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The Elon Musk led automaker has cut prices across the board on its new models of EVs — as much as 20 percent cheaper — in the US and Europe, following substantial price cuts in China and other Asian markets that rolled out earlier this month.
The most affordable EV from Tesla’s lineup, the standard Model 3, went down from $46,990 to $43,990, a six percent drop. Not super drastic, but we’re just getting started.
Take the Model Y, which got the biggest slash of a whopping 20 percent, down from $65,990 to $52,990. That also means that the Model Y now qualifies for the $7,500 tax credit for EVs as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
The company’s uber expensive cars, like the Model S, dropped ten percent from $104,990 to $94,990, and the Model X a nine percent fall, from $120,990 to $109,990.
Performance and Plaid versions of certain models also received significant cuts. The Model S Plaid, for example, fell 15 percent from $135,990 to $114,990, making it the biggest slash by sheer dollar amount at a $21,000 drop.
Up and Down Again
These price cuts are nothing to sneeze at, but also highlight how expensive Teslas had been previously, receiving multiple price hikes last year amid surging inflation.
There’s good reason that the price drop is coming now. As Reuters reports, Tesla missed its quarterly deliveries estimates for the end of last year, although it experienced a 40 percent rise in deliveries for the year overall. Still, that raised concerns over demand, especially in the domestic market.
Likely the biggest impetus for Tesla, however, was its dramatically declining stock in 2022, which it is yet to rebound from. Overall, it lost 65 percent of its valuation, or around $700 billion — making it Tesla’s worst year in its stock history.
Tesla stock took another minor blow after these most recent price cuts, dropping another 4.5 percent according to Reuters, but obviously the company expects the move to pay off in the long run.
Tesla’s advanced battery research group in Canada in partnership with Dalhousie University has released a new paper on a new nickel-based battery that could last 100 years while still favorably comparing to LFP cells on charging and energy density.
Back in 2016, Tesla established its “Tesla Advanced Battery Research” in Canada through a partnership with Jeff Dahn’s battery lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.
Dahn is considered a pioneer in Li-ion battery cells. He has been working on the Li-ion batteries pretty much since they were invented. He is credited for helping to increase the life cycle of the cells, which helped their commercialization.
His work now focuses mainly on a potential increase in energy density and durability, while also decreasing the cost.
One of those new leaders, Michael Metzger, along with Dahn himself, and a handful of PhDs in the program, are named as authors of a new research paper called “Li[Ni0.5Mn0.3Co0.2]O2 as a Superior Alternative to LiFePO4 for Long-Lived Low Voltage Li-Ion Cells” in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society.
The paper describes a nickel-based battery chemistry meant to compete with LFP battery cells on longevity while retaining the properties that people like in nickel-based batteries, like higher energy density, which enables longer range with fewer batteries for electric vehicles.
The group wrote in the paper’s abstract:
Single crystal Li[Ni0.5Mn0.3Co0.2]O2//graphite (NMC532) pouch cells with only sufficient graphite for operation to 3.80 V (rather than ≥4.2 V) were cycled with charging to either 3.65 V or 3.80 V to facilitate comparison with LiFePO4//graphite (LFP) pouch cells on the grounds of similar maximum charging potential and similar negative electrode utilization. The NMC532 cells, when constructed with only sufficient graphite to be charged to 3.80 V, have an energy density that exceeds that of the LFP cells and a cycle-life that greatly exceeds that of the LFP cells at 40 °C, 55 °C and 70 °C. Excellent lifetime at high temperature is demonstrated with electrolytes that contain lithium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (LiFSI) salt, well beyond those provided by conventional LiPF6 electrolytes.
The cells showed an impressive capacity retention over a high number of cycles:
The research group even noted that the new cell described in the paper could last a 100 years if the temperature is controlled at 25C:
Ultra-high precision coulometry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy are used to complement cycling results and investigate the reasons for the improved performance of the NMC cells. NMC cells, particularly those balanced and charged to 3.8 V, show better coulombic efficiency, less capacity fade and higher energy density compared to LFP cells and are projected to yield lifetimes approaching a century at 25 °C.
One of the keys appears to be using an electrolyte with LiFSI lithium salts, and the paper notes that the benefits could also apply to other nickel-based chemistries, including those with no or low cobalt.
Last week, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) proposed a 10-year import ban on South Korean battery producer, SK Innovation, after the conclusion of an IP lawsuit filed by fellow South Korean battery maker, LG Chem. This decision to ban imports essentially cuts material supply from two factories with a combined capacity of almost 22GWh (9.8GWh and 11.7GWh respectively), expected to commence production in 2022 and 2023. However, there is still an option of local material sourcing, though there are limited opportunities to source the required materials, such as active cathode materials domestically within the USA at the scale required.
Roskill’s analysis shows that in 2020, the USA accounted for 1% of the global cathode materials market, which is forecast to increase to around 5% by 2030. The legislation passed by the US ITC, however, maintains SK innovation’s ability to supply battery cells to Volkswagen’s MEB line in North America for two years and Ford’s F-150 for four years, in addition to supplying spare parts for Kia models. Considering sales/production levels of Ford and Volkswagen in USA, Roskill estimates SK Innovation’s potential market size to be 9GWh through to February 2023, falling to 3GWh until February 2025, as potential to supply VW’s requirements expires. As a result, it seems unlikely for SK Innovation to invest further capital and time developing and commissioning its two USA based factories, only to achieve production of battery cells for 2-3 years at 14% planned utilization rate.
The removal of 22GWh of pipeline production capacity would represent a 10% decrease in total giga-factories capacity in North America in 2023, while EV demand in North America is expected to triple in the next five years and requires nearly 75GWh in installed battery capacity. As a result, the ITC’s decision, if not reversed or altered, would negatively impact the supply of Li-ion batteries for EV applications in the USA. The absence of SK Innovation would also place greater reliance on other battery makers in the USA, including Tesla/Panasonic, LG Chem and Envision AESC.
Roskill publishes annual Market Outlook reports for lithium-ion batteries and for a range of commodities across the lithium-ion battery supply chain, including lithium, cobalt, nickel sulphate and graphite. To see our full range of analysis, click here.
Join Roskill’s Lithium Mine to Market Conference to gain insight into the key drivers of the lithium market in 2021 and beyond. To register, click here.
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This article was written by Egor Prokhodtsev and Kevin Shang. Please get in touch below if you wish to discuss further
Lithium is an essential component of electric vehicle batteries which occurs abundantly in the Earth’s crust in many different forms, roughly classified as pegmatites (“hard rock”), brines, and sedimentary deposits (which you may sometimes hear erroneously generalized as “clays”)
America’s Lithium Valley
Do you think driving a Tesla or plugging-in to solar power are environmentally-conscious choices? Then you should know it’s almost certain the batteries in those systems traveled around the world two or three times before they were even installed. That’s not very “green,” is it? Lithium-ion batteries, found in so many things we use every day, often have a rather costly carbon footprint. That could soon change with a discovery that’s just a couple hours north of Tesla’s Gigafactory. A Canadian mining company, LithiumAmericas, identified what’s one of the world’s largest lithium deposits inside the footprint of an ancient volcano. NBCLX Storyteller Chase Cain takes us to the ancient volcano in Nevada that could hold the future of a green energy boom in the West.
Currently, only pegmatite and brine resources are used to produce lithium chemical products commercially.
But a host of new players aiming to produce lithium using sedimentary deposits in Western North America and around the world are coming on the scene.
The sedimentary deposit projects claim to take advantage of favorable chemistry of processing the sediments, sometimes described as the “best of both worlds” when compared to pegmatites and brines. In this article, I will share what are some of the most promising features of sedimentary deposit projects, who’s working on developing these deposits, and why investors and mainstream capital markets should take them seriously as future sources of lithium chemical products. It will be helpful to understand some of the pros and cons of processing pegmatites and brines into lithium chemical products to understand the “best of both worlds” argument for the sedimentary deposits.
In pegmatites, lithium is strongly bound in crystal structures like aluminosilicates (Al, Si oxides) and because the lithium is so tightly bound in the structure, the mineral requires aggressive processing to remove it to make lithium chemicals.
Spodumene [(LiAl(SiO3)2] is the most widely mined lithium-bearing pegmatite, and has been successfully developed into a significant source of lithium commercially (representing around half of global supply in 2019). It is first dug up and crushed to smaller pieces. The crushed material is then “upgraded” to remove waste materials from the mine that are not spodumene and don’t contain lithium. Once upgraded, calcination (heating to ~1,000°C) is used to convert the crystal to a different structure that is more amenable to removing the lithium.
These high temperatures are typically generated using coal or natural gas, meaning the carbon footprint of roasting pegmatites is typically higher than processing of other lithium resources.
The roasting is a fundamental aspect of extraction of lithium from spodumene because of their crystal structure, and it is difficult to get around this. Some other pegmatites may not require this roasting step however.
Lithium Mining in Nevada
This calcination process is followed by a chemical treatment to extract the lithium. This gives a mostly pure lithium concentrate (called the leachate) which can be refined into lithium chemical products with a relatively simple technological approach involving addition of chemicals.
Pegmatites are a good source of lithium because they are easy to manipulate from a mining engineering perspective, and the leachate obtained from the chemical treatment isn’t heavily contaminated with elements with similar chemical characteristics to lithium (ex. alkali/alkaline earths like Na, K, Mg, Ca, Sr), meaning the impurities are easy to remove from the leachate. The waste produced from spodumene operations can be simply put aside or used for other applications like concrete manufacturing and other applications.
Lithium can be produced from other minerals like lepidolite and zinnwaldite using similar flowsheets to spodumene, but some modifications are required depending on the unique mineralogy.
Brine resources are very different from pegmatites from a lithium extraction and processing perspective.
Brines are high concentration salty reservoirs in which salts are dissolved (ex. Li, Na, K, Mg, Ca, Sr are common cations, or positively charged species, while Cl, SO4, BO3, and CO3 are common anions, or negatively charged species, in these resources). The minerals in brines start off as volcanic materials but over millions of years, rain and geochemical phenomena cause them to dissolve in water and concentrate in basins. Brines can be as high as 20-40% salt by mass, meaning that if you were to evaporate away the water from the brine, around 20-40% of the mass would be left behind as white or clear crystals.
Brines are liquid, meaning that they need to be pumped to the surface for processing, not dug up and crushed like pegmatites are mined. This means that they do not require roasting or leaching operations to put the lithium into solution for further processing – the lithium is already dissolved. There are two ways to remove lithium from brines.
First, evaporation pond systems can be used to evaporate the water from the brine, leaving behind contaminant salts and an “end brine” of mostly lithium chloride which is processed into lithium carbonate by adding sodium carbonate. This process only works for high lithium concentration brines with low impurities in places with no rainfall, and there is concern that if brine is pumped out from too deep in the salar, freshwater may be sucked in, diluting the salar and destroying potable water resources used by humans.
