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The University of Melbourne announced on Friday a new technology they are calling “GiFi”, which promises some serious game-changing wireless transfer speeds for all types of consumer gadgets. The tiny silicon chip invented by professor Stan Skafidas is able to move data through the air as fast as 5 gigabits per second at a distance of just over 30 feet.
This short-range wireless technology would potentially be a competitor or more than likely a replacement for WiFi, and things like Bluetooth might want to look out as well. The transfer speeds combined with the constantly increased storage capacities of small handheld devices could really take media down some new avenues as well. The Age newspaper uses an example of transferring a high-definition movie from a kiosk at a store to your mobile phone in seconds. Then that same movie can be transferred just as quickly from the phone to your home computer or entertainment system to watch.


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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Officials are considering new water restrictions as California's drought drags on, possibly forcing residents to ask for water at restaurants and for fresh towels and sheets at hotels.
The State Water Resources Control Board floated the ideas at an informational hearing Tuesday as it considers extending and expanding mandatory water-use rules.
The board last summer imposed emergency regulations prohibiting Californians from washing their cars with hoses that don't shut off and limiting how often they can water their lawns. Board members appeared ready to extend those rules and add new ones Tuesday.
"I find it galling when whole sets of water glasses end up on a (restaurant) table, even in Sacramento," said Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the board. "The key is to get away from very light mandatory restrictions."
The board has the sweeping power to define when water use is unreasonable, and it could eventually expand the definition to include using drinking water to maintain golf courses and cemeteries. Marcus said the board would likely take smaller steps first, such as prohibiting decorative outdoor water fountains.
Existing emergency regulations have authorized agencies to fine water wasters up to $500 a day, though such stringent enforcement has been rare.
For homeowners, new rules also could include a ban on watering lawns during cold and rainy periods.
Some proposals presented Tuesday targeted businesses, such as requiring restaurants to only serve water on request and telling hotels not to automatically provide guests with fresh towels and sheets every day. Some cities have similar rules already in place.
The board has considered making some water restrictions permanent with the prospect of future droughts looming.
"We definitely need permanent regulations," said Frances Spivy-Weber, the board vice-chairwoman. "I just don't see how we can enter the next 30 years with climate change without them."
The board could consider the extension of restrictions next month and take up other possible regulations later in the year.
Follow Fenit Nirappil at http://www.twitter.com/FenitN.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press.
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On Friday (January 15, 2021), the General Motors Company has made a very promising announcement for Canada’s automobile industry. The company has announced that it has finally landed a tentative deal with the labor union Unifor.
The company has announced that they have successfully made a deal that would see General Motors make an investment that would worth nearly C$1 billion. According to the deal, General Motors will be investing in its Ingersoll (Ontario) Plant for the CAMI Assembly. The investment will help the company manufacture electric vans for commercial use.
It has been revealed that the union workers are yet to ratify the tentative deal that has taken place between General Motors and Unifor. As per the deal and partnership, General Motors will be responsible for producing EV600 electric vans on a large scale. The manufacturing will be carried out by General Motors at its CAMI Plant in Ontario.
Adding to the above statement, General Motors has stated that they are very excited about the new deal. They are more than ready to show their skills in the electric automobile sector and will start working on the electric vans at the earliest.
For the record, this is not the only deal that the General Motors Company has made in Canada. The recent deal is just the build-up from the recent investment that it had made on another plant. It was back in November 2020, when the General Motors Company had agreed to a C$1 billion investment.
The investment being made by General Motors was for the Oshawa Plant. With the investment, the plant would be readied to mass-produce the full-size pickup trucks.
The Canadian Government has released a statement stating that they are more than glad for the recent deal. They welcome the General Motors Company for their recent deal and are waiting for the union members to respond to the deal.
The Canadian Government stated that once the union members ratify the deal, it will be able to provide its full support in starting the project. The statement was released by Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne who is in the Canadian Foreign Affairs.
For those who do not have the knowledge, Unifor is a union, which represents labor in Canada that work on hourly wages. Unifor has stated that they are in the process of providing more details and information to the union members.
The details will be shared among the union members during the ratification meeting that is scheduled to be held on January 17, 2021. It has been confirmed that the outcome of the ratification will be shared by Unifor a day after the meeting is held. Based on the outcome, General Motors will have a clear picture of what it is going to do next.


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Florida is a great state to establish a business but unfortunately it is also prone to tropical storms and hurricanes which can disrupt business operations. Companies based in the Sunshine State are therefore advised to have strong business continuity plans including full redundancy for their call center operations.
Helping to facilitate call center network redundancy are today’s software-as-a-service-based call center software solutions. These Web-based systems enable businesses to “virtualize” their call center environment – which means agents can access all call center applications from any computer with a high speed connection.
Once companies establish a “virtual call center,” they are in a prime position to take advantage of a distributed call center network including the much-coveted home-based agent model. More importantly, virtual call centers allow companies to establish business continuity plans that enable employees to work from home in the event of a storm or some other event that might prevent them from arriving at work.
Fort Lauderdale-based Spirit Incentives, which specializes in consumer travel incentives -- cruise, airfare and hotel incentive packages -- and rebate programs, is one South Florida business that is prepared should a storm roll through and cause disruptions.
A few years ago the company deployed Contactual
’s OnDemand Contact Center
solution – a fully Web-based system facilitating remote back-up and anywhere connectivity for call center agents. As such the system has played a key role in the company’s disaster planning
“Here in South Florida, our biggest threat is hurricanes,” said Clayton Gring, COO for Spirit Incentives, in a customer case study posted to Contactual’s (News - Alert) website. “Anything can happen to our facility. We don’t own the building, so we have been at the mercy of the building owners who have strict weather-related policies. We are close to the ocean, so whenever there are weather warnings, our building is immediately closed and that’s a serious disruption to our business model.”
Gring said when Hurricane Wilma hit Florida in 2005, the company’s facility in Fort Lauderdale wasn’t damaged, but it did lose power and was out of commission for about two weeks. In addition the company’s back up facility was also affected and wasn’t available either.
“To keep our business running, we had to move our entire operation, with a skeleton crew, to Orlando – 250 miles north – and work there for two weeks,” Gring said. “It was quite a shock -- but we serviced our customers and clients and maintained continuity.”
“It’s expensive when something like that happens,” he added. “Thankfully, our business associates in Orlando allowed us to use their facilities, but we still had staff travel and lodging expenses. Plus, we didn’t want to ever have to impose on our friends like that again.”
As a result of that incident, Spirit Incentives set out to find a virtual call center solution to augment its existing on-premises system and ensure business continuity.
The company ended up selecting Contactual’s virtual call center software because it was quick and easy to deploy; required minimal up-front investment; delivered the features and functionality it needed; and perhaps most importantly, allowed it to establish a fully-redundant, virtual call center environment.
“We interviewed a lot of virtual call center vendors and viewed their demos,” Gring said. “We had a really good understanding of what our needs were. It was a matter of finding a solution that would allow us to plug in easily. Contactual was such a perfect fit, because it was so non-intrusive.”
As a result of the switch, Spirit Incentives ended up doing away with its back-up call center, which saved the company a bundle.
“Contactual replaced a fully-equipped, redundant call center that was costing us thousands of dollars per month as a back-up facility,” Gring said. “We estimate that Contactual will save us in excess of $100,000 for our first year of usage.”
“If we have any crisis that shuts down our call center in the building where we are, Contactual allows us to continue our operations seamlessly,” he added.
Ultimately Spirit Incentives plans to do away with its legacy call center system and make Contactual’s virtual call center software its everyday system. In addition the company was planning on launching a nationwide home-based agent program this year.
To learn more about how Contactual’s virtual call center solution can improve your business continuity planning, check out the company’s Website, or to download a free copy of the customer case study, click here.Patrick Barnard is a senior Web editor for TMCnet, covering call and contact center technologies. He also compiles and regularly contributes to TMCnet e-Newsletters in the areas of robotics, IT, M2M, OCS and customer interaction solutions. To read more of Patrick's articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Patrick Barnard


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Jeff bezos the founder of amazon announced a $2 Billion investment in order to restore the environment.
he made this announcement at 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP26, where leaders of the world gathered to find a solution for earth’s environmental problems.
Amazon aims to power all its operations by renewable energies by 2025,” said jeff bezos.
Jeff bezos’s investment is happening while based on amazon’s annual sustainability report , his company emitted the equivalent of 60.64 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2020.
That’s a 19% increase in comparison to last year, even when due to covid pandemic, earth faced a huge drop in global emissions.


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Published on Oct 11, 2011
Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that in 2012 the company will release the Steve Jobs 2, an updated version of the revolutionary Apple founder featuring a richer, deeper voice and a sleek new white turtleneck.


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Makers of KitKat and MilkyWay join Ebola fight, but how?
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The world’s largest chocolate companies are joining the fight against Ebola.
Much of their production comes in West Africa, and the companies are worried the virus will disrupt production Already, prices for cocoa beans have been soaring in recent weeks.
Nestlé and Mars say they have already responded to a call from the World Cocoa Foundation, a non-profit that helps small cocoa farmers. The group plans to disclose Wednesday how much it has raised. Others in the group include Hershey, Godiva, Ghirardelli, General Mills and Mondelez International.
Donations will go to the International Federation of Red Cross, the Red Crescent Societies, and Caritas, a charity affiliated with the Catholic Church.
Nestlé, the Swiss company that makes KitKat, Butterfinger and Crunch said it is “deeply concerned” about the spread of Ebola in West Africa, where many of its 6,300 African employees are based.
Mars Chocolate — maker of MilkyWay, Twix and M&Ms — said it was “happy to support” the initiative. Hershey did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
West Africa produces 70% of the world’s cocoa supply. The largest cocoa producer in the world is the Ivory Coast, which has so far avoided contamination. But there is concern that migrant workers may not be allowed into the country to help with this year’s harvest. The Ivory Coast, also called Côte D’Ivoire, closed off its borders with Guinea and Liberia in August.
More than 4,000 people have died from Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization. If it is not contained, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there could be hundreds of thousands of Ebola cases in coming months.
The United States and other governments have pledged tens of millions of dollars to pay for everything from medicine and protective clothing for aid workers to safe burials for the deceased. Last month, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced Wednesday it will donate $50 million to help fight the Ebola outbreak.


