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Greggs has re-opened in Nailsea
- Credit: Archant
Greggs bakery has re-opened its doors in Nailsea after a major expansion.
The popular bakery shut in January, with bosses promising a bigger and better store.
Greggs, in Colliers Walk, reopened last week creating five new jobs and offering indoor seating.
As well as freshly basked savouries and sandwiches, customers can tuck into Greggs' new summer range, including pasta salads, cold drinks and wraps.
Sharon Hodge, shop manager, said: "We can't wait to open our doors and hear what the local community thinks.
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"We hope customers enjoy the wide range of tasty items we have on offer."
Roisin Currie, retail and people director for Greggs, added: "We're delighted to be able to invest in Nailsea, bringing new jobs to the area and providing both new and existing customers with a modern and convenient new shop."
- 1 Long-standing Clevedon gift store transformed under new owners
- 2 Clevedon Marine Lake drained for 'high bacteria levels'
- 3 Council agrees development plan for Nailsea site
- 4 Garden waste service disrupted due to 'ongoing crew shortages'
- 5 Green Party candidate elected to council following by-election win
- 6 Yatton development welcomes first movers
- 7 Covid warning issued in North Somerset
- 8 PICTURES: Inside Clevedon Pier's Glass Box Cafe
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AutoGuide News Blog
The AutoGuide News Blog is your source for breaking stories from the auto industry. Delivering news immediately, the AutoGuide Blog is constantly updated with the latest information, photos and video from manufacturers, auto shows, the aftermarket and professional racing.
Volkswagen has confirmed that the drop-top variant of its popular Beetle will be released for sale in the early months of 2013.
We were originally expecting to see the convertible at the 2012 New York Auto Show, but it didn’t make an appearance, leading us to the conclusion that it will likely bow at the 2012 L.A. Auto Show. Despite the lack of appearance, we know what the car will look like thanks to spy shots of the convertible, which show the Beetle’s sportier styling and lower stance.
The car will be available with the same powertrain options offered on the standard Beetle, a 2.5-liter five-cylinder with a six-speed automatic, or a 2.0-liter TSI turbocharged four-cylinder with a DSG six-speed dual-clutch automatic. The larger motor makes 170 hp and 177 lb-ft of torque, while the smaller displacement turbo variant puts out 200 hp and 207 lb-ft of torque. A diesel TDI version of the convertible will be available as well, outfitted with a 140-horse, 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine.
[Source: Car and Driver]
Volkswagen announced that they would unveil two new vehicles at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November, and a convertible version of the Beetle is among the rumored introductions.
Considering the popularity of the previous droptop Beetle, Los Angeles seems like an obvious choice for the new car. On the other hand, we’re not so sure what the second vehicle could be – something like a production version of the Bulli would attract more buzz in the run-up to the show, so we’re guessing it’s merely a revised version of an existing product.
[Source: Kicking Tires]
Now that Volkswagen has unveiled the upcoming 2012 Beetle to the general public, it’s exciting to hear that the German automaker will also be bringing a Beetle R version, as well as a Beetle convertible to America. The convertible version will be available next year while Volkswagen hasn’t confirmed when the Beetle R will arrive.
The safe assumption for the Beetle R’s powerplant will be the 2.0L turbocharged unit from the Golf R, though it’s not confirmed. VW did express that the Beetle R will remain a front-wheel-drive application, but it’s nice to know those who yearn for a Beetle with slightly more power output than the 200-hp 2.0 TSI will have a viable option in the future.
GALLERY: 2012 Volkswagen Beetle
[Source: Car and Driver]

domain: news


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WASHINGTON — Spurred by a heavy outflow to Pakistan, U.S. flour exports in the first quarter of 2010 soared to the largest total in eight years. It is likely that the flour sent to Pakistan was relief supplies intended for destinations in strife-torn Afghanistan.
The total of January-March flour exports from the United States was 2,299,000 cwts, contrasted with 946,000 in the same three months of last year and the recent low of 806,000 in 2006.
The three-month outgo was the largest since 2,899,000 cwts were exported in the first quarter of 2002. As recently as 2000, U.S. flour exports in January-March totaled 4,934,000 cwts, while the peak was 8,468,000 in the first three months of 1983.
Pakistan alone accounted for January-March shipments of 971,000 cwts, or 42% of the quarter total. Shipments to that country in March alone were 557,000 cwts. The first quarter exports to Pakistan were already well ahead of the 641,000 cwts shipped to that country in all of 2009 when it ranked third in shipments.
Other significant destinations for U.S. flour exports in January-March were Canada and Mexico, which have led as outlets for some years. Exports to Canada in the quarter totaled 370,000 cwts and Mexico accounted for 255,000.


text: Carrie Middlemiss has done it again and created some more amazing Bella Cupcake Couture wrappers for your cupcakes! Just announced today, Carrie has launched a brand new line of wrappers, perfect for almost any occasion! “Bella Basics” features 16 different basic, solid color wrappers. 15 of these feature little white polka dots and one is a solid white. Here are just a few samples of the collection!


