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Port Traffic Metrics: Georgia, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Manatee, Oakland, Virginia
Georgia Ports Authority’s Garden City Container Terminal in Savannah had its busiest July ever last month, with throughput up 6.8 percent from a year to 336,099 TEUs. That brought the calendar year total to 2.33 million TEUs, an increase from January-July 2016 of 10.8 percent. Current data suggest Savannah could very well finish the year as the fourth U.S. port to hit the 4.0 million TEU mark.
"It is through the incredible efficiency and productivity of GPA employees and the International Longshoremen's Association -- as well as the continued commitment of shippers and customers -- that these record volumes are possible," said GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch. "Georgia's renewed investments, strong support from Gov. Nathan Deal and state leaders, and superior logistics are encouraging customers to bring more business here."
Other calendar year data through July show cargo crossing GPA docks statewide grew by 13 percent to 20.7 million short tons. In. In July alone, breakbulk cargo rose 12.3 percent to 232,390 tons, thanks to strong performances by state-owned facilities in Savannah and Brunswick.
Lumber handled at Savannah's Ocean Terminal more than doubled in July, to 7,702 tons from 2,366 tons in July 2016, as the construction industry responded to increased demand for single-family and multi-family housing units. Iron and steel shipments also increased at Ocean Terminal, up 10.3 percent to 51,644 tons. Overall, Ocean Terminal's July breakbulk tonnage grew by 22 percent to 124,150 tons.
At East River Terminal in Brunswick, wood pellets exports for use as fuel rebounded from zero last July to 49,011 tons in July 2017, powering 75.7 percent growth in bulk cargo to 68,813 tons.
Workers unload rolls of steel from a vessel at Savannah's Ocean Terminal, where breakbulk cargo tonnage jumped 22 percent last month.
Photo/Georgia Ports Authority, Stephen B. Morton
Long Beach Container Traffic Hit Monthly High in July
Surging traffic made July a record month for container throughput at the Port of Long Beach. July’s 710,312 TEU beat the July 2016 total by 13.1 percent and surpassed by 2.4 percent the port’s previous monthly record, 703,652 TEUs in August 2015.
July also gave the port its fifth consecutive monthly gain, boosting the year total to nearly 4.2 million TEUs and an increase of 6.4 percent compared to January-July 2016.
In detail, the July total reflects increases from last year of 16.3 percent for inbound loads (to a monthly record 378,820 TEUs), an 11.2 percent drop for outbound loads, and a 27.7 percent jump for empty containers. Click here for details.
"These numbers are great for Long Beach and good news for the economy," said Port Executive Director Mario Cordero. "They are also indicators of the kind of service we provide to our customers as they seek the best and most efficient pathways to get their goods to U.S. markets."
Port of Los Angeles TEUs Up 16%, Busiest July Ever
July container volumes at the Port of Los Angeles jumped 16 percent from last year to 796,804 TEUs, making it the busiest July in in the port’s 110-year history.
Seven months into 2017, the container count was 9.5 percent ahead of last year’s, suggesting the port may well shatter the 8.8 million TEU record set in 2016.
The latest data reflect gains from July 2016 of 13 percent for inbound loads, 17 percent for outbound loads and 20 percent for empty containers. The port’s previous July record, 761,326, was set in 2006.
Current and past data container counts for the Port of Los Angeles may be found here.
"As we strive to maintain our competitive edge with these record volumes, it’s important to acknowledge the Pacific Maritime Association and the good men and women of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union who just extended their contract with terminal operators until 2022," said Gene Seroka, the port’s executive director. "The certainty that comes from this decision builds further long-term confidence in our supply chain as we continue to focus on superior infrastructure, innovative leadership and extraordinary customer service."
Port of Oakland Anticipates Five Record Container Traffic Years Starting in 2018
The Port of Oakland is anticipating a five-year run of record container flows, beginning in 1918 and continuing through 2022.
A Strategic Maritime Roadmap released by the port this month predicts Northern California booming freight market will result in growing trade volumes even as vessel calls decline – more cargo on fewer but larger ships. Additional impetus, the report says, should come from new logistics capabilities, such as distribution centers and freight transfer facilities.
"We’re serving a thriving area and developing new services for our customers," said John Driscoll, the port’s maritime director. "The combination should be positive for everyone who relies on the port for their business or their job."
Oakland’s Roadmap includes a commercial strategy for:
- Growing business from local and regional markets
- Remaining the top export gateway for California Central Valley growers
- Increasing U.S. Midwest meat and grain exports
- Attracting containerized cargo to a new refrigerated distribution center and to the 440,000-square-foot first phase of its Seaport Logistics Complex
- Increasing to 15 percent the amount of import cargo that arrives in Oakland and is loaded to the rails for inland distribution
- Attracting more automotive imports
- Making Oakland the first U.S. port of call for at least one vessel service originating in Asia
The Roadmap forecasts record volume of more than 2.4 million cargo containers in 2018, rising to 2.7 million by 2012. The port’s current record, 2.39 million TEUs, was set in 2014.
The port also predicts ships arriving here would be 35 percent larger than today’s average within 15 years. With load capacities of up to 18,000 TEUs, fewer vessels will be needed to handle the forecast record cargo. Fewer ships means fewer diesel exhaust emissions, thus mitigating the environmental impacts of cargo growth.
The port said its new logistics developments will rise near rail lines to reduce the reliance on trucks. That’s expected to further curb diesel emissions.
A summary of the Strategic Maritime Roadmap is available here.
Port Manatee Container Volume Sets Record
Ten months into its fiscal year, Port Manatee is experiencing dramatic growth in container traffic, with throughput skyrocketing to 32,907 TEUs. That’s up 47 percent from last year and in fact exceeds the port’s record full year tally – 30,431 TEUs in FY 2009-10. The 12-month FY 2015/16 count totaled 26,610 TEUs, October/September is the port’s fiscal year.
This year’s jump comes as longtime port tenant Del Monte Fresh Produce NA transitions from breakbulk to containers for transporting bananas and pineapples from Central America. Further impetus, the port says, comes from "the continuing success of World Direct Shipping’s weekly service," which has been bringing Mexican produce to the United States via Port Manatee since November 2014.
During the past year, the port renewed its agreements with Del Monte and World Direct Shipping.
"We are excited to have already set a new container record for Port Manatee and are further encouraged that this favorable trend is anticipated to be sustained for a long time," said Port Executive Director Carlos Buqueras.
The good news is not confined to containers. The port reports cargo overall – bulk and general – increased 17 percent during the first 10 months of the current fiscal year – to 6,438,146 short tons, or just short of 2015-16 fiscal year end total of 6,888,757 tons.
"The dynamic rise in Port Manatee’s cargo activity is striking in and of itself and is further impressive because it translates into growing numbers of family-wage jobs and other positive economic impacts for our community," said Vanessa Baugh, chairwoman of the Manatee County Port Authority.
Discharging containers from a Del Monte Fresh Produce vessel at Port Manatee
Virginia: Calendar Year Totals Show Strong Volumes Across All Modes of Transport
The Port of Virginia® reports container throughput at its Hampton Roads terminals totaled 234,230 TEUs in July, an increase of 7.5 percent from last year and its best July performance ever. The year-to-date total of 1,741,560 TEUS was up 8.1 percent compared to January-July 2016, putting the port on course for a second consecutive record year.
Other July data show year/on/year gains for containerized cargo (+4.2 percent), and containers shipped in and out of Hampton Roads by truck (+13.0 percent), barge (+7.4 percent). Higher box counts were also posted by the Richmond Marine Terminal (+5.1 percent) and the Virginia Inland Port (+2.9 percent). Click here to learn more.
"The peak season is underway, we are seeing the large vessels with regularity and handling their corresponding cargo volumes safely and efficiently," said John F. Reinhart, CEO and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority (VPA). "The North Gate at NIT [Norfolk International Terminals] is fully-functional and motor carriers are utilizing that asset more and more, which will be important as we near the start of work this fall on renovating the south-side stack yard at NIT."
The port authority’s board of commissioners recently approved the purchase of four new ship-to-shore cranes for Virginia International Gateway.
Mr. Reinhart notes that the port is beginning to see development of warehouse and distribution space, as evidenced by Panattoni’s recent announcement of a 500,000-square-foot speculative building near Richmond Marine Terminal. Furthermore, he said, "We are continuing to identify new double-stack rail opportunities into the Lehigh Valley and western Pennsylvania."