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At its core, privacy is the agency individuals assert over what information about themselves they share and to whom they share that information. Online, concerns about privacy manifest themselves everywhere—from surveillance by government agencies like the NSA and the FBI to corporate data-collection by tech companies like Facebook and Google.
Senator proposes jail time, fines for companies that hijack your data
The bill also includes a 'do not track' option.
These popular iPhone apps have been recording your screen without permission
These companies were secretly viewing your screen.
Facebook paid teens $20 to use an app that spied on their browsing history
Facebook's Research app circumvents App Store guidelines.
This website asks harassment survivors to share their stories—then plans to sell their data
ImWithThem could sell the information back to victims' workplaces.
15 senators demand FCC investigate cell phone tracking data
The letter features a number of prominent Democrats.
Twitter may have exposed Android users’ private tweets
Twitter isn't sure how many users have been affected.
Facebook staffers caught writing 5-star Amazon reviews for Portal speaker
The social media giant denies directing the reviews.
What you need to know about the data breach involving 773 email addresses
It's still a reminder to check your security hygiene.
A man found a camera in his Airbnb and the company didn’t seem to care
Airbnb apologizes for its handling of the issue
Sprint promises to stop selling location data after outcry
They are they third company to stop selling data.
Report: Your phone’s location data can be purchased on the black market
Bounty hunters can easily track devices.
With or without Facebook, Android sends data to the social network
If you're using an Android, beware.
Is the Librem 5 the most secure cellphone ever?
This smartphone makes bold promises. Can it live up to them?
Facebook docs reveal company hid update about recording Android call logs
Documents show Facebook exploited Android permissions to record users' call and text logs.
Family photos could be Facebook’s newest source for ad targeting
It's already data mining your household.
How to access blocked sites on your phone with Cloudflare’s DNS app
Visit your favorite sites without snooping from your ISP.


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Blog: “We liked giving kids healthy options – but now that’s just impossible”
Dean Best | 29 May 2008
Video brings the day-to-day to life.
We’ve all read – and are reading – about food inflation around the world, whether you are a shopper in Manchester or Melbourne. That families have seen their food bills shoot up in recent months is, perhaps, old news.
But, watching this three-minute video this morning (29 May) brought the subject – and how food inflation is affecting consumer choice across a range of issues – to life.
Last year, UK supermarket bosses would wax lyrical about the growth of organic food or premium ranges; now, consumers are seeking more and more value.
As the cost of food rises, families are facing some tough choices. The thought of buying healthier bread (“with seeds in”) for their children or buying free-range eggs is being cast to one side in the search for value to make ends meet.
If you’re a numbers person, yesterday’s TNS figures on the UK grocery market encapsulated all this in a brief set of figures.
However, taking three minutes to watch this video is likely to hit home even more.
The BBC turned to just-food today for insight on the price dispute between Tesco and Unilever....
Just weeks after buying UK turkey processor Bernard Matthews from administration, food tycoon Ranjit Boparan has struck a similar deal....
Shares in Tyson Foods slumped on Friday, closing down almost 9% after an analyst claimed a lawsuit facing the company could hit the US meat titan....
- Analysis: Tyson's shrewd investment in Beyond Meat
- Thailand: convenience to continue to thrive
- Danone's Q3 sales - what the analysts say
- Interview: Some Foods on rise of low-FODMAP market
- Nestle India grows with global, digital innovation
- Bel takes majority stake in MOM Group
- Mars launches Maltesers in the US
- Unilever in continuing price spat with Musgrave
- China milk powder arrests prompt Fonterra "review"
- Nestle's Buitoni to remove GMOs
- The Big 15: Strategies and Priorities of Top Packaged Food Players in Comparison
- Omega-3 in Food and Beverage:Time for a Reboot?
- Packaged Food: Quarterly Statement Q3 2016
- Global Food Packaging: Innovating for Greater Convenience and Quality Image
- Constellation Brands, Inc. (STZ) - Financial and Strategic SWOT Analysis Review


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This evening, NVIDIA held its press conference for CES 2015 to announce the new Tegra X1 mobile superchip. The processor contains various components that make it a powerhouse. Alongside the eight-core 64-bit CPU are 256 cores for the GPU. It supports 4K video at 60Hz.
The Tegra X1 is based on the Maxwell architecture that was announced only four months ago. This is down from the two years it took NVIDIA to transfer Kepler architecture, its predecessor, over to mobile in the form of Tegra K1.
The new mobile superchip remains energy efficient despite its cutting edge performance. NVIDIA showcased its strength and efficiency by running a demo of Unreal Engine’s Elemental. The engine is equal to what is found in high-end PCs and today’s gaming consoles.
NVIDIA compared Tegra X1 with Tegra K1 and Apple’s A8 and found there to be little competition. Tegra X1 performs better than both, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang explained, by blowing the A8 “out of the water.”
Hit the break for more.
Patent lawsuits in the mobile industry are nothing new, and Samsung is surely one of the more prominent initiators of said lawsuits, as mostly evidenced by its ongoing volley against Apple, which Apple returns in kind.
Nvidia has begun rolling out a relatively important stability update to all variants of its Shield Tablet. In terms of added functionality, the upgrade doesn’t bring much to the table, it merely transports “improvements for the general user interface and application responsiveness”, but we’re not complaining as it shows that the manufacturer is committed to making its device the best it can possibly be.
As we close on 2014, and approach 2015, it doesn’t hurt to take a step back and reflect on what was accomplished and what didn’t work out so well during the year. 2014, without a doubt, showed off some great new tech like Android Wear, and virtual reality is finally showing tangible signs of life. Even Apple decided to finally do something new (for itself) and make a reasonable phone size.
2014, as it’s winding down, is also showing some rather dangerous indications of what might be in store for Android OEMs in 2015. Sharp declines in sales, market stagnation and ridiculous patent warfare may bleed over into the new year, and I doubt anyone is going to come out victorious in the end.
NVIDIA has just brought Half Life 2 Episode One to the Google Play Store as an exclusive for the NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet. The title will set you back by a hefty $7.99, but that shouldn’t be much for die hard fans of Valve’s cult favorite game. The game will also require a SHIELD controller to function as well which costs $60, so make sure you’re covered before buying the game.
Things are not exactly friendly between Samsung and NVIDIA. In September, NVIDIA launched a lawsuit against Samsung and Qualcomm alleging patent infringement. Samsung returned by saying that NVIDIA has falsely advertised its Tegra K1 processor. This is swiftly responded to by proof of actual benchmarks. The false advertising response was issued nearly two weeks ago, but now things are getting serious once again. Samsung filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission. What is the goal of this complaint? To block NVIDIA from providing its graphics chips in the United States. While it does sound unlikely to happen, it is certainly a possibility.
Besides the new Nexus 9 and some of the older Nexus tablets, did you know that NVIDIA has already released the update to Android 5.0 Lollipop for its SHIELD tablet? If not, you may want to reconsider NVIDIA’s tablet offering and if you are a gamer, you may want to check out the company’s SHIELD portable gaming device. To help entice you to do so, NVIDIA will be offering some special deals on Black Friday for both devices.
The number of devices that can cast screens via Chromecast continue to grow. We recently saw the Galaxy Note 4 added, and now the NVIDIA SHIELD tablet has been added to the list.
You can cast your screen by opening the Chromecast app, and selecting “Cast Screen” from the menu. If you have a Shield, try it out. It works great with Google Earth.
Update: As one reader pointed out, The LG G Pad 8.3 Google Play Edition was also recently added. Thanks Josh.
source: Google Support
NVIDIA promised us a quick Lollipop update for the SHIELD tablet, and they have delivered. They just announced that it will start tolling on November 18, and it comes with more goodies.
First off, the update will include the Dabbler app, which is NVIDIA’s painting software that offers full support for layers. Now users can share live Dabbler sessions over Twitch.
NVIDIA recently filed a lawsuit against Samsung and Qualcomm for violating seven of NVIDIA’s GPU patents. Samsung filed a counter lawsuit, of course, claiming that NVIDIA violated six patents, and Velocity, a small client of NVIDIA’s, violated eight patents. Samsung also claims that NVIDIA is using false advertising when they say the Tegra K1 CPU is the “world’s fastest mobile processor,” as Samsung believes the Note 4′s Exynos 5433 is faster.
NVIDIA has responded to this lawsuit, and it’s definitely putting Samsung in a negative light for dragging a much smaller company (Velocity) into the mix. The response accuses Samsung of suing Velocity to keep the lawsuit in Virgina where Velocity is based, as Virgina has a faster time to trial than most other places in the US. It makes sense for Samsung, but it feels like a cheap shot at the much smaller company.