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Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) briefly became the second U.S. corporation to exceed $1 trillion in market value earlier this year. In the next two, it could reach nearly $1.5 trillion thanks to a handful of key growth markets, according to one team of bulls on Wall Street. (See also: Seven Reasons Why Amazon Should Split in Two: Citi.)
In a note to clients on Tuesday, Jefferies lifted its 12-month price target on shares of the e-commerce and cloud computing giant to $2,350 from $2,185, reflecting an over 21.5% upside from current levels, CNBC reports. Trading was down by about 0.2% on Wednesday morning. Valued at $1,971.26, Amazon's stock reflects a 68.6% return year-to-date (YTD), compared to the S&P 500's 9.2% gain over the same period.
Trading at Material Discount to Peers
"In our view, many of [Amazon's] embedded growth opportunities are underappreciated," writes Jefferies analyst Brent Thill. Thill highlights Amazon's leading public cloud platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS), as the "de facto standard" in the industry, while its subscription-based Prime membership and "best-in-class fulfillment capabilities" continue to drive core retail revenues. Across Amazon's platforms, advertising is working to boost profitability and expand the Seattle-based retailer's total addressable market, Thill says.
"AWS, advertising, and subscription are all growing ~ 2 times faster than the core and are more profitable. We estimate conservatively these businesses will be on a combined $115B+ run rate by 2021, just over a quarter of total revenue, but close to half of Amazon's value," says Thill, who rates Amazon at Buy.
Thill's two-year price forecast of $3,000 reflects an approximate 55% upside, reflecting longer-term opportunities in new markets like healthcare as Amazon expands far outside of its core e-commerce business. In light of all the "embedded growth opportunities and the optionality from new initiatives," Jefferies views Amazon as trading at a material discount to its peers on a growth-adjusted basis." Moving forward, the analyst expects multiples to expand. (For more, see also: 5 Reasons Amazon May Double to $2 Trillion.)


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'Definitive' GRC Car to Enter Competition Later This Year
Remember that 2014 VW Beetle racecar that Volkswagen introduced in April, when the automaker announced it would compete for this year's Global Rallycross Championship (GRC)? Well, it turns out that that was more of a prototype than the real thing, and Volkswagen premiered—but did not race—the "definitive” version of the car this past weekend at the VW-sponsored Rallycross event held in Washington, D.C.
There has been some bodywork done in between the two debuts, most obviously to the car's massive rear wing and front air inlets, while a few more details about the hardware were released as well. Motivation, for example, will come from a 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine that's been upgraded with TSI fuel-injection/turbocharging technology to make 544 hp. That power will be routed to all four wheels, which in turn get the kind of brakes needed to handle those horses, with 14- and 11.8-inch vented discs, as well as four-piston aluminum calipers, front and rear. Tipping the scales with a GRC-mandated minimum weight of 2,668, the 2014 VW Beetle GRC entry is expected to run from 0-60 in about 2.1 seconds.
But perhaps the biggest difference between the GRC prototype and the definitive version is that the former was wrapped in the Rockstar Energy Drink livery of VW driver Tanner Foust; the latter was done in a sophisticated white-and-black that made the car look like it was ready for production. Now, to be clear, the automaker has made no official mention of bringing a hi-po, GRC-inspired Beetle to the marketplace, but it seems like it would be a no-brainer, especially given the current spike of interest in hot hatches and high performance in the industry at large.
I'll also point to the double-level rear wing of the 2014 VW Beetle GRC car: It's very easy to imagine that as one of those automatically deploying rear spoiler setups—something Volkswagen already used for the previous-gen Beetle Turbo.
As for the D.C. Rallycross event itself, the Volkswagen Andretti team finished 5-6, with Foust finishing directly ahead of Scott Speed. However, after Speed won the first two GRC events of the year, he does remain atop the driver standings, albeit by a single point.
(Note: Foust and Speed remain in VW Polo racers at this stage in the GRC campaign, with the 2014 VW Beetle body expected to "run later this season.")
For more on Global Rallycross, visit www.RedBullGlobalRallycross.com.