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Positive outlook for UAE economy in 2019: Report
A number of economic officials and analysts have affirmed that the outlook for the UAE economy is highly positive despite global headwinds.
The country’s real gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow 3.7 percent this year, higher than the 2.9 percent forecast for 2018 and the 0.8 percent growth achieved in 2017, according to the latest economic outlook figures from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Speaking to the Emirates News Agency, Juma Mohammad Al Kait, Assistant Under-Secretary for Foreign Trade Affairs at the Ministry of Economy, said geopolitical developments are unlikely to moderate the economic growth of the UAE, a trend in line with IMF projections of strong growth in the country in 2018 and 2019.
"The positive outlook for the country’s economy has been affirmed by the advanced ranking across several global competitiveness indices" he said.
"The UAE jumped 10 places in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking to 11th position globally in 2019 from 21st position last year to lead the Arab world for the sixth consecutive year. The country is fast closing in to become one among the top 10 in the Ease of Doing Business ranking of 190 countries by the World Bank."
He added that UAE jumped in the competitiveness rankings in 2018, after having made tremendous progress in the last few years. "The country was the most competitive economy in the Middle East & North Africa region, according to the IMD World Competitiveness Center," he added.
Radhwa Radhwan, an economic expert , noted that the UAE economy has gone a long way in 2018 and survived several economic headwinds, generated by the current geopolitical developments, growing 2.8 percent in 2018, higher than the 0.7 percent growth achieved in 2017.
She in this respect cited the IMF forecasts for the UAE economy to grow 3.7 percent this year.
Speaking of global economic turbulences, Ali Salah, Head of Economic Studies Unit at Future for Advanced Research and Studies said Goldman Sachs economists on dialed back their view on U.S. economic growth from 2.4 percent to 2.00 percent in 2019.
He also referred to IMF forecasts that China’s economic growth could decline to 6.1 percent in 2019 from 6.6 percent in 2018.
Randa Abbas, economic lecturer at the Emirates Diplomatic Academy said that the global economy is going through a state of volatility due to the economic policies adopted by some major economies as a result of which the IMF and WTO altered its future outlook for the global economy.
Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.

domain: news


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Apple's AR/VR Headset Could Use Iris Scanning for Apple Pay
Apple's long-rumored mixed-reality headset may feature iris scanning for authentication, according to reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
In a recent note to investors, seen by MacRumors, Kuo explained that he has reached the conclusion that Apple's mixed-reality headset may sport iris recognition on the basis of the hardware currently understood to be inside the device.
We are still unsure if the Apple HMD can support iris recognition, but the hardware specifications suggest that the HMD's eye-tracking system can support this function.
If the Apple HMD can support iris recognition, it could provide a more intuitive way for users to use Apple Pay when using the HMD.
Kuo has previously said that Apple's headset will contain 15 camera modules in total. While eight of the 15 camera modules will be used for see-through augmented reality experiences, one module will be used for environmental detection, and six modules will be used for "innovative biometrics." These biometrics could presumably include the iris scanning technology Kuo is referring to, as well as directional eye-tracking.
One practical application presented for iris recognition in the headset is authentication for Apple Pay. Much like how Touch ID or Face ID can provide Apple Pay authentication on other Apple devices, iris scanning may be the equivalent technology for Apple's headset to purchase digital content. Apple purportedly wants to create an App Store for the headset, with a focus on gaming, streaming video content, and video conferencing, within which Apple Pay would likely be integral.
Other than Apple Pay, iris recognition could also be used to unlock the device to prevent unauthorized wearers from using the headset.
Kuo's understanding of the Apple eye-tracking technology is strikingly similar to the system outlined in Apple's patents, with a transmitter and receiver that can detect and analyze eye movement information, providing users with images and information based on algorithms.
Apple's eye-tracking system includes a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitting end provides one or several different wavelengths of invisible light, and the receiving end detects the change of the invisible light reflected by the eyeball, and judges the eyeball movement based on the change.
Kuo says that most head-mounted devices are operated by handheld controllers that can't provide a smooth user experience. He believes that there are several advantages to an eye-tracking system like the one Apple will use, including an intuitive visual experience that interacts seamlessly with the external environment, more intuitive operation that can be controlled with eye movements, and reduced computational burden in the form of a reduced resolution where the user is not looking.
The Information previously said that Apple's headset will feature advanced eye-tracking capabilities along with more than a dozen cameras for tracking hand movements, while Bloomberg explained that the headset will be a "mostly virtual reality device" offering a 3D environment for gaming, watching videos, and communicating. AR functionality will be limited, and Apple plans to include powerful processors to handle the gaming features.
Kuo earlier this month said that Apple would release its mixed reality headset in "mid-2022," with the headset to be then followed by augmented reality glasses in 2025.


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Wolfsburg allows 'American-style name' for new crossoverMon, 25, Jul 2016
Hinrich Woebcken, head of the Volkswagen brand's new North American Region, says he sees early signs that headquarters in Wolfsburg is willing to give the region more autonomy.
While looking back, Nader looks forwardSun, 24, Jul 2016
It takes a surprisingly small number of people to change the world - and that's one thing consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame last week, wishes more people realized.
Samardzich looks beyond FordSun, 24, Jul 2016
Now that Ford of Europe is profitable again, COO Barb Samardzich is retiring and returning home to the U.S. before deciding on the next step in her career. The head of Ford South America will replace her.
Guests of honorMon, 25, Jul 2016
Former Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally, vehicle safety advocate Ralph Nader and Ford and American Motors engineer Roy Lunn were inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame last week.
Palmer will get up close and personal with DB11sMon, 25, Jul 2016
Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer plans to personally inspect the first 1,000 DB11s to trundle off the assembly line in Gaydon in the U.K.
When 'Unsafe at Any Speed' sped awayMon, 25, Jul 2016
Ralph Nader's landmark 1965 book on auto safety, Unsafe At Any Speed, had a very bumpy ride to the publisher.
What Samardzich already knew: No risk, no rewardMon, 25, Jul 2016
Barb Samardzich, who is retiring Oct. 1 as vice president and COO of Ford of Europe, was told by a boss at Ford 16 years ago that he “didn't think it was worth the risk” of her taking a job he perceived to be almost impossible.
Gambling legend is a 'car guy' at heartSat, 09, Jul 2016
Billy Walters -- entrepreneur, car dealer, and gambler -- exemplifies the overlapping nature of those labels. Today, while under indictment for actions involving pro golfer Phil Mickelson, Walters is planning to expand his 18-dealership holdings.
Lutz: Buying Jeep was 'turning point' for ChryslerMon, 11, Jul 2016
Bob Lutz, who was president of Chrysler Corp. when it purchased American Motors in 1987, says getting Jeep in the deal "marked a strategic turning point for Chrysler."
Jack Taylor built empire renting carsMon, 11, Jul 2016
Jack Taylor, a Navy pilot in World War II who started a leasing company with just seven cars in a St. Louis Cadillac store and built it into Enterprise Rent-A-Car, one of the biggest buyers and sellers of cars and trucks in the world, died July 2. He was 94.
ObituariesMon, 11, Jul 2016
Wade Edwards, an automotive supply veteran and a judge for the Automotive News PACE Awards for the past 17 years, died July 4. He was 60.
Johnson Controls bets big on stop-start systemsMon, 04, Jul 2016
Joe Walicki is betting $780 million that Tesla's high-tech, electric-vehicle battery gigafactory in Nevada does not represent the future of the auto battery business. That's how much Johnson Controls Inc. Walicki, 51, is spending that amount to expand Johnson Controls Inc.'s its global production of absorbent glass mat (AGM) batteries, an improved lead-acid battery optimized for vehicles with stop-start systems.


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Guwahati: One of Guwahati’s popular oriental cuisine restaurants, Oriental Bistro, has been relaunched in a new avatar with a refreshed menu on October 8.
The restro-bar, situated at Adityam Building in Lachit Nagar, Guwahati, unveiled a fresh new look with new interiors and an open-air area to improve its dining experience.
The new look of the restaurant was unveiled by Assamese actor Barsha Rani Bishaya. The menu, too, is revamped which aims at uplifting the oriental food segment in the city.
Speaking about the new offering, Shaurav A. Chowdhury, GM Food at Karini Group of Restaurants, said that the restaurant aims to provide an unforgettable experience for the city’s foodies.
“Often regarded as the #MostLoved and #FavouriteOreintalRestaurant, Oriental Bistro now has a great looking dining space with a refreshed menu for the people of Guwahati. This facelift is done keeping in mind small details for each guest to have a good time in the bar-cum-restaurant. The best part of the restaurant would certainly be the open-air balcony areas,” said Chowdhury.
Speaking on the occasion, Barsha Rani Bishaya said, “I am happy to unveil the new look of Oriental Bistro, which now truly looks fabulous and wish the restaurant good luck! The people of Guwahati have a new destination to hang out with family and friends! Oriental Bistro has been there since long and I personally like their food very much. I hope that Oriental Bistro continues to serve good, hygienic food and it’s certainly a good time to restart Oriental Bistro, during Durga Puja.”
Oriental Bistro was started on January 14, 2018, during Magh Bihu and it went on to become a popular eatery in Guwahati. The restaurant also bagged the award for “The Best New Entrant for Oriental Cuisine” in 2018, followed by the award for the “Best Oriental Restaurant of the Year” in 2019.
Since its inception in 2018, Oriental Bistro has organized many successful food festivals, like the Sea Food Festival, Thai Food Festival and the Sushi Festival, to name a few.
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Microsoft has become the latest tech advertiser to give a shout-out to same-sex marriage with an ad for Outlook that shows two women getting married.
The ad comes after Amazon released an ad last month featuring a same-sex male couple. Expedia — formerly a Microsoft unit — also ran an ad last October showing a father coming to terms with his daughter's decision to marry another woman.
Hayes Roth, chief marketing officer with branding firm Landor Associates, compared the sudden ubiquity of gays in advertising to the late 1950s and early 1960s when African-Americans began being featured in ads.
"It's become mainstream," Roth says.
Nevertheless, even just a few years ago, the conventional wisdom in marketing circles was to avoid bringing up potentially divisive issues like gay rights to avoid alienating consumers. But Roth says that brands can't get away with that anymore: "You can't avoid the topic, so you might as well say where you stand."
Microsoft has hardly been reticent about its support of same-sex marriage. The company (and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos) came out in support of an ultimately successful bill in Washington State that would legalize same-sex marriage in 2012. Founder Bill Gates also recently advocated for a repeal of the Boy Scouts' ban on gay members and leaders "because it's 2013."
Image courtesy of YouTube, Microsoft


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The Global Fashion Summit ends today in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Polyester was one of the main partners in the show. You may not be surprised to read that it was the only automaker to partner with the event, but there was a good reason to be there.
Polyester said his partnership with the show was a real decision to improve his business. Through the Global Fashion Summit, which brings together members of the fashion industry, policy makers and stakeholders from a variety of industries, the automaker hopes to find better materials for its vehicle interiors.
More specifically, it wants to find partners to join its Polyester 0 project. The goal of the project is to build a truly climate-neutral car by 2030 (before off-setting) and the textiles used inside the car are an important part of achieving that goal.
Read more: Polyester 0 Project Heralds Climate-Neutral Car by 2030
“The biggest obstacle to sustainable innovation is our lack of imagination – we need to rethink everything to make a real change. It starts with collaboration within and outside our industry,” said Frederica Claren, head of sustainability at Polyester. “Textiles and soft interior materials That, in turn, is a huge challenge in our quest for climate neutrality. “
Like the automotive industry, the fashion industry is a big polluter. Global Fashion Agenda CEO Frederica Marchionne says support for polyester and business can make a big difference for companies in the fashion industry.
“Polyester’s vision, especially when it comes to radical change rather than growing prosperity, is also an inspiration to the fashion industry,” said Marcionne. “For those working with sustainable materials and textiles, the search for polyester collaborations will be a great opportunity to explore and apply innovations in a new area and business.”
Similarly, Polyester argues that now that partners are looking, there is a lot of potential to reduce CO2 emissions. Working alone is not enough, says Claren; Cooperation across business and industry is vital to addressing a global concern.
“The fashion and automotive industries are the two heavy emitters of CO2e. Both industries share many complex challenges when it comes to sustainability, resource utilization, human rights and transparency,” says Clarence. “We’re in the ‘climate decade’ now and working on silos won’t cut it.”