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Footfall across all British retail destinations in the days after Christmas was 24.5% lower than the same week in 2019 as the Omicron variant of COVID-19 rapidly spread, Springboard analysts have said.
The number of shoppers was also 15% lower than the previous week, with shopping centres seeing the biggest drop, Springboard said.
Omicron dashed retailers' hopes for a boost in post-Christmas sales this year after COVID-19 restrictions forced many stores in London and south England to close in the same period in 2020.
Footfall on Boxing Day – the day after Christmas Day – was 41% lower than pre-pandemic levels, Springboard said last week.
Signs Of Improvement
However, there were some signs of improvement as the week progressed, with 5.2% more shoppers on the high street on New Year's Eve than on Christmas Eve, a reversal of the situation a year ago.
"Despite the well documented cautiousness of shoppers in the run up to and over Christmas this year, it appears that on New Year's Eve there was a shift in behaviour with footfall in high streets increasing from the week before (Christmas Eve)," said Springboard insights director Diane Wehrle.
"The winners on New Year's Eve were Central London and historic town centres where footfall rose significantly from the week before, whilst declining in smaller local high streets."
Shopper numbers across Britain fell 1.1% in the week to 11 December 2021 versus the previous week, driven by a 2.7% drop in activity on high streets as new COVID-19 restrictions spooked shoppers.


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Chase Online – JP Morgan to launch digital bank in UK
Wall Street savings account hired 400 staff for Canary Wharf-headquartered digital bank
The Wall Street business JP Morgan is launching a whole new digital bank in the UK, inside a move that threatens to shake upwards a banking industry still dominated by a couple of high street lenders.
JP Morgan has already employed 400 staff for the soon-to-be-launched digital bank of its, that will be headquartered within Canary Wharf and operate under the buying brand of its, Chase.
The announcement confirms rumours on FintechZoom regarding JP Morgan’s blueprints for a list bank in Britain. Known solely as Project Dynamo, Chase staff grounded in JP Morgan’s London office spaces had to maintain the work of theirs under wraps for nearly two years.
It will be the 2nd major US lender to enter the UK retail banking market, since Goldman Sachs began to offer Marcus branded digital savings accounts 2018. Marcus has already lured within 500,000 UK clients by offering higher compared to average interest rates. It was pressured to shut the doors of its to new British accounts because of a surge in demand previous summer time.
In the US, Chase is actually one of probably the largest consumer banks in the land, serving virtually half of American households through web based banking as well as 4,700 branches. But by offering online only current accounts, Chase are going to be assessed against British digital upstarts such as Monzo, Revolut and Starling, which are trying to grab market share from the 6 largest lenders. HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds, NatWest, santander along with Nationwide Building Society still hold approximately eighty seven % of the list banking market.
JP Morgan said it plans to offer a whole new take on present day accounts and said its new contact centre in Edinburgh will be a critical selling point, offering fast to access, personalised service within the clock. The bank used a part of its annual $11.8bn (8.6bn) engineering spending pot to build the UK Chase platform from scratch. Chase is currently undergoing inner testing but is anticipated to launch later on this year.
The UK has a brilliant also highly competitive customer banking marketplace, and that’s the reason we have created the savings account from scratch to particularly meet up with the needs of consumers with these, said Gordon Smith, co-president of JPMorgan.
Chase Online has brought inside seasoned City bankers to oversee the UK of its retail operations, which includes former Lloyds and Citibank chairman Win Bischoff, who will function on the mini keyboard and also head upwards the chance committee of its. The former Financial Conduct Authority director, Clive Adamson, will chair the business, although the chief administrative officer of JP Morgan’s corporate and also investment savings account, Sanoke Viswanathan, can be chief executive.
Although JP Morgan was pushed to shift hundreds of UK investment bankers to EU offices due to Brexit, it said the launch of the retail bank was proof it was committed to the UK. The bank today employs about 19,000 men and women in Britain and it is even now hiring for the brand new list operation.
Our decision to roll-out a digital list bank in the UK is a milestone, introducing British customers to our retail merchandise for the first time, said Daniel Pinto, JP Morgan’s London based co president. This latest endeavour underscores the dedication of ours to a country just where we’ve roots which are deep, thousands of staff members and offices established for over 160 yrs.
Chase Online – JP Morgan to launch digital bank of UK


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Analysts have welcomed
’ realisation that niche furniture retailer Dare Gallery may be better off in other hands. Dare has been a constant underperformer since Fantastic acquired the chain out of administration three years ago. However analysts who expected Fantastic to announce a sale have been left slightly underwhelmed by the results of an eight-month strategic review. Fantastic has determined that Dare has a future, but not necessarily inside the Fantastic group. Fantastic is also scaling back the central shared services structure that was expanded after the acquisition of Dare and Le Cornu. No restructuring costs were announced and Fantastic reaffirmed market forecasts for December half earnings. Moelis, which has a “buy" on the stock, says its business model is strongly leveraged to any sustained improvement in discretionary spending, given significant investment in people, stores and IT. The shares have recovered from their 2011 low of $1.80 and are now trading at a slight premium to Harvey Norman but at a discount to other small-cap specialty retailers such as Super Retail and The Reject Shop.


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- The Guild 3’s courts, offices, and popular opinion detailed
- Supernatural-tinged noir Virginia launching Sept. 22, demo out
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice gets prologue, demo
- The Final Station now available for preorder on Steam
- Halo 5: Guardians – Anvil’s Legacy DLC, Forge for PC to hit Sept. 8
Fancy A Date?
Developer- and Publisher-specific Articles: Solar Empire
Stardock, the previous owner and operator of the Impulse digital delivery service, has announced that they will be releasing several of their titles on Steam. The first title to launch on the platform is Ironclad Games’ real-time strategy title Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity, a collection that includes staff-favorite Sins of a Solar Empire and its micro-expansions Entrenchment and Diplomacy. To celebrate, Trinity is on sale for $14.99 (25% off) on both Steam and Impulse.


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Home Science and Technology
China will open the world’s longest sea bridge to traffic from 24 October. The 55-kilometre-long bridge linking Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macao took six years of preparations and eight years to build.
The world’s largest unmanned transport drone has been successfully launched by China.
American scientists grew human esophageal organoids entirely using pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) for the first time, potentially leading to new personalised diagnostic methods and regenerative tissue therapies to treat or cure gastrointestinal disorders.
High technology Itel S13 smartphone that captures clearer, brighter and sensational selfie has hit the Nigerian market.
Recent industry automobile research shows that the JAC T6 pickup exporting quantity reached above 2400 units in 2018 so far, this is a 50% growth compared with the previous year.
Google has rolled out a new feature available to everyone who can have sensitive emails destroy themselves as preset if Confidential Mode is enabled in Gmail.
Social media giant,Twitter Inc., has announced the appointment of Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to its board.
StarTimes has, on the 29th June 2018, signed deals with both Discovery and Fox to bring high quality entertainment to viewers across Africa through TV and OTT platform.
The annual African Digital TV Development Seminar, a strategic think-tank for stakeholders in the African broadcasting industry organized by StarTimes Group has held the 8 th edition in Beijing.
A decent battery is the foundation of any smartphone worth its salt. It ensures that you can get the most out of your phone, at any time of the day. More importantly, it’s the underlying factor behind whether or not you can listen to tunes on your device when you’re on your way home after a long day at work. Most phones that go all out with their features, forget to back it up with a big battery. But, there are still ample options in the market that fall within the mid-range or budget segment.


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The supply chain crunch will persist and location upward pressure on already high inflation, warned a single Citigroup economist.
“The provide chain photo carries on to search fairly critical… as a consequence of some of these geopolitical developments, their implications for commodities in certain,” Citi International Chief Economist Nathan Sheets stated on Yahoo Finance Are living (video above). “That’s exacerbated by uncertainties about output as a consequence of Asia and China’s zero COVID coverage. … And I think that it indicates for inflation, that we’re going to continue on to see some of this supply shock-pushed upward force on charges.”
Sheets stressed that the ongoing issues are “obtaining a pretty impressive result on the global overall economy. I imagine that we are obviously now observing demand destruction.”
Sheets’s opinions come immediately after his crew released an alarming take note on the point out of international supply chains before this week.
“To ease the anxiety in international trade, we in the long run want to see an advancement in the pandemic,” the strategists wrote. “Some precise supply chain concerns are starting to unwind but there are even now a amount of lingering unknowns.”
In the observe, Sheets and his workforce defined that the pandemic demolished the thought that international provide chains have been fully optimized.
“Right until the pandemic, the wide consensus was that offer chains were being ‘optimized’ and operating effortlessly,” they stated. “Corporations were being believed to have broadly solved the riddle of how to preserve inventories lean and simultaneously ensure a reliable flow of inputs for use in generation. … Relatively