Second, direct lithium extraction (DLE) processes can be used to remove lithium from the natural brine to produce a highly pure concentrate, leaving behind a “spent brine” containing all the original components of the natural brine but without the lithium. This spent brine needs to be reinjected and/or separated from the natural brine so that the two don’t mix, or else the natural lithium-bearing brine will be diluted by the spent brine containing no lithium, making it impossible to extract more lithium from the reservoir.
As mentioned above, sedimentary deposits are considered to share some of the positive attributes of both pegmatites and brines. Sedimentary deposits are created when lithium is washed out of volcanic materials into basins where the salts and minerals dry, creating chemical structures in which the lithium is bound up in a mineral, but much less strongly compared to pegmatite resources. They typically have the consistency of dirt, not hard rock, and often break up when placed in water. If the lithium was not bound in a mineral at all, it would wash out in water forming a brine (this is typically not observed).
A number of leading projects are proposing not using any roasting, meaning the lithium is bound in the mineral with an “intermediate” strength compared to pegmatites and brines. A chemical leach is used to extract the lithium from the sediment, after which the waste sediment can be stored in mounds or back-filled into an open pit.
The lack of requirement to roast the sediment is a positive asset for these resources because it means that natural gas pipelines may not necessarily need to be built to process the sediment. Some projects report requiring upgrading of the sediment ore to remove contaminants which would “unnecessarily” consume acid, and in October 2019, only one project is proposing to use a roasting step in their flowsheet. The benefit of processing a sediment containing “loosely bound” lithium is that the solid waste can be easily disposed of without diluting the original resource, similar to the waste materials from after removing lithium from pegmatites.
The sedimentary deposit projects have some promising attributes for a future of supplying lithium to the battery industry, but reagent inputs will need to be optimized thoroughly for each individual project. Every sediment is different and the flowsheets of the different projects may look quite different. The chemistry of the sediments varies significantly (which is also the case for brines), and each project will need to take this into account. Currently, most public pre-feasibility studies show that tens to hundreds of times excess of reagents are used to create the lithium leachates. This implies low lithium concentrations in the leachate compared to pegmatite-derived leachates, and high concentrations of impurities like Na, K, and Mg.
This explains why most projects currently propose by-product sales to reduce apparent OPEX (electricity, sulfuric acid, boric acid, potash, etc.) because these are likely high OPEX flowsheets if they were “pure play” lithium.
Further, the high porosity and low particle size of the sediments mean that they “hold on” to leachate during leaching, and solid/liquid separations will be key to extracting most of the lithium as leachate from the spent ore. When this is done poorly, the ore “gums up” and a significant amount of lithium is lost with the waste.
The “in between” strength of how lithium is chemically bound in sediments results in some of their “best of both world” characteristics when compared to brines and pegmatites, and these strengths should be taken advantage of in future flowsheet development. New leaching techniques and reagent management flowsheets may be helpful in unlocking these sedimentary materials to produce high lithium concentration, low impurity concentration leachates that can be more easily processed into battery quality lithium chemical products. The sedimentary deposit lithium projects are young, but I believe that some of them will be built in the near future.
The healthy mining jurisdiction of Western North America, proximity of the deposits to American battery manufacturers, and potential for low carbon intensity means that they have excellent potential for helping supply lithium for batteries in the near future, and that they should be followed closely.
Tesla is expected to hold its Battery Day in April as Elon Musk announced during the company’s Q4 earnings call. The chief executive said the company has a “compelling story” to tell about things that can “blow people’s minds.”
These statements do not only pique the interest of the electric vehicle community; they also hint of updates that can spell disaster for legacy car manufacturers trying to catch up with Tesla in the electric vehicle market.
Batteries are key to staying on top of the electric vehicle segment and Tesla is the leader of the pack when it comes to batteries and energy efficiency. This has been validated by organizations such as Consumer Reports and even by competitors who go deep into their pockets and go as far ascutting their workforces to catch Teslain terms of hardware, software, and battery technology.
Come Tesla Battery Day, the obvious would be made more obvious. Tesla could further widen the gap and set itself apart from the rest, not just as the maker of the Model 3, Model Y, Cybertruck or other vehicles in its lineup but as an energy company.
Mass Production Of Cheaper Batteries
Batteries are among the most expensive components of an electric vehicle. This is true for Tesla and other electric vehicle manufacturers. With pricey batteries, car manufacturers cannot lower prices of their vehicles and therefore cannot encourage the mass adoption of zero-emission cars.
Tesla has reportedly been running its“Roadrunner”secret project that can lead to mass production of battery cells at $100/kWh. According to rumors, Tesla already has a pilot manufacturing line in its Fremont facility that can produce higher-density batteries using technology advancements developed in-house and gained through the Maxwell acquisition.
With a $100/kWh battery, the prices of Tesla’s vehicles can be competitive even without government subsidies.”
Tesla Gigafactory 1, where Model 3 battery cells are produced. (Photo: Tesla)
Aside from the Roadrunner project, Tesla has also been setting itself up to succeed in the battery game and dominate the market with its partnerships. It has a long relationship with Panasonic that helped it manufacture batteries in Giga Nevada, but has also signed battery supply agreements with LG Chem andCATL in China.
Battery prices have been going down significantly in the last decade. According toBloombergNEF, the cost of batteriesdroppedby 13% last year. From $1,100/kWh in 2010, the price went down to around $156.kWh in 2019. This is predicted to come close to the target $100/kWh by 2023. If Tesla achieves the $100/kWH cost sooner than the rest, it will give the company a massive advantage over its competitors and that will eventually lead to better profit margins.
Aside from cheaper batteries, the increased battery production capacity is also key in bringing products such as the all-electric Cybertruck and Tesla Semi to life.
“The thing we’re going to be really focused on is increasing battery production capacity because that’s very fundamental because if you don’t improve battery production capacity, then you end up just shifting unit volume from one product to another and you haven’t actually produced more electric vehicles… make sure we get a very steep ramp in battery production and continue to improve the cost per kilowatt-hour of the batteries,” Musk said during the Q4 2019 earnings call.
Enhanced Tesla Batteries
Tesla already has good batteries through its years of research, experimentation, and partnerships with battery producers. It hasinvested a good amount of money and effortto make sure it’s leading the battery game.
This advantage is made very clear on how Tesla was able to produce the most efficient electric SUV today in the form of the soon-to-be-released Model Y crossover with an EPA rating of 315 miles per single charge versus the Porsche Taycan with a range of around 200 miles.
When asked about Maxwell’s ultracapacitor technology during the Q4 2019 earnings call, Musk said, “It’s an important piece of the puzzle.”
Musk also referenced the Maxwell acquisition during an extensive interview at theThird Row Podcast. “It’s kind of a big deal. Maxwell has a bunch of technologies that if they are applied in the right way I think can have a very big impact,” Musk said during a Third Row Podcast interview.
There are rumors out of Chinaclaimingthat Tesla may come up with a battery that combines the best traits of Maxwell’s supercapacitors and dry electrode technologies. This could mean batteries that could charge faster, pack more energy density, and last longer.
Controlling Battery Supply
Knowing what works and what doesn’t for electric car batteries puts Tesla on top of the game. Of course, add to that what could be the best battery management system that makes Tesla vehicles among the most efficient if not the best in utilizing their batteries. With the advantage on hardware and software fronts, the thought ofTesla becoming a battery supplier is far from being a crazy idea.
Its competitors such as Audi and Jaguar have recently expressed concerns about their battery supplies as they both depend on LG Chem. Tesla– aside from its partnerships with Panasonic, LG Chem, and CATL — pushes the limit to develop its new battery cells in-house and that opens up a lot of possibilities for Tesla as a business.
“It would be consistent with the mission of Tesla to help other car companies with electric vehicles on the battery and powertrain front, possibly on other fronts. So it’s something we’re open to. We’re definitely open to supplying batteries and powertrains and perhaps other things to other car companies,” Musk was quoted as saying.
Recent job postings for acell development engineerandequipment development engineerssuggest that Tesla might actually be considering the idea of introducing a battery line of its own. But of course, the next-generation batteries would be first used for its vehicle lineup. Once it meets that demand and hits economies of scale, one can only imagine how Tesla could play the important role of supplying batteries to other carmakers.
Whether Tesla would announce cheaper batteries, enhanced electric car batteries, or give updates about its efforts, Battery Day in April will most definitely be worth the wait. For other car manufacturers, time would pause during that day as they listen to what Elon Musk and his team will say. And most likely, after the company talk, other car manufacturers will have to go back to their drawing boards once more in an attempt to catch up.
Teslaand Rivian are both modern automakers dedicated to producing only electric vehicles. Both bought mothballed conventional assembly plants to build their new vehicles. Both have reconfigured those facilities as they grapple with how to disrupt manufacturing as their vehicles have aimed to disrupt the auto industry.
One difference: While Tesla CEO Elon Musk spent nights in a sleeping bag at the end of the assembly line at the plant in Fremont, California, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe has the good sense to sleep in his own bed while overseeing the developing manufacturing process at his company’s plant in Normal, Illinois.
Rivian bought the Normal plant fromMitsubishiin 2017 for $16 million and is preparing it to make an interesting assortment of vehicles. So far, all Rivian prototypes have been built at the Plymouth Engineering and Design Center, but pilot-build vehicles will go down the plant line in the third quarter, with full production ofthe Rivan R1T five-passenger electric pickupstarting in December.
The factory will have one line dedicated to building a skateboard chassis that all three brands will share—skateboard EV chassis bundle the battery pack(s), suspension, electric motors, and other hardware in a vertically short package so that various bodies can be attached. There will be another line tasked with assembling the three different battery packs Rivian will offer, and it will feed those directly to the skateboard-chassis line.
The Ford And Amazon EVs
Ford is designing its own so-called “top hat”—an EV-specific term for the vehicle bodies that use the skateboard architecture—for its high-end electric SUV, but since it will ride on the common architecture, features such as the company’s unique infotainment system must be designed to run on Rivian’s electrical systems. Scaringe would not say when Ford production begins, but design and engineering are locked in and ready to roll. “It’s a very different product from our own SUV, but it’s still in the SUV space,” Scaringe says. While Rivian is going after the adventure market, Ford will pursue luxury buyers, which leads us to deduce it will be sold as aLincoln. Scaringe would not confirm this supposition, as it’s Ford’s announcement to make, he said. He did say the Ford SUV is “an impressive product, to say the least.”