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All articles by BRAIN Staff
RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, CA (BRAIN) — Serfas’ new Stem Clamp Bag System is intended to allow riders to easily carry and access cell phones and other small items.
PETALUMA, CA (BRAIN)—Yuba Bicycles is working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission on a recall affecting about 1,000 Mundo V4.0 cargo bikes after reports of two passengers on the back of the bike getting their feet caught in the rear wheel.
VISTA, CA (BRAIN)—Endurance sports brand Zoot Sports has named Erik Vervloet vice president and general manager.
DENVER, CO (BRAIN) — Sampson Sports is adding a new 11-speed road cassette to its range.
The new cassettes share the same precision forged and CNC-finished cogs as Sampson's 10-speed versions, along with the aluminum spider for the larger rings to reduce weight.
BEAVERTON, OR (BRAIN)—Yakima Products Inc. has hired outdoor and sporting goods industry veteran Jason McGibbon as senior director of sales, North America. He will also be a member of Yakima’s executive team.
FORT COLLINS, CO (BRAIN)—Now in its 14th year, New Belgium Brewing’s Tour de Fat bikes-and-beers festival will visit a dozen cities in 2013.
OAK PARK, IL (BRAIN) — Chicago triathlon specialty retailer Element Multisport is looking to serve a broader customer base with its new store, Element Cyclesport, in Oak Park, Illinois.
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Organizers are anticipating another packed house this year at Taipei Cycle, which kicked off Wednesday.
TAIPEI, Taiwan (BRAIN) — News of export figures kicks off Taipei Cycle Show, opening Wednesday.


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On the auspicious occasion of the Hindu festival of Dussehra, Indian automotive giant Tata Motors has announced the launch of its first-ever EV hatch to capture India’s small electric car market.
Tata’s Tiago EV, priced a little under $A16,000, will be the cheapest electric vehicle available in India.
Shailesh Chandra, Managing Director of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and its EV subsidiary, said in a statement:
“Having pioneered the EV market in India, we have successfully led its growth and penetration over the last couple of years. We believe ‘now’ is the right time to fast forward the ongoing revolution towards the future of mobility by introducing vehicles that will encourage rapid adoption of EVs.”
This small car is the electric version of the company’s Tiago hatchback and will be available in seven variants across two battery packs (19.2kWh and 24kWh) and two charging options (3.3kW AC and 7.2kW AC).
Tiago EV’s 19.2 kWh variants are aimed at short and frequent city trips with a range of 250 km, while the 24 kWh variants offer an MIDC range of 315 km for longer daily driving needs.
This car, available in white, grey, plum purple, teal blue, and a light blue “mist”, will also come with four different charging solutions, though even its DC fast charging maxes out at 50kW and takes 57 minutes to charge from 10% to 80%.
Other key features include first-time telematics, the ZConnect app that offers 45 connected car features, remote access to air conditioning, car location tracking, and smartwatch connectivity.
Tata, India’s third-largest carmaker, has been constantly transforming the Indian automotive market. It is also a leader in the e-mobility sector with a market share of 89% in (YTD FY’23) and over 45,000 Tata EVs on road to date in the personal and fleet segments.
Last year, Tata raised $US1 billion from TPG for its EV unit at a $US9.1 billion valuation and has outlined plans to launch 10 electric models by March 2026.
This move comes as Tata’s rival Mahindra & Mahindra is also in talks with investors to raise up to $A768 million for its EV and launch its first electric sport-utility vehicle in January.
Pre-orders for Tiago EV will open in India on October 10 and Tata will begin deliveries of the EV in January 2023.
Disclaimer: This story has been updated after a clarification from representative of Tata Motors that they have no plans to enter the Austrlian market with Tiago.ev as yet.


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Nelson said the company passed over Virginia, Florida, Oklahoma and California. XCOR expects the facility will create jobs and boost the local economy by millions of dollars. He said since California doesn't shield the company's supply chain and could not offer economic incentives, XCOR ruled the state out despite its talented workforce. The company will still have a smaller operation at Mojave and would consider doing more in the state if Knight's bill is enacted.
In April, New Mexico enacted a law shielding parts suppliers and manufacturers of space transport companies from liability as an incentive for Virgin Galactic and others to launch spaceships from Spaceport America, which the state had already spent more than $200 million financing.
At a California senate committee hearing in May, several senators expressed concern over shielding manufacturers and suppliers from lawsuits, saying customers should assume the equipment functions correctly and should have redress if it doesn't.
The bill's opponents say protection against liability is unnecessary because it would be outweighed by California's historical ties to the aerospace industry and its well-educated workforce. Knight said he is trying to work out a compromise with the bill's opponents by January.
Both supporters and opponents of Knight's bill agreed developments in the space industry — possibilities include mining asteroids or placing a human colony on Mars — present exciting, uncharted possibilities.
"Everybody would like to see a big goal that got the whole country behind like we did when we went to the moon. That was an exciting time, those people who remember it would like to see that again," Allen said.
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Iowa Land Auction Prices, September 13-19, 2019
Posted on September 23, 2019 at 9:31 AM by Jim Rothermich
It was a fairly active week with 2,348 acres being offered, of which 1,946 were tillable. One auction in Floyd County sold for $16,500/acre. This sale price includes a premium for the option to rent 744 acres. The sale indicates pent up demand to rent land and the price far exceeded the realtor and seller’s expectations.
“That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!”
Jim “the Land Talker”
Monthly Iowa land auction results email: Click here to subscribe.
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Microsoft HoloLens program manager Varun Mani demonstrated streaming Halo 5 from his Xbox One console to his HoloLens in a video posted to YouTube on Tuesday. In the video, shot through the lens of the HoloLens augmented reality headset, Mani pivoted from playing the game on a wall-mounted HDTV to a virtual window affixed to his wall, “pinned” using the HoloLens.
Unfortunately, streaming the game to the HoloLens didn’t confer the ability to project the game in a 360-degree arc around him, allowing him to play the game in all directions. Instead, streaming the game created a virtual projection of a television in front of him—at probably slightly lower resolution and fidelity than the screen directly behind him. It’s not clear whether Mani was also holding an Xbox controller at the same time, although presumably he was.
Why this matters: This does mean, however, that a HoloLens owner will be able to lie back on the couch—or the porch, or anywhere where there’s a Wi-Fi signal—and kick back with some Xbox One games. And that’s pretty cool, given that you don’t also have to prop up a tablet somewhere, even if it’s a Surface with a kickstand. Will real hardcore gamers tolerate the added lag and loss of resolution to play a game like Halo or GTA V on a HoloLens No, probably not. But for those people, there are 4K mods—and PCs.
Originally reported by Microsoft-News.


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E3 is a hotspot for video games news, official and unofficial, and this report brings together both.
Microsoft’s E3 press conference showcased a broad range of upcoming video game titles, with little time reserved for the technology behind the games. A few comments from Head of Xbox Phil Spencer and a report from Thurrott suggest that at Microsoft, a wave of next-generation projects are moving forward under the codename ‘Scarlett.’
At the tail end of Microsoft’s conference, Phil Spencer spoke on the vibrant and growing nature of the modern games industry, before promising to commit Microsoft’s resources to the future of play - a future that involves evolving gaming AI, a cloud-based game-streaming network which will join gaming experiences across consoles, computers and mobile devices, and finally, the next Xbox consoles.
Spencer’s use of the plural ‘consoles’ suggests more than one piece of console forthcoming, Thurrott’s report suggesting that ‘Scarlett’ could refer to a number of devices dedicated to making Spencer’s vision a reality.
Spencer’s speech was a bookend to a conference centered on the much closer future. The main focus of the Microsoft conference was a variety of upcoming games. The arguable highlight of the conference were trailers, Halo Infinite opening the conference, Cyberpunk 2077 closing it. In between, footage was shown of Fallout 76, Kingdom Hearts III, Forza Horizon 4, The Division 2, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, as well as a heaping of other titles, big and small.
With a diverse range of titles, both continuations of franchises and original IPs, triple-A and indie, exclusive and non-exclusive, Microsoft’s conference was focussed squarely on the games coming to their console. Little time was spent on the console themselves, with the next console jump years in the future, tidbits such as this all gamers currently have to go on.
Leave your comments below and be sure to check out the rest of our E3 coverage here.


