text:
Georgia switching to debit cards to deliver WIC benefits
The state’s electronic pilot program began earlier this month in the district.
Georgia will issue electronic debit cards by October for women and children who benefit from the federal Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.
Commonly called the WIC program, it provides food for low-income women during and after pregnancy, as well as children 5 and younger.
Georgia Public Broadcasting reports the state is one of the last to quit using paper vouchers after a 2020 mandate from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for states to switch to electronic methods.
“The state of Georgia couldn’t meet that deadline,” said Pat Mobely, WIC coordinator for the Savannah-based Coastal Health District. “So we now are complete and we’re ready to go.”
The state’s electronic pilot program began earlier this month in the district. Mobely said all beneficiaries should have a card by the end of October, giving them greater freedom to manage their spending.
“They’re going to be able to go into stores, and if they just need to go get a gallon of milk, they can go get that,” Mobely said. “They don’t have to use all their benefits at one time. So they have a whole month to use everything that’s on that card.”
Beneficiaries will also be able to check their balances online.
Roughly 200,000 women and children in Georgia take advantage of WIC benefits every year, and that number has the potential to increase with a switch to the debit cards. In a 2019 study of states that had implemented the program, there was an 8% increase in participation over three years. Most of those new participants were children.
Georgia has long offered an electronic benefit card for the separately administered and larger Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a program still called food stamps from when benefits were delivered on paper.
TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. Please download theGrio mobile apps today!


text:
Fernandinho explains why he likes Man City’s controversial new third kit
It’s safe to say Manchester City’s new third kit hasn’t gone down well with supporters, with many dubbing it ‘the worst kit of all time.’
Puma has taken a unique approach with the new jersey, which City will wear on occasions on their travels during the 2021/22 season, by not predominantly featuring the club’s crest on its front.
Instead, the club’s name, shortened to ‘Man City’, is emblazed in bold text across the chest of the navy blue shirt in sky blue. The badge is subtly and repeatedly stamped into the fabric all over the front of the shirt, but the badge in its usual colour form is only present on the back of the neck.
There aren’t many City fans who like the new design but club captain Fernandinho has leapt to its defence with some sound reasoning.
“I wanted something different, and we definitely got that, I really like the design because the badge may change over time, but the name will live on forever”, Fernandinho said.
Senior Head of Design Manager Teamsport at Puma, Carl Tuffley, has explained the thinking that went into the design and how the company wanted to take a risk to make something new.
“Our aim was to challenge traditional football jersey design,” he said. “We wanted to look at the Manchester City Third kit through a new lens and push the boundaries as far as possible.
“It is easy to play safe, but we want to change perceptions of a conventional football jersey.
“The Third kit presented an opportunity to be bold, so we wanted to reenergize these jerseys and take a new direction.”
Sign up to our City newsletter so you never miss an update from the Etihad Stadium this s eason.

domain: news


text:
Starbucks latest Frappuccino flavour may leave you wanting s’more.
Meghan Mitchell, Postmedia Network
Get ready Canada, things are about to get even sweeter at Tim Hortons.
Imagine getting a knock at the door and having a TV show host wanting to use your home as his set.
Burger King Japan has announced it will be offering a limited edition burger-scented perfume. But is this marketing genius or one Whopper of an April Fool’s Day prank?
Remember the golden tickets in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory?
Budweiser recently released a commercial which manages to pull at the heartstrings while delivering an important message.
Burger King Japan recently added a black burger to its menu and photos of the burger being posted to social media make it look, well, unappetizing.
It’s not quite Halloween, but Burger King appears to be getting a jump on the holiday with its new goth-inspired black burger.
Think you have what it takes to design a doughnut worthy of being on the Tim Hortons’ menu?
Starbucks is shaking things up this summer with its new shaken iced teas and iced tea lemonades.
Tim Hortons is turning back the clock and bringing back a taste of the 1960s.
In honour of its 50th anniversary, Tim Hortons is turning back the clock and bringing back one classic menu item for a limited time.
Watching the waves off the Pacific Ocean roll in towards the gleaming, pristine, white-sand shoreline, it’s easy to see why Los Cabos has long been a popular getaway destination of Hollywood’s elite.
Like father, like son?
As voters in the U.S. prepare to head to the polls, we take a look at some of the best political spoof ads and parodies. From Stephen Colbert’s mockery of Herman Cain to Jim Fallon’s depiction of Mister Romney’s Neighbourhood, the campaign trail has been laced with plenty of comedic fodder to tickle your funny-bone and get you thinking about the issues.


text:
A new subscription model that charges for frequent access to digital content begins Monday for The Herald and many other newspapers operated by Digital First Media.
The Herald joins a growing number of newspapers seeking to generate more revenue from its online and mobile products and to improve and expand its digital offerings. Under the new All Access plan, Herald print subscribers at some point will see an increased charge but they will also be given full access to the digital content and e-editions of The Herald and other newspapers in the group.
Nonsubscribers who now read these papers online for free will be given limited access and will need a digital or print subscription for continuous access to the same online package. Occasional online readers probably won't see much difference, but frequent online readers will be presented with a pop-up registration window.
The All Access strategy was announced by Digital First CEO John Paton, who had long resisted the pay wall approach but said, "We need more gas in the tank if we are going to complete this journey of print-to-digital transformation."
The Pioneer Press in St. Paul, Minn., became the first Digital First property to transition to the new model last month. Most of the other 75 papers in the group are rolling out the change this month.
Digital First Media is among the last of the major U.S. newspaper companies to shift to a subscription strategy for online news. Gannett Co., the largest news chain in the country, already has implemented a subscription model at all of its newspapers except for USA Today.
"Pay walls are becoming the default for American newspapers," said Ken Doctor, a consultant whose work focuses on the transformation of the consumer media industry.
Publishers find pay walls allow them to increase prices for print consumers, providing a revenue bump without significantly cutting subscription volume.
"If you execute well, you can usually keep 85 percent-plus of those readers in that new program and get a bump in new revenue," said Doctor.
About 40 percent of American newspapers will require some type of payment for online content when the Digital First Media transition is complete, Doctor said.
Doctor called the new subscription model "a building block of a new strategy. It's what I call the revolution of reader revenue."
Under the newspaper industry's traditional model, he said, the reader contributed 20 percent of the revenue and advertising 80 percent. Today, that model is about 30 percent reader and 70 percent advertising. The New York Times now gets 56 percent of its revenue from readers and only 44 percent from advertising and other sources, he said.


text:
India will launch an open network for digital commerce (ONDC) as the government tries to end the dominance of U.S. companies Amazon.com and Walmart in the e-commerce market, Reuters news report said.
The launch of the platform on Friday comes after India’s antitrust body raided domestic sellers of Amazon and some of Walmart’s Flipkart following accusations of competition law violations. The companies did not respond to request for comment on the raids.
Indian retailers, key supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have contended that Amazon and Flipkart’s platforms benefit a few big sellers, via predatory pricing, though the companies say they comply with all Indian laws.
The government’s ONDC platform will allow buyers and sellers to connect and transact with each other online, no matter what other application they use. It will be soft-launched on Friday before being expanded, the trade ministry told Reuters.
The government document said that two large multinational players controlled more than half of the country’s e-commerce trade, limiting access to the market, giving preferential treatment to some sellers and squeezing supplier margins. It did not name the companies.
India’s ONDC plan aimed to onboard 30 million sellers and 10 million merchants online. The plan is to cover at least 100 cities and towns by August.
It would focus on apps in local languages for both buyers and sellers, with a special emphasis on small merchants and rural consumers.
The government said it already received support from retailers and venture capital firms. Lenders such as the State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank and Bank of Baroda have committed total investments of 2.55 billion rupees ($33.26 million) into ONDC.
A Reuters investigation last year, based on Amazon internal documents, showed the company had given preferential treatment for years to a small group of sellers on its platform and used them to bypass Indian laws. Amazon denies any wrongdoing.


text:
Health Canada Releasing New CBD Recommendations
Health Canada is considering issuing recommendations that could eventually make the sale of CBD legal in retail stores without health practitioner oversight. In Canada, high-THC products are legally sold through stores licensed by provinces and territories, but CBD remains a controlled substance. In addition, CBD cannot be imported from the U.S. into Canada for commercial purposes. This has severely stifled the Canadian CBD market.
In the U.S., THC is a controlled substance, while CBD obtained from the hemp plant is legal. CBD products are sold in various stores and locations in the U.S., from convenience stores to cannabis stores to yoga studios. The issue in the U.S. is not CBD product availability. It is the lack of government oversight over CBD products that means consumers are on their own to determine which companies and products are properly labeled and meet quality standards.
Health Canada has spent three years reviewing CBD to determine appropriate recommendations. The review has focused on establishing quality standards and determining CBD efficacy and safety. Even after the recommendations are issued, Health Canada will still have to approve the sale of CBD products. If sales are approved, CBD products could likely be sold in a way similar to the way they are sold in U.S. – over-the-counter at any venue. Right now, CBD products are only legally sold in Canada at cannabis retailers.
Another difference between the U.S. and Canada is U.S. states each passed their hemp laws, while in Canada, all the provinces and territories follow national laws. Currently, Canadian companies extracting CBD from hemp plants say it is not a profitable business. This is due to the limited availability and the Canadian consumers’ lack of knowledge about CBD. They have easy access to THC products, so are not showing a lot of interest in CBD.
All this can change should Health Canada allow the sales of CBD products and the import of U.S. CBD. Canadians will need to be educated on CBD and the many benefits it can convey. It will be good news for Canada’s consumers if Health Canada approves the sale of high-quality CBD through various retail businesses. Right now, they are mostly limited to buying THC products, and not everyone likes the psychoactive properties of THC. Consumers would get options, plus U.S. CBD product makers would have a whole new market to pursue.