The Amazon Prime vans will have access to the same three battery packs, and use the same electrical architecture and some drivetrains, as well as share some engine control units. To finish vehicles so wildly different in mission, there will be two separate final trim-assembly lines at the Normal plant. One will be a high-content line handling the Rivian and Ford products, while a second, low-content line will finish the Prime vans, which are essentially big, empty boxes to be filled with parcels.
Musk has said he wants to revolutionize the way vehicles are manufactured. He raised eyebrows with experiments such as his self-admittedly ill-thought robot he called the “flufferbot,” which proved to be more of a hindrance than a leap of efficiency in its attempts to place fiberglass mats atop battery packs. His firm also started building the Model 3 in a tent in 2018 to increase production. But with those experiments behind Tesla, production has normalized, and the automaker delivered a record 112,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Rivian’s Plant Plans
Scaringe is not necessarily trying to reinvent car building, but he says he has spent a lot of time thinking about how assembly should be done to meet the unique needs of the varied vehicles his company will build. Out of necessity, he’s mapping out the way the former Mitsubishi small-car plant should be laid out to handle its new disparate needs.
The original Mitsubishi plant was 2.6 million square feet, and Rivian has added another 400,000 square feet. Some aspects of the plant are still usable, including some stamping presses, but they needed modifications to handle the steel and aluminum used in the bodies of the delivery vans and the mostly aluminum bodies of the R1T and R1S—the latter need to be picked up via suction cups, not magnets, for example. Presumably, the Ford SUV will feature an aluminum body, as well, given that the company has embraced that strategy with its pickups and large SUVs.
The partnership with Ford has been helpful in this regard, Scaringe says. Ford spent billions revamping its plants to switch the current generation of F-Series pickups and large SUVs to aluminum construction, and the Dearborn-based company now makes about 1 million aluminum-intensive vehicles a year. Ford employees have been generous with their time and expertise in helping Rivian.
The existing paint shop at the Rivian plant had to be scrapped; designed for littler cars, it was many sizes too small. Scaringe could probably sell tickets to watch the new e-coating process that dips vehicle bodies to prevent corrosion.
LikeBMWdoes at its Spartanburg, South Carolina, plant, Scaringe wants vehicles to enter the tank and flip, end over end, four times, to prevent air bubbles that could lead to rust—picture that body ballet with a 30-foot-long delivery van. The plant ceilings aren’t high enough for this, though, so to solve the problem Rivian lowered the floor, digging an eight-foot pit with giant moorings to house dip tanks that stand about 33 feet tall. Scaringe thinks this makes it the world’s largest dip-process setup.
Rivian was founded in 2009 and has since grown to more than 1,800 employees. It could reach 2,500 or more by year’s end as hiring ramps up for the plant while the development team has continued to expand. The Plymouth headquarters is bursting at the seams. The cafeteria area is filled with desks until more office space on a mezzanine level is ready to house more workspace.
At the Normal plant, assembly will be on a single shift initially, but some areas, such as battery lines, will run a second shift.
The two Rivian models have 90 percent shared content—they are identical from the B-pillar forward—and were designed to have an identical build process for ease of assembly.
Normal has the capacity to make 264,000 vehicles a year. The Amazon contract is for 100,000, which Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said will be filled by 2024. The rest of the capacity is for Rivian and Ford vehicles. On the Rivian side, Scaringe thinks there will be greater demand for the pickup initially, but eventually, orders will be equal for the truck and SUV. And the Rivian lineup will expand.
At the Tesla Autonomy Event in April, Elon Musk said the Disruptors of Detroit were working on a new battery pack that would last a cool million miles, and said it would be available next year. Now Tesla battery research partner Jeff Dahn and his team have released a paper in which they describe this million-mile battery cell.
The new Li-ion battery cell features a next-generation “single crystal” NMC cathode and a new type of electrolyte. Dahn’s team has extensively tested the cells, and believe they could enable a battery pack that lasts over a million miles in an EV.
“Up to three years of testing has been completed for some of the tests. Tests include long-term charge-discharge cycling at 20, 40 and 55° C, long-term storage at 20, 40 and 55° C, and high precision coulometry at 40° C. Several different electrolytes are considered in this LiNi0.5Mn0.3Co0.2O2/graphite chemistry, including those that can promote fast charging. The reasons for cell performance degradation and impedance growth are examined using several methods. We conclude that cells of this type should be able to power an electric vehicle for over 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) and last at least two decades in grid energy storage.”
This is a huge advance – the new cells last two to three times longer than Tesla’s current cells – and if the company can bring the new technology into production in a reasonable timeframe, it could radically change the economics of EVs.
The paper notes the importance of long-lasting batteries for such vehicles as robotaxis, long-haul trucks and transit buses. In these applications, a battery’s ability to deliver a high number of charge/discharge cycles is critical, in contrast to the consumer vehicle market, in which maximum range is the most important feature (at least from a marketing standpoint).
The paper also mentions vehicle-to-grid applications, which could someday allow EV owners to earn revenue from their cars while they aren’t being driven (see the upcoming issue of Charged for a profile of Fermata Energy, a pioneer in this space).
Meanwhile, job listings on Tesla’s web site seem to confirm rumors that the company plans to start manufacturing its own battery cells (as reported by Electrek).
Tesla watchers know that Jeff Dahn and his team at Dalhousie University near Halifax, Nova Scotia, are world leaders in lithium-ion battery research. For years, Dahn worked exclusively for 3M, but when that arrangement ended, Tesla swooped in and signed a contract for Dahn to work for the Silicon Valley car/tech/energy company.
In addition, solid-state batteries are less like to catch fire or explode if they get too hot. That in turn means electric car manufacturers can make simpler, less costly cooling systems for their battery packs, driving down the cost of EVs. It also reassures the public their shiny new electric cars aren’t going to explode in the garage, as recently happened to the owner of a Hyundai Kona EV in Canada.
Research published by Dahn and his team in the journal Nature Energy on July 15 reveals they have created new lithium-ion pouch cells that may outperform solid-state technology battery. Here’s the abstract of that research report:
“Cells with lithium-metal anodes are viewed as the most viable future technology, with higher energy density than existing lithium-ion batteries. Many researchers believe that for lithium-metal cells, the typical liquid electrolyte used in lithium-ion batteries must be replaced with a solid-state electrolyte to maintain the flat, dendrite-free lithium morphologies necessary for long-term stable cycling.
“Here, we show that anode-free lithium-metal pouch cells with a dual-salt LiDFOB/LiBF4 liquid electrolyte have 80% capacity remaining after 90 charge–discharge cycles, which is the longest life demonstrated to date for cells with zero excess lithium. The liquid electrolyte enables smooth dendrite-free lithium morphology comprised of densely packed columns even after 50 charge — discharge cycles. NMR measurements reveal that the electrolyte salts responsible for the excellent lithium morphology are slowly consumed during cycling.”
Credit: Jeff Dahn, et al./Nature Energy
Those pesky dendrites are the bane of lithium-ion batteries. They are little projections like stalagmites in caves that can poke through the insulating layer inside individual cells, leading to short circuits and potential fires. Eliminating them would be a big step forward, particularly for use in electric vehicles.
Is Tesla on the verge of replacing the cylindrical cells in its battery packs with Jeff Dahn’s pouch cells? Not just yet. There is a lot of research and testing left to do before they becomes suitable for commercial production, but they may signal an important step forward for energy storage in the years ahead.
Below is a video of Dahn when he won the prestigious National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada award in 2017. Here is a fellow who knows what he is talking about. If he says pouch cells can outperform solid state cells, we should pay heed.
The latest news in the battery space has been about alternatives to lithium-ion technology, which still dominates the space in electronics and cars but is being increasingly challenged from several directions, notably solid-state batteries.
Now, a team of researchers has reported they have improved lithium-ion batteries in a way that could discourage some challengers.
In apaperpublished in Nature magazine, the team, led by Jeff Dahn from Dalhousie University, reports they had designed more battery cells with higher energy density without using the solid-state electrolyte that many believe is a necessary condition for enhanced density.
What’s more, the battery cell the team designed demonstrated a longer life than some comparable alternatives.
The team from Dalhousie University was working with Tesla’s Canadian research and development team, Electreknotesin its report of the news, as well as the University of Waterloo.
The EV maker is probably the staunchest proponent of lithium-ion technology for electric car batteries, so it would make sense for it to continue investing in research that would keep the technology’s dominance in the face of multiple challengers.
Recently, for example, Japanese researchersannouncedthey had successfully found a substitute for the lithium ions used in batteries and this substitute was much cheaper and more abundant: sodium.
Last year, scientists from the Australian University of Wollongong announced
they had solved a problem with sodium batteries that made them too expensive to produce, namely a lot of the other materials used in such an installation besides the sodium itself.
Sodium batteries are among the more advanced challengers to lithium ion dominance, but like other alternatives to Li-ion batteries, they have been plagued by persistent problems with their performance. Even so, workcontinuesto make them competitive with lithium-ion technology.
This fact has probably made li-ion proponents such as Tesla, who have invested substantial amounts in the technology, double their efforts to improve their batteries’ performance or reduce their cost.
As the most expensive component of an electric car, the battery is a top priority for R&D departments in the car-making industry.
Earlier this year, German scientistssaidthey had found a way to make lithium ion batteries charge much faster. Charing times are the second most important consideration after cost for potential EV buyers, and another priority for EV makers. What the scientists did was replace the cobalt oxide used in the cathode of a lithium ion battery with another compound, vanadium disulfide.
Millions of electric cars are expected to hit the roads in the coming years. From a certain perspective, the race to faster charging is the race that will make or break the long-term mainstream future of the EV, which, it turns out, is not as certain as some would think.
A J.D.Powersurveyrecently revealed that people are not particularly crazy about EVs, and the reasons they are not crazy about them have to do a lot with the batteries: charging times and range, plus price. In this context, the battery improvement race could (and will) only intensify further.
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National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Nojibur Rahman today said NBR will enact a new VAT law from July next year to streamline the VAT system.
He added small traders have been paying Value Added Tax (VAT) in a package system for a long time but it has no legal basis.
"Package VAT is an ambiguous idea, it has no legal basis. It exists on verbal calculation," said the NBR chairman while addressing at a press conference here today.
In the budget, the VAT has been fixed at Tk 28,000 in the city corporation areas and a section of small traders are opposing it, he added.
He said talks are going on with small traders to find out a solution. Traders whose annual sales turnover is above Tk 300,000 will have to pay VAT as per the new VAT law, he added.
Source: Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS)