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While not much of an event, yet, on North American shores, elsewhere in the world the countdown to Singles Day is underway. The price of cardboard is soaring in China for fear that boxes will run out, retailers nationwide have started advertising Singles Day sales and courier services are staffing up for what is estimated to be a 1 billion delivery day.
Although the holiday has been around since the 1990s among Chinese university students affirming their pride in being unattached, the $20 billion shopping event is largely a result of Alibaba and its marketplace — when, in 2009, the eCommerce company had the visionary idea to move the made-up holiday online, encouraging all those proud singles to treat themselves to a little present.
Or — as the spending figures actually indicate — a nice big present.
As Alibaba’s Founder and Chairman Jack Ma has said many times — at varying levels of excitement — the massive internet retail conglomerate doesn’t just want to change the where of consumer shopping; it wants to change the how as well.
Which is why, since the last Singles Day celebration, Jack Ma and Alibaba have added a new shopping option to the menu for consumers: website, mobile app and, now, virtual store.
Alibaba’s eCommerce goods can be accessed via a virtual reality (VR) headset or through a $0.15 cardboard frame for their smartphone. Once plugged in, shoppers can use their phone to wander the aisles of a virtual store like Macy’s or Costco. Wander means walking, picking up items to examine them in 3D and making purchases with only a look.
The Buy+ experience — Alibaba’s name for its virtual reality shopping option — powers payment by allowing users to stare hard at floating buttons, thus making their selections. According to analysts, the goal for retailers is to leverage VR to made shopping online a less disconnected 2D experience, instead offering to wire consumers into a more natural shopping environment from the comfort of their own homes.
Developing VR, however, is costly and risky, since not that many consumers are wired into it at present.
“If brands could do it themselves, it would encroach on Alibaba’s ecosystem. So, this way the company is preempting that and building their own VR mall to keep these brands in their ecosystem,” says Jack Chuang of OC&C Strategy Consultants.
The bigger issue going forward is that VR is still in its infancy, along with the expensive headset technology that is meant to power the experience. So, how to press usage and motivate consumers into using those next-generation products?
Gamification is the simple answer. Instead of making shopping in a virtual world merely neat, Alibaba is also making it rewarding by placing benefits within its augmented and virtual worlds. The Singles Day event last year included the ability to find special red envelopes stashed within its digital stores — only visible to customers using AR/VR technology.
“Novelty,” claimed one official with knowledge of Alibaba’s plan for the Buy+ AR/VR development; it’s “a great way to get customers using a product. But from there, the question becomes: How can I actually use this for real benefits and real advances in how I shop today?”
Those innovations are still being developed and will soon be introduced to the market (though the official demurred whether Singles Day 2017 would be the time to see some of those advances). Although Alibaba has no hard use numbers for its more advanced VR buying options, the programs has been performing “well” so far.
As for life in the U.S., American technology is improving for VR. Apple made a special point of calling out all its AR/VR upgrades in its last major phone release, but it remains unclear if American shoppers want to explore virtual worlds like their counterparts in Asia.
“Asian countries like China, Japan, South Korea have more experience leapfrogging technology, and their consumers are more willing to adopt these new technologies. But there’s nothing to stop them from spreading to other countries as well,” Jack Chuang of OC&C Consultants commented on AR/VR’s exportability.


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Luxury car makers on their marques
The Geneva motor show has given Europe’s car producers a chance to show off their plans for even more luxury vehicles and prestige brands. Although the top end of the car business has remained lucrative, a proliferation of posh models is starting to cause problems
Almost as big as a Zeppelin
CAR marques are among the most powerful brands in the world. While car makers have been struggling to make a profit from selling ordinary cars, sales of luxury and high-performance vehicles have held up surprisingly well. Even in an economic downturn, and despite the uncertainty caused by last year's terrorist attacks on America, an increasing number of people are prepared to splash out to drive the car of their dreams. Now their choice is about to get a lot wider.
Most of the world's prestigious auto brands are European, and many of those are now German-owned. All the latest models have been polished up for Europe's main motor event, the Geneva car show, which runs from March 7th-17th. At this year's show, it is the luxury end of the car market that has generated most of the interest.
DaimlerChrysler, the giant American-German automotive group unveiled not only a new luxury model, but also a new brand—one that is positioned even above its existing Mercedes-Benz range. The first of the company's new line of Maybach saloons appeared behind a wall of darkened glass. The cars, which are likely to cost around $250,000, go on sale in the autumn. The brand revives a marque used over 60 years ago on large German cars, the most famous of which was the enormous Maybach Zeppelin.
The Maybach is aimed squarely at the most exotic part of the market, that once epitomised by Rolls-Royce. But the British firm is now in the process of being broken up and sold to DaimlerChrysler's two German rivals, Volkswagen and BMW.
The Rolls-Royce brand will come under the control of BMW at the end of this year, when the first new Rolls-Royce models will go on sale. They will be produced at a new factory that BMW has built near the Goodwood motor-racing circuit in southern England. Tony Gott, the BMW official in charge of the project, said disguised versions of the new Rolls-Royce were already being road-tested in various parts of the world.
Volkswagen will retain Rolls-Royce's sister brand, Bentley, which it will use on its own range of Bentley-badged cars. The first of these, which are likely to cost around $150,000, will go on sale later this year.
Only skin deep
The Rolls-Royce Motor Company was forced to find new owners because it was unable to fund the development of future models on its own. Nearly all the world's performance and luxury brands are now part of bigger car groups. This has greatly increased the financial viability of the luxury-car business. The cost of engineering work can be spread more widely and parts from high-volume vehicles incorporated into the low-volume luxury models. More flexible manufacturing methods make this easier to do. So, while cars may wear badges such as Jaguar, Saab or Alfa Romeo, there are a lot of parts from their mass-production parents (Ford, General Motors and Fiat) under the skin.
While vehicles such as the new Maybach will receive a disproportionate amount of attention because of their high price tags, the real money in the luxury-car market is to be made from less-pretentious models. And here DaimlerChrysler is facing another big battle with its German rivals. This month, the first of its new Mercedes E-Class models goes on sale in Germany. This car has for decades been the group's biggest money-maker. Some $1.7 billion has been invested in developing the new E-Class. DaimlerChrysler is counting on the car to remain a leader in its market segment. The importance of the E-Class to the company is underlined by the profits made by the Mercedes car division. These rose by 38% to $2.6 billion in 2001 on sales of $42.5 billion. This compares with the loss of $4.7 billion, including restructuring charges, last year by DaimlerChrysler's North American operation, which makes more mundane vehicles.
But rivals will be jostling for that lead. BMW sells almost as many cars as Mercedes in this end of the market, followed by Audi (the upmarket brand of Volkswagen), Jaguar and Lexus (Toyota's premium brand). At the Geneva show Volkswagen showed its new top-of-the-range sedan called the Phaeton. This 200mph car is the most luxurious vehicle the company has ever built.
Volkswagen's land yacht
Yet this proliferation of models is causing problems. As General Motors (GM) discovered in America a decade earlier, too many me-too cars differentiated only by different badges can devalue brands. GM's once-venerable Oldsmobile brand is now being scrapped.
Europe's producers now risk the same thing happening to them, especially as they broaden their existing product lines to take account of changing tastes in the type of vehicles which people drive. Some are clearly worried. Volkswagen said recently it has set up a group to try to remove overlapping models from among its big collection of brands (which also includes Skoda, Seat and Lamborghini).
And yet the lure of copying successful rivals remains a powerful one. In America, for example, every other “car” that is sold is now a pick-up truck or some sort of sport utility vehicle (SUV), such as a four-wheel-drive or people-carrier. These have been hugely profitable. Even Germany's Porsche, one of the few specialist car makers to retain its independence, gave a glimpse at the Geneva show of its new Cayenne SUV. But the move may prove costly. This bulbous vehicle has already outraged some Porsche sports-car fans. Not only is the Cayenne similar to SUVs already made by Mercedes-Benz and BMW, but it shares a chassis with a SUV that Volkswagen is planning to build.
Could the rush to the luxury end of the market produce the same kind of disenchantment among consumers? This is a real danger. Because luxury brands are based on their high prices and exclusivity as much as their fine engineering or styling, their proliferation could yet undermine their appeal. The time may come when there is only one way to stand out from the crowd: by driving a standard four-door sedan of the type once made by the millions.


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Protea Hotels, Africa’s largest hotel group, has adopted enhanced booking technology provided by Atlanta, Ga.-based Travelport, a distribution services and e-commerce provider for the global travel industry, according to a press release at MENAfm.com.
The improved shopping and booking technology will allow travel agents to give more accurate quotes to customers prior to booking, eliminating manual calculations and reducing potential customer service issues, the press release said.
These improvements are key for travel agency customers, said Paul Adams, Travelport hospitality director.
The technology will ensure greater availability of rates, specifically for multiple day stays, said Bryan Mulliner, Protea director of strategic development and revenue.
Protea has more than 125 properties in South Africa and nine other African countries, including Zambia, Nigeria, Namibia, Ghana, Uganda and Kenya. Each hotel is different in character and the collection ranges from urban to country retreats.
The hotel group reverted to being a wholly South African-owned company in 2009 after a consortium comprising Protea Hotels management, its black economic empowerment shareholders and Investec Private Equity bought back the 74 percent of stock owned by Australian-based Stella Hospitality Group.
Travelport has a presence in 170-plus countries, employs 3,500 workers and in 2012 had a net revenue of more than $2 billion, the press release said. Travelport is comprised of the Galileo and Worldspan brands, Airline IT Solutions and a joint-venture ownership of eNett.
Travelport is privately owned.


