 oz., 12 oz. and 16 oz. cup sizes, serving a wide variety of cold beverages.
Its cutting-edge design will make the LumiCup the most lightweight alternative to single-use plastic cups on the market, while also accommodating standard-size lids. Many of the world’s largest hospitality enterprises like hotels, airlines, festivals and specialty beverage chains rely on single-use plastic cups for lightweight convenience, affordability, and stackability. Lumi is garnering significant attention for the LumiCup product line because it is the best alternative for customers seeking the same benefits while eliminating single-use plastic and gaining full curb-side recyclability.
Lumi will also soon introduce the first infinitely recyclable 2oz. ramekin called the “LumiKin,” designed to replace single-use plastic ramekins with a superior alternative to hold sauces, dressings and garnishes.
Kevin Diamond, co-founder and CEO of Lumi said: “Today’s announcement is a testament to our persistence, years of meticulous design engineering, and the confidence of our investors. With 10 million tons of single-use plastic waste coming from the 500 billion plastic cups sold globally every year, there is a loud and urgent call for the change we’re starting. As we gear up, we’re delighted to introduce LumiCups to a world that’s been waiting for genuine sustainability in food and beverage packaging.”

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There’s usually not a whole lot of drama in the burritos and smoothies business — well, unless one decides to order a Cajun burrito, extra spicy.
Or unless you happen to be a certain Boston-based QSR chain, starting from about 2013.
That year, the chain that was founded in 1996 under the name The Wrap saw CEO and Founder John Pepper abruptly resign from the firm after a $15 million funding round fell through. A stand-off with Boloco’s board ensued, and Pepper — by his own description — was made to walk the plank.
“I put my job on the line and issued an ultimatum to our Board and current ownership, with one of the options to accept my resignation ‘for good reason.’ I walked the proverbial plank and sadly never got to get back on our boat. Our current owners accepted my resignation and rejected the deal.”
But, as it turns out, Pepper used the term “never” a bit prematurely. Two years later, Boloco was facing even more financial difficulties and a potential sell-off at a price that its founder and CEO found insufficient.
And so, after a 20-month hiatus away from the firm — and a few rounds of rather complex legal wrangling — Pepper regained control of the firm, only to find that he was facing a lot of “harder decisions.”
Those harder decisions meant the closure of locations. Some of which were underperforming and losing money — obvious choices — others of which were extremely popular and doing just fine but were in suddenly “hot locations” that made their rents too high for reasonable profit margins. So, committed to the goal of getting Boloco back on track, stores closed, and Pepper took his lumps.
“There’s room for more good companies out there; we have to remain one of them,” he said. “Perhaps even become one of the best again.”
Flash forward about a year and a half, and Boloco appears to have turned the corner. They’re ranked as one of Fast Casual’s Top 100 Hundred Movers and Shakers, and were given a Shorty Award for Best in Customer Service.
And a customer service award really works for Boloco — because what Boloco prides itself on is creating the best customer experience out there.
“And also the best burrito. Which we also clearly do. But bad customer service can ruin any burrito — because nothing tastes good when you’re having a bad experience.”
And it was the quest to build a customer experience worthy of their burrito-craft that lead the firm to really push to include order-ahead capability in its 18 New England locations.
“Reality is that some people would prefer not to wait in any size line—ever,” said Pepper. “They don’t want to micro-manage their ingredients every visit. They want to push a few buttons, let our teams do their things, and listen for their name.”
The app-based order ahead that Boloco now utilizes removes the possibility of a sudden brain freeze — when customers forget what they want to order when they get to the front of the line and panic — because all of the customizing they want is done with a few taps on their phones.
And customers are responding — in the first few weeks of the service, the results have been encouraging. “Consumers, once they’ve used the order ahead, almost completely convert to it.”
Which isn’t to say the changeover hasn’t been challenging. Even though the technical side was fairly straightforward, and despite a lack of consumer education, this was far from an unfamiliar concept to their consumer base.
But the physical logistics for buying via mobile — and skipping the line for a direct pick-up — turned out to be somewhat harder than they initially envisioned.
But, ultimately, that has settled down. The switch was obviously the right one, according to one employee.


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Austrian-based Revo Foods announced on Facebook it will host what it believes is the ‘world’s first’ public tasting event for its 3D-printed, plant-based ‘Salmon with Attitude’ at a restaurant in Vienna on 6 March. “The future of seafood has arrived!” it wrote. “After countless of hours spent on R&D, we are happy to announce that the world’s first 3D-printed plant-based seafood is here!” The company is the result of a student project looking at ways to commercialize vegan alternatives to salmon and tuna in Europe.
Israeli plant-based meat startup Redefine Meat announced today that it has closed a $29 million Series A round of funding. The round was led by Happiness Capital and Hanaco Ventures with participation from CPT Capital, Losa Group, Sake Bosch, and K3 Ventures. This brings the total amount raised by Redefine to $35 million.
“3D bioprinting technologies, initially widely recognized in medicine, are nowadays gaining popularity in producing foods such as meat,” Yusef Khesuani, co-founder of 3D Bioprinting Solutions said in a statement announcing the KFC partnership. “In the future, the rapid development of such technologies will allow us to make 3D-printed meat products more accessible and we are hoping that the technology created as a result of our cooperation with KFC will help accelerate the launch of cell-based meat products on the market.”
“You need a 3D printer to mimic the structure of the muscle of the animal,” CEO Eshchar Ben-Shitrit told Reuters. The machines to be launched next year will be able to print 20kg an hour and eventually hundreds, at a lower cost than real meat. Founded in 2018, the company raised $6 million last year in a round led by CPT Capital, an investor in Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. Hanaco Venture Capital and German poultry group PHW also invested.
In our case, our microextrusion technology is based on an advanced strategy, borrowed from tissue engineering, which is able to biohack highly-proteic plant-based compositions and process them at the micro- and nanometric levels, to achieve products that mimic a variety of whole muscle cuts. Once scaled at industrial level with faster extruding machines, our microextrusion technology will give plant-based meat manufacturers the tools to create different textures from a wide variety of ingredients, to mimic several types of meat and seafood. In fact, traditional technologies such as low and high-moisture extrusion work well for some applications, but these methods are not ideal for mimicking all types of animal meat and fish.
Printed meat could be on European restaurant menus from next year as Israeli and Spanish firms serve up realistic beef and chicken produced from plant protein. And, within a few years, the printers are likely to be available to buy so that consumers can produce their own at home.Layers of material are built up by 3D printers until there is a solid object conforming to very precise specifications. The meat can be produced either from vegetable matter or from animal cells grown in a lab. The printer uses these raw ingredients, which come in a Nespresso-style cartridge, to build up a steak or chicken fillet that tastes like the real thing.


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- On July 20, the billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos briefly went to space.
- This November, you can own a replica model of the rocket that transported him for just $69.99.
- The ship looks familiar: "My sister has one of them in her drawer," one YouTube commenter said.
On July 20, the billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos briefly went to space in a rocket from his company, Blue Origin.
This November, you can buy a near-perfect replica of that ship. Estes Industries is selling a 1/66th scale replica of the New Shepard rocket starting at $69. It's the product of a collaboration between Blue Origin's foundation, Club for the Future, and longtime model rocket manufacturer Estes Industries.
The rocket can even be propelled about 400 feet into the sky using generic model rocket engines.
"Like the Blue Origin New Shepard, you can fly the Estes New Shepard again and again," the company's pre-order page says.
Social-media users were quick to point out that like Blue Origin's rocket, the Estes model bears a striking resemblance to a vibrator — even moreso, in fact, given the shrunken down size. As one YouTube commenter put it, "My sister has one of them in her drawer."
That the price is $69, a common reference to the sexual position of the same name, is only adding fuel to the fire.
Experts told Insider's Aylin Woodward that the phallic shape of the Blue Origin rocket was meant to maximize cabin space and stability during its return to Earth.
A more expensive "Starter Set," which costs $109, comes with everything you need to both build the rocket and propel it into the sky — a significant savings over the billions of dollars Jeff Bezos has invested in creating and funding Blue Origin.
Bezos — alongside his brother Mark, 18-year-old Oliver Daemen, and 82-year-old Wally Funk — took the New Shepard rocket created by Bezos' space company into suborbital space on the morning of July 20.
The crew enjoyed a three-minute period of weightlessness before descending back to Earth.
A live broadcast of the event captured the capsule's descent and the crew's excited reactions after having reached the edge of space and returning safely.
Check out a video featuring the model rocket right here:
Got a tip? Contact Insider senior correspondent Ben Gilbert via email (firstname.lastname@example.org), or Twitter DM (@realbengilbert). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by email only, please.