text:
“Take Aviato. That’s not a name that we found. It’s a name that found me. On a prophesy quest,” said Erlich Bachmann, a illusory owners of a startup incubator in a HBO strike Silicon Valley. This positively elicited many laughs (including mine), yet a law is that many successful startups got their winning thought by events that ‘found them’.
Take Socialwalk, a Malaysia-based business matchmaking platform, for example. According to Socialwalk COO Eileen Feng, they didn’t start off providing business relating services. Instead, they were simply doing eventuality registration behind in 2009, and chanced on a thought by one of their clients customarily 3 years later:
We were traffic with one of a discussion organisers, who was joining businesses and SMEs from around a world. They didn’t customarily wish an eventuality registration height – they wanted some approach to get people to know who they should accommodate adult and pronounce with right before a conference. This would save them a lot of time that would be differently spent walking and roaming around randomly. That was when we initial started putting a business relating thought into software.
Back then, eventuality registration was an intensely prohibited industry, with large players such as Eventbrite winning a scene. With so many players around, though, Socialwalk CEO and owner Tham Keng Yew says prices were driven down – it was profitable, yet customarily barely. It was during that indicate of time in 2012 that Tham met Feng in a business discussion in Kuala Lumpur, and together they motionless to pivot.
“Business relating is not something we combined – it’s been around for a prolonged time,” Feng acknowledges, yet adds that many of a foe they faced was in a form of ‘directories’ that listed who participants were during a sold events. “That was a many simple form of business matching, yet we brought that to a serve turn with a platform,” she recalls.
Initially, they offering their services during conferences, yet eventually Tham satisfied that trade shows were distant some-more profitable. “Trade shows typically have attendances of 30,000 or so – conferences, customarily 3,000. Trade uncover organizers also have some-more money,” he explains, adding that many of a networking collection currently are still focused customarily on conferences, with trade uncover lacking identical options.
At that indicate of time, Singapore had comparably some-more trade shows than Malaysia did, many of that were incomparable and some-more international. “That was when we came into a design – we knew some of a muster organizers in Singapore, and so we done a preference to move this judgment over,” Feng recalls.
As it turns out, they were means to get a third largest muster in Singapore, a International Furniture Fair, to take them on, that was a outrageous boost for their credibility. The eventuality also brought about 15,000 users onto their platform, that was a illusory start, according to Feng.
“That was unequivocally a branch point,” she says. “We let a general throng try us out, and we got a lot of useful feedback from them, that was useful in vouchsafing us know what to concentration on instead of providing all and anything.”
A second pivot
With their thought validated, they began to widespread their use to exhibitions in about 6 to 7 countries regionally. Back then, they were charging muster organizers who wanted to supplement value for their exhibitors and visitors.
Therein lay a problem. These muster organizers saw Socialwalk’s use as customarily another ‘value-add’, and mostly asked a twin if they could give it to them for free, or assign them reduction for it:
We satisfied that a value of business relating is indeed not to a muster organizers, yet to a manufacturers who wanted to strech out to general distributors. In such a situation, we were not means to pull adult a prices. In fact, they were going down steadily, and we knew we had to change a business model.
This eventually led to their second pivot, that is their stream business indication – selling their relating use to exhibitors and visitors directly. “There are customarily about 30 to 40 really creditable muster organizers out there. If we demeanour during manufacturers and suppliers, we are looking during 300 million intensity business instead – that became a aim audience,” Feng recounts. “We were still in a trade uncover scene, yet we began to form partnerships with organizers instead, and they helped to foster a use to their exhibitors and visitors.”
Why would muster organizers still select to form partnerships with Socialwalk? According to Feng, their advantage is their extensive strech that extends over mixed regions:
We have about 170,000 members regulating a height today. Also, a participation isn’t customarily singular to Asia – a tip 3 regions right now are indeed Asia, Middle East, and Europe. As an muster organizer, we would wish to widespread news of your uncover as distant and as far-reaching as possible, and we have a clever network of preference makers who we can assistance foster to.
Not all exhibitions are within their range – in particular, Tham says that they now aim a food industry. “When we initial started out, we went after each attention – 25 of them – that was a outrageous mistake. We widespread ourselves too thin,” he explains. “We narrowed that down to 3 industries final year, and this year we motionless to concentration on FB exhibitions only.”
Focusing on scale
The height has been flourishing customarily during a rate of about 15 percent monthly for purebred users. Perhaps some-more importantly, given Jan this year they’ve perceived roughly 300,000 views opposite their profiles.
Socialwalk’s simple package, that costs $96, offers clients 9 endorsed profiles that will be hand-picked by a team, of that 6 will be guaranteed ‘successful matches’. A ‘successful match’ is done when both parties have supposed a invitation to bond on a platform, that comes in a form of a parasite on their profile.
According to Feng, a success rate is comparatively high. “If you’re a giveaway member, we give we 3 endorsed profiles per month, of that dual would customarily be successful matches,” she claims. However, from a platform-wide viewpoint – holding profitable members into comment as good – Tham thinks that a series is some-more like 15 percent, holding a prior month as a reference.
Beyond a simple package, members can opt to squeeze dual upgrades, a initial of that would extend them to a personal introduction by a Socialwalk group to a successful compare of their choice, with a second bumping that adult to a face-to-face assembly during a exhibition. The dual upgrades cost $50 and $100 respectively.
Thus distant a height has customarily about 800 profitable members, that creates for a acclimatisation rate of about 0.15%. However, Feng emphasizes that they’re not so focused on income during a impulse – they customarily wish to get some-more people to use their platform.
“If we start receiving good leads by a giveaway membership, it creates clarity to ascent accordingly to get even some-more of them – that’s what we’re counting on in a prolonged run,” Feng adds.
This is since they’re also operative tough on augmenting a success rate of matches. Successful matches are delicately grown by a group in 3 stages: pre-show, onsite, and post-show. In a pre-show stage, Socialwalk has a relating group who sends out a raise of email to remind members to refurbish their profiles and make them demeanour good, as good as giving out recommendations. “They’re like a dating group within a company, reminding and enlivening people to accommodate during a event,” Tham explains.
The dating component comes during a eventuality proper, when muster organizers yield a group with a counter where they can promote face-to-face meetings. The relating group continues to send out some-more emails after a eventuality to inspire members to accommodate adult their endorsed matches outward of a eventuality setting.
The pivotal to success
Providing entrance to an general network of business contacts is Socialwalk’s winning proposition, as it helps internal manufacturers go over their borders and strech new markets in an fit manner. Right now, they can be found in events opposite 9 countries – Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, China, India, United Arab Emirates, Philippines, and Vietnam.
“When people use Socialwalk, a pivotal thought is to be means to know who is a right chairman they should bond with, and where they can move their products to,” Feng explains, and gives a new successful box study:
Recently, we had a manufacturer from Philippines called Mama Sita use a platform. She’s really creditable in supermarkets and restaurants opposite Philippines, yet she had no thought how to enhance into new markets. So, in such cases, manufacturers would typically move their products to trade shows. But what we did was to suggest to her some of a distributors who were looking for her product, and what their networks and purchasing bill were like. In a end, one of her successful matches was a distributor who has a really clever marketplace in a Middle East, reaching out to about 450 supermarkets and hotels.
Moving forward, a group is focusing on augmenting signups and successful matches. Their efforts are profitable off – some organizers have even started giving them a bill for mouth-watering big-name sell owners, such as Sims Trading and Cold Storage, to these events. “These are brands that any manufacturer would wish to get in hold with, and they come to events since they are invited by Socialwalk,” Tham claims. “That’s a energy that we have right now in a fb industry.”
The twin is also looking towards Europe and a US. So far, they have had singular success – they’ve been to an muster in Germany once. Having lifted a extend from Malaysia’s CIP500 seed fund in 2011, as good as MYR1 million (US$309,000) in seed appropriation from Crystal Horse Investments behind in 2012, they are now going after a Series A turn to account their pull into a aforementioned regions.See: This app brings roving singles together, says it’s not for hooking up
Editing by Paul Bischoff and Josh Horwitz, picture credit: Flickr user Gerard Fritz


text:
New posts for ACL Airshop's Jos Jacobsen, Wes Tucker, Mattijs Farber, Harold Elfring
Dec 12, 2019: Jos Jacobsen, Wes Tucker, Mattijs Farber and Harold Elfring of ACL Airshop have been appointed to new positions in the company.
Jacobsen will take over as managing director and chief operating officer for Eastern Hemisphere operations and global leasing. He has over 17 years with the company, is known industry-wide as an air cargo expert, and is also a board member of the industry association ULD Care.
Tucker has been promoted to the position of executive vice president and chief operating officer for Western Hemisphere operations and manufacturing. Tucker has over 16 years with the company, and recently oversaw the construction of ACL Airshop’s ultra-modern new cargo products factory in South Carolina.
Farber will take on the role of group controller. He has over 10 years with the company, and has risen in the global finance organisation with progressive levels of responsibility, most recently as International Controller. The company’s financial network worldwide will now report through Farber for all accounting and finance activities, reports, audits.
Elfring has been apppointed director of technology & IT systems. Elfring has been working with the company for 14 years in a consulting role, leading new innovations such as proprietary ULD Control logistics programs, the new FindMyULD App, and Bluetooth tracking & tracing. He holds a Ph.D. in computer sciences.
Steve Townes, chairman & CEO of ACL Airshop and founder of Ranger Aerospace, said, “These well-earned and richly deserved promotions from within our ranks reflect the High Performance Culture of ACL Airshop. Our vibrant, entrepreneurial organization is well known for its speed of service and exceptionally high professionalism. These four exemplary leaders personify what we mean when we say our people truly have The Right Stuff.”


text:
In our previous post we covered a bug released yesterday where anyone can break into a phone that is using iOS7.
However, we have discovered that this does in fact not prevent a similar bug from exploiting the lock screen. The new way is based on the fact that Voice Control/Siri can make phone calls to known contacts, and by using the shutdown screen while calling, the double tap trick can still be done.
And here’s the aftermath: https://twitter.com/avlidienbrunn/status/381099165213683712 .
Currently we have no suggested patch/fix for this issue.