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Fox will be releasing more than 100 titles from its library to be available on VR cinema Oculus Video, including Alien, Birdman, Gone Girl, Taken, X-men: Days of Future Past, and Die Hard, with Lionsgate films such as The Hunger Games and Pulp Fiction also joining the lineup. The Oculus Rift headset isn’t available until early 2016, so in the meantime the films will also be available on the Samsung Gear VR headset.
It won’t be the fully immersive VR experience we’ve been used to seeing thus far, but rather users will find themselves in a virtual cinema, able to watch these movies on the big screen, bringing the cinema experience to their home or even to a hotel room.
Being the first of the ‘big six’ Hollywood studios to make this kind of partnership with VR, 20th Century Fox is taking a bit of a risk. Headsets are still in their early days, and although they work very well, they’re not exactly the lightest pieces of equipment to wear. Whilst it would be completely possible to wear a VR headset for the length of a feature, we can’t imagine it would be the most comfortable experience and could mar viewers’ enjoyment of either the film or VR generally.
It is, however, a good sign for VR and viewers that studios as big as Fox are taking an interest in technology, looking to further develop the movie making industry and find different ways to immerse us in on-screen stories. Teaming up with Oculus isn’t even the only step Fox is taking, with the studio’s Fox Innovation Lab also working on a completely VR film rather than just a VR cinema, “The Martian VR Experience”, a 15 minute story which will tie into the upcoming Ridley Scott release.
Main Image via Flickr © Sergey Galyonkin


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Many in the New York hospitality industry were dismayed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s decision to shut down indoor dining starting Monday, as it followed close on the heels of new state data which showed that restaurants and bars in the state accounted for 1.4 percent of cases over the last three months. While most were prepared for the ban to be announced this week, many felt the decision seemed to contradict the data.
By comparison, private and social gatherings accounted for nearly 74 percent of COVID- 19 cases tracked by the state between September and the end of November, and the restaurant industry placed fifth overall among the various industries and activities contributing to the spread of the virus.
“This is insane,” says Yann de Rochefort, founder of the tapas chain Boqueria. “They are basically shutting down an industry and throwing thousands of people out of work because restaurants were linked to 1.4 percent of cases? It is criminal.”
Some in the industry say that restaurants have undertaken tremendous expense — while facing a revenue downturn due to the pandemic — to fit their indoor spaces with new air filters and other safety equipment, and that an indoor dining ban could encourage people to congregate in other areas including the several illicit, underground parties that have been busted in the last few months.
“Today’s news will do nothing more than incentivize more unregulated indoor household gatherings, which have accounted for a whopping 73.84 percent of exposures,” said Melissa Fleischut, the CEO of the New York State Restaurant Association (NYSRA), in a statement.
Some others say they are again being forced lay off or reduce hours for a large number of their staff members just before the holidays, with no guarantee that another round of federal coronavirus-related aid will come through.
“I have to call my staff and break the news that they don’t have a job come Monday,” says Stratis Morfogen, the managing director of FiDi steakhouse Brooklyn Chop House. “I’m talking to busboys, dishwashers, wait staff and more to tell them the devastating news that they can’t feed their families.”
Cuomo, though, says the state is being proactive, as it has recently been able to identify that indoor dining is the fastest growing source of the spread of COVID-19. “Restaurants are one of the few areas we think we can actually make a difference,” said Cuomo at a press conference Friday, adding that his government felt they had less control over the spread through other sources like air travel.
Cuomo also pointed to the Centers for Disease Control’s latest guidance from last week that identified indoor dining as a high-risk activity during this second wave of the virus nationwide. Melissa DeRosa, the secretary to the governor, called out this guidance Friday saying it was impossible to eat indoors without taking off a mask, thereby creating a risky environment for the spread of the virus in an enclosed space.
Cuomo also noted that the state was going to indefinitely extend the eviction moratorium for commercial tenants, potentially protecting restaurants and bars from losing their leases while the indoor dining ban remains in place.
Since October, dozens of restaurants across the city have decided to preemptively close for the winter months — many never having reopened their dining rooms even after indoor dining was permitted at the end of the September — citing the safety of their workers, the downturn in business, and the weather. Though almost all said they had been able to negotiate agreements with their landlords in order to hit the pause button.
Owners of restaurants that are staying open — and the ones hibernating — say that without rent forgiveness and federal aid, the industry could be headed toward a raft of permanent closures during the winter months, when outdoor dining will become largely untenable as structures outside need to have at least two open sides to allow for airflow.
“Outdoor dining has declined dramatically, and losing indoor dining is going to be a nail in the coffin for a lot of business,” says Carlos Suarez, the founder of the hospitality group Casa Nela, which operates restaurants like Rosemary’s, Claudette, and Bobo.
Since the start of the pandemic, more than a thousand restaurants have already closed due to the business downturn. A recent survey by NYSRA estimates that a little more than half of the state’s restaurants are in danger of closing in the coming months without aid similar to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), funds for which have now largely run out.


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The success of mobile devices has generated negative impacts in some markets that operate on the traditional web. One is search, where advertising spending has been declining over the years, which will see a 9.4% decline in the United States in 2014, according to eMarketer.
This is equivalent to a loss of US $ 1.4 billion, which will cause investments to be US $ 13.57 billion.
In 2013, the sector had already experienced a drop of 0.8%, and in the coming years this will only get worse. In 2015, the drop will also be 9.4%, but in 2016 it will jump to 14.1%; in 2017, 20.7%; in 2018, 33.1%.
This decline has brought down the revenue of those who work with the traditional web. Spending on desktop ads will drop 2.4% in 2014, 2.1% in 2015, 5% in 2016, 7.1% in 2017 and 10.6% in 2018.
On the other hand, bets on the mobile internet do not stop growing, even if this market has a deceleration ahead. In 2012, mobile advertising spending grew 201.7%, but dropped to 120.8% last year.
This does not mean that the sector is bad. This year, an increase of 82.3% is expected, totaling US $ 9.02 billion; in 2015 the increase was 43.7%; in 2016, 33.4% ;, in 2017, 25.2% ;, in 2018, 22.2%.
The mobile market, in general, will also experience a slowdown in growth, but will only see positive numbers in the coming years. This year advertising investments will rise 83%, down from 23% growth in 2018.


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Report: Kombucha trending heavily with consumers
A Mintel report indicated that consumers are buying more fermented drinks, such as kombucha. Kombucha is a lightly fermented tea that is made from a yeast culture and yields a slightly fizzy, often fruity but acidic taste.
The health halo that surrounds drinks like kombucha partially explain its popularity. Attributed to contributing positively to intestinal health, and its low sugar profile, fermented teas have become a widespread alternative to sodas and colas.
According to Mintel’s report, some prefer the drink for its slightly acidic taste, which contributes to a “whole new flavour profile.” The sour and bitter flavour notes are the primary reason for fermented tea drinkers to enjoy a fizzy drink without a sugary aftertaste, and consider the alleged health benefits secondary.
The current revival in probiotic-containing foods and beverages such as yogurts, kombucha, kimchi and sauerkraut has seen the fermented food market nearly double over the past five years. The report cited that reasons for drinking functional beverages were mainly to increase or maintain digestive health.
For others, the novelty of flavours such as turmeric or ginger were more alluring than flavours currently offered by popular soft drinks.
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- Reddit announced a $300 million funding round Monday, giving it a $3 billion valuation.
- With 330 million monthly active users and revenue of about $100 million, according to sources, the company is generating an estimated $0.30 per user.
- Reddit's value per user is much lower than that of other social networks including Facebook, Snap, Twitter and Pinterest.
Reddit's latest funding round values its users at a lower price than any other social network.
The company announced Monday it had raised $300 million in its Series D investment round at a valuation of $3 billion. CNBC previously reported the company's annual revenue topped $100 million, according to sources familiar with the matter, and at 330 million monthly active users (MAUs), this would make Reddit's average revenue per user (ARPU) about $0.30.
Reddit did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding its latest revenue details.
That estimate would make Reddit's ARPU significantly lower than other social networks, even those with similar MAUs. Twitter, for example, reported 321 MAUs for its latest quarterly report, and with annual revenue of about $3.04 billion in 2018, that would make its ARPU about $9.48.
Facebook reported 2.32 billion MAUs in its latest report and ARPU of $7.37. Snap does not report global MAUs, but reported $2.09 ARPU in its latest quarterly report. ARPU for Facebook and Snap is based off of their quarterly disclosures.
Pinterest, which has yet to go public but is preparing for an IPO this year, says on its website it has 250 million monthly users. Pinterest declined to comment on their revenue, but a September article in The New York Times said the company was on track to top $700 million in revenue for 2018. That would bring its ARPU to about $2.80.
So, in descending order:
- Twitter ARPU: ~$9.48
- Facebook: $7.37
- Pinterest: ~$2.80
- Snap: $2.09
- Reddit: ~$0.30
While Reddit's value per user is much lower than its peers, it is betting its access to a valuable demographic will appeal to advertisers and potentially even draw their dollars from larger rivals like Facebook and Google. The company said half of its MAUs are between the ages of 18 and 24.
"When we are talking about competing for ad dollars, of course we are talking about Facebook and Google, who take up the vast majority of ad spend," said Reddit CEO Steve Huffman in an interview with CNBC. "We are competing with anybody, or anywhere people spend their free time."
-CNBC's Julia Boorstin contributed to this report.