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The National Book Trust recently announced that the New Delhi World Book Fair (NDWBF) will be returning in its full physical form after a hiatus of three years. Over 30 countries and nearly 1,000 publishers and exhibitors are expected to participate in the event. The festival is set to begin on February 25.
The 30th edition of the New Delhi World Book Fair (NDWBF), which was to be held at Pragati Maidan from January 8 to 16, has been postponed amid rising Covid-19 cases in the national capital.
The closure of the Daryaganj book market has spelled profit for the book fair stalls. Some stalls are selling as many as three books for Rs 100, and book lovers, especially Daryaganj book market regulars, are making a beeline for this section
From books that inspired Hollywood, like 'Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them', to those being turned into Bollywood films, like 'The Accidental Prime Minister', readers have a wide variety to choose from at the 24th delhi book fair
From bibliophiles and schoolkids to book hoarders, the 26th edition of the World Book Fair, which began on Saturday, saw a good response over the weekend. However, visitors found a lot missing this year and said that the vibe was not the same, thanks to the reduced space in which the fair is being held due to the redevelopment at Pragati Maidan. While some visitors found the theme – environment and climate change – boring, others complained that there were very few stalls that sold books for Rs100.
The upcoming elections and a spree of political movies – some recently released and some just announced – have increased interest in political books at the New Delhi World Book Fair
For Indian history buffs or anyone who’s interested in the behind-the-scenes version of Indian politics – there are a plenty of options at the 24th delhi book fair. The booksellers at the fair say that every year, there’s a huge demand for books written by former PMs and Presidents, because they provide insights that biographies don’t. However, this year, the one person whose books have surpassed the sale of other politicians is Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The 26th edition of the World Book Fair began on Saturday and saw a good response over the weekend. However, visitors found a lot missing this year and said that the vibe was not the same.
The ongoing 23rd delhi book fair at Pragati Maidan, turned host for a number of events on Friday, including Culture and Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma visiting it fair to unveil a book titled "Ru NUTS" by author Shubha Singh.
Hundreds of book lovers visited the Times Group stall on the inaugural day of the delhi book fair, taking advantage of all the curated publications of Times Group being available under one roof.
Neither the cash crunch nor ebooks have affected crowds or sales at the ongoing World Book Fair. Not for nothing does Delhi regularly top most well-read city polls in the country.
A pavilion at the venue has a ‘selfie station’, which allows visitors to take selfies with banners mentioning the recent national campaigns of the government. Naveen Gupta, the spokesperson of the event, said, “This initiative will educate the children about the programmes of the government.”
Despite the steep price, the complete A Song Of Ice And Fire set is in high demand at the book fair, much to the surprise and delight of the sellers.
The New Delhi World Book Fair has been advanced by a month this year. The fair will commence from January 9 to January 17, 2016.
Decoding the methods and favourites of book thieves at the delhi book fair ironically, they love to lift Markus Zusak's The Book Thief !
Decoding the methods and favourites of book thieves at the delhi book fair – ironically, they love to lift Markus Zusak’s 'The Book Thief'!


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Summer may have only just started, but Apple is thinking ahead as always and has just launched its Back to School promotion for this year, according to MacRumors. The scheme offers those involved in the academic world who qualify an Apple Store gift card for $100 when they purchase a new Mac, or a $50 gift card when purchasing an iPhone or iPad.
As MacRumors notes, this year’s promotion is a little different than previously, with Apple giving out Apple Store gift cards rather than iTunes, App Store, or iBookstore gift cards as it has done in earlier years.
All Mac purchases count towards the scheme, with the exception of the Mac mini, and all iPads and iPhones currently on sale are also eligible.
The promotion runs from now until September 9, and is currently only available in the United States, but MacRumors says that Apple is also expected to launch the promotion in several other countries, including Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.


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Submitted by CNH Industrial
IVECO, the commercial vehicles brand of CNH Industrial N.V., factories in Madrid and Valladolid in Spain will manufacture protective face screens that will be donated to the health system in the cities of Madrid and Valladolid.
IVECO believes that because only together we are unstoppable, it is placing all its resources at the service of society, and is also donating medical supplies, at this time of great need.
Put simply, health personnel need our support, and it is for this reason, and in collaboration with the relevant local authorities, IVECO Valladolid has made a donation to the Government of Castilla y León of medical supplies, including masks and gloves, while IVECO Madrid has provided more than 200 masks to the Hospital de Henares.
The first protective masks have already been made available to the Madrid Agency for Social Care of the Community of Madrid and the Committee of Castilla y León.
Both factories will join their effort by using their 3D printers to produce approved protective face screens, as well as other types of mask and respirator parts with the aim of contributing to the healthcare materials which are currently needed so very much.
IVECO wants to use these initiatives to thank all of those who are doing great work on the front line in the face of the COVID-19 emergency.
Only together, we are unstoppable.
Fist Image: IVECO is putting the 3D printing capabilities of its Madrid and Valladolid factories at the service of medical personnel, by manufacturing face masks.
Second Image: IVECO is donating much needed medical supplies, including gloves and masks to the Government of Castilla y León, in Spain.
About CNH Industrial
CNH Industrial is a world-class equipment and services company. Driven by its purpose of Breaking New Ground, which centers on Innovation, Sustainability and Productivity, the Company provides the strategic direction, R&D capabilities, and investments that enable the success of its global and regional Brands. Globally, Case IH and New Holland Agriculture supply 360° agriculture applications from machines to implements and the digital technologies that enhance them; and CASE and New Holland Construction Equipment deliver a full lineup of construction products that make the industry more productive. The Company’s regionally focused Brands include: STEYR, for agricultural tractors; Raven, a leader in digital agriculture, precision technology and the development of autonomous systems; Flexi-Coil, specializing in tillage and seeding systems; Miller, manufacturing application equipment; Kongskilde, providing tillage, seeding and hay & forage implements; and Eurocomach, producing a wide range of mini and midi excavators for the construction sector, including electric solutions. Across a history spanning over two centuries, CNH Industrial has always been a pioneer in its sectors and continues to passionately innovate and drive customer efficiency and success. As a truly global company, CNH Industrial’s 37,000+ employees form part of a diverse and inclusive workplace, focused on empowering customers to grow, and build, a better world.
More from CNH Industrial


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Published on January 17th, 2011 | by Kyle Spencer, Editor
Telltale’s Jurassic Park Game Revealed
Coming off of the success of “Back to the Future”, Telltale games has begun to show screen shots and storyline details on their upcoming episodic game to GameInformer. Other companies have tried to turn the movie license into a video game and done more than butcher the license. “Universal didn’t want another dinosaur shooting game,” says Joel Dreskin, Telltale’s director of marketing. “That’s something from their side that interested them in Telltale Games as a partner for the property.”
The development team at Telltale has looked long and hard at the films and plan on following the elaborate story to detail and pace. “As far as pacing goes, there are some things that are useful from the heritage of Telltale, but creating a new experience that pays off on both the slower-paced character building moments and high tension you expect from Jurassic Park is a new direction for Telltale”. The game is expected to launch on PC and undisclosed consoles later this year. The full details can be read in the new Game Informer for February 2011.


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The wedding season is here in full glory and after two years of slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, celebrations are expected to be bigger. This is reflected in an estimate drawn up by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which expects over 32 lakh weddings will be solemnised between November 14 till December 14.
The bigger the wedding, the more the expense and keeping this in mind the CAIT estimate sees the wedding market generating trade of about Rs 3.75 lakh crore in this period.
The research shows that in Delhi alone, 3.5 lakh weddings are expected to be solemnised. Meanwhile, around 1.5 lakh weddings are estimated across Rajasthan in November, the highest in over two years, according to news agency PTI.
The boom in the wedding industry this year
According to another survey done by WeddingWire India, the Indian subsidiary of The Knot Worldwide, 42.5 percent of wedding suppliers’ monthly profits will surpass pre-pandemic figures.
The company recently conducted a wedding vendor survey with over 220 vendors. and noted that around 31 percent of vendors have increased their charges this year.
“Guest list of 100-250 is the new normal for 34 percent of couples and families. Themed and personalized weddings are emerging as the latest trends in the wedding market. Couples are also more gravitated toward sustainable options for their big day,” the survey said.
In its most recent Trend Survey, which was done in October 2022, online wedding platform Weddingz.in has recently identified new trends in the wedding business. With respect to trends, 63 percent of millennials are moving ahead with digitization and planning their weddings online rather than following the traditional route.
In spite of being mainly unorganised, a KPMG analysis titled Market Study of Online Matrimony and Marriage Services in India estimated the size of the Indian wedding market at Rs 3.68 trillion in 2016.