text:
The ideal Aussie orange to be unveiled at upcoming forum
The results are in from both orange and mandarin taste panels, co-ordinated by the nation’s peak citrus body in conjunction with Fruit West and Curtin University, and will be presented on day two of the forum on Tuesday, 29 October.
Some 702 consumers gave their verdicts on 2,106 citrus samples during the 10 panels held across Perth and Melbourne, with consumer responses compared to various levels of sugar and acid in the fruit.
Citrus Australia Market Information and Quality Manager Nathan Hancock says the results will provide the clearest picture yet of just what Australian consumers are looking for in citrus.
He says minimum quality standards were introduced on a voluntary basis two years ago to support greater consistency in flavour and juiciness and encourage repeat purchasing of fruit.
Nathan visited California last year, where a modified version of BrimA was shown to be a better standard than the Brix acid ratio for American taste buds. Now Australia’s own standards will be tailored to fit our nation’s preferences, and BrimA is likely to play a part: “We found the BrimA formula worked very well as a method of measuring Australian consumer preference for oranges and mandarins and that when we presented consumers with a product they liked they said they would buy it again and buy more of it. This means an increase in domestic sales is within the industry’s grasp”
Curtin University’s Adjunct Professor Christine Storer will present the findings, while Nathan will also be on hand to discuss how using the proposed method for determining fruit maturity can assist Australian citrus growers in delivering what consumers want.
“We’ll show what the on-farm effect will be in terms of harvest timing and what the changes to the standards will mean in a practical sense,” says Nathan.
To register or simply find out more go to: www.citrusaustralia.com.au/events/event-calendar.htm


text:
Enterprise OpenStack company Piston Cloud Computing announced on Monday that it has raised $8 million in series B funding to drive product development and meet the needs of its growing customer base.
The community of OpenStack has grown to nearly 7,000 people from 87 countries, and recently, the commercial side of OpenStack has seen growing interest from investors. For instance, at the beginning of January, Dell Ventures, Intel Capital and WestSummit Capital injected $11 million in OpenStack systems integrator Mirantis.
Cisco Systems, Data Collective and Swisscom Ventures join Divergent Ventures, Hummer Winblad and True Ventures as principal investors in Piston, and this funding round follows a $4.5 million Series A round in July 2011.
Piston has focused on developing new products for its enterprise products recently by naming Jim Morrisoe chief executive officer, giving co-founder and former CEO Joshua McKenty the ability to focus on the technical side of the business, and maintain his role within OpenStack on the board of directors.
Since its launch in early 2011, Piston launched the first commercial OpenStack distribution Piston Enterprise Openstack software for building and managing IaaS cloud on bare-metal, converged commodity hardware, and introduced the first commercially available VDI solution for OpenStack, via an exclusive licensing agreement with Gridcentric.
“Our investors’ confidence in Piston Cloud validates our strategy and the pioneering work we have done over the last two plus years in the OpenStack community,” Morrisoe, Piston Cloud CEO said in a statement. “This new investment will enable us to build on this foundation and to accelerate our growth as we work to enhance our products, grow our customer base and establish new partnerships.”
Talk back: Do you offer any OpenStack cloud solutions to your customers? Have you noticed more enterprises interested in OpenStack? Let us know in a comment.


text:
For the postponed fair Halal Hannover there is now a replacement date. The trade fair will take place from 11 to 13 September 2020.
Deutsche Messe is postponing Halal Hannover to 11 to 13 September 2020 due to current developments relating to Covid-19 (coronavirus). The first Halal trade fair in Germany was originally scheduled to take place from 6 to 8 March 2020, reports the organizer, Deutsche Messe AG.
The fair offers the halal industry a new platform for business and professional exchange. The trend show for halal-compliant products focuses on the areas of food and beverages, cosmetics, financial services and travel. A three-day conference programme with national and international experts rounds off the event.


text:
UK FinTech Monzo has revealed increased losses in its latest annual report as well as plans for new products and cost-saving measures.
The firm reports that losses after tax were £113.8m in its 2020 financial year, an increase from £47.2m in 2019, while revenues rose to £67.2m from £19.7m in the same period.
It acquired 2.3m new customers in 2020 and saw a revenue increase of £47.5m in the 12-month period to February.
Employees at the firm also grew from 713 to 1,495 in the same period, though up to 80 redundancies have been made more recently.
The firm said in its report that it was “working hard to avoid further redundancies”.
£16.8m was invested in marketing, up from £2.7m in the previous period.
Monzo detailed its cost-saving measures in the report, which have included redundancies at its London office, senior management and board pay cuts, and the close of its customer operations office in Las Vegas.
The company said it will also delay its future product launches as the company “didn’t feel they were the right products for our customers at this time”.
It said due to ongoing economic uncertainty, it is holding more money aside to cover the higher expected credit losses on its loans and overdrafts, in case customers can’t repay them.
The FinTech recently announced the relaunch of its paid ‘Monzo Plus’ product after an initial launch last year was axed months later.
Monzo Plus now costs £5 per month with a three-month minimum term, and offers interest on balance, a credit tracker, brand partnership offers, and £400 free cash withdrawals abroad.
It said it plans to roll out a “market leading premium banking product” in this financial year 2021.
Co-founder Tom Blomfield, who founded the firm in 2015, stepped down from the role of CEO in May, becoming president at the company.
TS Anil, previously the firm’s US head, became the company’s global chief executive.
“We’ve seen organic customer growth slow as word-of-mouth drops, and we’ll see reductions in revenues and higher credit losses,” wrote Blomfield in the report.
Anil added: “Over the coming months, we’ll launch powerful new products that help people manage their money better, as well as drive revenue, and cement our place as the UK’s most recommended and fastest growing bank.”


text:
With many platforms for audio streaming like Amazon, Apple, Spotify, Pandora and YouTube, on the market, many don't see any more competition for the huge so
ASUS and Republic of Gamers United Kingdom's 'Christmas in July' special offers are running until the end of the month with up to 43% off a wide range of products. Additionally their 'Trade Up Your Graphics' deal is also still running until August 31st and includes some new additions with the release of the Nvidia GeForce RTX Super Range.
MSI have introduced a new AM4 gaming grade motherboard, the B350 Gaming Plus is based around AMDs mid-range B350 chipset and built on a full sized ATX form-factor.
Thermaltake released the new Riing Quad Radiator Fan Series in black and white, available in 120mm and 140mm sizes, featuring four light-loops lit by a total of 54 addressable RGB LEDs
Sunbury-on-Thames – April 19, 2016 – HyperX™, a division of Kingston® Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced it...
To celebrate the new Thermaltake Amazon store, Tt are running an Easter competition and one lucky winner will receive three Thermaltake products - a case, a CPU water cooler and a new Power supply.
ZOTAC have announced their latest additions to the Nvidia range with the GTX 750 family and the GTX Titan Black Edition.
BIOSTAR RACING and PRO series motherboards offer one of the widest selection of AM4 motherboards for Ryzen™ 3, 5, 7, Bristol Ridge and 7th Generation A-series.
Fending off stiff competition from some 1816 manufacturers and designers from 53 nations, Jabra’s Solemate Max wireless speaker and Rox Wireless earbuds have triumphed to win the acclaimed Red Dot: Product Design 2014 award for excellence.
Synology® today announced the beta release of DiskStation Manager (DSM) 6.0, the latest version of its award-winning NAS operating system.


text:
Courtesy of Holgs/Getty Images
South Korea-based Samsung announced its plans to invest 450 trillion won (almost $355 billion USD) through 2026 into its core businesses.
The conglomerate has many moving parts, and most people are aware of its consumer electronics firm. However, biotechnology is also a big part of its business.
Most of the investment, $285 billion, will be in South Korea. It expects to create 80,000 new jobs through 2026, “or about 16,000 positions annually,” the company said in a statement. Samsung had previously planned to create 40,000 jobs from 2021 to 2023. The investment plan includes a 30% increase from what it has spent in the previous five years.
Samsung Biologics, a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), staffs more than 4,200 people and has more than 90 global clients. On April 27, it reported its first-quarter financials, citing KRW 511.3 billion (about $396 million U.S.). It is expecting its Plant 4 manufacturing facility to be partially operational by October 2022 to support 6 X 10KL production capacity. It is also in the process of acquiring 350,000 square meters of land for its second bio campus.
On April 20, Samsung Biologics announced it had completed the acquisition of Biogen’s stake in the Samsung Bioepis joint venture for $2.3 billion (U.S.). Samsung Bioepis is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Biologics.
“Today’s announcement marks a significant milestone for Samsung Biologics in our continued venture into the biosimilar business and accelerating biosimilar growth,” said John Rim, chief executive officer and president of Samsung Biologics, at the time. “By leveraging our extensive experience as a leading CDMO, we will further contribute to saving lives of the patients and address a wide array of diseases.”
Although most of the new jobs are expected to be in South Korea, Samsung conducts research and development worldwide, including in the U.S., UK, Canada and the Philippines.
In December 2021, Samsung Biologics announced plans to manufacture Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for use in South Korea, as well as for export to other countries, such as the Philippines and Colombia.
Also, in mid-December, Samsung Biologics and AstraZeneca entered a strategic collaboration deal based on an expanded deal in May 2021, which followed an original agreement in September 2020. Under the new agreement, worth about $380 million, up from an initial $331 million, Samsung Biologics manufactures AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 long-acting antibody combination, AZD7442. It also will be manufacturing a cancer immunotherapy product for AstraZeneca this year.
And, of course, Samsung’s investment in electronics and computer chips has an impact on biopharma and life sciences, with the increased use of wearables and smartphones for health monitoring and in clinical trials. In a May blog post, Samsung discussed Samsung’s partnership with Google on a new Health Connect solution. The new Health Connect API will give users a comprehensive set of controls to manage their health and fitness data across apps and support more than 50 data types, such as exercise, sleep, heart rate and more.
It’s not clear how much of Samsung’s $356 billion will go directly into its biopharma activities. However, the company indicates that its plans to hire 80,000 people is just the tip of the iceberg and that its expansion will create 1 million jobs, both through its vendors and indirectly.