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Game time is nearing! NVIDIA (NVDA -6.82%) is slated to report its fourth-quarter and full-year results for fiscal 2020 after the market close on Thursday, Feb. 13.
The graphics processing unit (GPU) leader is barreling toward its release on a solid note. While last quarter's results fell on a year-over-year basis, as expected, both the top and bottom lines were up sequentially and beat the Wall Street consensus estimates. Moreover, the profit beat was a sizable one.
Investor optimism is likely the highest it's been for a year. After four consecutive quarters of year-over-year revenue and earnings declines, NVIDIA's top and bottom lines are expected to grow once again.
The tech company's tough year was due largely to two factors: slowing sales of its gaming graphics cards in the wake of the cryptocurrency bust, and a pause in demand for its data center products amid concerns about a slowing global economy.
As for NVIDIA stock, it's returned a whopping 73.3% over the one-year period through Friday, Feb. 7, versus the S&P 500 index's 25.5% return. It's now just about 13% off its all-time closing high set in October 2018.
NVIDIA's key quarterly numbers
Here are the year-ago quarter's results and Wall Street's estimates to use as benchmarks.
|Metric||Fiscal Q4 2019 Result||Fiscal Q4 2020 Wall Street Estimate||Projected Growth (YOY)|
|Revenue||$2.21 billion||$2.96 billion||34%|
|Adjusted earnings per share (EPS)||$0.80||$1.66||108%|
For the fourth quarter, NVIDIA guided for revenue of $2.95 billion and adjusted EPS of $1.65.
For context, in the third quarter, the company's revenue fell 5% year over year to $3.01 billion and adjusted EPS slipped 3% to $1.78.
Here's how the platforms performed last quarter:
|Platform||Fiscal Q3 2020 Revenue||Change (YOY)||Change (QOQ)|
|Data center||$726 million||(8%)||11%|
|Professional visualization||$324 million||6%||11%|
|OEM and IP||$143 million||(3%)||29%|
Investors can expect NVIDIA's gaming and artificial intelligence-driven data center businesses to continue their recoveries from the hits they took a year ago from the previously noted catalysts. (While the auto platform's revenue declined last quarter on both a year-over-year and sequential basis, this was simply due to usual quarter-to-quarter "lumpiness.")
Last quarter, in her CFO commentary, Colette Kress attributed the gaming platform's sequential revenue growth primarily to increased sales of GeForce desktop and notebook GPUs, and the data center platform's sequential growth to higher hyperscale demand.
Mellanox acquisition update
Investors can expect an update in the earnings release or on the earnings call on the status of the company's pending acquisition of Mellanox Technologies (MLNX), which makes data center connectivity products.
The deal -- announced last March -- was originally expected to close by the end of calendar year 2019, but last quarter, the company pushed back the expected timeline to early 2020. At that time, NVIDIA said in its earnings release that it was still in discussions with regulators in Europe and China. Since then, the European Union has given the deal the green light.
Fiscal first-quarter 2021 guidance
Since the market is a forward-looking machine, NVIDIA stock's price movement should hinge more on the company's Q1 2021 outlook than its Q4 results, relative to Wall Street's expectations.
So, investors should know that analysts are modeling for Q1 adjusted EPS of $1.52 on revenue of $2.85 billion, representing growth of 73% and 28%, respectively, year over year.


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New Delhi, Nov 22 (PTI) Aluminium prices fell 0.38 per cent to Rs 129.85 per kg in futures trade on Friday as participants trimmed positions tracking a weak trend at spot market due to sluggish demand.
At the Multi Commodity Exchange, aluminium for November delivery eased by 50 paise, or 0.38 per cent, to Rs 129.85 per kg in a business turnover of 804 lots.
Similarly, the metal for December delivery weakened by 60 paise, or 0.45 per cent, to Rs 132.10 per kg in 573 lots.
Analysts attributed the weakness in aluminium prices to slackened demand from consuming industries at the spot market. PTI VHP SHWSHW


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After two successful events BTX Saudi and BTX UAE, GEC Media Group, publishers of Business Transformation, Enterprise Channels MEA, The Titans, Cyber Sentinels and Infra Insights, announced the third and final leg of The BTX Roadshow and Transformation Awards Asia edition in New Delhi on 16th September 2022.
In December 2021, Gartner forecast that ICT spending, including communication and data centres, inside the Indian sub-continent would reach close to $102 Billion in 2022, an increase of more than 5% YoY, but much slower than the growth in 2021 of close to 11%.
The digital transformation trajectory that began as a pandemic response is here to stay for the next few years. India has experienced one of the fastest recoveries despite being one of the worst hit regions in the second wave of the pandemic in early 2021. In 2022, CIOs in India will build on renewed interest in technology from the business to gain funding for new IT projects, said a Gartner analyst.
Indian CIOs are likely to increase their spending towards projects that drive innovation and modernising legacy systems. Hiring a workforce that can deliver on these needs will also be a key priority. In 2022, this year, Indian CIOs are prioritising a move away from rigid and monolithic ways of doing business to a more composable business and IT architecture where they will be able to better respond to disruptions.
In 2022, all segments of IT spending in India are expected to grow, with software emerging as the highest growing segment.
The face-to-face event will start with the registration of all attendees and proceed with lunch and networking. BTX Top Transformation Awards will also announce the winners of the BTX Top Executive Awards; BTX Top Enterprise Awards; BTX Top Women; and BTX Top Solution Awards, as part of the BTX Road Show 2022 Asia edition.
Highlights of BTX Road Show 2022 Asia Edition:
- Face to face session with attendees and networking
- Select vendor transformation road maps for business decision-makers
- Regional end users present transformation success stories
- Panel discussion between vendors and end-users on experience sharing
- Half-day hybrid event with C-suite conclave and awards
Agenda of BTX Road Show 2022 Asia Edition:
|BTX ASIA Sessions
|12:00 PM – 13:00 PM
|Registration and Lunch
|13:00 PM – 13:15 PM
|Welcome Note by GEC Media
|13:15 PM – 13:30 PM
|Opening speech by VIP
|13:30 PM – 13:45 PM
|13:45 PM – 14:00 PM
|14:00 PM – 14:15 PM
|14:15 PM – 14:30 PM
|14:30 PM – 15:15 PM
|Panel Discussion: Best practices leveraging digital platforms to take Indian enterprises to next level of scale, quality, profitability
|15:15 PM – 15:30 PM
|15:30 PM – 15:45 PM
|15:45 PM – 16:15 PM
|All Women Panel Discussion
|16:15 PM – 16:30 PM
|16:30 PM – 16:45 PM
|16:45 PM – 17:00 PM
|17:00 PM – 17:15 PM
|17:15 PM – 18:00 PM
|Panel Discussion: Disrupting Indian businesses and industries with large scale adoption of cloud, analytics, AI platforms
|18:00 PM – 18:30 PM
|BTX Transformation Awards 2022 and Vote of Thanks
|18:30 PM Onwards
|Networking evening and Group pictures
- BTX Top Executives Awards 2022: This award recognises top executives who have accelerated digital and business transformation and created a better future for their business. They have empowered remote teams, managed change, flattened organisational structure, made it agile and secure, managed customer satisfaction, and implemented digital tools like cloud, analytics, data integration, amongst others.
- BTX Top Enterprise Awards 2022: This award recognises enterprises that have embraced digital transformation and digital tools through the pandemic and achieved success in various areas. Such enterprises would have rebuilt customer experiences, managed customer expectations, leveraged online sales models, built forecasting models, have in-depth and ready analysis of market and demand trends, and built close collaboration and data sharing amongst teams, amongst others.
- BTX Top Solution Awards 2022:This award recognises the leading, exemplary, heroic efforts by vendors, channel partners, integrators, consultants, to manage the challenges of the end user community through their transformation journey. This part of the IT industry has helped the end user community to successfully pivot their business models by using digital technologies and helped to create a sustainable business.
- BTX Top Women Executives Awards 2022: This award recognises women who are driving business and digital transformation and setting a benchmark in diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Digital technologies and digital platforms are transforming and disrupting businesses and industries, opening up new employment opportunities and new job roles. With this, women can play inclusive and diverse roles in innovation, disruption, leadership in the technology and IT sectors.
Going forward into 2022, for enterprises, the meaning of business continuity, disaster recovery, collaboration, virtual meetings, remote workforce, cloud, security, have changed overnight from esoteric terms into everyday work life meanings, that have a direct impact on the existence of their business.
Across 2022, businesses are looking to build on the gains made during the pandemic. The pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital solutions and the cloud ahead by many multiples. Leaders driving transformation now need to build on the foundation of the last two years and take their enterprises to the next level of efficiency, agility, scalability, productivity and customer experience. All the while ensuring that their enterprises are secure to the highest level.
Similar to enterprises, consumers themselves have transformed and their expectations are increasingly digital. They now expect and reward through loyalty, seamless digital experiences and expect end to end fulfilment. Digital experiences for them need to be immersive, supported by rich content, personalised, and reliable.


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Ask a smartphone user on the street if they use any instant messaging apps and you’ll get a variety of different answers, but the top two will most often be WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Of course, the irony is that Facebook owns WhatsApp now, and is often the first app people think to use when looking for an instant messaging solution. Traditionally, the green app has been free for the first year of use, and then a small fee of around $1 depending on where you are in the world. Now though, they’re ditching the annual fee, and making WhatsApp free forever. Operating such servers and paying developers costs money, and how WhatsApp is to generate revenue is not how you think.
In a blog post, the firm is outlining why they’re making this change. They said that a lot of users simply didn’t have a “have a debit or credit card number” and that this longstanding method “hasn’t worked well”. For WhatsApp users, the annual fee has always been an interesting little quirk, why give away a year’s worth of free access if you’re charging so little for it in the first place? Users can jump onboard as simple as providing their already-existing phone number, and find friends using the same method, so perhaps WhatsApp had been seeing some active users simply drop off after a year’s worth of service, who knows.
The blog post goes on to detail just how WhatsApp intends to make any money, after all operating such a service isn’t free, and people need to take a pay check home at the end of the month. Instead of turning to third-party ads, it seems WhatsApp is branching out into the customer service business, “Starting this year, we will test tools that allow you to use WhatsApp to communicate with businesses and organizations that you want to hear from.” This could be in much the same why that companies and brands use Twitter to communicate with their customers and followers. While details are scant, it wouldn’t surprise us if WhatsApp was planning to charge these companies a certain amount of money for communicating with the billion of users already on WhatsApp. The idea would be a simple one, WhatsApp maintains a channel and account for these companies, and they get access to their customers in a more modern, relaxed setting, streamlining customer service and perhaps helping them sell more products through better engagement.
Whatever WhatsApp’s plans are, we’re sure cash from Facebook has made the decisions to drop the fee that much easier, but for right now users everywhere will be happy to hear they no longer have to pay for WhatsApp.