domain: news


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Bullish about India, global giant Bank of America's CEO Brian T Moynihan has said the Indian economy is in a great position with a growing consumption story and a lot of untapped potential in terms of its big young population and a large talent pool.
He also expressed confidence about the US growth and the overall world economy, citing the estimates of his research team for a 3.2 per cent growth for the global economy and 1.7 per cent for the US in 2020.
"Overall, we feel good about the world. It is a slow growth environment and we have to make our way around it," Moynihan told PTI in an interview.
About the US, he said, "We are the biggest economy in the world and we are still growing... These are good things".
Moynihan was in this Swiss ski resort town last week for the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2020.
Asked about the demographic dividends and other growth prospects for India, the top banker said, "The best thing about your country is, it is big, it is growing, the population is young, the education continues to improve and you have a huge talent pool."
"You have skills and competence for services economy. For future generations, the labour arbitrage may not be the same in terms of voice-based call centres etc, which may have gone out of the system. But that is switching more towards a knowledge economy, and towards the fourth industrial revolution areas."
He said the Indian economy is in a great position and the consumption story is growing there.
Moynihan, who leads a team of more than 2 lakh employees serving investors and customers across the US and around the world, said the corporates and the countries keep training their people for new skills required for the next phase of growth and same has been the case for even Bank of America for its operations, including at its Indian centres.
"We have made people more competitive with our own training. That's what we need to do as responsible corporates. When we hire a person, it is not for just one job, but for all kinds of potential jobs over a long period of time. For example, the number of people manning teller machines in banks may have come down, but there are more number of relationship managers now. Every country has to think of how to keep their people relevant on skillsets."
"Our teams in India have been doing great and running the businesses very efficiently there."
Asked about the change he has noticed since last WEF annual meeting in 2019 regarding global economy and trade etc, Moynihan said, "On economy, our research team's estimate for the world is 3.2 per cent growth (up from 3.1 per cent) for this upcoming year. Their estimate for the US is 1.7 per cent."
"What's going on around the world is you are seeing sort of concerns around China during the course of 2019, but with the trade deal being worked out, people are feeling better. In US, what we see is 1.7 per cent growth, that's a very solid rate right now. Job formation is strong, wages are growing, unemployment is at all-time low, new claims for unemployment are numerically at the lowest level in 30-plus years...
"On consumer spending side in the US, in our customer base which is about USD 3 trillion dollar of activity a year, the debit/card usage, money taken out of ATMs, cheques, bill payments etc, all those usage of cash, there the money used is USD 3 trillion a year, which is pretty big and much bigger than the size of some economies..."
Bank of America reported full-year net income of USD 27.4 billion and total revenue of USD 91.2 billion for 2019.
The company delivered for shareholders in a big way in 2019 by returning a record USD 34 billion in excess capital through dividends and share repurchases. At the end of fourth quarter its customer deposits surpassed USD 1.4 trillion and client balances in its wealth management business topped USD 3 trillion.
Moynihan said businesses in the US during the course of 2019 saw some slowdown in the capital spending, but "that was some levelling out after tax reforms and there is a slight growth there also".
"Resolution on some issues like trade are happening, starting with China. If you look at the present US administration, they may be tough negotiators, but they can do a deal. Going forward, it looks that deals with the UK and Europe can be done too. These are good things ...in terms of business confidence," he said.
Talking about other major economies, Moynihan said China for the first time ever might see a growth of slightly below 6 per cent or right around 6 per cent.
"The China trade deal actually helps Europe too because there is a lot of connectivity in their economies. For India, we are probably more bullish and we expect 6 per cent. Our team is bullish on India and that's a sizeable economy. There is some clarity on Brexit though there is still some uncertainty attached about what happens next," he said.
Moynihan said tax reforms have helped a lot, among other factors, to make the US more attractive."I think it was very good for the US to get a competitive tax rate. It has taken off the table a lot many things and has made the US more attractive... Here you can hear people in Davos talking about the US with a lot more enthusiasm because of America's attractiveness and that's probably because of the tax reforms too."


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French biotech firm Alderys has bought Eviagenics’ micro-organism based flavonoid production platform for an undisclosed sum. The deal will allow Alderys to commercialise the technology and Eviagenics to focus on its seaweed extracts venture.
In this exclusive video shot at Pack Expo in Chicago, we talk about Dow’s Pack Studios laboratory integrates chemistry and engineering with user experience considerations to optimize package development for food and beverage products.
Microencapsulation expert Balchem Corporation has unveiled plans to acquire spray-dried ingredients specialist SensoryEffects (Performance Chemicals & Ingredients Company) in a $567m mega-deal it claims will create “one of the most comprehensive food...
Researchers in New Zealand have discovered potential anti-fungal properties in harakeke, or native flax, that could see the fibres used in food packaging but admitted more funding is need to continue the research.
The first food-testing laboratory in China recognised to reach international standards for pesticide screenings, melamine and heavy metal testing and microbiological analyses, was opened last month by Eurofins in Suzhou.