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A new online, culture and entertainment, guide for Dublin launched this week. Le Cool is a network of alternative city guides published around the world in cities like Barcelona, Madrid, London, Lisbon, Istanbul, Amsterdam, Budapest and Moscow every week.
The free email newsletter profiles what’s happening of note every week in gigs, culture, exhibitions, talks fashion and whatever you’re having yourself. You can sign up here.
Originally founded in 2003 by Swedish publisher RenÃ© LÃ¶nngren, Le Cool now reaches over 210,000 people every week across Europe and has expanded to offer city guide books also. Commenting on the decision to start a Dublin edition, editor Ciaran Walsh said, ‘I think it is relevant to Dublin now more than ever. We are seeing the emergence of a DIY culture whereby people are choosing to stamp their own creative claim on the city. The availability of spaces, which were previously considered out of bounds, makes it all the more challenging.
‘Le Cool is both a celebration of the best Dublin has to offer and a call to action in itself. We select between 15 to 20 events every week that we truly believe will allow people to think of more options than just going to the pub. We want to help people find postive and unique experiences in our great city.
‘These can cover everything from flea markets, table quizzes, talks, gigs, exhibitions, recitals, fashion, parties, collectives, festivals and whatever our subscribers alert us to,’ he added.
Interested contributors and artists are invited to contact firstname.lastname@example.org


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In December 2017. Crystal Palace Chairman Steve Parish unveiled ambitious plans to redevelop Selhurst Park, creating a new Crystal Palace for a new era.
Preconstruct's CGIs, animations and VR experiences were the centrepiece of the press launch, showcasing the plans which are expected to cost between £75-£100m.
Our images and online VR experience, spread like wildfire across the web and social media... BBC, Sky Sports, NBC Sports, ITV, Guardian, Telegraph, Daily Mail, The Mirror, Evening Standard.
The interactive VR tour was shown at the press launch using Samsung Gear VR mobile technology. The same tour is also available online via the link below. Click on the hotspots to tour the stadium...
The redevelopment is centred around a stunning new five-storey stand featuring an all-glass front. Described as a homage to the club’s earliest days when it stood in the shadows of the original Crystal Palace, erected on Sydenham Hill. A central vaulted arch, with the famous Eagle crest, is a reminder of the iconic 1851 Exhibition Hall, and eagle wings flank the 41-metre structure.
The project is being designed by leading stadium architects KSS, the firm behind the redevelopment of iconic sporting venues, including Anfield, Twickenham and Wimbledon. The roof of the new stand will be designed to funnel sound down to the pitch and the Arthur Wait Stand opposite.
Learn more about the project here: https://stadium.cpfc.co.uk/
To further opportunities for sharing of the VR experience, a 4k YouTube VR film was also created...
The full press launch event can be viewed here: https://www.cpfc.co.uk/news/2017/december/watch-the-selhurst-park-announcement-event-now/


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Feature – Ian Stokell’s Guide To Networking Gibberish
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1997 JUL 18 (NB) — By Ian Stokell. In this week’s column, Microsoft’s [NASDAQ:MSFT] marketing muscle, overseas revenue potential, and corporate downsizing.
In a public verification of what many people have known all along, Microsoft’s powerful marketing “big stick” was given some recognition by an executive with competitor Novell this week in the Newsbytes story “Microsoft Best At Marketing, says Novell VP.”
Said Art Ehrlich, Novell Asia Pacific vice president, “The non- technical user is best swayed by marketing hype and Microsoft has the best marketing machine. We will continue losing business in that segment until Novell gets its marketing machine together.”
Well, Novell and everyone else! Just look at the coverage of Windows products in computer magazines, and I don’t mean ads. But Novell, if you’re talking the non-technical user as a target market then don’t you think you should also be talking graphical user interface?
One of my pet subjects, as anyone that reads this column knows, was highlighted in a couple of stories this week — the revenue potential in Latin America and Asia for networking and computing companies generally.
In “Netscape Strengthens Presence In India,” Netscape said it plans to have a direct presence in India through a software development center, which will be operational by 1998, and will be the center for its regional operations. Intranets also featured in the plans, with the company intending to collaborate with the government and information technology companies in setting up pilot applications for intranets.
And in another story highlighting foreign market potential, “$5Bil Latin American Systems Integration Market – Study,” Killen & Associates said the Latin American market will reach $5 billion for system integration and outsourced services by the year 2000. While much of that will involve year 2000 problem-solving, the Internet and intranets will also play a role.
I’ve said repeatedly that networking companies need to get in early with a physical presence in those regions in order to establish themselves in the marketplace.
Killen Senior Vice President Bob Goodwin appeared to back that notion up, saying: “You do need a local sales or service organization, or at least an agent who can rep you effectively. The point we’re making is that if you have a presence there, we think it’s a good opportunity.”
Elsewhere, too many companies offer knee-jerk reactions to disappointing quarterly results in order to satisfy either shareholders, who have no real commitment to the company other than a financial one, or Wall Street. Either way, the unfortunate consequence is often that executives choose to take the cosmetic approach to business problems in order to achieve immediate, or relatively immediate payback, instead of creating a workable long-term business plan. And that approach often involves layoffs.
In a story this week, entitled: “Downsizing Doesn’t Work, Says Aussie Academic,” a six-year study of Australian companies reportedly found that downsizing “only works for some companies and in many cases leads to the ultimate disappearance of the companies concerned.”
Concentrating on companies with more than 100 people, the study argued that companies which downsize once are likely to be drawn into a “contraction cycle,” making “several rounds of retrenchments.” Interestingly, the study also said that the “companies downsizing to reduce labor costs often end up with proportionately more of the people who cost more to employ — managers.”
Executives need to stop being bullied by Wall Street or their outside shareholders, and think more about the company’s long-term survival and competitive capability than any short term financial goals. They also need to consider, dare I say it, the well-being of their employees when they take such radical decisions.
You don’t amputate someone’s leg when they have athlete’s foot! Companies need to consider the long-term implications of their actions, not just the next quarter’s financial results. And a loyal workforce will pay dividends in an increasingly fluid technology-related marketplace where flexibility is often needed with regard changing employee job descriptions and duties.
Don’t just lay an employee off, retrain them into sales or support, for example. A company that offers good products with a high level of free technical and customer support will gain long-term loyal customers. Many products may have become commodities, but selling hem with such value-added services attached can often mean the difference between success and failure in the marketplace.
Note: Ian Stokell is Newsbytes’ managing editor and resident networking expert. If you have a question or comment, feel free to drop him an e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.org . Non-techie questions welcome.
(19970718/Reported By Newsbytes News Network: http://www.newsbytes.com/NWGIBB/PHOTO)
COPYRIGHT 1997 Washingtonpost Newsweek Interactive
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group


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More UK households set to celebrate Thanksgiving this year
According to sales and search data from Waitrose, more UK households are set to celebrate Thanksgiving this year.
The supermarket has revealed that sales of its Thanksgiving products are up 12% year-on year with turkey sales up 6%.
Demand for American side dishes has also increased, with Waitrose searches for sweet potato mash and mac and cheese up 90% and 45% respectively from the month before. Other items proving popular with customers include pumpkin pie and cranberry jelly, as well as warming autumnal cocktails such as spiced apple punch and hot gin punch.
Waitrose said: “We predict Thanksgiving will be more popular than ever this year, as the 25 November marks the start of festive family celebrations. A traditional Thanksgiving meal includes side dishes not normally served together, harking back to the days of ‘pot luck’ dinners, where guests were all invited to bring a dish, often resulting in an unusual mix of sweet and savoury flavours.”
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Butcher shop opens in Charlottetown.
Charlottetown residents have a new gourmet butcher shop to visit for locally sourced gourmet meat options.
Chris van Ouwerkerk, owner of Jercules fine beef jerky, has opened Butcher & Butcher: Fine Island Meat at 25 St Peters Road in Charlottetown.
The shop features more than just van Ouwerkerk’s beef jerky and is set to sell a variety of fresh and prepared meat.
“We’ve been waiting, preparing recipes and learning from some amazing culinary minds from across the country,” said the 29-year-old butcher and law student. “I think if people like our jerky, they’ll be interested in trying some of the other things we can do with Island meat.”
The business is set on sourcing only locally produced meat and van Ouwerkerk is keen on working with Island farmers.
“There are so many hardworking farmers here who take pride in raising animals humanely and naturally,” he said. “We want to take the animals they put that pride into and turn it into a culinary experience for them and all Islanders alike.”
Van Ouwerkerk also hopes to continue expanding on his beef jerky brand.
Sausage maker Brodie Webster, displays his handiwork after he made a batch of tasty meat in the new shop called Butcher & Butcher: Fine Island Meat that has opened on St. Peters Road in Charlottetown.