text:
How digital payments are making them obsolete
Ric Edelman: It's Thursday, April 13th. In 2019, there were 470,000 ATMs all across the United States. Today, are there more or less? Today there are only 450,000; some 20,000 less. We don't need as many ATMs because, well, it's obvious people aren't using cash as much as we used to. We've gone digital. In 2010, cash and checks were used in 42% of all payments. Now it's just 14%. We've now got credit cards, debit cards, PayPal, Venmo and Zelle.
You think crypto won't become a bigger use? Crypto is faster, cheaper, safer and offers greater inclusion and transparency than any other payment system. And this is why it's growing. Fidelity customers can now buy bitcoin and Ethereum in a new Fidelity crypto account. Minimum investment is just $1. The trades are commission free. There's a 1% spread. The difference between the price you get for your bitcoin and the price of fidelity fills your order. That means that with 37 million retail accounts at Fidelity, another 8 million accounts at Fidelity managed by financial advisors, we're talking 45 million American investors who now have a free, quick, easy and safe way to buy bitcoin and Ethereum. And if you're not a Fidelity customer and you want to open a Fidelity crypto account, you first create a Fidelity brokerage account during your setup process. And Fidelity is not even done. In December, Fidelity filed three trademark applications related to providing services in the metaverse. This is a growing thing.
You think crypto is just limited to the United States? Not at all. I've told you in recent weeks that US regulators look like they're trying hard to kill crypto, but they have no chance of succeeding because crypto is not a US thing, it's a global thing. And here in the US, we might be able to say we really don't need crypto. After all, we've got bank accounts to store our cash until we need it and we've got good brokerage platforms to buy lots of different kinds of investments. But there are 2 billion people around the world who don't have access to bank accounts. They don't live near one or they can't afford the fees that banks charge. All you need to use Bitcoin though, is a phone.
Now, I know what you're thinking. Well, if somebody can't afford a bank account, how can they afford a smart phone? And if they live in a remote village, how can they have access to the Internet to make that smart phone work? The answer is they don't need to. To access the Bitcoin network, you don't need a smartphone, you don't need the Internet - all you need is an ordinary cell phone. And of the 2 billion people who don't have access to a bank account, 60% of them do have a cell phone.
There's now a company in Africa that's helping people in Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa, Kenya and five other countries send and receive bitcoin with an ordinary cell phone. You simply dial a country code like *920*8333# for Ghana or *4833*8333# for Kenya. This brings up a menu that asks you to type in a five-digit pin. And once you enter the passcode, you can type in the number of a bitcoin wallet to send money to them. You can give people your bitcoin wallet ID so they can send bitcoin to you. The company hopes to have their service in place by 2026 for all 54 African nations.
And it's not just Africa that's embracing crypto. So is Latin America. Countries there are more likely than in the US to see a future for crypto payments and legal tender. A new survey just came out last week shows that 70% of the adults in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico believe crypto will become a reliable investment and source of payment. That's 70% compared to just 38% of US adults. Mastercard is now offering a crypto debit card in Mexico. Mastercard says 51% of consumers in Latin American countries have used crypto in a transaction.
And let me mention something about Bloomberg. They employ 2,700 journalists. Bloomberg is a big company, and every year in December, Bloomberg Businessweek polls those 2,700 journalists and asks them to name what they consider to be the best new books of the year. Bloomberg editors then choose 52 of those books, which they highlight as the best books of the year. And Bloomberg in 2022, for the first time in years, said not one of the 2,700 journalists recommended any book on crypto. Dozens were published, including, by the way, mine - The Truth About Crypto. Not only did The Truth About Crypto debut number one on Amazon, it won several awards, including being named one of the best books of the year by the Association of Business Journalists.
And yet, not one of Bloomberg's journalists ranked any crypto book as being one of the best books of the year. You’re really telling me that not one of the journalists who voted to make my book an award-winning book with the Association of Business Journalists works for Bloomberg?
It’s far more likely the reason that none of those 2,700 journalists considered any crypto book any good is because by the time they were asked to make their votes in December of last year, bitcoin was down 70% for the year. And everyone who had written about crypto in earlier years, well, they felt embarrassed. So I guess they were simply too chicken to recommend a crypto book right after crypto had fallen 70% in value. This is the same kind of mistake that investors make when they buy high and sell low.
When crypto was zooming, journalists were happy to promote crypto. But when crypto crashes, they stop talking about it. Well, guess what? So far this year, bitcoin is up 70%. And that means I think you're going to start hearing again about all the great crypto books that get published this year.
Hey, today at noon, I'm doing a 45-minute live podcast interview, The Real Vision Crypto Daily Briefing. It's hosted by Ash Bennington. I'll be talking about digital assets and you're welcome to join me for this. Go to RealVision.com.
I also want to tell you that I'm hosting our biggest conference of the year. It's the DACFP Vision event in June in Austin. It's the longest-running crypto investment conference specifically for financial advisors and accredited investors. I've got a great lineup of speakers including Downtown Josh Brown, Dave Hirsch, Chief of the Crypto Asset and Cybersecurity Unit of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, and Congressman Patrick McHenry, Chair of the House Financial Services Committee. We've got a pre-conference workshop on understanding blockchain and digital assets for those who are new to crypto. And during the conference we have another workshop where everyone will actually mint their own NFTs. If you're a financial advisor or accredited investor and you'd like to look at attending, learn more at DACFP.com.


text:
- Take Action
- Our Work
- Santa Monica Pier Aquarium
- En Español
A Day Without a Bag
A Day Without a Bag 2012
- Store PromotionsRetail partners supporting A Day Without a Bag through generous in-store offers.
- Youth Training SummitFree, half-day tutorial teaching students how to get their own community to break the addiction to plastic bags.
- Giveaway Locations
Map of bag giveaways and promotions in L.A. County.
- Wrap-Up Book
A downloadable PDF recap of 2011's A Day Without a Bag.
On Dec. 20, Heal the Bay handed out 15,000 free reusable bags at nearly 60 locations throughout Los Angeles County. That means to date, Heal the Bay has given 100,000 free reusable bags over six years. Check out more photos and learn more information about this year's A Day Without a Bag.
Our holiday gift to the environment
A Day Without a Bag is an education and grassroots event coordinated by Heal the Bay that involves community groups, businesses and individuals throughout the state of California. This year's A Day Without a Bag is set for Dec. 20, 2012, and will include "Bag-Free Blocks" where businesses come together to go reusable.
Held the third Thursday in December, Heal the Bay’s annual A Day Without a Bag gives Southland shoppers an early holiday present, courtesy of a reusable bag giveaway at locations throughout Los Angeles County.
On this day we ask holiday shoppers and retailers to forgo single-use, plastic shopping bags in favor of reusable bags. It’s our hope that this one day of action will encourage people to go plastic bag-free throughout the year.
Over 4 million residents in California now live in communities that have banned plastic bags and an additional 5 million live in cities actively working on bag ban ordinances. When these ordinances pass, nearly 1 in 3 Californians will have embraced reusable bags.
Win Gift Cards
Green Santa will hand out reusable bags on Olvera Street in historic Los Angeles. A few lucky bags will contain “golden tickets” that can be redeemed for $25 Vons gift cards. In addition, throughout Los Angeles, Albertsons will host $100 gift card drawings for customers who bring their reusable bags to shop.
Rock Your Reusables
This year, Heal the Bay wants YOU to Rock Your Reusables! Take a picture of you, your friends, or a stranger (with their permission, of course) using their reusable bags and you could win a $100 Vons gift card, an awesome T-Shirt as well as other great prizes! Catch your friends in the act and post it to Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook with the hashtag #RockinReusables and tag @HealtheBay to enter. Everybody's doing it, even Brandon Boyd from Incubus!
Education and Awareness
A unique coalition of major retailers, local governments and regional environmental groups forms annually to organize A Day Without a Bag, urging consumers to forego environmentally harmful single-use plastic or paper grocery bags in favor of reusable totes. By raising consumer awareness about personal choices, the event’s short-term goal is to educate Southland shoppers to adopt more sustainable practices during the holidays and coming year.
Caring For Your Reusable Bag
- Most cloth fabric bags can be machine washed; thick plastic bags should be wiped clean
- Allow bags to dry before folding and storing
- Use a separate bag for raw meat
- Clean and Reuse in Good Health! Learn more about care instructions.
The event’s long-term goal is to reduce the use of single-use plastic bags throughout California by empowering shoppers, and the community at large, to take simple and direct actions to eliminate unsightly debris and save taxpayer dollars.
Dozens of community groups, from soccer clubs in Highland Park to Girl Scout troops in Agoura Hills, conduct bag giveaways and grassroots education for consumers throughout the region. The event, organized by Heal the Bay, is sponsored by the city and county of Los Angeles.
Each year Heal the Bay partners distribute free reusable bags to patrons throughout the region. A diverse mix of retailers including Ralphs and Union Bank also support the event through in-store promotions or giveaways at stores countywide.
Spurred by the success of previous Heal the Bay events, community groups throughout the state launched their own A Day Without a Bag campaigns.
California municipalities spend nearly $25 million each year just to collect and dispose of plastic bag waste. Less than 5% of plastic grocery bags are recycled annually in Los Angeles, so the remainder clog precious landfill, litter public spaces and harm animal life when the bags infiltrate waterways. Paper bags, while biodegradable, still require vast amounts of fossil fuels and water to produce, distribute and collect for disposal.
Heavy-duty reusable bags are convenient, environmentally-friendly alternatives that have been embraced by millions around the world. Ireland has been able to reduce its use of disposable grocery bags by 90% since 2001 via public programs. We can do the same, starting with A Day Without a Bag.
Thank you Lars & Kathy Clutterham for your generous donation of bags.


text:
By SAMANTHA BOMKAMP
AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — FedEx says higher costs and slow global growth will crimp its earnings results over the next 12 months.
The world's second-largest package delivery company is reporting lower results for the fiscal fourth quarter ended in May due to a charge for retiring some planes.
FedEx earned $550 million or $1.73 per share in the last quarter, compared with $558 million, or $1.75 per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $11 billion from $10.55 billion.
Without the charge, FedEx would have earned $1.99 per share, 4 cents better than Wall Street estimates.
But the Memphis, Tenn. company's forecast for the first quarter and fiscal year fell below Wall Street's expectations and its stock fell about 2 percent on Tuesday before the opening bell.