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Hi Gaby, how’s it going this year? How’s the pandemic been for you, and your publications?
Gaby: 2022 is proving to be an exceptionally busy year as it’s our 100th birthday of Good Housekeeping and we’re marking the occasion throughout the entire year with a number of initiatives, so there’s plenty going on. As a brand, from the very first issue of Good Housekeeping, our declared mission was that “The burning questions of the day will be reflected in articles that are fearless and frank and outspoken.” To continue this mission, this year we’ve asked leading experts to write for us with their predictions for the coming decades in a new series called Future Gazing. James Dyson has written for us on the future of engineering and inventions, for example, and Deborah Meaden has laid out where she thinks entrepreneurs will succeed in the future. Meanwhile, Liz Bonnin has given her forecast on sustainability and the future of our planet, and Dame Sarah Gilbert has looked at the possibility of future pandemics and how we might deal with them… it’s a fascinating series.
Our own team of experts are also marking the year by pulling together their 100 best pieces of advice in all our specialist areas including beauty, cookery and homes among others — all of which are being published on our website. We’ve also launched the Futures prize, in partnership with the Women’s Prize for Fiction, to highlight the next generation of female authors. Good Housekeeping’s audience are currently reading the works of the 10 authors on the shortlist and voting for their favourite — this overall winner will be announced in our December issue of the magazine. Another first for us this year is the very first Good Housekeeping Live event, which we’re holding in central London at the end of June — a three-day festival of talks and demonstrations featuring our own and guest experts, authors and celebrities.
So there’s a lot, and whilst I could look back and say how amazingly we fared during the pandemic (Editor’s note: they did well), we’re all about making the most of our big birthday and looking ahead.
You’ve been at Hearst UK for 9 years now, what have you seen change and evolve in that time, in terms of what content you focus on and what people find important?
GH: Each year brings fresh focus — which is what makes my job so exciting. Good Housekeeping’s success over the past 100 years — and during my tenure — is largely attributed to the magazine’s core brand proposition. The very first issue promised readers: “There should be no drudgery in the house. There must be time to think, to read, to enjoy life — to hold one’s youth as long as possible, to have beauty around us — colour in dress, form and colour in our surroundings; to have good food without monotony.”
That approach remains central to our content, but we’re always flexing and adapting to fit the times. Giving our audience advice and answers on how to live more sustainably has become increasingly important, as has guidance on healthy living; as lifespans continue to grow. We’re continuously reviewing our platforms, too, looking to connect with each emerging generation in digital first spaces. We’re already getting a great following on TikTok, thanks, for example, to our cleaning videos, which are becoming increasingly popular.
Our monthly theme in May was ‘Face The Strange’: to what extent are we turning to face strange changes? How well do you feel Good Housekeeping and Hearst have moved with the times and evolved, and what challenges have you faced?
GH: We’re very tuned into change across all our brands at Hearst, and the way we tackle challenges varies slightly depending on our audience. That said, evaluating the type of content we put out — and how it’s delivered to readers — is crucial. For Good Housekeeping, that means broaching topics like the menopause, with both sensitivity and positivity. We ran an excellent interview with Davina McCall in a recent print issue, where she went into detail about her own experience.
We focus on the ‘how’, too. Print remains the cornerstone of the Good Housekeeping brand, but we’re investing heavily in online content and social media. Our aim as a brand is to ensure that we operate across all possible platforms so that, wherever our audiences are, we can connect with them.
In your letter [on the website] reflecting on 100 years you say you’re proud of your heritage and excited by the future. Is it a challenge to get people excited about the future when many are struggling with the cost of living? On the website you offer advice, but is it becoming harder to strike a balance between positive and uplifting and pragmatic and realistic? What do you think your audience want these days?
GH: You’re right. Good Housekeeping’s mission has always been to offer informative, uplifting content, balanced with sound advice. As you can imagine, the past 100 years have brought a multitude of challenges cross-decade — from WW2 to economic recession — and our challenge has been to adapt content accordingly to fit the times in which our audience are living.
We know families are being impacted by the current financial situation, so we’re honing in our content on value-for-money products and giving our trademark Tried and Tested advice, much of which comes from our state-of-the-art testing centre, The Good Housekeeping Institute. Keep an eye out for our September print issue, where we’re pulling together advice from experts on how best to weather the cost-of-living crisis. The team are working hard on that, and investigating everything from how to cook in an affordable way to how best to manage household budgets.
Our approach with everything is perennially positive — yes, life brings challenges and that’s precisely when Good Housekeeping can help with great information and advice.
Have you also found that subscribers want more of a focus on sustainability and sustainable living, whether that’s food, fashion or beauty?
GH: Sustainability is becoming hugely important to our readers. We now run eco-focused features in both print and online, across homes, cooking and beauty — dedicated to helping our readers make small but impactful changes. We find that many people want to be more environmentally friendly, but a lot of the time they don’t know where to start. That’s where our content comes in. Having one eye on sustainability is now part of the job, for all of our journalists and experts. For instance, when it comes to Christmas we know our audience want ideas for decorating their homes, but want to know the most sustainable options, from Christmas trees to baubles. We’re dedicated to helping them navigate these choices.
Sticking with ‘facing the strange’, with your editor hat on, are there certain areas or topics you’d love to be able to tackle one day, but fear your audience might not take so well to them?
GH: To be honest, I wouldn’t be a very good editor if I were focused on my own interests! I’m always driven to highlight areas I believe will be of interest to my audience. My mission is to provide them with all the information, inspiration and advice they need across all areas of life. It’s by being razor sharp with our audience focus that we keep Good Housekeeping as the number one lifestyle magazine brand.
Finally, what excites you about the year ahead? Any projects you’d like to point our readers towards?
2022 marks the magazine’s 100th anniversary in the UK, and we have exciting plans in the pipeline. Next month we’ll be taking over the beautiful Carlton House Terrace for three days to host our centenary event, Good Housekeeping Live. We have an incredible line-up of celebrity speakers and expert-led masterclasses, as well as lunches, brunches and afternoon teas. It’s going to be a fabulous event that brings talent, editors and readers together after a long stint of virtual experiences. Everyone is welcome, and tickets are on sale now.
Please note: Good Housekeeping Live has been postponed until October, due to rail strikes. More info here.
Featured image: Good Housekeeping


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Businesses keeping track of developments in the international trade sector are likely to be disappointed by the depressed growth trends expected over the next two years.
Recent reports have shown that 2015 was a poor year in terms of international trade growth, and forecasts from leading organisations have indicated that 2016 and 2017 are unlikely to offer much more cheer in this regard.
Last month, the World Trade Organization (WTO) published a detailed report indicating that the sluggish pace of growth will indeed persist for the foreseeable future, suggesting that companies may need to accept the new market reality and adjust to compensate for as long as it persists.
According to the report, growth in the volume of world trade is expected to remain at 2.8 per cent in 2016, unchanged from the underwhelming 2.8 per cent increase registered in 2015.
Though the rate is then expected to accelerate to 3.6 per cent in 2017, this estimate remains significantly lower than the five per cent annual average seen since 1990. Global GDP is expected to grow by only 2.4 per cent this year and 2.7 per cent next year, with a modest acceleration seen in developing nations offset by a slowdown in more established economies.
For 2016, imports in developed nations are expected to outpace those of developing countries, with a 3.3 per cent rise in the former compared to a 1.8 per cent increase in the latter. Asia, North America and Europe are forecast to be the best performers, while South and Central America are set to contract due to the low prices of oil and other commodities.
The WTO's director-general Roberto Azevedo said: "This will be the fifth consecutive year of trade growth below three per cent. Moreover, while the volume of global trade is growing, its value has fallen because of shifting exchange rates and falls in commodity prices. This could undermine fragile economic growth in vulnerable developing countries. There remains as well the threat of creeping protectionism, as many governments continue to apply trade restrictions and the stock of these barriers continues to grow."
Continuing 2015's weak performance
The weak performance forecasts for the coming years represent a continuation of trends established in 2015, as the WTO report shows.
Trade was unusually volatile during 2015, falling in the second quarter in richer and poorer countries, before experiencing a rebound in the latter part of the year. Positive growth was seen in merchandise trade volume, but the dollar value fell sharply by 13 per cent to $16.5 trillion (€14.61 trillion), down from $19 trillion in 2014. This was caused by variable commodity prices and exchange rates, driven by slowing economic growth in China, resilient US fuel production and differing approaches to international monetary policy, as well as financial market instability harming business and consumer confidence.
Though the overall 2.8 per cent rate met the WTO's expectations, certain factors were unforeseen, such as lower-than-expected US export figures and weak imports in oil-producing countries.
Key issues to be resolved
There are a number of key reasons why these sluggish trends are prevailing, with Asia playing a key part in this. After contributing more than any other region to the recovery of world trade after the financial crisis, the slowdown of growth seen in China and other Asian economies is now having the opposite effect, offsetting the recovery seen in Europe, which has stabilised following recent difficulties.
Business and consumer confidence has slipped in developed countries as a result of the recent poor momentum, while recent financial instability in Asia has abated, but may return if economic data does not align with expectations.
In order to address some of these problems, the WTO is calling for countries worldwide to accelerate their progress on rolling back trade-restrictive measures and implementing the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, which will cut trade costs and potentially boost the value of global trade by up to $1 trillion a year.
Additionally, more accommodative monetary policy from the European Central Bank could be a positive step, as this would encourage growth in the euro area and bolster demand for goods and services, including imports.
Mr Azevedo added: "More can also be done to address remaining tariff and non-tariff barriers on exports of agricultural and manufactured goods."


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With every update to Open-Xchange’s products, we increase their functionality and ease of use, in order to improve useability. The latest releases are no different, and today we have announced new versions of thr...
Welcome to the OX Blog
Enables companies to expand portfolios and deliver a proven hosted collaboration suite Open-Xchange today announced that it is partnering with FUAGO to make OX Cloud available to hosters and IT resellers, enablin...
The European Parliament is currently discussing the rules that will shape internet products and services for decades to come, and all stakeholders are vying to be heard. According to a recent report, the big glob...
Quad9 uses PowerDNS to provide a worldwide encrypted DNS Service, a privacy-friendly public DNS resolving service for everyone. We talk to John Todd, General Manager - Quad9 Recursive Resolver, about why PowerDNS...
Back in 2018, when the IETF introduced two standards on DNS encryption, Open-Xchange and PowerDNS were amongst the first to adopt and offer encrypted DNS through DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) and DNS-over-TLS (DoT).
Open-Xchange is pleased to announce the release of DNSdist 1.6.0, the latest version of its state-of-the-art DNS-aware load balancer, which protects, balances and filters internet users’ DNS traffic in front of O...
- Data Privacy & Open Internet259
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- OX Product Features21
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- OX Blog2


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J.Crew’s legendary chairman and chief executive Mickey Drexler is asking for help to turn around his ailing chain, The Post has learned.
Drexler, who is credited with the Gap’s success in the ’90s, has been working with consultant McKinsey & Co. on developing a new business plan for the preppy J.Crew retail chain, two sources with direct knowledge of the situation said.
Private equity firms TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners, with Drexler, own J.Crew and the dynamics of the partnership are changing.
“I think there was a lot of deference to Drexler and that is now over,” a source said.
Meanwhile, to give it more time and latitude to fashion a revival, the retailer may soon hire a bank to explore the idea of buying back its bonds — currently trading at 38 cents, a source said.
J.Crew has a little over $2 billion in debt: a $1.5 billion loan maturing in 2021 and $500 million in bonds maturing in 2019.
The company has basically no free cash flow, according to a Barclays analyst report. However, as of July 31, it had an untapped $320 million credit line and $49 million in cash.
If it buys all its bonds for its market price of $209 million, there will be no maturities for five years, giving Drexler and crew time to make the brand fashionable again.
“The perception of the chain in the eyes of the customer has been compromised,” one of the sources said. “J.Crew realizes it needs to get more comfortable clothes and be more like Lululemon.”
Among the changes on the table:
- A greater emphasis on activewear and less on tailored clothing. Last week, J.Crew announced its first activewear line in partnership with New Balance.
- Being able to replenish popular items quicker. J.Crew is weighing the formation of a team to address faster production times, one source said.
- Possible greater focus on online sales that could result in the closing of some stores, the source said.
TPG has had two very different experiences with Drexler, 72, a Bronx High School of Science alum.
David Bonderman’s firm in 2003 recruited Drexler to run J.Crew amid much fanfare. The move helped TPG’s fund turn its $133 million 1997 J.Crew investment into $930 million by the time it fully exited in 2009, TPG’s fund documents show.
In 2010, J.Crew’s performance fell and TPG a year later made a contrarian investment in partnership with Drexler, buying the then-listed company for the second time.
However, TPG’s much larger $650 million fund investment has returned only $357 million in fees and dividends, according to fund documents.
The fund’s stake in J.Crew is worth very little considering the company’s bonds are trading at distressed levels. Debt typically gets paid before equity. Combined, TPG funds over almost 20 years have invested $783 million in J.Crew and realized $1.26 billion, according to fund documents.
Both TPG and J.Crew declined to comment.