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Sony announces budget US PSP packs
One final software push?
Sony is repackaging a number of first party PSP titles in the US at a budget price point.
As detailed on the PlayStation Blog, a range of Dual Packs go on sale this week for $14.99 (£9.40) a pop.
You can pick up Secret Agent Clank and Daxter; Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow and Killzone Liberation; and Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror and SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs: Fireteam Bravo.
A European release hasn't been mentioned, but seeing as Sony last week confirmed we're getting those PS3 twofers, it doesn't seem entirely out of the realm of possibility.
The PSP's successor, the PlayStation Vita, is due out either late this year or early next.


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After 14 years, the price of a box of matchsticks is set to increase from the present Rs 1. From December 1, the price of a matchbox will be Rs 2. The decision was taken in a meeting with various industry bodies, in view of a rise in production cost, triggered by an increase in the price of raw materials, including the fuel price.
However, although the price has been doubled, consumers will get more matchsticks in a box when they buy it at Rs 2, up from 36 matchsticks to 50 per box. The proposed price increase comes after a gap of 14 years, said VS Sethurathinam, Secretary of the National Small Matchbox Manufacturers Association.
The price of raw materials have increased leading to a jump in the cost of production, he said. â€śWe have no other option but to increase the selling (Maximum Retail Price) price," he said, adding, â€śAfter about six months we may review the situation.â€ť
The price of all the 14 key raw materials has increased. "A kilo of red phosphorus has increased from Rs 410 to Rs 850, wax from Rs 72 to Rs 85, potassium chlorate Rs 68 to Rs 80, splints (sticks) from Rs 42 to Rs 48, the outer box from Rs 42 to Rs 55 and the inner box from Rs 38 to Rs 48. Like this, the price of all raw materials have increased manifold," he told PTI.
The rise in fuel prices is also a factor. â€śIt has led to an increase in transportation cost," he said. Hence, from December 1, the price of a matchbox would be increased to Rs 2 (MRP) from the present Rs 1, he said.
The price of one matchbox was last increased from 50 paise to Rs 1 in 2007. Prior to that, the price was increased from 25 paise to 50 paise per matchbox in 1995.
The price increase would help tackle the situation that has arisen due to the rise in production cost and the decision to go for a hike was taken after discussions with all associations, said Sethurathinam.
About five lakh people are dependent on the matchbox industry directly and indirectly and 90% of the workforce is women, he said.
Tamil Nadu is a leading manufacturer of matchboxes and Kovilpatti, Sattur, Sivakasi, Thiurthangal, Ettayapuram, Kazhugumalai, Sankarankoil, Gudiyattam and Kaveripakkam are the major production centres. Approximately, there are 1,000 matchbox units which includes small and medium sized matchbox manufacturers as well.


text: Here is a quick round up of July pyjama news which caught our eye. You may recall that earlier in the year we brought you reports of Hi-tech sleepwear from US company Under Armour. They were designed with American football star Tom Brady to help maximise performance and maybe there is something in it because Jordan Spieth, who has just won the Golf Open at Royal Birkdale, is a wearer. Just before the championship Spieth posted an image on Instagram revealing he’d slept well on the transatlantic flight over from America because he’d worn the Under Armour pyjama. Did they get that name because it rhymes? Anyway, no lesser person that the King also featured in July pyjama news when a pair of his PJs sold at auction for £8,000. The green pyjamas were worn by Elvis during a stay at the Baptist Memorial Hospital, Memphis, in 1977. His first agency music contract sold for an amazing £37,000 to a British collector; it was signed on 31 January 1956, the day after the singer recorded Blue Suede Shoes. The auctioneer said, “The prices achieved reflect the continuing interest in the King of Rock and Roll.” However we also like the fact that at the same auction a sign from Devizes signal box sold for £3,000 – now that’s rock and rolling stock. Unexpected July pyjama news comes from social media. We highlighted the power of viral marketing in a recent post and from Australia we learn that someone has got the cat’s pyjamas. The cat who lives near Sydney, but is not called Sydney but Ootsie, keeps bringing back unusual items and when the owner saw that it had a pair of rather nice pyjamas she took to her community facebook group to try and give them back posting, “Knowing these are quite expensive if anyone is missing these please Inbox me! Really sorry may cat’s really weird.” Pyjama drama down under, are we in the silly news season?


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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that music from the Beatles will be coming to the iTunes store very soon – with an announcement due tomorrow. This will be the first time that The Beatles popular music has been available in iTunes, which is now over seven years old. The report even goes as far to suggest that a Beatles branded iPod, iPhone or iPad may be on the cards to celebrate this occasion.
Coming as good news to many, this achievement was likely due to a lot of blood and sweat behind the scenes. Many will remember that The Beatles sued Apple in 2006 over using the trademark ‘Apple’ in relation to a music store (contrary to an agreement they made some 25 years ealier), a case that they lost because iTunes wasn’t seen by the courts as a music store, but instead as a delivery system for data.
The WSJ is expecting that the music will be an iTunes exclusive for a period of time, before becoming available in other online music stores.


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It's historically been tough and slow-going to 3D print objects made from multiple materials. Now, Harvard researchers developed an ingenious nozzle that enables the 3D printer to spew out eight different materials at the resolution of a human hair. To demonstrate the system, they printed fantastic flexible origami structures and even a "soft" robotic millipede from a variety of epoxy and silicone elastomer inks. Mark A. Skylar-Scott, Jochen Mueller, and their colleagues from Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering presented their work in the scientific journal Nature: "Voxelated soft matter via multimaterial multinozzle 3D printing"
McChristian says, "Rather than send/give out Holiday Cards this year, I decided to make punch and assemble Holiday 'kits.' The sleigh and reindeer were models found on Thingiverse, and I designed/printed the evergreen tree and the label."
3D printing is a dumpster fire of stupid, obvious patents, but thankfully many of these are expiring; this year, the stupid patent on putting sides on a 3D printer (extrusion printers are very sensitive to errant breezes and just a puff of wind can ruin a print that took hours, just minutes before it completes).
I've been semi-seriously joking about "AK-3DPs" (3D printed assault rifles) for years, and while the attempts to limit the spread of 3D printed guns have been sloppy and poorly formulated (as have the Trump admin's attempt to roll them back) the state of the art is still progressing.
You don’t need to be a professional chef in order to enjoy a great set of knives in your kitchen, yet far too many would-be culinary pros settle for subpar blades that lose their edge after a few months. This Schmidt Brothers® Cutlery Carbon 6 7-Pc Knife Block Set will bring a new level of […]
Now that the latest iPhones have embraced the wireless charging revolution, there’s really no excuse for not having a wireless charger of your own. But even the best wireless chargers don’t allow users to use their phones while they’re being powered up. This Suction Powered Wireless Charger breaks that rule by allowing you to comfortably […]
You no longer need to invest vast quantities of your time and money in order to take advantage of everything that graphic design can do for your brand or business. Design Wizard Pro allows you to quickly create pro-level image designs in minutes, and a lifetime subscription is currently available for over 90% off its […]


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OGDEN — Fans of the popular teen CW show “Riverdale” will have a chance to meet one of the stars Saturday in Ogden.
Ashleigh Murray, who plays Josie McCoy on “Riverdale” and in the upcoming spinoff “Katy Keene,” will be at the Newgate Mall from 1-4 p.m. Saturday to meet fans, take photos and sign autographs. The event is free to the public.
The meet-and-greet is part of the Newgate Mall’s Back-to-School Bash. The event will also feature a fashion show with the “must-have looks to the new school year,” according to a press release from the mall.
The fashion show will take place from noon to 1 p.m.
Shoppers are also encouraged to bring backpacks and school supplies to donate to Catholic Community Services.
The Newgate Mall is located at 36th Street and Wall Avenue in Ogden.