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The Best iPhone Apps Will Be Ones You’ve Never Even Opened
Chances are good that the iPhone apps you’d consider most valuable are ones that you spend a lot of time with: perhaps your favorite news app, a social network that keeps you entertained, or a calendar app that you can’t live without. But Apple is paving the way for a future where the best iPhone apps are those that you really won’t spend much time with at all. In fact, you may never even need to open these apps to use them.
Zachary M. Seward reports for Quartz that apps are no longer standalone destinations on iOS, but function across and as part of the operating system itself. The shift in Apple’s app strategy has been a long time coming, and Seward notes that third-party apps for the iPhone were once completely sandboxed, without any knowledge of each other or of the rest of the phone. But gradually, Apple gave developers access to data and features that enabled their apps to interact with one another and with the other functions of the phone.
A prime example is Apple’s introduction of app extensions last year; extensions bring third-party apps’ functionality to new parts of the iPhone and even into other apps. HealthKit, WatchKit, and even HomeKit extend developers’ reach into the operating system. Seward explains, “Apps left the sandbox to enjoy the whole playground,” and predicts that Apple will seek to push the idea to its “logical conclusion” by enabling developers to create apps that can provide an excellent user experience without even opening them.
Take Apple Watch complications as an example of what Apple already allows and how its offerings could evolve in the future. Apps are so far the least compelling aspect of the recently-launched Apple Watch, and while more innovative and useful apps will certainly be developed as Apple allows for more robust features, the major source of engagement with the watch is its face.
In Seward’s estimation, the Apple Watch’s greatest utility is its ability to provide “ambient information” via the face and its customizable widgets, which Apple has termed “complications.” The most useful complications provide weather or calendar events, and the selection could get even more interesting if Apple enables the creation of third-party complications. Such complications could bring the most important utility of a user’s favorite to the face of the Apple Watch, where Seward envisions he or she could turn on the air conditioning at home or check when it will start raining.
The iPhone already has a feature that’s equivalent to third-party watch face complications in its Today widgets. Apple introduced the Today screen with iOS 8, but because it’s “buried” within the interface, it doesn’t seem to generate much enthusiasm among iPhone users. However, Today widgets offer a window into fully-featured apps. Developers can display a wide variety of content in their widgets, and users can complete simple actions from the Today view. The widgets are similar to a feature that’s long been a part of Google’s Android, though Android enables these widgets to appear on a phone’s home screen. Seward thinks it’s possible that Apple will enable developers to place this functionality “closer to users” to encourage wider adoption.
There are some similarities between the iPhone’s Today widgets and another form of app extension on the Apple Watch, called Glances. Glances are, so far, less useful than Today widgets because users can’t interact with them, but they enable developers to display a small amount of information and link users back to their app to access more functionality. That’s likely to change in sooner rather than later, since many of Apple’s own Glances are already interactive and enable users to control an app with a simple tap. For example, you can pause audio playback, change the volume, or put your iPhone into airplane mode from an Apple Watch Glance. The ability to build native Apple Watch apps could also bring the ability to build better Glances.
Additionally, Apple may upgrade developers’ ability to create interactive notifications. In the most recent versions of Apple’s operating systems for the iPhone and for Mac, the company encourages developers to create apps that can be used primarily through notifications. Such apps leverage the ability, newly gained by developers, to add interactions to notifications, enabling users to accept calendar invites or like status updates without even needing to open the app.
Calendar apps, navigation apps, fitness apps, and even paradigm-pushing mobile games are already taking advantage of interactive notifications, proving that simple actions don’t need to require opening up an app. Apple could help developers by allowing them to build interactive notifications that enable users to respond to messages, as users can with Apple’s Messages app. That would enable users to send messages via Facebook Messenger, Twitter, and more just by swiping a notification.
With iOS 8, Apple also introduced many other kinds of app extensions that Seward reports aren’t significant enough to dwell on yet. But one last feature worth addressing is the share sheet, which has traditionally been closed to developers but now enables events in their apps to be triggered from just about anywhere in iOS. Seward notes that many apps do one (and only one) thing very well, and the share sheet enables these apps to become “the new equivalent of browser bookmarklets.” Some utility apps enable users to create combinations of actions that can be triggered from a share sheet, making the iPhone even more powerful.
Regardless of exactly how Apple opts to usher in a future where an app’s functionality can live outside of its icon on your iPhone’s screen, it’s clear that it makes less and less sense to need to open every app actively and independently to take advantage of its utility. Paul Adams, vice president of product at customer communication firm Intercom, notes on the company’s blog that “the end of apps as we know them” is coming. “The notification is the full experience,” Adams writes of the interactive notifications now beginning to take hold on iOS, and in the future, such notifications will enable ” full product experiences and independent workflows.”
Adams projects that apps will soon break down content and actions into atomic units separate from the container of the apps themselves, and then reassemble those units based on context. Content can be optimized and reformatted based on where you’re viewing it. (Think messages that can be sent and received in different formats depending on where you are, what you’re doing, and which device you’re using when you send or receive a message.) Adams thinks that notifications could become the primary way that we interact with apps, and he thinks that such a shift will be so successful that “screens of apps won’t exist in a few years, other than buried deep in the device UI as a secondary navigation.”


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In yet another example of the prevalence of the hazardous chemicals known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in consumer products, industrial products and textiles, researchers have found notably high levels in school uniforms sold in North America.
In a study published in Environmental Science and Technology Letters, scientists at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana University, the University of Toronto and the Green Science Policy Institute analyzed a variety of children’s textiles. Fluorine was detected in 65 percent of samples tested.
But concentrations were highest in school uniforms — and higher in those uniforms labeled as 100 percent cotton as opposed to synthetics.
“What was surprising about this group of samples was the high detection frequency of PFAS in the garments required for children to wear,” said Graham Peaslee, professor of physics at Notre Dame and a co-author of the study. “Children are a vulnerable population when it comes to chemicals of concern, and nobody knows these textiles are being treated with PFAS and other toxic chemicals.”
Full story here.


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The Every thing Retailer is getting pushback for its plans to open a 91,000-square-foot distribution heart at Westhampton’s Francis S. Gabreski Airport.
Some village residents fear that the Amazon hub would enormously improve air site visitors, making a disruptive surroundings, in accordance with the New York Submit.
“I’m already hearing airplanes when I sit outside by the pool in the summer,” one resident advised the paper. “Are you able to think about if Amazon is right here?”
Amazon desires to open the distribution heart at a warehouse that Plainview-based developer Rechler Fairness Companions is constructing on airport land. The agency acquired $2.three million in tax breaks to construct the $36 million facility.
Robert Trotta, a Suffolk County legislator, is towards the development and accuses Rechler of deceptive the county to safe the tax breaks. Amazon is energetic elsewhere on Lengthy Island as properly. [NYP] — Dennis Lynch


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THE MOST DELICIOUS IRONY in Harsh Realities is Marico’s battle with the then Hindustan Lever for supremacy in the hair oil market. A phone conversation between the multinational’s Chairman, Keki Dadiseth, and Marico’s boss Harsh Mariwala provides a fascinating insight into the minds of these two protagonists. The offer to buy the Indian consumer company was unambiguous and in the event of Mariwala not agreeing to do so, the words uttered were, “Marico will be history.” If Dadiseth thought the Indian entrepreneur was a pushover, his assessment was hopelessly off the mark. Not only did Mariwala say no, he also lived to tell the tale and that, too, in the most remarkable way.
Continue reading your story on the app
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A Jab Of Good Health
Covid-19 vaccinations have gathered pace in india. But with the virus mutating and new variants being discovered, next-generation vaccines may be the need of the hour. Where does india stand?
Will Robo-Advisory Firms Be Able To Dent The Traditional Advisory Segment?
Robo-advisory firms are riding on their artificial intelligence-driven systems to dish out quick financial advice. Bereft of any human bias or emotion, will they be able to dent the traditional advisory segment?
The Drones Are Coming
Draconian rules had kept drones grounded in india. But new, liberalised regulations have untethered the industry and opened up a new market—enterprises.
How HDFC Bank's Is Transforming Into A Fintech Giant!
A behind-the-scenes look at how Sashidhar Jagdishan, the new MD and CEO of India’s largest private sector lender, is trying to transform the bank into a technology company with a banking licence.
‘COLLABORATION IS THE MANTRA, AND TO DO THAT, YOU NEED TO NETWORK'
SUPRIA DHANDA, VICE PRESIDENT AND COUNTRY MANAGER FOR INDIA, WESTERN DIGITAL
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LISTING GETS US MORE GLOBAL INVESTORS
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LIFE IS SWEET
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AN INDIAN HERO IN EUROPE
HERO CYCLES, INDIA’S BIGGEST BICYCLE MAKER, HAS SET ITS EYES ON THE E-BIKE MARKET. BUT IT IS ITS FORAY INTO EUROPE WHICH HOLDS THE KEY TO FUTURE GROWTH
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GOOGLE LOCATION-TRACKING TACTICS TROUBLED ITS OWN ENGINEERS
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The making of a home-grown FMCG multinational
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Rising input cost pushes FMCG cos to hike prices
FAST-MOVING consumer goods (FMCG) companies have resorted to price hikes in the range of 5-12 per cent of daily use goods to offset inflationary pressure on their key raw material.
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How Marico planned early to prepare for a changed consumer and business reality in the post-virus world