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November 13, 2014 | The Vancouver Observer
With passion, creativity, and their wallets, British Columbians are demonstrating solidarity with First Nations and an ever-growing opposition to the Enbridge pipeline and tankers. Who knew stopping a pipeline could... more
November 12, 2014 | Sky News
Amazon has removed Pepsi-Cola’s new drink from its online catalogue after it was bombarded by negative reviews from environmentalist groups over its “irresponsible” use of palm oil.
November 12, 2014 | new.com.au
TWO orangutans and a chip packet have frolicked around Sydney’s CBD – but this monkey business is a serious issue. ACTIVISTS donned the costumes on Wednesday as part of a protest... more
November 6, 2014 | The Daily Mail
An ad for The Sun newspaper’s Dream Team fantasy football competition has been banned for offering the “sexist and offensive” prize of a date with a page three girl.
November 6, 2014 | The Guardian
An advertisement for a fantasy football Sun newspaper competition which offered a date with a Page 3 girl as a prize has been banned and branded “sexist and demeaning”.


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A long-anticipated milestone will finally be attained this year according to eMarketer: Digital ad spending is expected to outpace traditional ad spending beginning in 2019, with digital going on to comprise more than two-thirds of total media spending by 2023.
This year, total spending on digital ads will grow 19.1% to $129.34 billion, eMarketer predicts, a level nearly $20 billion higher than outlays on traditional platforms such as television. The dominant category within digital spending is mobile, which is expected to total $87 billion in 2019, more than two-thirds of the digital tally.
Many traditional ad categories remain in free-fall as technology and dollars shift. Telephone directories like the Yellow Pages, for example, will fall 19% this year, while print newspapers and magazines (excluding their online versions) will drop nearly 18%. Those projected declines, plus a year in TV that lacks broadly consequential political elections, or World Cup or Olympics telecasts, will lower traditional ad spending’s share in the U.S. to 45.8% in 2019 from 51.4% last year.
TV ad spending will drop 2.2% to $70.83 billion this year, the market research firm predicts, before getting a boost back to positive growth in 2020 from the presidential election.
Digital ads offer more precise targeting, including the capability of reaching a consumer at the actual point of purchase. Proponents for traditional venues such as television have emphasized the concept of “brand safety,” pointing to public embarrassments suffered by YouTube, Facebook and others, in which blue-chip brand messages have run next to offensive or even illegal content. Even so, ad dollars are following the overall consumption pattern in the U.S., with digital showing no signs of stopping its momentum.
“The steady shift of consumer attention to digital platforms has hit an inflection point with advertisers, forcing them to now turn to digital to seek the incremental gains in reach and revenues which are disappearing in traditional media advertising,” eMarketer forecasting director Monica Peart said.
The race for digital market share is also involving more than the marketplace’s two longtime lead horses, eMarketer projects. Google and Facebook will see their shares decline even as their revenues grow — Google’s will dip to 37.2% from 38.2% last year and Facebook’s to 22.1% from 21.8%.
Coming on strong as the No. 3 digital ad player is Amazon, whose U.S. ad business will grow more than 50% this year, eMarketer says. The e-commerce giant’s share of the digital ad market will reach 8.8% in 2019 and approach 10% by next year.
“Amazon has a major benefit to advertisers, especially consumer packaged goods and direct-to-consumer brands,” Peart said. “The platform is rich with shoppers’ behavioral data for targeting and provides access to purchase data in real-time. This type of access was once only available through the retail partner, to share at their discretion. But with Amazon’s suite of sponsored ads, marketers have unprecedented access to the ‘shelves’ where consumers are shopping.”
Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst at eMarketer, said Instagram has helped Facebook overcome a series of blows to its reputation, everything from data scandals to political misdeeds and crime facilitated by the core social platform. “There’s strong demand for ads in Instagram Stories, and Instagram still benefits from the perception that it’s less impacted by the challenges core Facebook has faced,” she said.
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Chocolate Factory Burns
Published: March 3, 1985
PORTLAND, Ore., March 2— Fire raced through the Van Duyn chocolate factory and warehouse today, destroying hundreds of pounds of candy and thousands of Easter baskets, fire officials said. Easter baskets floated from warehouse doorways as 75 firefighters poured tons of water on the fire. A Fire Bureau spokesman said the the flames had a ''kind of white color,'' apparently from burning chocolate.


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On Jan. 16, 2020, Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. sold their three bedroom, two bathroom home at 7911 N.W. 72nd Ave., Tamarac to Gabriel and Paula Villarroel for $225,700.
The last time this home sold was July 15, 2003. It last sold for $150,000.
This property is one of 75 sales in Tamarac in January 2020.


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Google that has been very selective in picking its key markets is likely to add more countries into its list such as India which currently has previous-generation Google Pixel devices and for this, the tech giant has finally removed the hurdle that stopped Pixel 4 and 4 XL devices in India last year.
Google was not able to sell the Pixel 4 and 4 XL devices in India due to its ‘Soli Radar chip’ on the front, which utilised the 60GHz frequency band banned for commercial use in India.
“It seems Google has finally removed the Soli Radar chip and the Pixel range can now be sold in India,” said Senior Analyst with Counterpoint Research, Hanish Bhatia.
Google Store lists nine countries that will sell its newly-launched Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G devices the US, Canada, Japan, UK, Germany, France, Ireland, Australia and Taiwan.
“But it may likely add more countries such as India, Singapore, Italy and Spain, which currently sell previous generation Google Pixel devices,” Bhatia said.
Google would also be keen on capturing a pie in the European market in absence of Huawei, but it is likely to face tough competition from other Chinese OEMs.
“Google does have an edge in terms of brand equity, but it needs to build strong carrier partnerships and have a sturdy pricing and promotion strategy to capture the opportunity,” the Counterpoint report said.
After currency conversion, Pixel 5 is priced at $599 in Canada, making it $100 cheaper compared to its retail price in the US.
“We delved further into this and found out that Pixel 5 is actually a sub-6 only device for every country other than the US. Therefore, there will be some price differentiation across these markets,” the report added.
Although Google Store drives only a fraction of Google Pixel sales, the bottom line is that Google must have a sturdy pricing and promotion strategy across regions, especially in carrier channels.
On September 30, Google launched two Pixel devices, Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5.
This follows the August 3 launch of the Pixel 4a (a non-5G version), which is yet to hit the shelves in all its key markets, like India.
This means that three Pixel devices will be available for retail in most markets by mid-November, which will be a first for the Google Pixel team.
With its latest Pixel devices, Google has finally managed to make decent upgrades on the hardware.
Pixel devices bring the best-in-class Android experience along with an in-built AI neural engine that supports various features that might seem slightly distant for many smartphone OEMs.
Google has also managed to add ‘5G’ capability in its Pixel range of devices at the right time.
“The 5G capability will enable Google to upsell its content and services such as Stadia, YouTube premium, storage and much more, going forward,” Bhatia said. https://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com


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Axa is setting up a new website through which it plans to offer online advice on its own and eventually its competitors' products direct to the public.
The site, internally named eAxa, aims to build awareness on the back of Axa's FA Cup sponsorship.
But the move has stirred IFA concerns that it will pave the way for an online multi-tie.
The website will be launched this spring and will init ially sell life and pension products from Axa Sun Life, Axa Assurance and PPP Healthcare, plus the Woolwich's Open Plan account. It will also offer a share-dealing facility.
Axa is not revealing how it plans to offer online advice but is keen to allay any IFA fears that the direct venture could potentially sideline the intermediary channel.
Its internet-based strategy is based on a recent report from consultancy McKinsey which showed an opportunity for the provision of online advice in the UK market. Axa already has similar sites in Germany, France and Belgium.
Media relations manager Phil Hickley says: “We are looking to have a range of distribution channels to cater for a variety of customers. In the longer term, we will be selling more products than just Axa's through the open financial portal but this is not an attempt to move business away from the IFA channel.”


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Online payment solution SafetyPay began operations in its 21st country this week. The Florida-based company now operates in Belgium, expanding its global footprint which covers the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Latin America.
SafetyPay’s expansion into Europe fulfills one of the company’s strategic objectives and makes good business sense: Half of the country’s population with access to email have a habit of shopping online. “Our main goal is to make SafetyPay well known to the market. Brand perception is an intelligent sales technique for pitching to merchants, who play such a key role in the process,” said Gustavo Ruiz Moya, SafetyPay CEO.
SafetyPay’s ecommerce checkout-solution enables users to pay global merchants in their local currency, directly from their bank account. The company has partnerships with almost 100 banks around the world.
Founded in 2003, SafetyPay’s sales have grown 5X over the past three years. Moya attributes the growth to “investments in technology, innovation in [its] product portfolio and the hard work of [its] devoted and highly qualified team.” The company last presented at FinovateSpring 2010. Earlier this month, SafetyPay partnered with Brazil-based Pamcary to help the company’s truckers make annual Telerisco payments.