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Jack Ma, co-founder of the e-commerce titan Alibaba, is a fallen idol, with his companies under government scrutiny for the ways they have secured their grip over the world’s second-largest economy.
But there is one tech figure who has managed to keep the Chinese in his thrall, whose mix of impish bomb-throwing and captain-of-industry bravado seems tailor-made for this time of dashed dreams and disillusionment: Elon Musk. “He can fight the establishment and become the richest man on earth — and avoid getting beaten down in the process,” said Jane Zhang, the founder and chief executive of ShellPay, a blockchain company in Shanghai. “He’s everybody’s hope.”
Whether out of hope, envy or morbid curiosity — like spectators hoping to see one of his rockets go down in a fiery blast — China cannot get enough of Musk. Tesla’s electric cars are big sellers in the country, and the government’s growing space ambitions have spawned a community of fans who track SpaceX’s every launch. Social platforms brim with articles pondering whether the South African-born billionaire is a trailblazer or a fraud, and examining everything from his upbringing to his taste in Beijing hot pot joints.
Start-up founders swear by his belief in “first-principles thinking,” which looks for solutions by examining problems at their most fundamental level. A stack of books by Chinese authors promises to reveal the secrets of the “Silicon Valley Iron Man,” which is the nickname that seems to have stuck in China, not King of Mars or Rocket Man. In a long thread about Musk on the question-and-answer site Zhihu, a user named Moonshake writes that most people start out full of hope but gradually accept the “mediocrity” that is their fate. “Only a superman like Musk can move past the endless mediocrity and toward the infinite, to see the magnificence of the universe,” Moonshake writes.
Tesla’s giant factory near Shanghai started production in 2019 and helped ramp up the company’s manufacturing capacity. When Tesla’s share price hit a new high in January, making Musk the planet’s wealthiest man, Chinese fans claimed credit. (Musk’s reaction to the news — “Well, back to work …” — was liked 22,000 times on the Chinese social platform Weibo.) Later that month, as Musk endorsed the run-up in GameStop shares, many in China were riveted, drawn to the drama by the same distrust of big financial institutions.
“Occupy Wall Street could never be copied in China,” said Suji Yan, an entrepreneur and investor in Shanghai. To do that, “you’d have go on the streets,” he said. Buying protest stocks is safer. The dispiritedness that many Chinese tech workers have for their industry is compounded by their feeling that it is no longer really inventing or innovating. While Musk is off building futuristic cars and colonising the cosmos, they see the best minds of their generation designing cellphone games, figuring out how to put more ads on social media and speculating in real estate. “China doesn’t have Silicon Valley madmen anymore,” Yan said.
Tech bosses “have all become cardboard cutouts,” he said, and investors won’t touch ideas that seem remotely “crazy.” Musk’s acolytes are a passionate bunch everywhere. But in China, his popularity is helped by the authoritarian government’s embrace of Tesla — and vice versa — when the US and China have never trusted each other’s high-tech companies less. Musk has praised the intelligence of the Chinese officials he met while preparing to open the Shanghai factory. The company, in a first for a foreign carmaker in China, has been allowed to run its plant without a local partner.
Zhong is a tech reporter for NYT©2020
The New York Times


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Analyst Heido Virsur tells ERR in an interview that double-dip inflation will disappear by year's end. Vitsur considers various support measures to be costly and largely ineffective.
Estonians want to know why our prices are growing the fastest in the Eurozone?
One explanation is that our salaries are probably also growing the fastest. A matter of the balance of demand and supply. Our market is also among the smallest in the Eurozone and as such the most volatile, most sensitive to all manner of effects.
Is the war in Ukraine already reflected in price advance?
It is to some extent, as it has deepened disruptions caused at first by Covid and then global supply issues.
What will happen next?
There will be two factors in the coming months. It is to be feared the war will continue for some time, meaning these disruptions will continue to deepen. At the same time, summer brings lower demand for energy producers. Additionally, some shocks are due to the fact supply chains cannot be reshuffled quickly enough, while we are seeing signs of adjustment. The addition of an LNG quay somewhere is likely to alter the market and also affect us indirectly, driving inflation down. But the situations will remain complicated for some time.
Last year's price advance will start having an effect come fall. Prices had been suppressed for two years until Midsummer Day before they started edging upwards. By December, price advance had built up enough momentum. By autumn, the reference base will mean inflation will drop back down to single digits.
Estonia is a small economy and country, but what can we do to suppress price advance or would such measures be ultimately useless?
They would be expensive and useless in the long run. Let us look if only at April price advance. One reason it spiked so much compared to March was the end of various support schemes. They expired on April 1. The question now is how to implement such measures as someone needs to pay for them. Should they come as efforts to contain price advance or direct benefits and who should they be aimed at in that case? That is the question the government is faced with, while they can do little about the market. We could consider how to create energy reserves to be less vulnerable to current prices and rely on stockpiles. Especially during periods of strong price advance. But all of it for the future.
The debate in Estonia is over whether lowering energy excise duties, such as that on motor fuels, would add to inflation. What do you think?
Excise duties are a price component and can change prices and our competitiveness. When the duties were hiked too much four years ago, the market reacted very painfully. Estonia and our state budget gained nothing and business moved elsewhere. Therefore, excise duties have an effect, while one must always look at what one's neighbors are doing. We failed to do that last time and hurt ourselves.
Minister of Finance Keit Pentus-Rosimannus (Reform) says that slashing the duties would leave people with more money. They will consume more that will cause prices to grow elsewhere. Do you subscribe to this point of view?
I do to some extent as our price advance is faster than the rest of Europe's – salaries grew by 6-7 percent annually in a crisis. Prices were down at one point and growing by 1-2 percent again the next, with demand growing and supply suppressed causing pressure on prices. Excise duties do influence the market to some extent.
The normal market economy model tells us that if prices start growing too quickly, people's purchasing power falls that will in turn negatively impact suppliers and demand. In a situation where we have the war, are coming out of a long period of quantitative easing and have supply chain disruptions caused by the coronavirus crisis, does the system even work?
The problem is on the supply side today – there is less of it than demand. Demand is considerable because of support measures and wage advance. Easing has contributed to demand elsewhere, while supply cannot keep up because delivery disruptions and the war are hampering production.
However, rising prices will start to curb demand at some point?
They would if incomes would no longer grow as fast. But the uneasy air is making it difficult to rein in income.
Editor: Marcus Turovski


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How about of the decade?
According to the press release, Moodle has been short listed for Educational Product of the Year in the PC Pro 2010 Awards. According to the PRLog release [http://goo.gl/BAKB],
Oct 07, 2010 – Learning management system Moodle, was shortlisted in the Education Product of the Year category in the prestigious PC Pro 2010 Awards. Moodle has over 36m users across 210 countries including organisations such as The Open University, Royal Air Force, Samaritans.
Specialist consultancy company, HowToMoodle, was asked by Moodle founder Martin Dougiamas to attend the PC Pro Awards to represent Moodle, along with HowToMoodle clients including the Chartered Institute of Housing and removal and storage experts Pickfords.
Ray Lawrence, Director of HowToMoodle, commented, “We were very pleased that Moodle was nominated by PC Pro readers for the Education Product of the Year category, particularly as the free open source software was listed against commercial products such as Encyclopaedia Britannica and Microsoft Office 2010.”
Congratulations to the Moodle team and community!
- Moodle Partner, HowToMoodle: http://www.howtomoodle.com/
- Official announcement: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/360391/pc-pro-announces-awards-2010-finalists
- Press Release: http://www.prlog.org/10982590-moodle-shortlisted-for-education-product-of-the-year-in-2010-pc-pro-awards.html
- Pictures from the event: http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/sets/72157624969252233/with/5050739471/
Thanks to @moodlehelp for finding/sharing the Press Release.


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Siemens and DB Cargo AG have signed a framework agreement for the delivery of 100 locomotives. At the closing of the contract, the freight transport arm of Deutsche Bahn called up 60 Vectron multi-system locomotives. The locomotives will serve on the Rhine-Alpine-Corridor (DACHINL: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and the Netherlands). Delivery of the vehicles will begin at the end of 2017. The locomotives will also operate in Belgium beginning in 2020.
The locomotives will have a maximum output of 6.4 MW and a top speed of 160 km/h, and will be equipped with the European Train Control System (ETCS). They will be built in the Siemens plant in Munich-Allach, Germany.
“With this order, DB Cargo is investing in the future of freight transport by rail. The ordered multi-system locomotives will make it possible to operate a train from the Netherlands to Italy without changing locomotives. This will make European freight transport fast, efficient and environmentally friendly,” says Jochen Eickholt, CEO of Siemens Mobility Division.
“The order for the multi-system locomotives marks a further milestone in the program to expand and modernize our European locomotive fleet that has been underway for four years. At the same time, this product is a key component in our growth strategy for interoperable European rail freight transport. By working together with Siemens in this project, we hope to have established a partnership that will decisively support our ambitions for vehicles with respect to our rail freight transport master plan,” notes Dr. Jürgen Wilder, CEO of DB Cargo AG.
Update 04.08.2017 1.40 pm CET: Deutsche Bahn also released information about this order. The initial order for sixty locomotives has a value of around 250 million euro. Five machines will be delivered before the end of this year. The other 55 machines will arrive in the second half of 2018.
With the investments in new locomotives, modern freight wagons and additional operating staff, Deutsche Bahn wants to boost and accelerate the ‘modal shift’; getting more freight traffic from the road to the rail. Recently, the German government launched its ‘Masterplan Schienengüterverkehr’ and did it announce that rail usage fees for operators would be lowered considerably. Money that not has to be spend on rail usage, can now be invested in rolling stock and hiring new people. It does also help that market demand is currently growing.