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In an honest and at times uncomfortable open letter to anonymous angel investor ‘Phil’, Charlie Thompson, CEO of profit-for-purpose business The Clean Collective, exposes the manipulation and gas-lighting experienced by female-led start-ups, when raising capital in the predominantly male world of venture capital funding.
Having met angel investor ‘Phil’ at a Silicon Valley conference, Thompson found herself inappropriately propositioned when attending a follow-up lunch meeting to discuss his interest in The Clean Collective.
Unknown to Thompson, the lunch reservation had been made within walking distance of the investor’s photography studio, where he expressed a desire to photograph Thompson.
“During lunch, he confessed he’d wanted to ‘capture’ me at his studio as soon as he met me at the investment conference, despite the level of business discussion he’d engaged me in at the time; that if I went to his studio, which was conveniently located near the restaurant, “he couldn’t be sure what would happen” and that my dismissive reaction was unusual, as most women become CEOs “because they want fame”.
“This well-rehearsed act and his exploitation of financial power demonstrate some of the flaws in the broken system of capital funding,” comments Thompson.
How did she move on from this harrowing experience?
Thompson’s first-hand experience in Silicon Valley sent her back to Australia with next-level amounts of clarity, grit
Fuelled by her experience on the investment circuit, Thompson and her business partners Charli Ferrand and Georgia Lawson are proud to be
“By opening up equity to everyday Australians and the crowd, we’re looking forward to bringing in investors who are passionate about changing the future of our planet and the future of humanity, together.
“Equity crowdfunding provides us a way to remain a community-owned by our community, rather than selling capital to a single party that doesn’t align with our ethics or purpose,” Thompson said.
“The Clean Collective’s mission is much bigger than an investor’s cheque book. We’re using technology to empower people to tackle climate change and take ownership of their health,” she added.
What does the money they raise mean for the startup?
Looking to raise up to $1.5 million from the ‘crowd’, TCC is raising capital to fast-track its plans to create a
The TCC app will be a consumer-friendly platform that will allow consumers to scan personal care and cleaning products to identify their true safety and sustainability status.
The TCC app will become a personal shopping assistant for consumers seeking safe and sustainable options during their daily purchasing experiences in bricks and mortar stores.
TCC will also introduce a series of personal development e-courses with leading experts focusing on sustainability for schools, individuals and businesses that will be accessible worldwide as part of the funding round.
In addition to only stocking the most sustainable of products, every purchase results in a charitable initiative.
In the last year alone, TCC has prevented almost $2 million
What exactly does the startup do?
The Clean Collective is the fastest-growing marketplace for sustainable purchases in Australia. The online hub brings together products and information on wellness and sustainability to empower people to tackle environmental epidemics and take ownership of their health.
Having built a new standard that guides safe and sustainable consumption, The Clean Collective sells approved personal care, cleaning
In less than two years, the company has earned more than $600K in revenue from over 10K transaction, attracted over 400,000 visitors, and amassed over 80,000 followers and subscribers.
Now, they’re seeking investment to scale the brand domestically and overseas to drive bigger impact for humanity and our planet. Investors will profit from The Clean Collective’s success; receive discounts, early-bird access
How is the startup performing so far?
Achieving $600,000 in its first full year of operation, TCC is the
industry and brand partners.
Identifying a gap in the market, Co-Founder Charlie Thompson, says there’s a pressing need for a more regulated way to check what products are actually sustainable and safe.
“It’s estimated that we’ve got just 135 months until an unprecedented climate disaster takes place and that our babies are being born pre-polluted with 200 chemicals in their umbilical cords. What we’re leaving to the next
generation is a crisis and threatened future,” says Thompson.
“Never before has there been a more urgent need for a platform like The Clean Collective. Pretty labels and clever marketing has sold us on
“There’s growing health and environmental epidemics, but without a standard for consumption or umbrella body communicating that these two issues are born from the same problem: our consumption habits, consumers are largely uneducated in their choices.
“However, this is starting to change with 13 million searches a month on Google for the information and solutions hosted on TCC and the #zerowaste hashtag amassing 2.9 million posts on Instagram,” said Thompson.
Co-Founder of Equitise, Chris Gilbert says he is very proud to be partnering with The Clean Collective in its first Equity Crowdfunding campaign.
“We’re really excited to offer The Clean Collective equity


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The next star USC quarterback and the 2004 Heisman winner have created an NFT platform built to help athletes capitalize on their NIL rights — now and in the future.
It has been 10 months since name, image, and likeness legislation was implemented across college sports and athletes across the country are continuing to find new ways to earn their long-deserved marketing dollars.
One avenue that has proven popular is in the digital collectible and NFT space. While new platforms and collections seem to drop on the regular, the market and consumer demand continues to grow.
Enter USC star quarterbacks of past and present, Matt Leinart and Caleb Williams, who have teamed up to launch a new NFT platform Hall of GOATs.
No, Leinart and Williams are not unique as athletes entering the NFT space, but if the industry’s brief history has taught us anything, it’s that the sustainable projects provide long-term value to their talent and community, alike.
Hall of GOATs will offer high school and college athletes the opportunity to drop exclusive NFT collections and take advantage of their NIL rights, while providing personal brand, content, and digital resources.
Williams, who recently transferred from Oklahoma to USC, has redefined the NIL landscape with his unique partnerships and investments, real estate ventures, overall business strategy, and now by co-founding Hall of GOATs with Leinart.
“I’ve been trying to figure out how to get into the digital collectible and NFT space for some time now,” Williams told Boardroom. “But not until I joined the Hall of GOATs team have I seen a platform that helps amateur athletes in particular build their brands, tell their stories and set them up for long-term success. It’s always been my goal to do something that could help my teammates and other athletes in this new space of college sports.”
Leinart, who won the 2004 Heisman Trophy and two National Championships at USC before becoming a top-10 NFL Draft pick, brings a unique perspective to NIL in general and Hall of GOATs in particular, as a former superstar amateur athlete turned TV analyst now for FOX Sports.
“All athletes grow up dreaming of becoming the greatest of all time in their sport, but as we know, few if any achieve this title,” Leinart shared with Boardroom. “The lifespan of an athlete’s career at the high school, college and pro levels is so short that it’s imperative to make the most of the limited window to build your personal brand on and off the field.”
Hall of GOATs will kick off its drops with an early access pass, followed by an NFT collection starring co-founder Williams, with more athlete partner announcements to come soon. Hall of GOATs’ offering for holders will feature access and experiences they can’t find anywhere else, including limited-edition merchandise, autographed memorabilia, tickets to tailgate events, and exclusive Discord conversations with athlete partners, among other benefits.
Outside of the NFT drops, Leinart, Williams and the Hall of GOATs team plans to work directly with their athlete partners on personal brand strategy, creative direction and digital community building, with a heavy focus on NIL.
“NIL is a chance to really explore my different interests off the field while building my personal brand the right way,” the 2021 Freshman All-American Williams added. “Everything I’ve done so far in NIL has been focused on being authentic to my own personality and story — I’m not shying away from being different and hopefully that helps other athletes reimagine what they can do in this space.”
The urgency for amateur athletes to tap into NIL opportunities is clear, with the chances of making it to the next level, more competitive now than ever before.
“98.5% of amateur athletes don’t go pro,” said Hall of GOATs CEO Greig Carlson, a former USC wide receiver. “I went from being a walk-on to earning a scholarship on a National Championship-winning team, but was out of the sport just as quickly.”
Built on the NEAR protocol and accepting credit and debit cards, Hall of GOATs is focused on sustainability and accessibility for their collectors and education and empowerment for their athlete partners.
Per Carlson, Hall of GOATs’ differentiator is its mission to helping amateur athletes maximize their NIL opportunities beyond “just” NFT launches, through partnerships with best-in-class experts across merchandise design and production, gaming and streaming activations, brand collaborations, and Metaverse integration.
Athletes, fans, and collectors can join the Hall of GOATs conversation via www.HallofGOATs.com and on their Instagram, Twitter and Discord channels.


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Trailer shipments in August hit the highest level since June 2007, as shipments were up 14 percent over July.
ACT noted that shipments for the first quarter of 2011 were more than double compared with the same quarter last year.
Net orders of commercial trailers rose 25 percent to 21,990 in February from January, ACT Research said.
Overdrive's Most Beautiful contest is back for a second year. Submit yourself or a female truck driver you know! The first-place winner will win a trip to The Great American Trucking Show in August and will be featured in a story in Overdrive. Submissions accepted through March 20.
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U.S. consumers have increased their purchase and rental of home entertainment by 72% in 2020, according to a new global survey by Dolby Laboratories that illustrates a significant shift in consumer entertainment behavior.
Led by Gen Z and millennials, consumers are spending more than ever on entertainment, which is fueled by the desire for human connection, especially during the ongoing pandemic, according to Dolby. People are also willing to spend more on premium subscriptions in order to receive a better quality experience.
Dolby found spending on content has increased in the last six months, with millennials in the U.S. increasing spending by an average of 38%. Most global consumers have increased how much they spent on content since the start of the year, including 55% in France, 72% in the U.S., 94% in China, and 97% in India.
The survey, in partnership with Wakefield Research, polled 5,000 respondents from China, France, India, and the U.S. — examining consumption behavior, device buying decisions, and new habits being formed in the wake of this unprecedented year. With more time than ever before to watch and engage with entertainment, consumers are accelerating their interest in immersive content and new experiences.
With this increase in spending, consumers are willing to pay more for a premium subscription to receive enhanced audiovisual experiences, with 77% of total respondents indicating they would pay more for better picture or sound quality because it impacts how they connect with content. In fact, 64% of respondents stated they had upgraded at least one streaming service to a premium subscription within the past six months.
“Despite all the challenges of this past year, this study has illustrated the power of entertainment in bringing us together with those that are most important to us,” John Couling, SVP Commercial Partnerships at Dolby Laboratories, said in a statement.
Other survey findings include the fact that 86% of global respondents connected with family and friends virtually with home entertainment together over the last six months. This included activities like talking on the phone while watching the same content (45% of global respondents), texting while watching the same content (44%), video chatting while watching the same content (43%), as well as engaging in live chats while watching streaming videos (41%).
For a significant majority of people, within the past six months was the first time they have ever participated in virtual shared experiences while enjoying entertainment — with 87% of respondents noting this was their first time.
While plans to upgrade traditional home entertainment devices remain strong, consumers are also planning to upgrade their mobile viewing experience, which is fueled by a majority of consumers who used their smartphone, tablet, or PC as their primary device for consuming entertainment over the past few months.
About 82% of respondents plan to purchase a new device to upgrade their entertainment viewing experience in the next six months. Another 64% plan to purchase a device specifically to upgrade their living room entertainment experience (including a new TV, soundbar, home theater speakers, receiver, or streaming device).
Millennials are the most likely to make a living room upgrade at 73%, compared with 68% of Gen Xers, 58% of Gen Zers, and 50% of Boomers.
More than 4 in 5 (81%) of those who have paid to upgrade their streaming services to premium also plan to improve their living room entertainment experience.
While U.S. households have more devices than ever, the television still plays a huge role — particularly with older generations. This is true in every market, but particularly in the U.S., where 65% of Boomers say that television is their primary entertainment device; 52% of French Boomers say the same.
Meanwhile, 60% of total respondents used their smartphone, tablet, or PC as their primary device for entertainment over the past six months and 44% of total respondents indicated that they plan to upgrade their mobile device in the next six months to improve their viewing experience.
“Ultimately, we expect the desire for more human connection to continue in the future and immersive experiences can help fulfill this demand,” added John Couling, SVP of commercial partnerships at Dolby Laboratories. “Just as entertainment drives cultural conversation, that conversation drives connection across the globe, and we are seeing connections grow stronger every day through elevated entertainment experiences.”