text:
Fed cattle in Alberta jumped $4 per hundredweight last week, reaching $134/cwt, which is near record highs. The weaker Canadian dollar, along with historically strong wholesale beef prices, set a positive tone for the overall live cattle complex.
It appears most pen closeouts are showing profits over $100/head, which something the industry has not experienced for a couple of years.
Feeder cattle were solidly $3 to $5/cwt higher, with lighter weights jumping as much as $8/cwt at most auction barns in Western Canada. Temperatures warmed up late in the week and the forecast shows a break in the extreme cold for the next seven days which also enhanced buying enthusiasm for replacement cattle. The industry is expecting larger sales volumes over the next few weeks and there appears to be stronger demand stepping forward now that feeding margins are comfortably in positive territory.
Red Angus medium-flesh steers weighing just over 600 pounds sold for $173/cwt in central Alberta. Mixed exotic steers with no special features averaging 750 pounds sold for $165/cwt south of Calgary.
U.S. feeder cattle prices were $10/cwt higher on average but up to $15/cwt higher in some cases. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported higher quality 655-lb. steers sold for $211/cwt in Nebraska, so the Canadian market is clearly lagging U.S. prices, which also spurred on buying momentum in Western Canada. Nebraska fed cattle reached an all-time record high of $140/cwt on a live basis.
U.S. macro conditions appear to be favourable supporting the current price structure in the beef complex. U.S. unemployment dropped to 6.7 per cent and equity markets continue to trade at historical highs, with stronger GDP values confirming the strength in consumer spending behaviour. Wholesale choice beef prices also surged past the previous record high and nearly touched $215/cwt on Friday. USDA projected a 5.6 per cent decline in first-quarter beef production and this is the first time the market has experienced this lower supply equation while the economy has been this healthy. Feed barley and feed wheat remain under pressure in southern Alberta, with both commodities trading readily at $155 per tonne delivered Lethbridge. All factors point to steady to higher feeder cattle prices in the short term.
— Jerry Klassen is a commodity market analyst in Winnipeg and maintains an interest in the family feedlot in southern Alberta. He writes an in-depth biweekly commentary, Canadian Feedlot and Cattle Market Analysis, for feedlot operators in Canada. He can be reached by email at [email protected] for questions or comments.


text:
Could that be, the old D700 is the only "new" camera Nikon offers at Photokina?
I was absolutely convinced they introduce a 18-30MP camera now.
Or am I getting that wrong? Will they show something new in the next few days?
#3. "RE: No new camera for Photokina?" | In response to Reply # 2
Has Nikon ever announced a high-end camera at Photokina? Seems like there's too much noise there; the impact of the announcement gets blunted by all the other news and introductions.


text:
Pacific Growth Equities analyst J. Derrick Wood Friday morning raised his rating on RealNetworks (NASDAQ:RNWK) to Buy from Neutral, asserting that the stock looks cheap after a recent sell-off. Wood notes that the stock trades at 0.8x enterprise value/’07 sales, 9x ‘07 EBITDA and less than 2x cash. The stock is down 50% since late 2006.
Wood says he sees several potential upcoming catalysts for the stock:
Injection of $230 million for marketing over the next five years provided by Viacom (NYSE:VIA), as a result of the company’s new alliance with MTV. New alliance with Verizon (NYSE:VZ) to promote Rhapsody in the telecom provider’s 1,500 retail stores; the deal also includes integrated billing for music-centric phones. Availability of Rhapsody service with new TiVo (NASDAQ:TIVO) boxes.
With $3.20 in net cash/share, $2.90 in tangible book/share…a share buyback in place and our belief that fundamentals are intact and there are several potential catalysts on the horizon, we believe shares are oversold.
RNWK 1-yr chart:


text:
Cross-Border Economic Impact
POSTED: Friday, January 30, 2009 - 3:26pm
UPDATED: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 - 2:23pm
Americans are dealing with a weak economy and we are not alone. South of the border, the surge of violence and a plunging peso are also making for some tough economic times.
Tom Fullerton, an economics professor at the University of Texas at El Paso says, "its discouraging a lot of commerce that would have taken place on both sides of the border."
Yuridia sanchez says she is seeing the impact here in El Paso.
"There are no people in the streets, especially during the weekdays. Monday through Friday, there are no people,"she says.
Yuridia tells us customers from Juarez made up about 60 to 70 percent of the customers at her downtown shop, but now, most are gone.
"When the peso started declining and with the violence, they all stopped coming," she says.
The drop in business, Yuridia says, has forced layoffs at the store. That in turn, hurts our friends to the south. It also helps to illustrate how closely our economies are tied together. Historically, when the Mexican economy goes under, people who lose their jobs, look to America to find work. The problem today is, the United States' economy is also struggling.
"That is taking away the role that the U.S. economy has historically played, in the form of serving as an economic shock absorber for unemployed Mexicans," says Tom Fullerton.
And now, it appears fewer Mexican workers are coming to the U.S because there are fewer jobs for them. According to a new report, the money sent home by Mexican migrants has fallen for the first time on record. And, so the cycle continues, particularly here on the border. As Mexicans struggle to make a living, the less money they have to spend at American stores, and those businesses who depend on their money, struggle to stay afloat. Leaving everyone on both sides of the border hoping for an up tick in both economies, soon.


text:
What do frantic American moms really want in the midst of the current baby formula crisis? How exactly do they want it solved to ensure their infants get the nourishment they need? Well, WSJ nabob Holman Jenkins Jr., ever ready with his "solutions" - from the Russia 'hoax' and Christopher Steele, to the migrant border crisis - now has a solution to the baby formula shortage.
He insists ('One Bad Choice and a Baby Formula Crisis', p. A15, May 21-22) that the answer lies in swift deregulation of the manufacturing process - especially loosening up on the labeled ingredients and too strict hygiene for plants like the Abbott Labs one in Michigan- never mind the Cronobacter found that sickened 4 infants and killed two. But his issue is that it was more about the FDA factory shutdown in the wake.
The bacteria was no "biggie" and ought not terrify moms or honest citizens, since:
- it's commonly found around powdered instant formula (a "one product population problem")
- It's "already found in the environment and resilient to boot"
- Cronobacter "is readily found in soil, on plants, in cheese, on meats, in fruits and cereals" so no surprise it's be found in baby formula making sites too.
- "Only one state - Minnesota - tracks Cronobacter cases anyway." So why do we let the CDC, FDA et al raise such a storm in a regulatory 'teacup'?
- It's hopeless to decontaminate anyway since "the powdered form has proved impractical to sterilize."
Conclusion: "By shutting down the Abbott plant the FDA was a acting from a zero risk mentality".
Thus, Holman's solution - based also on his take that masking, lockdowns etc. were an over reaction to Covid (never mind over 1 million now deceased from the virus)- is for the gov't to take on a bit more risk for once! America's moms will thank you, Biden and Co.!
But will they? Left unsaid by the resident WSJ troll are other aspects to the shortage he doesn't mention (as usual). But these are noted in a same date article on the WSJ regular news pages ('Behind The Formula Shortage', pp. A1, A4).
At the top were noted "higher regulatory hurdles" imposed in 1980 by the FDA. Thus:
"Manufacturers seeking to create new formula brands had to submit to the FDA detailed explanations for how their products are developed, studies regarding the nutrients included,"
But not specifically noted was the reason for the FDA rigorous standards: that in many undeveloped nations at the time, e.g. Haiti, Nigeria, Bolivia, formula products were found to contain unwanted "ingredients". Things like sawdust, rat droppings, mold residue, and insect legs - such as found in several cases of Cerelac in Bim some 35 yrs. ago. So, pardon me for being critical of Jenkins Jr. - but I suspect most American moms want that tight FDA security for their little one - no trashing the "zero risk" threshold yet.
Also unmentioned is that "there was less investment in the U.S. formula market than other industries because demand stagnated as U.S. birthrates dropped and rate of breast feeding rose". (80 percent of U.S. women now breast feed.) The lessened investment was to try to avoid excess inventory of formula, i.e. by lowering production. This salient observation according to Lyman Stone, Director of research for Demographic Intelligence.
The new entrants to the formula market there have almost exclusively been directed at niche segments, i.e. "those that meet particular dietary or nutritional needs". Again, according to Mr. Stone.
Lastly, given overall lower demand on account of fewer births coupled with more breastfeeding, formula makers instead turned to more profitable healthcare products, namely medical devices. This according to John Willingford, a former formula executive at Wyeth Nutrition and FDA scientist who now consults with formula makers.
The combination of all the preceding factors, in tandem with the shutdown of the Sturgis, MI plant, did contribute to supplies of formula being out of stock at a 43% rate by May 8th this year. And in some red states (TX, TN) the rate approached 50%. But in order to have avoided this money would have had to have been allotted to expand existing facilities, and provide them with the resources.
Newsflash: The Repukes wanted no part of more gov't spending and with good reason: They were already confidently riding their inflation "blame Biden" hobby horse- based on "excess spending" (sic) - to what they hope is a takeover of congress. It's closely aligned with why these pigs don't want to throw the moms any formula lifeline now. (But they will sure as hell demand any woman who gets pregnant carry that fetus to term - and then good luck once it's born, whether finding baby formula or child care. )
Quoting John Willingford, from the WSJ piece (ibid.):
"Companies that manufacture infant formula have to struggle to get investments for upgrading or building a new facility because they are competing with dollars that will go to other, higher margin products."
Want the dynamic to change? Then demand Repukes in congress put their money where this mouths are and pass a bill to provide the resources for new formula facilities - especially as the downfall of Roe is clearly imminent. And that may mean millions of new births in the next ten years. (Better yet, don't vote Repuke!)
In the meantime, I will wager most American moms will not want to risk sawdust, insect legs or rat droppings - or Cronobacter - in their baby formula!
I wanted to know why the formula maker Abbott Industries was allowed to prioritize stock buybacks over safety protocols so that their products became contaminated, causing the shortage.
I wanted to know how families like mine would keep their babies alive and healthy. The answers were few.
Fortunately, the Defense Production Act is now engaged, with the Biden administration directing firms to prioritize getting key ingredients to baby formula producers. Some formula is coming in from overseas. Congress has also expanded the Women Infant and Children’s program (WIC) to cover more formula brands.
But with the global supply chain still kinked up, these measures will only go so far. Unfortunately, some of our elected officials are standing in the way of help.
The House of Representatives just passed a bill to create a $28 million emergency fund to assist the FDA in increasing formula capacity. Stunningly, nearly 200 House Republicans voted against it — and Senate Republicans have signaled they may block it.
Voting against baby formula? This is an outrage. These lawmakers say they’re pro-life. To truly be pro-life, we must be concerned with feeding innocent children and helping struggling families.