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Three fast food workers in Ohio have been fired after a picture they took inside a Burger King went viral.
A Burger King employee in Mayfield Heights took a picture standing in two lettuce bins. Three employees lost their jobs over the picture. Apparently they posted it online as a prank.
Burger King released a statement. They said “food safety is a top priority at all Burger King restaurants, and the company maintains a zero tolerance policy against any violations such as these ones in question.”


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Little White Bears工作室最近发布推文表示“苹果拒绝了我的游戏，只因为游戏中的视频广告出现了谷歌/亚马逊标志”。需要注意的是，苹果这项政策并不仅局限于iPhone应用。据MacRumors报道，另一名开发者也因为在自己的iOS应用中提到Pebble Watch（游戏邦注：这是由硅谷创业公司Pebble Technology设计的一款兼容iPhone和Android手机的智能手表）而收到相似的拒绝通知。
2）据venturebeat报道，Epic Games前总裁Mike Capps最近宣布加入原公司主要竞争对手Unity Technologies公司，并担任后者的研究和执行团队的内部顾问。
Epic Games的虚幻引擎以及Unity这两大开发工具一直竞争激烈，两者都已向独立开发者及业余人士推出免费工具，前者在3月份宣布虚幻引擎4将免费开放服务（商业型产品需支付5%的版税），后者随之宣布推出瞄准业余开发者的免费Unity 5个人版本。
1）Apple Now Rejecting Apps for Mentioning Other Platforms
by Rob Weber
Game developers are seeing increased enforcement of section 3.1 of Apple’s developer policy which states that “Apps or metadata that mentions the name of any other mobile platform will be rejected.” Although this policy has existed for a while, it appears that there is now a stronger enforcement of it – specifically related to ads that appear in apps.
For example, Little White Bears Studios tweeted that “Apple just rejected my game for a vid ad that had Google/Amazon badges.” And it’s not just affecting apps on your phone. Recently, a developer with an app for the Pebble Watch was cited by MacRumors about receiving a similar rejection notice for mentioning Pebble in their iOS app.
There are two clear solutions which game developers can implement to ensure they comply with the guidelines and to prevent receiving a rejection notice from Apple on new submissions or updates of their game. First, if your app is available on other platforms, make sure you do not mention this in your App Store description or in your creative assets and screenshots. Second, if you are going to integrate video or other ads into your game, make sure your ad providers are actively policing all iOS ad creatives so that competing platform badges are not being shown in the ads they display inside your game. If a non-compliant ad appears during a review, you risk rejection.
Upon reviewing most of the top ad providers for games, I found objectionable ads being served on nearly all of them. We at NativeX are actively policing every ad we serve (including video creatives) so that there no ads are displayed that violate the Apple developer policy. This helps ensure that our developer’s monetization solution doesn’t negatively affect the approval process.（source：gamasutra）
2）Epic Games’ former president Mike Capps joins Unity as an internal adviser
A former Epic Games’ president joins one his former company’s main rivals in the game-tools business.
Unity Technologies announced today that Mike Capps has joined as internal adviser to the company’s research and executive teams. This move has the industry figurehead moving from the maker of one of the most popular multiplatform game engines, Unreal Engine, to its direct competitor, which Unity CEO John Riccitiello said at the GamesBeat Summit this week sees 800 million game downloads a month. Capps will use the knowledge gained from 10 years at Epic to help Unity expand its reach into the game development world.
In a statement today, Riccitiello said that Capps will be a huge boon for Unity in democratizing game development. As competition between the top game engines heats up, both Epic Games and Unity have worked to open the door for independent game makers and hobbyists to develop on all available platforms, from mobile to VR. Epic announced in March that its Unreal Engine 4 would be free to use (with 5 percent royalties paid on commercial releases), and Unity responded with its free Unity 5 personal edition aimed at hobbyists.
“Unity is in such an enviable position in the industry,” Caps said in a statement. “I see so much exciting potential, and opportunities where I might be able to help, that this role was a logical next step. I’ll do my best to advise John and the leadership team to keep Unity’s tools driving innovation and creative self-expression in ways we can’t even imagine.”
Capps will begin work at Unity in a month, starting with a trip to Copenhagen, where development on the Unity engine takes place.（source：venturebeat）
3）Mobile-only internet users now ahead of desktop
ComScore recently published its 2015 U.S. Digital Future in Focus report which highlights the growing importance that mobile devices have adoptedTab in our lives. For the first time, in March 2015, mobile-only internet usage (11.3%) has exceeded that of desktop-only users (10.6%). Whilst mobile-only internet usage remained fairly steady, only growing by 0.5% from the year before, desktop-only has been steadily declining.
Tablets (1,721%) and smartphones (394%) have experienced the highest growth in media consumption time over the past year, whilst desktop only grew by 37%.
The fact that desktop usage is still growing can be attributed to a rise in multi-platform usage (from 60% to 74% year-on). Depending on content, consumers like to use different devices. According to comScore findings, photos are preferably accessed on mobile (93%), whilst portals (73%) rank higher for desktops.
Interestingly, despite 60% of consumers researching their products using their mobile devices that only translates to 13% of purchases made. There is a monetization gap of 47%. Most customers are still turning to their desktops (87%) for dollar transactions. Overall, mCommerce grew 28% to $31.6 billion.
With smartphone penetration in the US having grown 10% between 2013 and 2014, it means advertisers are increasingly turning to cater to their campaigns to mobile devices and it’s paying off. Mobile advertising increases awareness by 2.5 percentage points. Favourability, recommendations and likelihood to purchase are all up, likely due to improved targeting and higher in-view rates.（source：businessofapps）
4）Report released: BRIC mobile gaming market will reach $9.4B in 2016
by Patrick Yip
We, in partnership with global games market research firm Newzoo, are pleased to announce the release of our market analysis on BRIC mobile gaming markets. The study delineates the market opportunities, monetization potential, country trends and localization tactics.
The key takeaways of the analysis
The BRIC mobile gaming market is expected to reach $9.4B in 2016, hugely exceeding the global average.
It obtained $5.1 billion revenue in 2014 with a year over year (YoY) growth is at 91.7%. The global YoY average is 38.9%.
Despite the currency risk, Russia mobile gaming market still reached 49.0% YoY growth in 2014.
Major setback in 2015 will be expected, resulted in only 0.6% growth. Yet the market will recover and raise to 379.1 million in 2016.
With 135.7% CAGR towards 2016, India is rapidly expanding due to high mobile gamer penetration.
Improvement of basic infrastructure will help India reaching $571.6 million by 2016, backed by 208.2 million mobile gamers.
China contributed 87.9% of BRIC’s mobile gaming revenue in 2014
Continuous growth is expected and by 2016 the market will be expanded to $8.1 billion, about 6 times of the sum of other BRIC markets. It is expected that China’s average spend per payer will grow as well.（source：oneskyapp）