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US search engine Google had overtaken rival technology titan Apple as the most valuable brand, global market research agency Millward Brown said yesterday.
Google’s brand value shot up 40 percent in a year to $158.84 billion (R1.6 trillion), the agency said in its 2014 100 Top BrandZ report.
“Google has been extremely innovative this year with Google Glass, investments in artificial intelligence and a range of partnerships,” said Benoit Tranzer , the head of Millward Brown France.
“All these activities send a very strong signal to consumers about the essence of Google.”
Google Glass is internet-linked eyewear for which the firm has joined hands with Luxottica, a frame giant behind Ray-Ban sunglasses and other high-end brands, to sell the new product in the US.
Apple, which held the top position for three consecutive years, saw its brand value fall by 20 percent from a year earlier to $147.88bn.
The top 10 slots were dominated by US firms. IBM was in third place at $107.54bn, a fall of 4 percent, followed by Microsoft, which rose 29 percent to $90.19bn.
Fast food chain McDonald’s ranked next at $85.71bn, followed by Coca Cola ($80.68bn), Millward Brown said.
China led in the insurance sector with Ping An valued at $12.4bn and China Life at $12bn.
French luxury goods maker LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton ranked 30th overall but was the top luxury brand with a value of more than $25bn.
Brand value is calculated on the basis of the firms’ financial performance and their standing among consumers. – Sapa-AFP


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Stay informed about the news about our packaging solutions
The recent creation of ARANOW Swiss in Neuchâtel is motivated within the framework of the growth strategy plan of AMG, Aranow Machinery Group.
Swiss has developed in recent decades, one of the world’s most prominent poles of innovation applied to industry.
It has become an excepcional worldwide innovation ecosystem applied to the pharmaceutical packaging.
Our desire in choosing this new location for the new company is to strengthen our relations with all our customers in the pharmaceutical industry.
But also, through our local partners Microcity and EPFL Innovation Park in Lausanne, Aranow Swiss focus innovation in: equipments, production processes and business units. More specifically, research on advanced production techniques and smart technologies of Industry 4.0.
In mid May, part of aranow headquarters visited the new facilities of Aranow Swiss, as kick off of this new journey.
Thanks for the warm welcome Switzerland!
We are still sure that people, not technology, drive innovation.


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Supermarket selling vegetables for just 1p to beat Aldi in price war – and it’s not Lidl
Supermarkets: Expert shares hack for saving money on spices
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Last week, budget supermarkets Aldi and Lidl slashed the price of vegetables ahead of Christmas. The retailers were selling different varieties for 19p, with shoppers delighted over the news. However, another supermarket has reduced the price of their vegetables to just 1p as the nation prepares to cook Christmas dinner.
Frozen retailer Iceland has slashed the price of its potatoes, carrots and sprouts to just 1p a bag.
Shoppers can redeem the offer at the checkout on the app by entering a discount code.
The discount code customers need to type in is ‘ICE1VEG’.
The offer is only available online, but Iceland is offering free delivery when spending over £25.
Customers can also get same day delivery, although charges do apply.
Richard Walker, Managing Director at Iceland, said: “Christmas has become more important than ever this year, with families having lost out on previous time together last time around.
“That’s why we’re delighted to support our customers by cutting the costs of their festive favourites whilst also releasing a further 18,000 delivery slots between now and Christmas Eve.
“It isn’t just about winning the battle for the cheapest supermarket veg – we wanted to make sure that everyone is able to have a brilliant Christmas with their loved ones without having to worry about the monetary hangover that often follows.”
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Aldi currently has six of its most popular Christmas vegetables reduced to help shoppers throughout the festive period.
In the deal, customers can pick up carrots, white potatoes, parsnips, red and white cabbages as well as sprouts and swede for 19p.
Britons must be quick though, with the deal expiring on Christmas Eve.
In other supermarket news, Sainsbury’s is also helping shoppers out this year by matching Sainsbury’s Quality with Aldi Prices.
This means the retailer is also selling vegetables for just 19p, including potatoes, sprouts, cabbage, swede and parsnips.
Customers can also pick up gammon joints for £5.70 and a triple chocolate gateau for just £1.69.
Turkey crowns, which can be found in stores now, are available for £6.89 a kilo.
This campaign will last until December 24, so shoppers must be quick in picking up their Christmas dinner vegetables.
Sainsbury’s Quality, Aldi Price Match was launched in February and will continue into 2022, to help customers pick up food at great prices.
Mark Given, Chief Marketing Officer, said: “This year more than ever people want to relax and enjoy their festive celebrations with families and friends. But, it’s clear times are difficult for many and people need to save money where they can.
“At Sainsbury’s we are taking the stress out of shopping for food. We continue to implement best-in-class safety and hygiene measures to protect colleagues and customers and I am excited to launch our biggest ever value campaign.
“From today I can promise that everyone who buys their Christmas dinner with Sainsbury’s can be safe in the knowledge they won’t find a better value or more delicious Christmas dinner elsewhere.
“Great value at Sainsbury’s isn’t just for Christmas. We’re ending the year as we plan to start 2022 – with brilliant campaigns on our delicious food – and there’s much more to come in the year ahead from Sainsbury’s.”
Source: Read Full Article


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SEARCH CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Use this form to search calendar of events by keywords, date, time, county and industry.
|DATE / TIME||EVENTS / INDUSTRY||LOCATION|
|Apr 10, 2016-|
Apr 10, 2016
11:00AM - 05:00PM
|Wine Country Running Event|
The running expo you've always wanted
Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel & Spa
Fleet Feet Santa Rosa presents the first annual Wine Country Running Event on April 10th, 2016 at the Hyatt Vineyard Creek. This premier event is designed to bring the running community together with top running vendors, professional athletes, local race directors, guest speakers and sports medicine clinics. This will be an incredible expo for runners of all categories to learn more about the sport and network.
The Economist called 2019 “the year of the vegan.” Indeed, we are seeing more and more plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy on grocery store shelves and restaurant menus. Many people...
Measles, mumps, chicken pox and other childhood diseases of yesteryear are making headlines again in the United States. Formally prevalent viruses and bacterium affected thousands of lives before a sc...
If you’re not stressed at your job and workplace, consider yourself lucky. In a recent Gallup poll, 55 percent of Americans said they are stressed during the day, 20 percent higher than the worl...


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As of January 1st this year, (2007) a city ordinance outlawed outdoor advertising. The ban affects signs, billboards, sides of taxis and buses and even regulates logos or emblems on sides of buildings. As you can imagine, advertisers were up in arms.. but had no option to comply with the new law.
On a recent NPR feature, Sao Paulo residents voiced their opinions and surprisingly enough, the majority interviewed embraced the move. Hmmmmmm………
Being an advertising, design and brand professional, I see this from a unique perspective. I recognize the inherent challenges from a brand manager’s point of view and am actually surprised at my own feelings. I genuinely would welcome this as a challenge to create new and effective channels of brand awareness and brand experience. Secretly, I would actually welcome the peace that Sao Paulo residents must feel as the landscape is stripped from the customary barrage of images and messaging. In fact, I issue a challenge to any American city to follow suit.
(Not gonna happen, I’m afraid.)
Take a glance at these flickr photos of the ad- free skyline for inspiration. I find the collection, as a whole quite powerful. Can you imagine how Manhattan’s skyline may look like under the same circumstances?
In a world of over saturation, this is truly refreshing….


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Noida, India, and Ontario, Canada: HCL Technologies, one of India’s global technology company has opened its tech centre in Ontario, Canada.
With this new tech centre, the company aims to serve not only global clients but also tap Canadian enterprises. It announced plans to hire 2000 employees in the next three years and strengthen its workforce in Canada.
With a 350 seating capacity, the Mississauga centre will be one of the largest centres for HCL in Canada. It will house co-innovation labs for customers to ideate, collaborate, develop and deliver futuristic solutions for clients’ business transformation efforts.
The new tech centre will focus on digital acceleration and serve as the company’s new global delivery centre (GDC). It will deliver advanced technology solutions to global clients and help in their digital transformation initiatives.
HCL will provide next-gen services including digital and analytics solutions, cloud consulting and migration, cybersecurity, IT infrastructure and application services. The new centre further mark’s company investment initiatives in Canada to build innovation and delivery capabilities and increase its workforce.
The move is part of HCL’s investment and growth plans in Canada, which started in early 2000. First, it opened an office in Toronto in 2009 and then launched the first GDC in New Brunswick in 2019. It planned the expansion of offices in British Columbia and Alberta. Today, HCL employs more than 1,100 people in Canada.
“From our newest centre, clients can experience a whole new world of technological innovation enabled by leading-edge immersive technologies, HCL’s best in class Intellectual property solutions and a unique design thinking approach to some of the most complex problems of Canadian enterprises,” said Joelien Jose, EVP and Country Head – Canada.
HCL said it plans to create 2,000 new opportunities in Canada in the next three years leveraging and engaging the country’s diverse and highly skilled local talent.
“We are very excited to continue expanding our operations in Canada with our largest centre yet in the country. The new Global Delivery Center in Mississauga provides an opportunity for HCL Technologies to expand our best-in-class digital innovation in Canada,” said Jagadeshwar Gattu, Senior Corporate VP – HCL Technologies.
“It will support our global clients while creating great IT industry job opportunities in this community. We look forward to more growth and opportunities in Canada in the coming months,” added Gattu.
Nearly 40% of Canadian SMEs plan to invest in technology in 2021 and overall the IT sector is projected to grow by 2.2% in 2021, according to the 2021 Economic Outlook Canada report by Business Development Bank of Canada. Investment in technology, remote work and online sales will continue to be important trends for the progression and growth of Canadian SMEs in 2021.
“The announcement of new, highly skilled jobs in the technology industry for Canadians is always good news,” said Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario.
“I’m thrilled to see such investment and job creation from global leaders like HCL Technologies right here in Ontario. This new facility will strengthen our economy and workforce, while supporting industries nation-wide,” added Ford.
“Ontario’s deep talent pool, cutting edge innovation ecosystem, and competitive business costs make our province an ideal place for investment,” said Vic Fedeli. Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade.
“We are proud that HCL selected Ontario as the home for their new facility. And it is a direct result of our government’s action to increase investment opportunities through virtual trade missions and position Ontario as a leader in innovation and technology,” added Fedeli.