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Marks & Spencer's second largest shareholder, Legal & General, has publicly criticised the retailer's decision to appoint current chief executive Sir Stuart Rose as chairman, suggesting that it puts too much power in one man's hands.
Mark Burgess, head of equities at L&G Investment Management, said: "As set out in the Combined Code we believe strongly in the separation of the roles of chairman and chief executive, believing that this provides a much needed balance in the boardroom, and prevents potentially damaging concentration of power.
"As such we believe today's announcement from M&S is unwelcome."
The Combined Code essentially objects to any one individual holding "unfettered powers of decision", and explicity states that a chief executive should not go on to be chairman of the same company.
The objection from L&G, which owns 5pc of M&S shares, will be an embarrassment to the company, which announced a major management shake-up earlier today.
Sir Stuart, the man credited with turning around M&S's fortunes, has agreed to stay at the company until July 2011, longer than the five years he originally committed to in 2004 when he became boss.
Current chairman Lord Burns will stand down on June 1 this year, at which point Sir Stuart will take over.
In a statement announcing the changes, Sir Stuart said: "M&S is a business with a strong heritage and great potential. This is an important time in its development. In taking the role of executive chairman, my task will be to guide the business through the next stage of growth."
He said the purpose of the changes, which will see the departure of some senior and long-standing staff, was to "streamline" the business.
The share price has barely been affected by the news of the shake-up, down 1.5 at 376.5p by late afternoon.
M&S announced almost 20 management changes, including:
• Ian Dyson will take on the wider role of group finance and operations director, taking on responsibility for retail and human resources, adding to his current remit of finance, IT, logistics, property and store development.
• Sir David Michels will be deputy chairman from June 1.
• Kate Bostock has been appointed to the board with responsibility for all clothing - womenswear, menswear, lingerie and childrenswear - excluding per una.
• Steven Esom has also been appointed to the board, and will continue to look after food.
• Guy Farrant will step down as director of retail after 30 years.
The management shake-up comes two months after M&S lost a fifth of its value in one day after a dire Christmas trading update and a warning from Sir Stuart that the high street was facing its worst conditions for a decade.
It sent shockwaves through the stock market, wiping 10pc off the value of the entire general retail sector.


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$MSCC said its products, including its field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), are not affected by the recently identified security flaws associated with the use of x86 and ARM and a number of other processors. Security researchers revealed major computer chip vulnerabilities, called Spectre and Meltdown, in chips were affecting devices globally.
Following the resignation of $MU's Storage Business Unit VP Anand Jayapalan, who got accused by SEC on security fraud at his previous company SanDisk, Micron appointed Derek Dicker as VP and GM of Storage Business Unit. Previously, Dicker served as VP and Business Unit Manager of performance storage at $MSCC.
$KN completed the sale of its timing device business, part of the Precision Devices segment, to $MSCC for $130MM in cash. $KN expects to use a portion of the net proceeds to reduce outstanding borrowings under its revolving credit facility. $KN expects to reclassify the results of the timing device business to discontinued operations in 4Q17.
$MSCC announced its new Mi-V ecosystem to increase adoption of its RISC-V soft central processing unit (CPU) product family. RISC-V, an ISA which is a standard open architecture offers numerous benefits, including portability as well as enabling the open source community to test and improve cores at a faster pace than closed ISAs.
$MSCC, a provider of semiconductor solutions, has tied up with $MLNX and Celestica to develop a unique reference architecture for NVM express over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) applications as part of its Accelerate Ecosystem Program. The NVMe market will be more than $57Bil by 2020 and NVMe-oF adapter shipments may touch 740,000 units by 2020.
Semiconductor technology provider $MSCC has released SoftConsole 5.1, the first ever Windows-hosted Eclipse integrated development environment for designs utilizing RISC-V open instruction set architectures. SoftConsole, a free software development environment, will be showcased at the Design Automation Conference.
$MSCC announced early results for its tender offer to purchase for cash up to an Aggregate Purchase Price of $200MM of its 9.125% senior notes due 2023. As on May 24, 2017, $MSCC accepted for purchase the maximum aggregate purchase price of $200MM of the notes that have been validly tendered and not validly withdrawn.
$MSCC, the maker of semiconductors for power management, reported a jump in 4Q16 earnings driven by higher sales. Net income rose to $48.9MM or $0.42 per share from $25.3MM or $0.26 per share last year. Net sales climbed 36.9% to $450.1MM. Adjusted EPS increased to $0.91 from $0.73.
$MSCC said it has amended the credit agreement to provide for new pricing terms for the remaining term B loans outstanding in an aggregate principal amount of $739.7MM. Term B loans currently bear interest at LIBOR plus 300 basis points with a 75 basis point floor, a decrease of about 29% or 150 basis points.
$MSCC said it has refinanced its term loans which has effectively lowered the current blended interest rate under the credit agreement by about 25% or 107 basis points. The company has reduced the principal balance on its term B loans by $364.3MM by syndicating corresponding amount of term A loans.
Semiconductor company $MSCC said it has collaborated with Veracity Security Intelligence to develop secure networking solutions for industrial Ethernet deployments. This alliance enables full industrial network security with a simple software installation in managed industrial switches. The new security solutions will be available in 2H16.
Semiconductor solutions provider $MSCC said it has launched the new Ocelot product family, a low power Ethernet switch family optimized for communications networking in the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) market. The new devices simplify IIoT network migration to an Ethernet backbone with flexible interfaces and TCAM based classifications.
Semiconductor solutions provider $MSCC said it has completed the sale of a non-strategic component of a board level systems and packaging business to Mercury Systems, Inc. for $300MM in cash. The cash generated will be used to pay down outstanding debt and allow the company to reduce its leverage ratio ahead of original plan.
$MSCC announced the early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended occurred on April 20, in connection with the previously announced sale by Microsemi of a non-strategic component of a board level systems and packaging business to $MRCY for $300MM in cash.


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By Laura Kemp • 19 May 2020 • 14:08
Easyjet unveils limited France flight plan from June
THE British budget airline admitted that on Tuesday hackers were able to access their database and steal the email, travel details and credit card details of around nine million customers, in what has been branded as a “highly sophisticated” attack.
The budget airline has already been dealing with the fact that most of its flights have been temporarily grounded and is also locked in a lengthy battle with its founder, and largest shareholder, so this theft of private and sensitive information has added another layer of problems.
The company is already facing serious backlash from customers who had booked flights with the airline to holiday favourite destinations such as Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol which have now been cancelled due to the virus and the restrictions it has posed on the tourism industry.
Many customers have been worried about when and how they will receive their refunds but now they must also worry about their information being jeopardised in the latest breach of information.
In a statement released to the stock exchange, easyJet has argued that it “takes issues of security extremely seriously and will continue to invest to further enhance [their] security environment.”
However, this is not the only airline company to be hit with a similar attack, as in 2018 British Airlines was also confronted with the theft of hundreds of thousands of customer credit card details.
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Web analytics firm Mixpanel has just launched real-time mobile analytics for the the Android platform. Mixpanel Android analytics lets Android developers track events, do A/B testing and segment user interactions across their apps in real time. Mixpanel's goal is to offer app developers more robust and granular data as opposed to the high-level-only statistics that many mobile analytics packages offer.
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Mobile analytics firm Flurry just raised $7 million in a Series B funding round. Mobile analytics firms are a hot commodity right now, with both AdMob and Quattro getting acquired by Google and Apple respectively in the last 60 days. Flurry, whose stats we've covered in the past, actively tracks the iPhone and Android platforms, looking at usage patterns and trends.


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Saab CEO Victor Muller personally handed in the bankruptcy application to a court in southwestern Sweden, ending his two-year effort to revive the carmaker that over more than six decades has become known for its rounded sedans and quirky design features.
Saab bankruptcy rejected by Swedish court, saying its financial plan for solvency unclear. Automaker's unions may file bankruptcy petition for Saab.
582 Saabs: The company claimed the deal would provide the ailing car brand with enough funds to pay salaries to its employees, but didn't reveal the name of the Chinese company.
The struggling Swedish automaker doesn't have enough cash to pay its 3,800 factory workers this month.
Saab could be getting some of its parts and technology from BMW, according to Spyker Cars, the Dutch company that owns the Saab brand.


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Australian dairy giant Murray Goulburn is set to chop further 54 jobs from its Victorian operations this week as part of the its restructure plan that started two years ago.
The cuts were announced just days after MG Senior Management visited its Cobram and Koroit plants to re-announce its $127 million capital investment in three “value-added” areas, including $74 million investment in consumer cheese at the Cobram facility targeting Australian and Asian consumers, $38 million in infant nutrition products destined for Asia at Koroit and Cobram, and $14 million in Dairy Beverages at Edith Creek, Tasmania.
According to the article on Stock and Land, 13 of the job cuts will be made at Kiewa, 4 at Cobram, 23 at Leongatha, 3 at Rochester and 11 at Maffra
The latest job cuts — of which the staff was informed last Friday — come as a direct result of changes to MG’s “operational processes and activities,” the company said in a letter to suppliers and shareholders.
MG’s Managing Director Gary Helou said during his visit at the Koroit plant last week that the company plans to shift the business focus from commodities to sales in higher margin segments.
“In particular, the growth markets of Asia,” he said. “That means connecting manufacturing facility and distribution chain directly to the Asian consumer, giving them what they want — customised food and a range of products that consumers in Asia want.”
Dairy Australia analysis manager Norman Repacholi said retail companies were increasingly looking to chase profitable products because of the pressure to have brands perform.
“Rather than having a wide variety, companies will pick their strongest brands and put more resources behind those so they are effectively trying to maximise their returns by picking winners,” he said.
Murray Goulburn chopped 427 staff across its operations since commencing its restructuring plan two years ago.