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Korean Air has launched its biggest ever global advertising campaign designed to reinvent the company’s image.The three-month US$19 million campaign, began on August 20, 2007 and features provocative 30-second spots to be aired on CNN, Fox, ABC, MSNBC and CNBC in the U.S.; CNN, Discovery Channel and National Geographic in Asia, and CNN and BBC World in Europe. The theme of the advertising is the color of flight. The TV commercial will be complemented by print advertisements in a wide range of magazines and newspapers in the region, such as TIME and NewsWeek. The global campaign also includes keywords optimization in search engines such as Yahoo! and Google.
“There’s enormous potential right now for Korean Air, an Asia-based airline with an extensive network and frequent schedule to the U.S. and Europe. We will showcase Korean Air’s true advantage in service and facilities in the advertisement as well as a refreshed image of a sophisticated, modern and creative airline,” said Ms. Emily Cho, Ad Planning Team of Korean Air, who masterminded the campaign.
“The ads create a tantalizing undercurrent. They’re quite flirtatious and a real departure from anything we have ever done. They have a retail sense to them. Our new spots definitely showcase the absolute beauty of our mantra, Excellence in Flight,” Ms. Cho added .
With a fleet of 123 aircraft, Korean Air operates almost 400 passenger flights per day to 114 cities in 37 countries. The airline aims to reach the majority of international air travelers from all over the world with this campaign, which will be run through November.
LG Advertising, Seoul, an award-winning advertising agency, is the creator of the advertisement.


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Radiohead Announce New Album Pre-Orders
Radiohead sent this email to their fans today, announcing pre-orders for their new album:
Thank you for waiting
Radiohead are pleased to announce that their new album, The King Of Limbs, is now available to pre-order from www.thekingoflimbs.com
There are digital and physical versions of the album available:
The digital version is available in both MP3 (320kbps) and WAV formats.
The physical, ‘Newspaper Album’ comprises two clear
10″ vinyl records in a purpose-built record sleeve,
a compact disc, many large sheets of newspaper artwork, 625 tiny pieces of artwork, and a full-colour piece of
oxo-degradable plastic to hold everything together.
The Newspaper Album also includes a digital download.
Pre-ordered digital will be available to download on Saturday 19th February.
For the next few weeks, The King Of Limbs will be exclusively available from our website,
but from March 28th it will be on general release on CD, 12″ vinyl and digital download in all good record stores.