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There have been rumors that Samsung's new flagship Galaxy phone was not one for Mobile World Congress, but would instead have its own gala on March 14th. We'd heard reports earlier today confirming the date, but now Samsung has made it social media official. Get ready.
Kinja is in read-only mode. We are working to restore service.


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Food Lifeline for Desperate Families in Gaza at Risk Without Fuel, WFP Says
ROME – The catastrophic conditions facing hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza risk getting worse still, due to severe fuel shortages which threaten to bring food and other humanitarian operations to a standstill.
“Without additional fuel supplies, bakeries working with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) will no longer be able to produce bread. Only two of our contracted bakeries have fuel to produce bread at the moment and tomorrow there might be none,” said U.N. World Food Programme Representative Samer Abdeljaber. “This would be a terrible blow to the thousands of families living in shelters who have been relying on the daily bread deliveries.”
“The people of Gaza need continuous aid delivery at a level that corresponds to the enormous needs. To ease the suffering and enable the delivery of lifesaving assistance, we echo the Secretary General’s appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire,” he added.
Here is the latest information on the U.N. World Food Programme’s operations since the start of the crisis:
- The U.N. World Food Programme has already assisted close to 630,000 people in shelters and in communities across Gaza and the West Bank. The assistance includes emergency food supplies, mainly canned food and fresh bread, and electronic vouchers where shops are open and have food supplies.
- On average 200,000 people in shelters receive the fresh bread provided by the U.N. World Food Programme every day but the fuel shortage is making it ever harder for bakeries to operate. On Wednesday, only 150,000 people received bread.
- Currently, only two U.N. World Food Programme-contracted bakeries are working, compared to 23 at the start of the operation. They are usually producing around six times their usual quantity of bread.
- Fuel is not only critical for bakeries. It is also needed for the trucks that receive the supplies entering through the Rafah crossing and to distribute those supplies across Gaza. In addition, fuel is critical for hospitals and for water desalination and pumping stations.
- Essential food commodities are rapidly running out in Gaza’s shops. Despite more food being available at wholesalers, shops are not able to re-stock due to damaged roads, safety concerns and shortage of fuel. Around 10% of U.N. World Food Programme-contracted shops have run out of food supplies.
- The U.N. World Food Programme is continuing the distribution of electronic food vouchers in Gaza and so far 88% of people who received the vouchers have redeemed them. But the capacity of shops to run the voucher program is diminishing as the stocks run out.
- Nine U.N. World Food Programme trucks carrying over 300,000 pounds of food supplies have already crossed into Gaza since the opening of the Rafah crossing point on Saturday October 21. 39 U.N. World Food Programme trucks are at or near the Egyptian border with Gaza awaiting entry.
- For the U.N. World Food Programme to scale up its operation to reach the planned 1.1 million people in the next two months, 40 trucks need to enter the Gaza Strip daily.
- As needs soar, the U.N. World Food Programme is revising its funding requirement upwards and estimates that it will need at least $100 million for the next 90 days to sustain the emergency response.
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The United Nations World Food Programme is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and the world’s leading humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.


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(4 minute read)
By Josh Kerns/5G OI Lab
With a focus on IoT, it’s Mike Friedman’s job at Mastercard to envision and enable the future of payments and identity verification solutions .
Mike is the Vice President for IoT Strategy at the venerable financial services technology company. He’s also a self-professed “payment geek “who has spent the past decade-plus at Mastercard focusing on the bleeding edge of commerce, and keeping the company at the forefront of an ever-changing industry. Recently he joined one of our Batch #5 roundtables to share his insights with members of the 5G Open Innovation Lab ecosystem, telling us Mastercard has leaned heavily into innovation for years as a way to differentiate itself from its competitors.
“Innovation is core to what we do at Mastercard, and for me – in IoT – innovation is really about nurturing ecosystems,” he said.
According to Mike, the explosion of payment options such as embedding credentials into wearables, automobiles or other connected devices has dramatically increased the number of stakeholders involved, making the development of new ecosystems critical.
“It's identifying the right use cases, it's identifying the right partners, it's working with standards organizations. It's showing the value along the way to our traditional customers. And so a lot of this is really trying to raise new ground,” he said.
While Mastercard faces stiff competition from traditional and countless new players and models in the payment space, there’s still a fundamental role for the company, according to Mike.
“To paraphrase one of my former managers, at the end of the day, there are always going to be people who have information or data or material goods or services that they want to deliver, and people who need to acquire these items. And you're always going to need some trusted system of exchange between those entities. Whether we're talking about traditional payments or something new, Mastercard’s technology provides the network to securely and intelligently facilitate that interaction,” he said.
One area that excites him is the ever-expanding concept of what he calls “frictionless solutions.” For now those include things like paying for an Uber, or grab-and-go stores like Amazon Go where the payment happens automatically. But he says there are far more scenarios he can envision leveraging edge computing, 5G, IoT and big data to dramatically transform commerce.
Mike regularly uses the term “autonomous commerce.” It’s the idea that commerce is happening without direct input, using things like predictive analytics or computer vision to understand what the consumer wants to do, what devices or enterprises want or need to do with the transactional ecosystem. But he says there are still far more questions than answers.
“What does it mean to have an autonomous IoT transaction? And it becomes a very philosophical discussion. We don't have an answer yet. But in a world where transactions are happening autonomously or semi-autonomously, what are the rules, the standards? You can imagine your car going out and fueling itself or charging itself, or maybe making a robo-taxi run, right? These are examples that people are contemplating for the future.”
But Mike is looking at more than just facilitating different types of transactions. Data solutions are a huge focus as well, and the power of edge compute plays a big part in his future vision for identity verification services and IoT.
“One of the ideas I’ve been stuck on lately is actually around something like the Harry Potter experience at Universal Studios. You have a device, and the device causes an interaction with the environment. And that concept makes me wonder what other kinds of complex orchestrations we can enable through identity. When I go to a hotel for the first time, why shouldn't I be able to tap on the door of the hotel, check into the room, have the room set up the way that I want it set up? When I go to a store, can the ability to “check in” unlock new experiences and value for the consumer and the merchant? If we can personalize the metaverse, can we use IoT to personalize the physical world, too?”
It’s a lot to process and the possibilities are endless. But you can be assured Mastercard and Mike Friedman will remain at the forefront of innovation, ensuring they remain a critical piece of how we conduct commerce for many years to come.
Our thanks to Mike Friedman, VP of IoT at Mastercard, for sharing his expertise and insights with our Lab community.
Posted May 04, 2022


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Volvo Car Malaysia has appointed a new authorised dealer, Sisma Auto. Sisma Auto already has two luxury British motoring brands in its portfolio, Jaguar and Land Rover.
Sisma Auto’s new Volvo showroom will be located at Menara Worldwide in Jalan Bukit Bintang in the centre of Kuala Lumpur. The showroom is currently being transformed into a Volvo showroom which will open officially in October.
Car owners who reside or work in the area will be able to enjoy Sisma Auto’s Concierge Service, which offers exclusive home or office vehicle pick-up and drop-off to Sisma Auto’s off-site Volvo service centre where the complete range of aftersales services are available.
In conjunction with the opening of the new showroom, customers who purchase any new Volvo model from Sisma Auto will be in the running to win an all-expenses paid trip to Sweden.


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Between Sept. 11 and Dec. 10, Apple insiders have sold US$54.87 million in shares, while others have purchased US$1 million worth, accordingto Pennystocksinsiders.com.
Apple recently announced the iPhone 5 will be available in China on Friday, December 14. By the end of Monday's trading, shares of Apple ended lower by US$3.43 (or -0.64%) to US$529.82. Pennystocksinsiders.com thinks "that it is a clever way to check if insiders in Apple are starting to buy more company shares."


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There's still no taxes on Amazon or any other online retailer unless you live in a state with a physical location (shipping center and/or brick-and-mortar store) or your state has the use tax (like Florida). Amazon even has a clear list of the states that get charged a sales tax if the item is bought directly from Amazon or one of its subsidiaries.
- New Jersey
- New York
- North Dakota
Now, the particular bill that is going to put sales tax on pretty much every online order could go into effect as early as October 1. There were some reports of it starting on September 1, however that doesn't seem to be the case as the last several items I've bought on Amazon didn't include a tax.
Ebay is one of the companies fighting the bill, because it could impact any of its sellers that do more than $1 million a year in out-of-state business. It was wanting to put in a stipulation so companies under 50 employees and that do less than $10 million a year should be exempt, just I don't think that was ever successfully added.
Regardless, we should all find out next week what the basic principles of the bill are going to be, just without any specific guidelines. But really, some people are already paying a sales tax on online purchases so they're use to that. Buying pretty much anything local in your state (most states, anyway) already subject you to a sales tax. So this is just to bring further parity to the field and help keep small businesses running, since if everything has a sales tax it'd be easier to buy local and have the item immediately rather than buy online and wait a few days.