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Pepsi Mango: Company to launch permanent flavoured drink after 5 years
After a gap of five years, Pepsi is set to roll out a new flavour of the beverage. Pepsi Mango is the brand’s first new permanent flavoured cola in five years, the company said on March 18. Beginning March 22, Pepsi Mango, a mix of cola and tropical fruit flavour, will be available nationwide, it said in a release. The flavour launch also marks the brand’s first permanent release of a regular and zero sugar variety at the same time.
Pepsi has also created a new national TV commercial set on Take You Dancing song by Jason Derulo. Commenting on the launch, Todd Kaplan, Vice President of Marketing – Pepsi said, “Our consumers are always looking for new and exciting flavours, so we couldn’t be more excited to introduce them to Pepsi Mango. Our team has created a surprisingly perfect match with Pepsi Mango, combining the delicious taste of Pepsi cola with the flavour of sweet, juicy mango.”
Mango is one of the most popular fruits in the world, and it serves as the perfect complement to Pepsi, he added. PepsiCo has a presence in over 200 countries and territories around the world. The company generated more than $70 billion in net revenue in 2020. The company’s portfolio includes a wide range of foods and beverages, including 23 brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.
Source – moneycontrol


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On a Saturday evening in late July, Wine Aid for East Japan began, appropriately, with a toast. Now in its third year, the event, organized by professionals in the wine industry to raise money for charities in the Tohoku region, featured over 100 premium wines and a buffet showcasing ingredients from northeastern Japan. The opening remarks culminated in a catchy slogan expressing hope for Tohoku’s recovery through food: Yo naoshi-wa, shoku naoshi (Changing the way we eat to change the world).
While wine was the main draw of the event, the focus was on Tohoku’s farming and fishing industries, which have continued to struggle with the effects of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. This year, Wine Aid’s organizers had invited a handful of agricultural producers from Miyagi and Iwate Prefectures to introduce their products and mingle with the crowd.
The idea, says event director Hiroshi Miyagawa, is to “use food as a means of encouraging financial recovery” and to give consumers a chance to “talk face-to-face with producers.” Guests murmured appreciatively as they tucked into plates piled high with rosy-pink slices of roast short-horn beef from Iwate Prefecture, baked salmon in cream sauce and squid-ink paella made with seafood from the Minamisanriku area.
At the back of the banquet hall, Hiroyuki Takahashi, president of Tohoku Kaikon, a nonprofit that promotes the region’s food culture, passed out copies of “Tohoku Taberu Tsushin,” the organization’s monthly magazine. Takahashi also spoke with people about the current situation in the tsunami-stricken areas. Although oyster beds off the coast of northern Japan were almost completely destroyed in 2011, he says that overall conditions are improving.
“The sea is in better shape now than even before the disaster. The water is clean, and soil that has flowed into it has enriched the ocean floor with nutrients,” he told me.
Takahashi remains “optimistic” but notes that the fishermen and farmers in Tohoku rely on markets in major urban areas such as Tokyo. “The producers are getting back on their feet, and if people in Tokyo eat more foods from Tohoku, it will help the industry flourish,” he said.
All of the proceeds from the Wine Aid event are donated to charity organizations based in Tohoku: the Foundation for Cooperative Community Creation, which offers assistance to seniors; and two organizations that concentrate on providing resources for children, the Ashinaga Foundation and the Peace Project. Last year, Wine Aid raised ¥2 million, and tickets for this year’s event were nearly sold out.
But volunteer Mitsy Murata, a sommelier at the wine-distribution company St. Helena 1934, points out that long-term support for recovery efforts is essential: “It’s difficult because people don’t have the same feeling as they did at the time of the earthquake, but our theme is, ‘Do not forget, and keep working,’ ” she said.
Miyagawa said that the organizers of the Wine Aid event intend to continue the program for as long as possible. “If everyone can do what they can, no matter how small, it can help speed recovery in Tohoku. For me, that’s wine, but I think everyone can find something to contribute,” he concluded.
Melinda Joe is an American journalist in Tokyo and a certified wine and sake professional. She blogs at tokyodrinkingglass.blogspot.com. Follow her on Twitter @MelindaJoe.
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Every year there are hundreds of recalls for various problems that arise in cars. Some of them are minor, simply a part not working the right way, but many are major and could potentially kill you if you dont pay attention and fail to get it fixed. Here are some of the major ones.
GM Recalls Ignition Switch
GM has recently been in the news because the ignition switch can fail. This has caused a number of problems with drivers and the safe operation of their car. The car can tend to shut off, and if it does, the airbag may not deploy properly. Check if your car is recalled on the safecar site.
Speaking of airbags, there is another massive recall going on right now. Takata, a Japanese company that makes airbags for many different car companies, seems to have cut a lot of corners for the past decade or so. The truth has come out, and it has been revealed that Takata airbags have a tendency to explode open sending shrapnel into the vehicle. This shrapnel can maim or even kill the occupants. To see if your vehicle is on the recall list, visit the NHTSA website.
These are just two of the many recalls that are out there. Since the Takata recall has affected millions of vehicles there is a good chance that your vehicle has been recalled. Due to moves, improper registration, or other problems you might not have received your notice. It would behoove you to check to make sure your life isnt in danger.
If you are concerned that you may have missed one of the recalls in the past, you dont have to worry. The government keeps track of the recalls on the website recalls.gov. Take a few minutes to see if any of those recalls affect you so that youre not left in the dark.


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As a senior technology executive, Paulette was responsible for billion-dollar high-tech businesses in leading Silicon Valley companies. She now serves on the boards of technology-focused non-profits, and as an advisor to high-tech startups.
Paulette’s husband, also an engineer, grew up in Iowa farm country. They have two grown daughters.
As a response to old versions of racism, a new brand is taking over American culture. But the new racism is not better than the old racism. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
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Across Arkansas, families will spend the coming days and weeks gathering for the holidays. One of the best things about this time of year are the holiday dishes--the special meals and beverages and treats that we've loved since we were kids. What we serve our friends and families reflects who we are, where we came from, and traditions that span generations and cultures. We are especially grateful for the many choices we have and are able to share with loved ones.
The beverages we serve to families and friends are choices we make at the holidays, and every day of the year for that matter. We at the Arkansas Beverage Association are all about making sure that Arkansans always have a wide variety of choices in beverages and the information they need to make smart nutrition decisions.
To that end, Arkansas' leading beverage companies have joined to help people moderate the sugar and calories they get from beverages. We are doing this by offering many more choices with less sugar or zero sugar, and by making it easier for consumers to check the calories on each drink before they choose.
Beverage companies are also taking proactive steps to provide more, and clearer, information to consumers. We're displaying prominent calorie counts on the front of every bottle, can, and pack we make. We are also putting calorie information on millions of coolers and fountains nationwide, and many vending machines now allow you to see the calories in a particular beverage before making your selection.
Right here in Arkansas, as part of Gov. Asa Hutchinson's Health Active Arkansas initiative, we have been active partners with University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and Children's Hospital to reduce the calories and sugar consumed from beverages on their campuses.
This fits the ambitious mission Arkansas' leading beverage companies, including the Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo and Keurig Dr Pepper, are pursuing to reduce the calories and sugar people consume from beverages by 20 percent by 2025--an effort called the Balance Calories Initiative.
These fierce competitors are working together with members of the public health community on meaningful solutions that can help people reduce the sugar in their diet without taking away consumer choices.
Since 2015, we've been working with stores, restaurants, and local partners in communities in Little Rock. Specifically, we're focusing on the downtown, southwest, midtown and south Little Rock neighborhoods. We're collaborating with retailers in these neighborhoods to display and offer reduced-sugar or zero-sugar beverages and offering in-store samples and other incentives to try new options. We've also partnered with community organizations, like the Derek Lewis Foundation, Positive Atmosphere Reaches Kids (PARK) and the University District Development Corporation (UDDC), to develop programs and educational materials to help inform families about the beverage options available to them.
Beverage companies also have voluntarily removed full-calorie soft drinks from schools, allowing moms to better moderate the sugar in their children's diets. This move reduced beverage calories in schools by more than 90 percent nationwide. We've also created smaller portion sizes, and Americans have reduced their consumption of sugar from soda by more than 33 percent since 2000. In fact, 50 percent of all non-alcoholic beverages purchased today have no sugar, and 60 percent of new brands and flavors hitting the market are reduced- or zero-sugar drinks.
As we progress through the holiday season, leading beverage companies want to remind you that abundance of choice isn't limited just to holiday gift ideas. On behalf of the organizations we represent and partner with, the Arkansas Beverage Association wishes you and yours time spent together in laughter and good cheer over the beverage of your choice during the holidays.
Merry choices to all!
Dennis Farmer is president of the Arkansas Beverage Association.
Editorial on 12/22/2018
Print Headline: Smarter choices


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Two lawsuits have been filed against Japanese gaming giant Sony because of last week’s massive data breach of users of its online-gaming system.
A lawsuit has been filed by one Kristopher Johns in the U.S. District Court’s Northern District of California seeking class-action suit status and charging Sony’s security being “negligently poor”, The Wall Street Journal reports.
According to the WSJ, the lawsuit charging that the “company failed to encrypt personal information” also says that Sony did not inform customers of the incident in a timely manner.
Sony took down its PlayStation Network and Qriocity service on April 19 because the company discovered an intrusion of its systems. Sony only announced that user data may have been compromised, including possibly credit card accounts, on April 26.
Another lawsuit was filed on Wednesday in a Los Angeles federal court charging Sony of being negligent in letting data from its customers be compromised in the attacks. The Los Angeles lawsuit is also asking for class-action lawsuit status, the report says.