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Just days after Indonesia ordered biodiesel producers to add more palm oil to fuel, a national farmers union is contending the policy is a billion-dollar giveaway to major agribusinesses at the expense of smallholders on the heels of a chaotic year for the country’s top export.
Indonesia’s biodiesel programme is known as B35 and, as of 1 February, it now requires a biodiesel blend of 35% palm-based fuel – a level unmatched in biofuel mandates around the world. The programme is meant to incentivise biodiesel production for domestic use through subsidies funded by the country’s palm oil export tax.
But a new report from palm oil farmers union SPKS asserts that some of the very same companies that pay these export taxes end up making back the money and much more through biodiesel subsidies, to the tune of upwards of $1 billion in profits. Almost a year after a full-on export ban sparked nationwide protests, the union’s report paints these subsidies as effectively nullifying a key export control.
“This is a program that benefits conglomerates. Why? Because with the subsidies they get, they will expand their refineries,” said Mansuetus Darto, secretary general of SKPS.
Palm oil giant Wilmar received nearly three times the amount in subsidies compared to what it paid in export levies, the report states, making about $950 million in profit from January 2019 to September 2021. Fellow palm oil producers Darmex Agro, Sungai Budi and Permata Hijau also made net profits through government biodiesel subsidies, according to the report.
Indonesia’s palm oil fund management agency BPDPKS, the Indonesian Palm Oil Association and Wilmar did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.
The union is considering filing a complaint with the Constitutional Court to clarify if it is legal for Indonesia’s Palm Oil Fund Management Agency to allocate funds toward biodiesel subsidies.
How the biodiesel blending program works
On 1 February, Indonesia implemented a new biodiesel blending requirement, upping the mandated amount of biofuel derived from palm oil from 30% to 35%. The new program is expected to increase domestic consumption by about 1.8 million metric tons. The policy is the latest measure by the Indonesian government to shore up the domestic market for palm oil.
Indonesia is the world’s largest supplier of palm oil, producing around 60% of the global supply. The new policy further solidifies Indonesia’s standing as the country with the world’s largest biodiesel mandate. Malaysia, the second largest supplier of palm oil, postponed its plans to fully roll out a mandate of just 20% in 2022.
“Apart from Indonesia, the main countries that have imposed blending standards of significance have been the EU, there’s also a rising importance of biodiesel blending in South American countries,” said Adrian Ladaniwskyj, senior market analyst with Mecardo. “But in terms of the percentage, [Indonesia’s policy] is definitely the highest percentage of blending standard that is mandated across the globe.”
Indonesia’s February increase is the first biodiesel blending adjustment since the beginning of 2020 before the major global impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. The policy follows another restriction implemented in January that further limits the amount of palm oil companies can export. The Southeast Asian nation has gradually increased its biodiesel mandate since 2008.
Other countries have also implemented similar export controls in the last several years in response to inflation on consumer goods. Argentina, for example, continues to ban exports of certain kinds of beef in an attempt to keep costs low for local consumers.
“Export controls to try and control domestic inflation for particularly food products has been something that’s probably become fairly fashionable, right across the world,” Ladaniwskyj said. “Especially since the Ukraine war and also since food prices have inflated substantially.”
Policy change comes after tumultuous 2022
The B35 program was rolled out nearly a year after Indonesia’s all-out ban on palm oil exports in April 2022, an unprecedented measure that shocked the global market in an already turbulent moment.
The move was intended to preserve domestic supply of palm oil, a national cooking staple, at a time when prices were at historic highs amidst a worldwide vegetable oil shortage. The Russian invasion of Ukraine had cratered production of sunflower oil, while droughts in South America shrivelled soybean-based oil supply.
Pressured to fill the gap, Southeast Asian palm oil producers found themselves in the spotlight. But labour shortages in Malaysia led to low output, while Indonesia turned to protectionism to keep local shelves stocked with affordable oil.
Indonesia’s earlier efforts to keep domestic prices low through export restrictions had failed to do so.
Corruption limited domestic supply in Indonesia as export permits were illegally distributed to companies. A government investigation found evidence of cartel activity among Indonesia’s powerful palm oil producers colluding to keep prices high, stockpiling cooking oil to limit what was available on the market.
The price increases left the poor population in the Muslim-majority country struggling to purchase palm cooking oil ahead of Ramadan. Two Indonesians died while standing in long lines waiting to get their hands on a limited supply of fixed-price cooking oil.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said while he implemented the ban on 28 April 2022 that “meeting the people’s needs is a more important priority” than exporting.
But the ban led to palm oil farmers protesting across the country. Farmers travelled to Jakarta to march in the streets with truckloads of fresh fruit bunches as they rallied against the government’s ban. The protests highlighted the tension between domestic consumer needs and producers wanting to profit from extraordinary international demand.
“Both palm oil farmers and consumers of cooking oil protested for two different reasons, the farmers aiming to get more profit from the export market,” said Pujo Semedi, a professor at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta who researches rural agriculture and anthropology. “However, if everything was exported, Indonesian consumers would protest too because the price of cooking oil will follow foreign prices.”
Widodo reversed the block just three weeks after it went into effect. But in 2022 the government implemented 20 other palm oil regulatory changes, according to the Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS), from providing direct cash assistance to poor households to a policy that actually accelerated the export of crude palm oil. A report from CIPS concluded that the frequent policy changes were ultimately ineffective.
“[The ban on exports] was an ill-advised regulation,” said Muhammad Nidhal, a research assistant with the Center for Indonesian Policy Studies. “It affected not only the local or domestic side, but also on the global stage. It affected our trade partners in Pakistan, in India, and even in China and some European countries. It devastated and exacerbated the crisis.”
Amidst all of the policy fluctuation, one palm oil measure was not altered in 2022: the biodiesel blending requirement.
“It was a strange omission, [the biodiesel policy] was virtually untouched,” said Aditya Alta, the head of agriculture and food security research at the Center for Indonesian Policy Studies. “No one talked about that.”
What the Indonesian government stands to gain
With the new adjustment to the biodiesel policy, the Indonesian government is not only boosting the domestic industry. The policy also serves national security interests by pushing the country to become more self-sufficient when it comes to fuel.
“By producing transport fuels out of major crops that they have on [their islands], it reduces their reliance on imports of crude oil and other petroleum based fuels,” Ladaniwskyj said. And that in turn, “improves national security and their ability to operate a lot more independently from other countries.”
The country’s palm oil exporters also recently faced a major blow: the European Union adopted new environmental requirements for importing fuel. Indonesian producers will have a harder time exporting palm oil to the EU as an industry linked to deforestation in the country, despite recent improvements.
“There’s a lot of negative social and environmental issues which are involved with palm oil, but it is a huge employer within Indonesia,” Ladaniwskyj said. The new program will help replace some of the previous international demand, and “that helps the industry to remain relevant, and also maintain its production and employment and its contribution to the Indonesian economy.”
The most recent measures are less extreme than the all-out ban of 2022, and the more measured approach has not caused the kind of shock to the market as the previous year. International demand is also lower and prices are not at the highs of last year. Looking forward, the government has communicated that it will reevaluate and consider changing its policies based on market responses and domestic needs, said Aditya Alta.
“[This year] is probably not going to descend into something as serious as an export ban,” he said. “But then, the flip side of the coin is that the government can change the policy at will.”
Effects on palm oil smallholders
The union’s report released on 7 February represents the latest critique of biodiesel subsidies in Indonesia. The government in 2020 had announced $195 million in subsidies toward biodiesel production, which was criticised by environmental groups.
SPKS secretary general Manuseutus Dartos said B35 not only props up palm oil giants, but that the policy is also not profitable for smallholder palm oil farmers.
“It will also erode the price of fresh fruit bunches at the smallholder level,” he said, because the subsidies will reduce the price of crude palm oil. “If the crude palm oil price is cut, then it will have a downward impact [on farmers].”
The policy harms smallholders, the report states, and palm oil farmers are the ones “who fall victim and pay the ultimate price” for the biodiesel program. The union said it hopes to raise awareness of the monopolistic practices of palm oil companies that are “detrimental and do not favour the interests of the community”.