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Shanghai GM plans second phase of Wuhan assembly plant
Shanghai General Motors Co. says it will start expanding its plant in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province as soon as the initial construction phase is completed.
The plant will double its production capacity in 2017, when the second phase is completed. The plant expansion will cost 7.5 billion yuan ($1.2 billion).
Shanghai GM is a 50-50 joint venture between General Motors and SAIC Motor Corp. The partnership now has three assembly plants in Shanghai, Yantai and Shenyang that can produce up to 1.3 million vehicles a year.
To expand production, Shanghai GM is completing its Wuhan plant, and it is building a Cadillac plant in Shanghai that will assemble as many as 160,000 vehicles annually after starting production next year.
Last month, Shanghai GM sold 124,575 Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac vehicles in and outside China. For the first seven months of this year, Shanghai GM has sold 966,852 units.


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If there's a gene for entrepreneurship, Elon Musk has it. From his first project at age 12 creating and selling a videogame called Blastar for $500, to his $1-billion-plus sale of PayPal to eBay in 2002, the 37-year-old South African is every bit the born mogul. These days he's chairman of Solar City, the largest residential solar-power provider in California. He's also the founder and CEO of Space X, a space-exploration company that made headlines last September when it launched the first privately developed rocket into orbit. But lately it's Musk's newly minted role as CEO of the San Carlos, California-based start-up Tesla Motors that is drawing the most attention. In October, amid global financial tumult, Tesla received a $40-million cash infusion from private investors and announced that by 2011 it would begin selling an electric sedan powered by lithium-ion batteries with an unthinkable 244-mile range. The Model S won't overtake Tesla's 125mph Roadster, but it will be nearly half the price, at $60,000, and made in America. We spoke with Musk about his push to make affordable high-performance electric cars and why hybrids have no future.
Q: Can you be successful selling an alternative-fuel car now that gas prices have dipped below $3 a gallon?
A: Absolutely. The cost difference between electric and gasoline is gigantic. When we started Tesla in 2003, gasoline was around $2.50. It takes 60 kilowatt-hours to charge the Roadster's battery. So at California's special rate for electric cars, currently seven cents a kilowatt-hour to charge at night, it costs roughly $5 to go 250 miles. And we're zero-emissions.
Q: But gas cars are still more affordable.
A: Today. Remember, in their early days, gasoline cars were really "toys for the rich." All technology gets optimized. The typical electric motor is 90 percent more efficient at converting energy into motion than the internal combustion engine. You get an overwhelming advantage in both carbon emissions and energy per mile.
Q: Why not go hybrid?
A: We looked closely at developing a hybrid, but we decided it's a red herring. If you stay purely electric or purely gasoline, you're going to make a better car. As soon as you try to split the difference, you have something that's neither fish nor fowl. A Prius is a weak gasoline car with a little bit of electric charge. And once you've used up the electric charge, you have an underpowered gasoline engine or a weak electric car.
Q: How will drivers recharge the battery pack in the Model S?
A: You'll head to a battery-swap station, drive your car onto rails that lock your car into position like at a car wash, and a customized forklift device will grab the pack from beneath the car, pull it out, and replace it with another pack. It'll take roughly five minutes -- less time than filling your gas tank. For a high-speed recharge, the car will also have onboard chargers that let you plug into any wall socket and charge up in 45 minutes.
Q: Tesla has delivered only 50 Roadsters. How do you plan to get 15,000 Model S cars out annually?
A: For the Roadster, we made a few architectural errors and lots of mistakes in our choice of suppliers. And we were developing the first version of a new technology. With the sedan, we already have the powertrain in a rolling prototype, so there's much less uncertainty around the technology. That said, the recent economic situation has forced us to push back production six months, to mid-2011.
Q: You run a green company. Would you say you live a green lifestyle?
A: I'm not too hardcore about being green. I think it leads to a very constrained life. I have the Roadster and a Porsche Turbo. But once the sedan comes out, I'll hand in the Porsche. Waste is not good, but we can't conserve our way to a solution. If everyone were a super-green conservationist, it would just delay the inevitable. We have to find sustainable means of producing and consuming energy.
Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.


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In pre-release marketing materials for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, set to release on December 7, the character Mr. Game & Watch uses racist Native American imagery during one of his attacks. Nintendo now says it plans to remove that imagery from the game and has apologized to fans, saying the caricature doesn’t represent the company’s values.
Fans spotted the character’s new attack animation during a Treehouse Live stream last Thursday, following a Nintendo Direct dedicated to the game. During the attack, the normally black silhouetted Mr. Game & Watch is holding a torch and bearing his teeth with a feather coming out of the back of his head. It’s an homage to the character’s 1982 game, Fire Attack, in which players help a cowboy defend his fort from being burned down by Native Americans. The racist caricature sparked debates on forums like ResetEra and the game’s subreddit.
Nintendo has come down firmly on the side of it being an offensive depiction. In a statement to Kotaku (as first reported by Eurogamer), the company said the following:
“Nintendo has been planning to distribute an update for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that removes the feather from the silhouette of Mr. Game & Watch. The original game on which this depiction of the character is based was released more than three decades ago and does not represent our company values today. We sincerely apologize that this change was not noticed in our marketing material and are continuing our work to make Super Smash Bros. Ultimate an experience that is both welcoming and fun for everyone.”
The company did not immediately respond to a request for clarification on why it had decided to add the caricature to Smash Bros. Ultimate in the first place. Mr. Game & Watch’s character didn’t have this move in previous Smash games, and Nintendo had previously removed it from Fire Attack when the game was ported to Game Boy Advance in 2002 as part of Game & Watch Gallery 4. In that version, the Native American characters were changed into bandits.
Sensitivity to racism around depictions of Native Americans has lagged behind other previously acceptable trends that are now considered taboo, like blackface, but it is catching up. Earlier this year, Major League Baseball announced that images of Chief Wahoo, the Cleveland Indians’ racist mascot, would be removed from the team’s uniforms starting in 2019 (though it will still be visible on team merchandise and elsewhere).


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It’s clear that womanhood is greatest survived with pals. A bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape and a journey via 70s France with Valérie Mairesse and Thérse Liotard are included. The film was directed by Brian Robbins and featured Goldberg, Diamond Dallas Page, Sting and Booker T. While the film bombed at the box office, it is most notable for kick starting a wrestling storyline that saw David Arquette go on to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. The debut of John Cena, who hadn’t yet turned his attention to pro wrestling, but appeared as an uncredited further in a health club scene, was also featured. The Condemned options Austin in his first starring role, and is remembered for its violence.
Modi’s arrival to the U.S. follows a high profile meeting between the Secretary of State and China’s President on Monday in a bid to ease tensions between the two largest economies in the world. Modi is going to meet with Biden and U.S. executives in China on Thursday and Friday. CNBC has learned that General Atomics is close to a deal to sell drones to New Delhi at a time when the country is trying to beef up its security.
The subsidiary of tech giant Alphabet Inc. is looking to establish partnerships with Indian suppliers for the local manufacturing of its Pixel phones. With this, the likes of global tech giants would be able to locally manufacture products in India. According to a report by the news agency, the tech giant is in talks with local manufacturers to assemble their devices. The tech giant is in talks with Indian manufacturers Exotic Dish to assemble their devices in India. Around 120 communications service providers have launched commercial 5G services and around 35 have deployed or launched 5G. Enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), gaming and some augmented and virtual reality based services are the most common 5G services launched by service providers for consumers.


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Android 9 Pie began rolling out earlier this month to the Pixel and Pixel 2, as well as the Essential Phone. New devices and more updates are expected later this year, with Google now detailing the Go edition of its latest mobile operating system and announcing when the first devices will be available.
With Go edition, Google wants to improve the Android experience on the entry-level devices often bought by first-time smartphone users. Aimed at developing countries, the operating system has been optimized for less powerful hardware and limited data connectivity.
With Android 9 Pie, Go edition devices will benefit from an additional 500MB of storage available out of the box. On average, an 8GB Go device has 5GB of free storage available. While that’s over half of what’s available on a non-Go device, Google is making more space for photos, music, other files, and apps.
Storage on these devices is further aided by Go variants of Google applications, including Assistant, Maps, and YouTube. For example, Android Messages for Go is approximately 50% smaller in size.
Meanwhile, Android will boot faster and include security features, like verified boot, already found on the full version of Android. Users will also benefit from a dashboard to track and monitor data consumption.
Collectively, these features help solve some of the most common pain points for entry-level device owners: storage, performance, data management and security. Keep an eye out for the first devices offering the new Pie (Go edition) experience to hit shelves later this fall.
According to Google, there are already 200 Go edition devices in over 120 countries since launching in April. More than 100 manufacturers are planning to release devices by the end of the year, including the first Pie phones this fall.
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Madison Digital that works with prestigious blue-chip clients and is India’s Foremost Media agency has bagged the AVoD (Advertising-based Video on Demand) mandate of Zee5.
For ZEE5’s Brand building, the firm will manage media strategy, social media, and creative creation. To attain this aim, it will work to increase customer participation. The company’s digital presence, image, and trustworthiness will be prioritized by the brand, which will focus on developing innovative concepts.
Madison Media Group is India’s leading media agency, specializing in media planning and purchasing for major blue-chip clients such as Godrej, Titan, TVS, UBER, McDonald’s, Raymond, Viacom, and Blue Star.
With a staff of 375 media experts, it works from offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, and Kolkata in India, Colombo in Sri Lanka, and Dhaka in Bangladesh. Madison Media & OOH Group CEO Vikram Sakhuja leads the company in India. Recma, a global rating agency for media agencies, has regularly placed Madison Media as India’s second-largest media buying agency for the past six years.
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), a worldwide Media and Entertainment powerhouse, is launched by ZEE5, India’s fastest growing ConTech brand. Originals, Indian and international movies and TV shows, news, music, kids’ entertainment, and gamification, as well as a variety of health and lifestyle material, are all available on the platform.
ZEE5 has several unique features, including 11 different navigational languages, content downloads, smooth video playback, and voice search.
There are more than 125,000 hours of On-Demand content and 90+ live TV channels available. With content in 12 languages including English, Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Oriya, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, and Punjabi, the platform is one of India’s leading OTT channels, allowing regional material to reach its full potential.
Commenting on the mandate, Vishal Chinchankar, CEO, Madison Digital & Madison Media Ultra stated: “ZEE5 has seen a huge amount of growth over the last few years. The brand has been coming up with impressive originals suited for the Indian market. We are extremely happy to associate with ZEE5 in growing the AVoD business for the brand.”
Rajiv Bakshi, chief operations officer – Revenue, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited, states “AVoD is a fast-growing OTT category and through strong AdTech and Martech stack, ZEE5 has paved the way for marketers and advertisers to communicate with viewers through creative and innovative ways. We look forward to a successful partnership with Madison to further communicate our success story, distinct product offerings and fuel our growth in India.