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At the beginning of this year, Chatroulette, the Russian website that became the place to be if you wanted to see random naked penises, reported a 60 percent decline in hits from U.S. users. The site then announced it was going to capitalize on the traffic that was left by, well, selling penises—or, at least, selling access to the owners of the penises.
“Every day, about 50,000 men are trying to get naked,” Andrey Ternovskiy, the website's owner, said back then. “What we're doing is selling the naked men to a couple of websites—it's an investment for us.”
Well, now he says he's getting rid of the penises, in hopes of luring back all the random chatters who would rather not look at them. Chatroulette now has visual penis detecting software, community moderation, and 32 live, real people—call them cockblockers—constantly watching to try to make sure everyone keeps their pants on.
Yeah, we're sure that'll work. We want to visit the site already.
But wait! There's more! Not only are they ditching the dicks, but to celebrate their new image, Chatroulette is teaming up with 99Designs and they're giving $1,000 to the best Chatroulette logo designer.


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CLAY, NY - It’s been 30-plus years since Great Northern Mall opened to huge fanfare, and now the shopping center is struggling, losing many of its retail tenants.
And like ShoppingTown Mall in DeWitt, the mall in Clay is behind in its taxes.
As of Thursday, the mall owed $3,264,830.59 in taxes and penalties for 2018 and 2019, according to the Onondaga County Department of Real Property Tax Services.
ShoppingTown - which has been in decline for a number of years - owes nearly $10 million in back taxes and penalties. That mall’s owners, Moonbeam Capital Investments LLC , has been refusing to pay its taxes, fighting in court to get its property assessment lowered so its tax bill would be lower.
Mike Kohan purchased Great Northern for $8.5 million in February 2017.
Kohan, who runs Great Northern Mall Holding, sued the town of Clay in July 2018 seeking a substantial cut in its assessment. The mall wanted a reduction that would cut its full value from $34.5 million to $7.5 million. Instead, it was reduced to $23 million, which is its current assessment.
Kohan, of Long Island, told Syracuse.com | The Post Standard last week that he’s working on an arrangement to pay the taxes. He also said Great Northern is seeing signs of revitalization.
"We brought a new tenant (The Great Outdoors RV Superstore) into the Toys R Us building, and we have more tenants coming,'' Kohan said. “We are working with three or four other tenants to come into the mall. It’s not finalized yet, but we’re hoping.”
Kohan declined to identify the new tenants coming into the mall because the deals haven’t been finalized.
As for the retailers who have left, Kohan said he can’t bring them back.
"I can assure you we won’t be a ShoppingTown,'' he said, referring to the ongoing legal battles over back taxes by the DeWitt mall, which has lost nearly all its retailers.
Robert Bick, assessor for the town of Clay, said he knows of no special arrangements in the works over the mall’s taxes, other than the lowered assessment of $23 million. Because the mall is behind in paying its taxes, Onondaga County handles collecting the taxes.
Bick, who is on the board of trustees or the New York State Assessors Association, said he believes legislation should be passed requiring companies to be current on paying their taxes before they can ask for an assessment reduction.
Great Northern Mall has lost numerous tenants in recent years, including Macy’s and Sears.
Kohan operates the Kohan Retail Investment Group, an investment company that primarily buys endangered or troubled shopping malls. Kohan owns about 27 malls across the United States.
Moonbeam, a private equity firm based in in Las Vegas, buys and redevelops distressed real estate, often malls, across the nation. It has more than 50 properties, including 17 malls or shopping center, according to the company’s web site.


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HONG KONG (Reuters) – Alibaba is considering raising as much as $20 billion by way of a secondary listing in Hong Kong, people familiar with the matter told Reuters, as the lining of a second blockbuster deal following its 2014 record of $25 billion float in New York.
FILE PHOTO: A logo of Alibaba Group is seen at an exhibition during the World Intelligence Congress in Tianjin, China-May 16, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee
The deal, which would be the sixth-largest follow-on sale of shares ever, would give Alibaba a war chest to continue to invest in technology is a priority for China as growth flags, the world’s second largest economy is faced with a growing trade fight with the United States.
The e-commerce giant is working with financial advisers on the offer and is aimed at the submission of an application as confidential in Hong Kong in the second half of the year 2019, three people said on condition of anonymity because the plans are not yet public.
She warned that many details were not clear, including the planned size. A person with direct knowledge said that it is more likely to be between $10 billion and $15 billion.
At $20 billion, Alibaba’s deal would rank behind NTT’s 1987 $36.8 billion sales, crisis-era offer of $24.4 billion and $22.5 billion of the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group, as well as the $20.7 billion raised by the US insurer AIG in 2012, Refinitiv data shows.
A spokesman for Alibaba declined to comment.
Bloomberg was the first to report that the planned secondary listing. (bloom.bg/2YRpEdi)
Since the US listing, Alibaba has almost doubled in size, to the largest listed Chinese company with a market value of more than $400 billion.
A Hong Kong listing would give mainland investors their first direct access to one of China’s biggest success stories, via the stock connect trading link between Hong Kong, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
It would also give the company an extra pocket on the liquidity and possible a better appreciation as the household name was a favourite among retail investors in Hong Kong.
Rival Tencent, which is listed in Hong Kong, is trading at 26 times expected earnings, compared with Alibaba is 22 times in New York, according to Refinitiv data.
Alibaba’s revenue growth is slowing compared to the peak in the beginning of 2017 as China’s e-commerce industry matures.
Analysts argue that the company has started with the exhaust of the potential user group of e-commerce customers in the top Chinese cities, which creates a bottleneck for the sale.
In recent years, it has expanded into new sectors, such as cloud computing division and the Hema, a chain of brick-and-mortar supermarkets – both of which need a high upfront investment.
An Alibaba float would be seen in Hong Kong as a victory, after the lost city of the tech giant’s initial public offering to New York, because the former rules precluded the acceptance of Alibaba’s governance structure, where a self-selecting group of senior managers the control of the majority of the board of directors appointments.
Hong Kong last year changed rules to make it easier for “innovative businesses” in New York or London to perform a secondary listing in Hong Kong, as part of a wider shake up of the city, the entry of the regime.
The new rules are already-listed companies based in China, of which the original float was for Dec. 15, 2017, in the city, even if their current weighted voting right structures in violation of Hong Kong’s the rules for primary offerings.
Such companies can also apply confidential for a listing, as Alibaba is expected.
At the beginning of last year, when Hong Kong was preparing to dual-class share offerings, Alibaba founder Jack Ma said the company would seriously consider” a listing on the stock exchange.
So far, no company has made use of the secondary listing rules to raise money in Hong Kong.
Reporting by Kane Wu, Sumeet Chatterjee and Julie Zhu in Hong Kong and Saumya Sibi Joseph (and) aditi Sebastian in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Alun John; Writing by Jennifer Hughes; Editing by with the ipad has Himani


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LEWISBURG, WV (WVNS) — In 2011, the State Fair of West Virginia completed an economic impact study. That study found the fair brought in $13 million to Greenbrier County.
This revenue comes from people heading into the area who will be buying gas, staying at hotels, and shopping in Downtown Lewisburg.
Communications Manager for the Greenbrier County Convention and Visitors Bureau, Valerie Pritt, said last year, local businesses saw the effects of not having that revenue come into the county. Being able to host the fair this year is a relief for everyone.
“That kind of revenue coming in to Greenbrier County really means a lot,” Pritt said. “And the year that we miss that, and that’s based on 2011, the year you missed that revenue coming in, that’s a hard hit for the county.”
Pritt said after a year of not having that revenue, as well as a year of not having valued family traditions revolving around the fair, she thinks this year will hit home for a lot of people.


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FROM OUR PARTNER
Riding the Rise in C-Store Iced Tea Sales
Momentum is rising at the convenience store iced tea bar as more consumers cite taste, cleanliness, quality and value as their most important purchasing factors.
The Buzz Around C-Store Coffee Bars
According to a 2016 report from market research firm Mintel, more than half of consumers who had visited a c-store said the stores’ coffee was as good as that served in a coffee shop.


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The Perishables Group, the industry-leading consulting firm specializing in fresh food category management and marketing, formed a partnership with consumer-centric analytic services firm, Spire LLC, to provide shopper loyalty card analysis for fresh foods.
The partnership combines Spire’s Loyalty NetworkTM of more than 30 million U.S. households with the advanced analytical capabilities of the Perishables Group to provide various levels of detail around shopper dynamics and switching behaviors for all products sold in supermarkets.
“Our partnership with Spire enables us to reach a completely new level of insight around shopper behaviors and purchase dynamics,” said Bruce Axtman, president and CEO. “This information will arm our clients with a powerful new resource in fresh food category development.”
The reporting and analysis enables understanding of which items correlate with larger overall purchases, how successful a promotion is in graining trial and repeat purchases, which items bring new users to a category and how consumers switch between brands. It also measures the impact of pricing, packaging or merchandising on a product.
Spire’s Senior Vice President of Business Development, Matt Germain, said, “The partnership with the Perishables Group harnesses the power of household-level data to allow unprecedented access to shopper behavior in the perimeter.”