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Google's Pixel Watch looks like it could be a serious rival to the Apple Watch this year: it's genuinely good-looking and from what I've seen so far Google has nailed the premium look that makes the Apple Watch so desirable. Provided the build quality is good – something that isn't always guaranteed with Google kit – and the promised updates to Wear OS are as nifty as Google says, this could be one of the very best smartwatches in 2022.
But the most interesting thing about the Pixel Watch barely got a mention during the Google I/O keynote. That game-changer? That Google is bringing across "industry-leading health and fitness experiences" from Fitbit, which is now part of the Google empire.
Basically, Google Watch is going to have all the benefits of the best Fitbit fitness trackers, but also full access to Google's Wear OS, meaning no proprietary Fitbit apps like Fitbit Pay and, instead, Google's better and more widely used own, like Google Pay.
What I'm hoping to see from Fitbit in the Pixel Watch
There wasn't much detail in the keynote other than the promise of "deep integration", but Fitbit founder James Park talked to CNET about the Pixel Watch in some detail yesterday. "The Pixel Watch is going to be part of a family of devices from Google and Fitbit that fits into different ranges of prices. So you can have super premium devices under the Pixel brand," he says, adding that there will continue to be stand-alone Fitbit trackers too.
Park is understandably guarded because this isn't a shipping product yet, but he did say that "over time, we want to bring as much of the benefits of Fitbit to Pixel as we can... continuous heart rate tracking and sleep tracking [is] really important initially to the Pixel Watches. This is not a one and done: We're going to continue improving the software over time."
Park's description of the strategy is interesting: "I see Pixel Watch as being for the user who wants LTE and all the advanced health and fitness features, but there's always going to be people for whom some of that stuff isn't necessarily important. For them, a tracker with the most advanced health capabilities is going to be the device that they want, which is our Charge device". That suggests that the Pixel Watch may be ahead on the software front and integrating tightly with Google's various services, but that Fitbits such as the Charge will focus on having the most advanced sensors.
We're still some months away from the Pixel Watch launch, but if you're a long-time Fitbit user thinking of replacing your current tracker it might be wise to wait until we have more detail on just how much Fitbit there is in this Pixel. It could well turn out to be the Fitbit you've always wanted.


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Each year, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood nominates a few “select” toys for a Toady award: Toys Oppressive and Destructive to Young Children. In 2010, the award went to Nickelodeon’s Addicting Games Web site, not just for its games (like Perry the Sneak, which allowed players to earn points by trying to catch glimpses of naked women showering) but for its decision to market those games on its Nick Jr. Web site. In 2009, the winner was the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader Barbie.
This year, the group nominated a microphone that transformed a child’s voice into that of T-Pain ( a rapper known for his misogynistic odes to mood-altering substances), a Coca-Cola-themed Monopoly game, the Monster High “Fearleading” dolls, the W.W.E. Colossal Crashdown Arena and the ultimate victor: the Vinci Genius Tablet Computer for babies and toddlers.
But is the Vinci Genius — a mother-designed tablet computer that comes loaded with “progressive learning content” — really that bad? Or was it the name, so reminiscent of Baby Einstein and its overblown promises of learning opportunities, and the $389 price tag (branding it as a toy for the 1 percent) that earned the Vinci the highest number of votes?
As loath as I would be to put a tablet computer of any kind into the hands of a baby or (except in very limited circumstances) a toddler, I’m torn about the Vinci, which looks like an iPad with a large red rubbery handle around the whole thing. Both VTech and Leapster make similar (if cheaper and more toylike) products that don’t provoke outrage. In fact, there’s an argument to be made that the Vinci and its ilk are less commercial than the mainstream tablets any parent who would invest in a Vinci is probably willing to hand to a child: no Dora or Disney princesses at your fingertips in the Vinci, at least.
The people who voted for the Vinci as the year’s worst toy pointed out its insidious implication that screen time is affirmatively good for tiny kids. Point taken — but the Vinci people could counter with the idea that a parent and a child interacting together over a Vinci would be a good thing. I’m not defending the Vinci, exactly. I prefer chewy, stackable, tastable and multifunctional physical books and toys for children. But I don’t see why the Vinci is any worse than any of the thousands of apps designed to induce a parent to hand over an actual iPad to the toddling and drooling set. I wouldn’t buy one (or any of the apps, either). But for worst toy of the year?
I’d have voted for the T-Pain mike.
Do clothes make the baby? If you’ve shopped for kids’ clothes even once in the past decade, you know that if that’s true, then what clothes make the baby girl, at least, is ready to fit right into her assigned gender category. She’s a Cutie Pie, she’s a Cupcake, she’s a Very Important Princess — and she’s “Pretty Like Mommy” but not, unless you shop for her in the boys’ section (and why not?), “Smart Like Daddy.”
Gymboree’s now infamous onesies (no longer available on the Web site) are the spiritual kin of JC Penney’s misbegotten “I’m Too Pretty to Do Homework So My Brother Has to Do It for Me” T-shirt. Both declare looks to be more important than brains for 51 percent of the population. In both cases, it’s not so much the existence of a few unfortunate shirt slogans that bothered some members of that 51 percent (you can see worse at any shopping mall), but the marketing might that lay behind them. Those are major retailers suggesting that we deck our daughters out in clothing that suggests that whatever they do, they’re always going to be one step behind the boys.
But of course, we know they’re not. By most measures, girls are having more success in the classroom than boys. They go on to college at higher rates, and graduate more often, too. By the time they’re 4, they even think they’re “cleverer … better behaved and try harder at school” than boys. So does it matter what their T-shirts (or, one hopes, the T-shirts no one’s buying) have to say? Read more…
Should you, would you, put a baby on a diet and exercise program? Harvard obesity researchers have found that unusually rapid growth in infants doubles the risk that a plump, adorable baby will become an obese child. The author of the study, Dr. Elsie Taveras, says that such rapid growth should alert doctors to the possibility that babies “might be overfed or spending too much time in strollers and not crawling around.”
Which sounds, as reported by The Canadian Press (via The Huffington Post), an awful lot like a recommendation that certain babies are targets for a new reality show: “The Littlest Loser.” Wary colleagues responded to the research with an editorial accompanying the original study, which appears in the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, warning parents and doctors not to rush to action. Read more…
Toddlers and TV is a subject that just won’t go away. KJ DellAntonia wrote about it here just last week, and this week a new recommendation issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics at the group’s annual meeting in Boston has revived it again. The pediatricians said that parents should limit the amount of time their infants and toddlers spend in front of any sort of screen and reaffirmed earlier research showing that there’s really no such thing as educational TV or software for very young children.
They gave parents a break, though, by moving away from an earlier policy statement that had recommended an outright ban on television watching and screen use by children under age 2.
Interestingly, the pediatricians’ group softened its stance not because of new research or an actual change in thinking, but because of pressure from parents and fellow physicians who simply found the earlier recommendations to be so unrealistic as to have no value. We live in a world of screens, the thinking is now: let’s just try to get parents to use them wisely, rather than make them feel guilty for using them at all.
What has amazed me this week, as the new recommendations have generated enormous print attention (including a story in The New York Times that remains at the top of the most e-mailed list) and air time and discussion on blogs, is that the conversation has to take place at all. Honestly, did anyone ever genuinely think they were doing their children a developmental favor by sticking them in front of that scary big baby who rises in the sun on Teletubbies? Did anyone seriously believe that videos like “Baby Einstein” were anything other than a feel-good form of electronic baby-sitting? Read more…
Should babies watch TV? Of course, the American Academy of Pediatrics says no. But does “no” really mean no watching the Republican presidential debate while you nurse the baby, or locking the toddler out of the room while the kindergartner watches “Dora the Explorer”?
At Slate (where I also write), the tech columnist and provocative thinker Farhad Manjoo says a little TV can’t hurt. Mr. Manjoo argues in favor of just a little screen time — a dash of iPad here, a shower’s worth of “Blue’s Clues” there. Just enough to get him through the day. Except where he’s turning on the TV to slip unwanted food into the mouth of his picky eater, I agree with him. (But Farhad? Don’t worry about the picky eating. Instead, worry about all of us adults’ shoveling food into our mouths without tasting it, sitting on the couch in front of “American Horror Story.”)
As Alison Gopnik, the author of “The Philosophical Baby,” once told me when we were discussing children’s recognizing brand names, “If you’re already worried about this, you probably don’t need to be, and if you’ve never worried about it at all, maybe you should.” I suspect we’re too obsessed about the “no TV” thing. Go read Farhad Manjoo, who’s debunking studies that don’t distinguish between plodding kids’ television and shoot-’em-up speed-camera dramas, and then come back to discuss. Is a little TV, judiciously chosen, really that bad?
Illustration by Barry Falls They are listening in there — far more closely than previously thought.
How early does language — a particular language — begin?
Researchers have studied the cries of 60 newborns, ages 3 to 5 days old, born to families who speak French and German. As they reported in this month’s issue of the journal Current Biology, the French infants cried with a rising tone, and the German infants cried with a falling one.
What does this mean? That they are listening in there — far more closely than previously thought. Kathleen Wemke, the lead researcher from the University of Wurzberg told the BBC, “The dramatic finding of this study is that not only are human neonates capable of producing different cry melodies, but they prefer to produce those melody patterns that are typical for the ambient language they have heard during their fetal life.”