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As it marks its one-year anniversary as a grocery advertising network, MyWebGrocer (MWG) says it has grown to be the largest one in the United States.
MWG’s retail grocer clients have materially benefited from the ad program as space on their Web sites becomes real estate available for revenue-generating opportunities, according to the company. "Since 47 percent of the consumers who click on a banner purchase an item, the ad network drives both sales and new revenue for retail partners," added MWG.
Among the over 170 branded advertisers from the consumer packaged goods industries to find success on (MWG) over the past year was Kellogg, whose "online advertising with [the network] has shown double- digit product sales growth online from 2007-2008," said Kamela Warren, the company’s e-business customer manager "The ability to track and report sales enables us to test and forecast what works in online grocery."
"Our ability to reach 3.5 million grocery shoppers a month, combined with our measurable consumer insights, has driven our clients’ success in 2008," noted Alec Newcomb the v.p. who runs the MWG ad network.
Some of Colchester, Vt.-based MyWebGrocer’s over 90 retail clients include ShopRite, Lowes Food Stores, Big Y, Food Lion, and, most recently, Roche Bros. Its ad network covers 85 percent of the United States, earning its clients direct revenue.


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It’s a new place, “For Locals, By Locals.” And it’s a slogan the owners of The Garrison Taproom & Billiards pride themselves on.
Husband and wife team Alex and Sue Perez opened the bar -- which sells more than 100 brands of craft beer, wine, seltzer, and cider -- on Main Street in early January.
The couple are Miami Lakers who love beer and relish sharing it with hometown friends and neighbors for a “Wynwood-type of experience.”
“It was a dream to open something on Main Street, which we consider kind of the hub of Miami Lakes, the focal point of Miami Lakes,” Alex Perez said. “We wanted to really introduce a new craft [beer] experience.”
The Garrison offers a bottled beverage menu of “basic pilsners to complicated porters and stouts” and a selection of beers on tap that change monthly to help those curious about crafts to try something new.
Ordering beer flights is encouraged and served in sets of four, 5-ounce pours. There are also free “coladita” samples of beverages given in thimble-sized cups of the sort typically used for Cuban coffee.
Craft brews cost $6 to $8; domestic and imported beers are $3.50 to $6.
As patrons step inside the taproom at 6709 Main St., they will find a welcoming concrete bar with a brick backdrop and curvy, red-cushioned booths.
A large mural of a guitar, musical notes and the phrase, “Great Minds Drink Alike” adorns one wall.
Cheers! And chug-a-lug.
“Even if you miss something, there’s always going to be something new, and that’s really the kind of reputation we want to get— there’s always something new going on at The Garrison,” Perez said.
“You can have a nice, neat experience regardless of what type of beer you like,” he said.
Perez’s favorite beer is on tap: Honey Love Imperial Cream Ale ($8) by Tarpon River Brewing in Fort Lauderdale.
He often recommends it when guests ask for something good to gulp down. It’s 9.5% ABV (alcohol by volume), but it’s sweet and smooth and goes down easy, he said.
For connoisseurs with more refined palates, the priciest pour is a $19 ale called Chimay Grande Reserve Blue from Belgium.
And of course, Miller Lite is always on tap because it’s so popular, Perez said. Other mainstream brands sold are Stella Artois, Heineken and Modelo Especial.
The taproom doesn’t have a kitchen so the Perezes teamed up with neighbors Pizza Scene and soon, Burger IM, to offer a limited menu of pizza, subs, wings, mozzarella sticks and burgers. Orders are delivered directly to guests’ tables.
“Right now to open up a shop, open up anything during these uncertain times, is a risk,” said Gloria Rodriguez, co-owner of Pizza Scene.
“So anything that we can do to help and assist a local small business, we definitely love to be able to get the opportunity to partner with them,” she said.
Rodriguez has owned the pizza parlor for 16 years.
“To see businesses open and alive on Main Street is the best,” she said. “It’s a blessing, definitely.”
After sampling the brews and snacking at the Garrison, there’s plenty to do.
The venue boasts 14 TV screens, an overhead projector— Perez wants to become a destination for Miami Hurricanes football fans on game days — two pool tables, a jukebox, darts and board games.
And if that’s not enough, there are theme nights: free salsa dance lessons; trivia; live acoustic music; karaoke and a DJ on Saturdays who spins freestyle, current hits and Latin music.
In other words, this is a place to make friends.
Perez updates customers about upcoming events on Facebook and Instagram (@garrisonmiamilakes).
The idea of opening a beer lover’s haven began brewing about a decade ago. Helping a friend open his taproom in South Carolina spurred the couple’s passion for their own business.
“I actually inspired him to do it and he actually pulled the trigger before I did, and that consequently really pushed me to take the next step,” said Perez, who also works in residential real estate. “I saw it become a reality.”
Main Street is not just where Perez and his wife opened a business, it’s where he spent a lot of time while growing up.
It’s where he skateboarded, went to the movies, bought cassettes for his Walkman and listened to them while sitting at the blue fountain.
To Alex Perez, this corner of Miami Lakes is comforting and a place where memories were made.
He wants that feeling for his taproom customers, too.
“It’s still powerful for me while I’m working here … looking outside and reminiscing every time I look at that fountain, I look at that corner, I remember those days fondly.
“And I’m really thankful and happy that I was able to open a business in a place that I loved and admired for so long,” he said.
“I feel this is the center, this is the heart of Miami Lakes and a lot of people who have lived here for a while have fond memories of what this used to be,” Perez said.
“We’re looking to bring that vibe back to this particular area,” he said.


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Google says it’s dedicated to developing Asian-owned firms' digital abilities. Google has worked with the US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce (USPAACC) over the past few years to assist Asian-owned small businesses to succeed and has aided more than 20,000 of them. Today, Google is collaborating with an additional 10,000 Asian-owned small businesses to help them develop digital skills to assist them in developing their companies.
Google has announced today that they will be adding a new label on Maps and Search that allows people to acknowledge their business as Asian-owned. The new tag is now accessible to businesses in the United States with a verifiable Business Profile on Google. Users will be able to see the attribute on Maps Search once it has been added.
Google says it is adding new business attributes to its suite of products that are Black-owned, Latino-owned, veteran-owned, women-owned, and LGBTQ+-owned. The company says the new label is another way for people to support a variety of businesses.
Google informs customers on a help site that self-identification is currently accessible just to retailers in the United States. Customers may filter for businesses using identity attributes. You may add labels to your account by logging into your Merchant Center and clicking the 'Business information" link. You may then find the 'About your business' tab and click the 'Business identity attributes' button to add an identity. You may then click the toggle switch next to the identity you want to include.
According to Leanne Luce, a product manager at Google, "It’s our hope the Asian-owned attribute brings people together and provides our communities with much-needed recognition: to help them be seen and thrive,.”
Google says it has partnered with the US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce (USPAACC) for the past few years to help Asian-owned small businesses thrive. In addition, the company has assisted more than 20,000 Asian-owned businesses over the years. Today, Google is assisting an additional 10,000 Asian-owned small businesses to gain digital skills in order to expand their businesses.
Image: IB Photography - stock.adobe.com


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The FTC has released its final report on "Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change: Recommendations for Business and Policymakers." The report sets out best practices for businesses to protect consumer privacy while also giving them more control over the collection and use of their data.
The report calls on companies handling consumer data to implement the following recommendations, directly quoted from the guide:
- Privacy by Design - companies should build in consumers' privacy protections at every stage in developing their products. These include reasonable security for consumer data, limited collection and retention of such data, and reasonable procedures to promote data accuracy;
- Simplified Choice for Businesses and Consumers - companies should give consumers the option to decide what information is shared about them, and with whom. This should include a Do-Not-Track mechanism that would provide a simple, easy way for consumers to control the tracking of their online activities.
- Greater Transparency - companies should disclose details about their collection and use of consumers' information, and provide consumers access to the data collected about them.
The guide promotes a more proactive approach to data security, one that incorporates security and privacy concerns into all areas of the company; larger companies encumbered by older standards & systems have struggled, to date, to adapt to this approach.
The FTC will continue to pursue additional privacy protections; this year they will be encouraging consumer privacy protections by focusing on 5 main action items:
- Mobile privacy protections
- Transparency of data brokers
- Investigating issues related to tracking by large platform providers
- Promoting enforceable self-regulatory codes of conduct
You can also find a detailed analysis of the report here.