text:
Listen to article
Belarus has retaliated against the international community’s latest round of sanctions by imposing its own entry bans and import restrictions, announced by the Foreign Ministry in Minsk yesterday.
Belarus will ban ‘the import of a number of goods originating from the states applying the illegitimate anti-Belarusian sanctions,’ the ministry said.
The European country also plans to impose restrictions on EU and British airlines, in a tit-for-tat response to the sanctioning of Belarusian state carrier, Belavia, for its role in the migrant stand-off at the European Union’s eastern flank.
The names of the companies and individuals affected by the sanctions were not specified, neither were the countries to be targeted by the import ban on unspecified goods.
The announcement did, however, underscore the importance of strengthening economic relations with Russia.
Earlier, the EU, Britain, United States, and Canada imposed fresh sanctions on Belarus, noting its continued attempt to stoke a crisis at the EU border by deliberately transporting refugees from war-torn countries to Minsk and then enabling them to travel onwards toward Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.
Many migrants had been stuck waiting in the border region for weeks, hoping to continue their journey to Europe.
According to the national border guard, Poland has to date registered around 40,000 attempted illegal border crossings, 8,900 of them in November alone.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK


text:
Storytel this week announced it has crossed the 400,000 subscriber mark on its home territory, consolidating its position as the largest digital player in the country.
The report compliments the news in August that the company has reached one million paying subscribers globally in August, five months ahead of expectations.
The press release from Storytel Sweden country manager Åse Ericson is short and to the point, offering us no significant new insights into Storytel’s growth trajectory since August, other than to say said growth continues “unabated.”
We’re growing by leaps and bounds both globally and in Sweden, where the current audiobook wave started thanks to Storytel. With our passion for fantastic stories and technical solutions, we’ve created a unique platform for exciting, emotionally meaningful, and inspiring connections between authors and Swedish readers who want to enjoy their stories anywhere and anytime they want.
But just how many markets is Storytel now in? It seems Storytel isn’t too sure itself.
Explains the press release:
Storytel, founded in 2005 by CEO Jonas Tellander and Jon Hauksson, is Northern Europe’s leading audiobook and e-book streaming service and offers unlimited listening and reading of more than 300 000 titles on a global scale. Storytel operates in 18 markets around the globe and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.
All well and good, except we know Storytel is already live in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Germany, Russia, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Italy, Turkey, India, United Arab Emirates, Bulgaria, Singapore and Mexico, Brazil and Colombia, which by any mathematical rationale is nineteen markets, not eighteen. In addition we have South Korea lined up for launch before the end of year, which will take us to twenty.
Lest we need further confirmation we need only go to the Storytel (dot) com international site where all twenty markets – the nineteen aforementioned live plus the imminent South Korea – are listed, and yes, there are live links to all nineteen Storytel markets, with only the twentieth, South Korea, returning a “coming soon notice.
Yet in at least two press releases since the Colombia launch Storytel has repeated that it is in only 18 markets.
Given the remaining time available this year it seems a certainty that the expected Thailand launch will be for 2020, and we can expect several Latin America and other SE Asia launches in 2020, and possibly further expansion in east Europe.
As reported here on TNPS, Storytel has mustered new funding to keep its expansion programme in aggressive mode.
Read the Storytel Sweden press release in full here.


text:
Pokhara: Many pictures have released in recent time, which some people claim that are teasers for Samsung Company’s upcoming Note mobile phone. The surfaced pictures couldn’t be confirmed and many experts doubt the validity of the pictures. However the Phone Areana has revealed yet another image that shows the curved edge display for the upcoming Galaxy Note.
The image with caption claims that with a saying that write on the edge of something great but the image doesn’t look like original samsung device. According to idigitaltimes.com, the surfaced teasers began surfacing when reports suggested samsung would call its next flagship the glaxy note 7 instead of the Galaxy Note 6.


text:
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Monday against Walmart Inc. that claimed the company misleadingly labeled some of its private-brand plastic products as recyclable.
Greenpeace said in its complaint that many customers who buy Walmart's private-label plastics, such as its Great Value cutlery and fruit cups, don't have access to recycling programs that accept them.
The group further stated that these items "cannot be separated or recovered from the general waste stream," and that "there are no end markets to reuse the products."
The items in question are single-use plastics with recycling labels of No. 3 through No. 7, according to court documents.
The environmental group said Walmart's labeling practices violated the fraudulent and unfair acts portion of California's Business and Professions Code.
Greenpeace filed the suit in December in a California state court. It was later moved at Walmart's request to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Walmart asked the court in April to dismiss the suit. It said Greenpeace lacked standing to file the suit under the provisions of the Business and Professions Code that it claimed Walmart had violated.
The Bentonville-based retailer said in its motion to dismiss that Greenpeace had not suffered any injury or lost money or property, or identified "even one person who was deceived" by Walmart's labeling practices.
In granting the motion, the judge agreed with Walmart's argument that Greenpeace failed to show it had standing to take its claims to court.
Greenpeace filed the suit "in response to its belief that the challenged statements were false," the judge said in her ruling. "In other words, Greenpeace was never misled."
The group has until Oct. 15 to file an amended complaint, the judge said in her ruling.
The case is Greenpeace Inc. v. Walmart Inc.
Walmart shares fell 33 cents, or 0.2%, to close Wednesday at $142.69. The shares have traded between $126.28 and $153.66 in the past 12 months.


text:
Archive for August 10th, 2012
Red 5 Studios has revealed what it’s calling the “e-sports toolkit” for its upcoming free-to-play shooter Firefall, with two new modes for broadcasters and commentators to keep an eye on the action. There will be a standard observer mode, with the ability to watch a match from the top down or from a certain player’s perspective, open to anyone that wants to use it. And then specially-approved broadcasters will get more options, like the ability to fly around the map, or watch different cameras from the game at the same time.
In an interview with PC Gamer, Red 5’s “e-sports maven” (and former Fragdoll) Morgan Romine talks about how the developer is doing everything it can to make e-sports a priority, including tweaking classes and even the game’s core attributes like movement speed. The goal, says Romine, is “to have an FPS that has the long term viability of a Counter-Strike,” so Red 5 is really aiming to make observing and shoutcasting its matches accessible, and is planning e-sports events later on this year at GamesCom, PAX, and other big gamer gatherings.
Of course, just having access to more cameras won’t immediately make you the next Phreak or Day. But better tools are always more helpful, and Red 5 hopes that by making these tools available, more players will get engaged with its upcoming title.
Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studio president Shuhei Yoshida says the company is struggling to convince publishers to develop titles for the PlayStation Vita.
“We’re having a more difficult time than we had anticipated in terms of getting support from third-party publishers, but that’s our job,” he said in an interview within the latest pages of PlayStation: The Official Magazine.
In its recently released Q1 2012 results, Sony’s gaming division was hit with a $45 million loss, forcing its sales forecast to be “downwardly revised.”
Despite big ticket franchises coming to the platform ? with specifically designed versions of Assassin’s Creed 3 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 in the works, for example ? other major publishers have yet to promise any major potential blockbuster releases for the platform.
Speaking with Gamasutra, Yoshida pointed out that Sony has seen some success attracting independent developers to the platform, such as Sound Shapes dev Queasy Games and Knytt Underground developer Nifflas.
“We will continue to talk to development communities and publishing partners and tell them why Vita can provide a great experience for the IPs they have and I hope the Assassin’s Creed game will prove that,” Yoshida added in his interview with PTOM.
SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo Inc may re-evaluate plans for the cash it gets from a multibillion-dollar sale of half of its 40 per cent stake in Chinese Internet company Alibaba Group.
Shares of Yahoo fell 4.4 per cent to $15.30 in after hours trading on Thursday.
Yahoo, which hired new Chief Executive Marissa Mayer last month, said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday that Mayer has started a review of the company’s strategy.
The filing said the review “may lead to a re-evaluation” of Yahoo’s previously announced plans to return to shareholders substantially all of the after-tax cash proceeds under the initial share repurchase from the May 2012 deal with Alibaba.
Under the agreement, Yahoo was to sell one-half of its stake in Alibaba for at least $6.3 billion in cash and up to $800 million in new Alibaba preferred stock.
“There was an expectation of getting that cash back, so I think there will definitely be some disappointment,” said RBC Capital Markets analyst Andre Sequin.
But he said that shareholders also expect Mayer, a former Google executive, to re-invest in the company’s domestic business to rejuvenate the struggling Web company.
As part of Mayer’s review, Yahoo said, she would look at the company’s growth and acquisition strategy, the restructuring plan launched by her predecessor, and Yahoo’s cash and capital allocation strategy.
NEW YORK: Facebook has created an email address for people to report scams. The address is phish(at)fb.com. Anyone even those who aren’t on Facebook can use it to report malicious emails that pretend to come from Facebook.
Known as phishing, such emails attempt to get passwords and other information by pretending to come from a legitimate business. Because many people use the same passwords at banking and other sites, someone who gets account information for Facebook can log on elsewhere.
Facebook Inc. says scams tend to contain information that’s more vague than what’s in legitimate emails from Facebook.
Facebook says it will report scams to outside security companies and notify blacklists that Internet companies keep to block malicious websites. It will also prevent users from posting such links on Facebook.
Members of Anonymous recently launched DDoS attacks against several Ukrainian government Web sites in response to the government’s takedown of torrent site Demonoid.
“The collective targeted and took down the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council of Ukraine (nrada.gov.ua), the Ukrainian Agency for Copyright and Related Rights (uacrr.kiev.ua), and the Ukrainian Anti-Piracy Association (apo.kiev.ua),” writes ZDNet’s Emil Protalinski. “All the sites appear to be fully operational again at the time of writing.”
“The move comes days after the Ukrainian government shut down popular bittorent tracker site Demonoid,” writes International Digital Times’ Mo Mozuch. “The group posted a statement on its PR blog condemning the move, and accusing the Ukrainian government of caving in to U.S. anti-piracy pressure.”
“Despite Demonoid blocking all Ukranian IP addresses to avoid upsetting local law, the site still attracted the attention of the authorities,” the statement reads. “The raid on Demonoid was timed to coincide with the first trip of Deputy Prime Minister Valery Khoroshkovsky’s to the United States on the agenda: copyright infringement. This implies that the attack against Demonoid was a preplanned operation, and a deliberate and malicious attack against Internet Freedom. We will not let this go unpunished. We will seek revenge against all criminals responsible and their punishments will be severe.”