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Microsoft showcases SQL Server 2012 in Nigeria
SOFTWARE| April 28, 2012, 7:41 a.m.
By Lukas Ajanaku, Lagos, Nigeria
Microsoft has launched the latest version of the world’s most widely deployed data platform, Microsoft SQL Server 2012, in Nigeria in a move the technology firm says will control data explosion.
Expanding on Microsoft’s commitment to help customers manage any data, regardless of size, both on-premises and in the cloud, SQL Server 2012 helps address the challenges of increasing data volumes by rapidly turning data into actionable business insights.
Speaking at the launch, Olufemi George, Solutions Specialist, Microsoft Nigeria said: “According to Worldwide Regional Public IT Cloud Services (2011 – 2015) forecast, digital data will grow 44 times over the next decade. So, whatever the type or size of data, SQL Server 2012 delivers the platform and familiar tools to manage data, generate actionable insights and help drive business impact.”
According to Femi Oyenuga, Senior Manager, Enterprise Information Management at MTN Nigeria: “Microsoft’s data platform has continued to advance and help us keep up with the evolving world of data.”
The highlight of the occasion was a panel comprising speakers from companies such as Interswitch, Oando, MTN and a host of others.
Reports by Forrester Consulting on the total economic impact and potential Return on Investment (ROI) organisations might realise by upgrading to the Microsoft SQL Server 2012, said servers can deliver an anticipated ROI of between 149% and 189% with a projected 12-month payback period.
According to Microsoft, SQL Server 2012 has already been deployed for production use by hundreds of global, industry-leading customers, such as Volvo Car Corp., Revlon, the HSN, Sanofi Pasteur, Klout and LG Chemical. Customers choosing SQL Server 2012 enjoy the benefit of a rich hardware and software partner ecosystem that can create solutions for the most unique and demanding data management needs.
IT research firm Gartner estimates that the volume of global data is growing at a rate of 59% per year, with 70 to 85% in unstructured form.* Furthering its commitment to connect SQL Server and rich business intelligence tools, such as Microsoft Excel, PowerPivot for Excel 2010 and Power View, with unstructured data, Microsoft announced plans to release an additional limited preview of an Apache Hadoop-based service for Windows Azure in the first half of 2012.
The company also disclosed additional details regarding its plans to release an Apache Hadoop-based service for Windows Azure.
Since the first limited preview released in December, customers such as Webtrends and the University of Dundee are using the Hadoop-based service to glean simple, actionable insights from complex data sets hosted in the cloud. Customers interested in signing up for the latest preview should visit http://www.hadooponazure.com.
To help customers more cost-effectively manage their enterprise-scale workloads, Microsoft says it will release several new data warehousing solutions in conjunction with the general availability of SQL Server 2012.
This includes a major software update and new half-rack form factors for Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse appliances, as well as availability of SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse reference architectures for SQL Server 2012.
Microsoft and partners also announced that SQL Server 2012 has demonstrated new record-breaking performance benchmarks through partner- and Microsoft-led testing that underscores SQL Server’s ability to scale across the enterprise.
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Kinney Drug Inc. has decided to change its name to KPH Healthcare Services.
Kinney Drugs Inc. announced that Jim Spencer, formerly COO, has been promoted to president of Kinney Drug stores.
Regional player Kinney Drugs has snapped up four independent pharmacies located in central New York and Vermont, bringing its total store count to 94.
StoreBoard said Monday that Kinney Drugs has joined its in-store billboard network.
Retailers generally held...


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Supah Pop gave people the chance to check out vintage comics they wouldn't see anywhere else.
Sean McGuinness has been reading comics his entire life and is glad to see them gain mainstream exposure.
By: Jacob Boland
Hundreds of people, many of whom were in costume, flocked to the Jamil Temple this weekend for the first Supah Pop Comic Convention.
Here you could browse through over a quarter million comic books that would stretch for over two miles if lined up end to end. You could also meet artists and illustrators, as well as some of the zombies from the hit TV show "The Walking Dead".
The recent success of Marvel movies like The Avengers and Captain America shows comic books have become part of the mainstream, allowing comic book readers to come out of the closet and step into costume at events like Supah Pop.
Lyn Powell has had his batman costume for over twenty years, and he was glad to have a chance to dust off the cape and become the caped crusader once again.
"I've had this costume since 1990, but I usually only wear it for Halloween or appearances at children's hospitals. I can't tell you how much fun it is to have something like this going on in Columbia where I can put on the mask and become the bat," said Powell.
Sean McGuinness, better known around Columbia's art scene as That Godzilla Guy, was thrilled to see an event like Supah Pop come to Columbia.
"This is awesome! You've got comics, you've got artists, you've got celebrities, and you've got a huge crowd of fans, all under one roof in South Carolina. It's just incredible," said McGuinness.
Comic books may be cool now, but he can recall a time when comic books were not so accepted by everyone.
"When I was growing up, I got beat up and made fun of for reading comic books. Now I can say I was at the forefront of bringing it into pop culture," he said.
Judging by the crowd that was at Supah Pop, comic books have definitely solidified their spot in pop culture.


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According to John Banfield, TNS’ SVP and General Manager for Asia Pacific, by leveraging AAPT’s national network in conjunction with TNS’ global industry expertise, the company have created a “unique multi-carrier offering for Australian banks and their Dial EFTPOS fleets.”
“TNS’ experience in migrating to EMV and meeting the needs of customers who require multi-host routing has positioned us as the leading provider, in Australia as well as in the UK and USA.
“TNS is committed to driving new and innovative services to the Australian payments market. The relationship with AAPT marks our expanding coverage in the Asia Pacific region to continue to deliver robust, cost-effective payments solutions to the market.”
AAPT CEO, David Yuil said AAPT was “pleased to announce an alliance with global payments expert TNS as it launches one of the most sophisticated and resilient EFTPOS networks.
“TNS is using our extreme performance network to provide resilience and fine-grained call metering. AAPT, in conjunction with TNS, is delivering on our commitments to bring true competition and a credible choice to Australian banks.”


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'Ghost Recon Future Soldier' trademarked
Ubisoft USPTO filing reveals likely name of next installment in its tactical Tom Clancy shooter series, due out after Q1 2010.
Ever since it was first revealed in January--and officially announced in April--Ghost Recon 4 has been shrouded in mystery. No details on the next installment in the Tom Clancy-inspired tactical shooter series have been revealed other than its release window, which will be sometime after March 2010.
Even the game's name is a working title, obscuring whether it is a direct sequel to the last installment in the series, 2007's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2. That mystery deepened in October, when the Australian Classification Board classified a game called "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Predator."
Now, the plot has thickened further. According to a December 14 US Patent & Trademark Office filing filing, French publisher Ubisoft has trademarked the term "Ghost Recon Future Soldier" for use in "game software and electronic game programs." The trademark also extends to games for PCs, consoles, handhelds, and mobile phones.
The title Ghost Recon Future Soldier raises several possibilities. The most likely is that the game will concern the Future Soldier programs being conducted by the US and its NATO allies. The initiative, currently part of the US Army's Brigade Combat Team Modernization Program, focuses on outfitting infantrymen with networked communications and high-tech equipment. Much of that equipment was featured in the critically acclaimed Advanced Warfighter 2, set during a fictional conflict in the year 2013. (GameSpot's video review is below.)
Unfortunately, any official announcements regarding the game will likely not be made this year. When asked by GameSpot about the trademark and the status of the new Ghost Recon game, Ubisoft reps offered only a clipped "no comment."
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Apple is going through a rough patch. The Cupertino company fell short of its own projections and missed its annual sales and profit goals for the first time since 8 years. CEO Tim Cook’s total annual compensation has been reduced by 15%. iPhone sales hit a setback in fiscal 2016, forcing Apple to post its first ever annual revenue decline in over 15 years. The company said its annual sales were down by nearly 4% or $215 billion. “Overall, our 2016 performance with respect to net sales and operating income was 7.7 percent and 15.7 percent below our record-breaking 2015 levels”, Apple said in its filing.
IHS: Apple to discontinue MacBook Air, cut production by 16%
Apple’s rough patch continues with never ending MacBook woes. Post the launch of MacBook, users began complaining about poor battery life. Initially, it was speculated that the battery issues were related to software but the issue continues to this day. Considering the heavy price tag Apple devices come with, it’s quite natural for consumers to expect nothing but the best. And when glitches and problems like battery issues continue to exist on some of Apple’s iconic products like the MacBook, Apple is bound to face harsh criticism.
According to IHS, considering the dismal performance, analysts speculate that Apple is likely to discontinue MacBook Air lineup and also cut MacBook’s production by 16% this year. Apple is likely to produce only 13.6million notebooks this year as compared to last year’s 16.2 million, a 16% drop. One reason why Apple could be discontinuing the MacBook lineup can be attributed to the fact the iPads with large screens pretty much match the computing power of ultra thin notebooks. With growing use of iPads and with reports hinting that iPad Pro (scheduled for Q2 2017 launch, tentative) will feature cutting-edge 10nm processor, the use of MacBook Air will only decline. The other reason can be directly attributed to the recent not-so-great performance of the lineup, as Apple’s strategy continues to shift towards iPhones.