text:
While we are awaiting for the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2013 event held in Barcelona next week, we got a feww picture of new LG Optimus lineup, thats the LG Optimus F7 and LG Optimus F5 which ready to show-off at MWC 2013 next week.
A video shortly after the company released on YouTube. Demonstrated by evleaks two smartphone, that’s LG Optimus F7 looks like Optimus G Pro announced on Monday’s “not very round version of (less-rounded); While the LG Optimus F5 to have the same rounded corners, if The image is true, it will have a slimmer frame.
But we don’t have more detailed specifications yet, but those smartphone should be introduced in the MWC 2013 next week.Always be the first to know. Follow us:


text:
The battle for customers waged between fast-casual and quick-service restaurants proved about as noncompetitive last year as Sunday’s Super Bowl. Fast casual won. Again.
Source: The NPD Group/CREST
Full-year data from The NPD Group survey reveal that customer traffic at fast-casual restaurants increased 8% in 2013 (12 months ending November). Meanwhile, the total restaurant [...]
What connects the dots of Burger King’s new summer menu is barbecue sauce. Its new Rib Sandwich is a “juicy boneless rib patty with a sweet and tangy BBQ sauce served with sweet pickles on a warm toasted artisan-style bun.” Barbecue sauce is on the menu’s Carolina Whopper, Memphis Pulled Pork and new BBQ Chicken [...]
It has been more than 40 years since Don Shula’s Miami Dolphins had their perfect season and Super Bowl victory, which means many of the young adults drawn to Shula Burger restaurants have little connection with the Shula name. Now, as the chain prepares for the opening of its first franchised location next month in [...]
The Counter’s Founder Jeff Weinstein says the company’s new fast-casual prototype has the potential to take the brand where it could not otherwise have gone while also freeing the original concept to evolve.
The first location for Built Custom Burgers (a play on The Counter’s “Custom Built Burgers” sub-theme) opened last week by the University [...]
Fast-casual burger chain Meatheads celebrates its fifth anniversary today (1/28), which means it is young enough to remain true to the quality commitment on which it was founded but mature enough to concede that a few tweaks could be made to the concept.
Meatheads offers build-your-own burgers or “chef-inspired” signature burgers.
One departure from [...]
A consultant likely would have told Rivers Corbett and Ray Henry in 2010 that the fast-casual burger segment was already overloaded and they should look elsewhere. Opening a burger restaurant in January in Fredericton, New Brunswick, probably weren’t optimal choices on paper either.
But Henry and Corbett believed in their concept, Relish Gourmet Burgers, bucked [...]


text:
- Nomura announces details for DLC for Kingdom Hearts III
- Paid DLC will include three new scenarios
The Kingdom Hearts Orchestra -World of Tres- performances premiered today in Tokyo, Japan. As part of the event, the third in the Orchestra series, series director Tetsuya Nomura announced details on the upcoming downloadable content for the game.
According to Nomura, there will be paid DLC that will include three new scenarios, with the first tentatively titled Kingdom Hearts ReMIND. The second scenario is simply titled Limit Cut Episode, and per Stormcaster, it will have multiple bosses. The last scenario is presently titled Secret Episode, and will have at least one boss. There will also be an option for English voice acting in the DLC for the Japanese version of the game, as well as other details not yet announced.
At this time, we do not know which, if any, of this content will be available in the international releases of Kingdom Hearts III. Presumably, all will be, though the multi-language options have historically been a Japanese-exclusive feature of the Final Mix releases of the games. We also do not have a release date at this time, though we expect to have one soon.
UPDATE 1 - 19:13, 27 April 2019 (MDT): There are multiple rumors that claim Shinji Hashimoto has resigned as executive producer for the Kingdom Hearts series at the Orchestra. We have not been able to confirm these claims at this time.


text:
Everyone is going to want to combat the upcoming slaughterhouse that will be the iPad 3, but Amazon has enjoyed great success with their Kindle Fire tablet. Pacific Crest analyst Char Bartley said this week that:
We are raising our 2012 sales forecasts to 14.9 million from 12.7 million, but we believe there is an upward bias, particularly from the new 7- and 9-inch models, which we expect to launch in mid-2012.
Amazon have already said they're making more Kindle Fire's to meet demand, as well as reports of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich rocking on the Fire. It seems that the fire the Kindle has burning, just can't be put out.
That's just a little bit interesting, isn't it? Amazon are one of the biggest competitors of the iPad, and they have enough power and influence to make it happen. Amazon could start releasing slightly changed versions of their popular Fire tablet, albeit in different sizes. We should have more information as it comes, until then, keep your eyes pealed for more 9-inch Kindle Fire news.
- > NEXT STORY: Valve and Bethesda release official Portal 2 mod for Skyrim
- < PREVIOUS STORY: Xbox 360 Kinect Star Wars Bundle & Game arrives April 3rd


text:
Darren Levy has left Tieline Technology, with an eye on building his own consulting business. He’s been with the Australian equipment manufacturer since 1998. Separately, John Bisset, who joined the firm’s U.S. sales effort in 2010, also is no longer with the company.
Tieline issued a statement thanking Levy and Bisset for their contributions. It said Bisset’s position was terminated as a result of a review of customer service operations in its Indianapolis office. A spokeswoman for the U.S. office said it hoped to continue working with Bisset in a consulting relationship. Bisset writes the Radio World column Workbench and has worked as a contract engineer and equipment sales executive for several manufacturers.
Levy told RW, “It was my decision to leave after more than a decade of service as the international sales and marketing manager. I am ready for a change of scenery and would like to apply my technical marketing and business development experience in the broadcast industry to a wider product and service range.” He plans to offer consulting and business development services to broadcast manufacturers who are looking to grow business in the Asia Pacific region. He’s based in Perth, Western Australia, which he said provides easy access to Asia and broadcast hubs in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.
“The region is highly active with broadcast projects and requires experienced navigating due to the diverse range of business cultures across the market,” he said.
Levy’s tenure coincided with the company’s expansion into codecs, and his focus was expanding the company’s international business. He said he has represented Tieline at the NAB Show, IBC and Broadcast Asia, and helped establish its U.S. office as well as distribution partners in 30 countries.
Tieline was founded in 1981 as Television Communications Pty Ltd.; in 1995 it became Audio Video Communications (AVC). It later adopted the name of its Tieline line of codecs.


text:
For the first time ever, Forbes Travel has announced a second batch of 5 star hotels and restaurants in a year.
The 5 star rating body released a list of hotels, properties and restaurants that achieved this prestigious rating.
The newly rated hotels include:
- The first ever 5 star rated hotel in Seattle; The Four Seasons Hotel Seattle.
- Canada’s first ever 5 star hotel. The Rosewood Hotel Georgia in Vancouver recently underwent a significant makeover and this has resulted in the accolade being awarded.
- London’s Connaught Hotel.
Forbes also named two five star properties in Massachusetts. These are The Langham in Boston and The Dining Room at Blantyre.
The newly rated restaurants include:
- Meadowood Restaurant in Napa Valley.
- The Plume Restaurant, which is housed within the prestigious Jefferson Hotel.
- Los Gatos’ Manresa Restaurant.
This uncharacteristic release of new ratings has enabled travellers to access more up-to-date information about where it’s best to eat and sleep.
There are now 83 5-star rated hotels according to Forbes Travel.


text:
The expansion includes new areas for the Irvington, N.Y.-based greenhouse company in western Virginia, and strengthens its presence in Charlottesville, Richmond and Norfolk, according to a news release.
Products grown at BrightFarms’ Culpeper, Va., greenhouse for sale at Food Lions stores include Sunny Crunch, Baby Spinach, Spring Mix, Baby Arugula and Mixed Greens.
The retailer has marketed BrightFarms products since 2016, and focuses on local programs.
“We’re excited about this expanded partnership with BrightFarms, which will expand our ability to deliver to our Virginia customers the high-quality, locally grown salad greens they expect from Food Lion,” Chris Dove, Food Lion’s vice president of produce category and merchandising, said in the release.
BrightFarms has supplied more than 160 Giant Landover stores, an Ahold-Delhaize banner, since 2016, and Giant Food Stores in Pennsylvania since 2017. The demand there led BrightFarms to build a 280,000-square-foot facility in Selinsgrove, Pa., that opened this month, according to the release. That allowed the Culpeper facility to shift supplies to Food Lions in Virginia.


text:
You have searched for "Test-drive"
Showing 1-10 of 626
PETALING JAYA: Members of the public have been invited to all Peugeot outlets this weekend for a test drive of its latest award-winning models.
KUCHING: A four-wheel drive vehicle carrying an assistant minister and two other passengers overturned when a test drive stunt went wrong at Travillion Mall here.
Nasim Sdn Bhd, the official distributor for the Peugeot brand in Malaysia, announced a nationwide Peugeot Raya Weekend Test Drive today and tomorrow for all the SUVs and MPVs in their current line-up.
A CASUAL test drive turned into a lucky win for Law Soon Hee, 26, when he was chosen to be the winner of Perodua’s recent “Test Drive and Win” short message service (SMS) contest.
Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia, the exclusive distributor of Mitsubishi vehicles in Malaysia, is currently holding a nationwide test drive challenge called 'The Lancer Test Drive Win' until Dec 4 .
CAPE CANAVERAL: NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, dispatched to study if the Red Planet could have hosted life, will take its first test drive on Wednesday.
The Peugeot car showroom in Bangsar recently organised a test drive campaign for potential buyers.


text:
Starbucks & Alexa: A Match Made In Heaven?
Digital assistants have become part of the mainstream tech world, and ever since Siri entered the scene courtesy of Apple in 2011 it has been socially acceptable to bark orders into our phones. Indeed, there are now numerous digital assistants for us to choose from—including Alexa, Cortana, and Echo—all of which are powered by artificial intelligence algorithms and activated by voice commands.
However, up until now, the relationship we have with our digital assistants has been a two-actor affair. But we’re starting to see the beginning of companies getting involved in the digital assistant arrangement. First, it was Dominos, which paired up with Alexa to allow users to order a regular pizza order. With just a few words, a pizza delivery man would show up at your door. And just recently, Starbucks announced that it’s possible to pre-order your regular purchase at a previously chosen location simply by telling Alexa what you want, with its “Starbucks re-order” feature.
Apparently, voice ordering has been a broad ambition of Starbucks’, which told Mashable that it hoped to roll out voice ordering for all its iOS app users later in 2017. In a press release the company said, “These initial releases are easy to use providing a direct benefit to customers within their daily routine and we are confident that this is the right next step in creating convenient moments to complement our more immersive formats. We expect to learn a lot from these experiences and to evolve them over time.”
Indeed, the “immersive format” of ordering, or integrating a digital assistant with an external commerce, holds great promise for ubiquitous brands like Starbucks. By removing yet another barrier to ordering your next latte or pizza, it further entices consumers to spend more of their hard-earned dollars at these outlets. In a hugely competitive marketplace, every little advantage like that can help significantly. However, we’re still in the early stages of this trend, and the question remains as to how consumers will take to this uber-convenient feature. Equally, it’s worth asking if there are any ethical or technical obstacles to making sure it doesn’t get, well, creepy.
The first obstacle is that the service actually has to be seamless. Upon the Dominoes ordering launch last year, The Verge rather comically noted that it might actually just be easier to call them up: “You have to establish a preset order inside the Domino’s app, and then you have to remember to say this convoluted phrase to place an order: “Alexa, open Domino’s and place my Easy Order.” That’s just not at all a chill thing to shout across the room while drunkenly playing cards / watching football / looting a horde of kobolds in your weekly D&D session. But at least you won’t have to argue about toppings.”
All jokes about supreme laziness aside, it’s also vital that the permissions are not over-arching and that one can’t “automatically” order a pepperoni pizza by accident. If consumers start to feel that AI is doing things for them they don’t want, that could be when they turn away from it in favor of more conventional means. Equally, consumers mustn’t feel that companies are taking advantage of their private spaces by, say, Alexa suggesting they might want a latte. While that kind of immersive advertising hasn’t happened yet, it’s certainly not a stretch to imagine that it might.
Ultimately, the consumer has to remain in control of the digital assistant and commerce relationship for them to feel comfortable. However, it’s safe to say that if this kind of ordering catches on as digital assistants spread, there’s little doubt that major chains will be lining up to integrate with the system, as it opens up a new channel for tech-enabled commerce.


text:
Toys for Tots began as a Los Angelescharitable effort in 1947. Major Bill Hendricks, USMCR, was inspired by his wife Diane when she tried to donate a homemade Raggedy Ann doll to a needy child but couldn't find any organization to do so. At her suggestion, he gathered a group of local Marine reservists, including Lieutenant ColonelJohn Hampton, who coordinated and collected some 5,000 toys for local children that year from collection bins placed outside of Warner Bros. movie theaters. Their efforts were so successful that, in 1948, Toys for Tots was launched as a national campaign. Hendricks used his position as director of Public Relations for Warner Brothers Studio to enlist celebrity support, as well as have Walt Disney Studios design the red toy trainlogo.
The plan was to just make the two of them some bracelets for themselves ... “We thought that picking a cause would be a nice thing for the holiday,” she said ... So instead of simply giving the money or writing a check towards a charity, she decided to put the money towards buying toys for the Toys for Tots program ... Scooby is looking for his gang.
For the second year in a row, the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the Toys for Tots program in how donations are coming in and how they will be distributed to children ... As usual, Toys for Tots has donation boxes posted at many organizations and businesses throughout the county to collect the toys.
WASHTENAW COUNTY, MI — Toys for Tots is preparing for a holiday season of giving ... If you are unable to make the toy drive, here is a list of other businesses in Washtenaw County that will be collecting Toys for Tots ... To check specified dates and hours, visit Toys for Tots website here.
Air Comfort is returning its Toys for Tots Toy Drive for the Fremont and Columbus areas ... “We’ve been a part of Toys for Tots for about three years ... “Toys For Tots is an organization originally developed by the Marine Corps ... Those who would like to donate toys or money to Toys for ...
GEORGE — Operations are in full swing to bring Christmas to youngsters in need all across Washington County through the Toys for Tots program, a campaign that has brought holiday joy to more than 200 million children nationwide ...Marine gunnery sergeant who served as the Toys for Tots program coordinator for more than 15 years ... Toys for Tots.
Briana Sprunger, a local Edward Jones financial advisor, is supporting the Marine Corps ReserveToys for Tots program by using her office as a drop-off location for this year's toy drive. Local residents may help needy children in the area ... .


text:
There has been talk for years over the development of a new genetically modified potato. Now, the USDA recently gave the green light for one of the worlds largest agribusinesses to create a GMO potato that produces fewer carcinogens than non-GM potatoes when fried. Simplot, the company responsible for its future creation, will soon be putting these GMO potatoes on dinner plates across the United States unless the decision is reversed. So how will you know if your potato is genetically modified or not?
As mentioned, Simplot’s GM creation will be engineered to produce less of a carcinogen (75% less) which normally forms when potatoes are fried or heated. But that isn’t all these ‘super potatoes’ will be able to do. They will also be modified to bruise less easily and to not turn brown for many hours after being cut (see picture below).
The potatoes reportedly underwent ‘successful’ field trials in 8 states between 2009 and 2001: Florida, Indiana, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, North Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin. And of course, Simplot claims they are safe:
“This approval comes after a decade of scientific development, safety assessments and extensive field tests,” said the Idaho-based Simplot, which annually processes about 3 billion pounds of potatoes.
While the idea of creating a food which is said to produce less of a carcinogenic chemical is not a terrible one, it all comes back to this: what implications will this man-made creation have on human health, the environment, and the ecosystem as a whole? Will this GMO potato simply add to the already abundant negative effects GMOs have on the environment as a whole?
Simplot reassures the public that the method in which these potatoes are created aren’t nearly as ‘alarming’ or ‘aggressive’ as techniques used by other companies, such as Monsanto. There are no bacteria or genes from other plants used, only DNA from the potatoes themselves.
But we aren’t convinced that tampering with mother nature in such a way is a good idea. Doug Gurian-Sherman, a plant pathologist and senior scientist at the Center for Food Safety, told the New York Times:
“We think this is a really premature approval of a technology that is not being adequately regulated.”
The organization says that the RNA interference technique used for Innate is untested, and said that one of the substances suppressed by it actually plays an important role in the chemical make-up of the potato and its ability to fight pests. Will these potatoes lead to a further increase in the already 800 million pounds of pesticides sprayed on our food – pesticides which can’t be washed off?
As expected, the Center for Food Safety says that it plans to appeal the USDA approval. So maybe we’ll see a reversal.
Where the GMO ‘Innate’ Potato Will Likely be Served
Simplot plans to use the new genetically modified creation’s benefits to target the market from multiple points. For both the public and restaurants alike, the increased life of these potatoes will be a big sell. What’s more, the spuds will be sold as a healthier alternative, and will also be supplied pre-cut to supermarkets and restaurants, due to the fact that they remain pristine-looking for longer.
Because of these touted benefits, the vast majority of restaurants across the United States will likely source their potatoes from Simplot. That is to say, just about every potato dish in restaurants will be made from GMO potatoes. This will likely be the case with supermarkets as well.
“This could be a game-changer for the industry!” boasted Kerwin Bradley, Simplot’s director of commercialization.
One place you can undoubtedly expect to find the Innate potatoes will be the mega fast food giant, McDonald’s. Simplot supplies more than half of McDonald’s potatoes in the U.S., and has been doing so for decades. So now in addition to the low quality, harmful ingredient-riddled food found at McDonald’s, the ever-so-popular french fries will likely all be made using GMO potatoes.
In light of this, the Food and Water Watch group is already sending a petition signed by over 100,000 people asking McDonald’s to ban all Innate potatoes.
How to Avoid the New Genetically Modified Potato
So what do you need to do to avoid these creations? In addition to never eating food from McDonald’s and avoiding potato-based foods in restaurants, there are 3 primary ways you can bypass Innate GMO potatoes:
Look For Products Labeled 100% Organic:
- United States and Canadian governments do not allow companies to label products 100% organic if they contain genetically modified foods.
Look For “Non-GM” or “GMO-Free”:
- When searching for potatoes in a health food store that supplies organic produce, just look for signs indicating that the potatoes are organic and non-GMO. Many packaged products represent the NON-GMO Project verified seal, but in this case you’ll need to look for as many indicators as possible.
Read the Labels:
- Conventional Fruit Labels: Begin with the number 4, and never begin with the number 9.
- Genetically Modified Fruit Labels: Begin with the number 8. Note that it begins with 8, not just contains the number 8. This is often a 5 digit number.
- Organic Fruit Labels: These fruit labels always contain 5 digits, and begin with the number 9. Always check and make sure, as some “organic” products have been known to be deceptively labeled.
Will the new Innate potatoes make the top 10 worst GMO foods for your GMO foods list? Hopefully we won’t find out.