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The Samsung Galaxy S22 figures to be a hot item when the flagship makes its debut early next year. But that could also be true in a literal sense, depending on a design decision facing the company.
Twitter leaker @FrontTron points to a post on Korean message board Clien that claims Samsung may not include a vapor chamber cooling system, as had previously been rumored. The cooling system could be nixed in an effort to keep costs down on the flagship phone.
- Best gaming phones overall
- Top Samsung phone: Galaxy Z Fold 3 vs. Galaxy S21 Ultra
- Plus: Galaxy S21 FE just popped up again — what's keeping this new phone?
It doesn't sound like the decision is final yet, as the post alludes to Samsung VIPs making the final call on whether to use the vapor cooling system or not.
The Mobile team is now waiting for decision from the VIP, which seems to be TM Roh, about whether the vapor chamber cooling will be added to the S22 Series or not. If not added, the overall heat dissipation design will be similar to the S21 Series, still hot in the summer. (3/3)August 23, 2021
Vapor chamber cooling systems typically appear on gaming phones, as a way of keep mobile devices from getting too hot when playing graphically intensive games. Overheating can cause performance to falter — something you'd definitely notice when playing a demanding game.
Rumors of the Galaxy S22 adopting vapor chamber cooling appeared earlier this summer. If adopted, it would be a return to form for Samsung which first introduced the feature in the Galaxy S10 Plus. The Galaxy S20 also used vapor chamber cooling, while teardowns of the Galaxy Note 20 revealed a switch to graphite thermal pads.
Samsung also used the graphite thermal pad approach to keep the Galaxy S21 cool. In posts on both Samsung's community forums and Reddit, a handful of users have complained of overheating triggered by multitasking on various S21 models.
That would seem to be a cause for concern if Samsung were to adopt the same graphite thermal pad approach for the Galaxy S22. But it's not clear if vapor chamber cooling makes that much of a difference for the typical Samsung smartphone user. When we tested the Galaxy Note 9 and its water-carbon cooling system, we didn't notice that much of a temperature change with the phone. It could well be that whatever improvement there is doesn't justify the added cost of an elaborate cooling system.
And cost is more important than ever for Samsung with its Galaxy S lineup. With the cost of flagship phones creeping upward in recent years, Samsung reversed course with the Galaxy S21, cutting the cost on each model by $200 from its S20 equivalent. That allowed Samsung to feature a starting price of $799 for the Galaxy S21 — more in line with what Apple charges for the iPhone 12.
It's unlikely Samsung will want to jack up prices on its smartphones so soon after cutting them. So you can understand why any costly feature like a vapor chamber cooling system may be on the chopping block.
The Galaxy S22 already figures to be something of a departure from Samsung's current flagship lineup, as the phone will reportedly feature an Exynos chip with integrated AMD graphics. The new phone could adapt an under-display camera too along with a thinner design.
It'll be some time before we find out if the rumored vapor chamber cooling system makes the final cut on Samsung's next flagship. The Galaxy S22 isn't expected until early 2022, with a January unveiling the earliest likely appearance.
- More: Best Samsung phones


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Gathering behavioral data to gain insight into consumers’ habits and to help develop marketing campaigns has become firmly entrenched in the marketing industry. This trend will continue over the next three years, according to the “Getting Digital Right 2015” study from the market research firm Millward Brown.
However, there is still a significant gap between the information collected and how to apply that knowledge. According to the report, while more than 65 percent use behavioral research tools, fewer than 15 percent of the marketers queried thought they made effective use of the available data.
The report, a survey of more than 400 marketers from different agencies, brands, and media companies, also found that multiscreen marketing was a two-edged sword. Marketers agreed that developing and deploying an integrated strategy that coordinated linking consumers with a given message, screen, and time presented a both a significant opportunity and challenge. Almost two-thirds said they were using consumer behavior insights and audience measurement tools that provided the necessary information, but only half of those said they had developed an effective marketing media mix.
The study acknowledges that digital is now part of the marketing landscape and points out that incorporating a balance of social, mobile, and digital channels into any given strategy is no longer a question of “if,” but rather of “when and how.” As such, marketers utilizing behavioral research tools to gain insight into consumer interactions will be able to plan and execute an optimized, but flexible, media marketing mix with an ROI that can be tracked and measured.
MarketingCharts. “Marketers Increasingly Relying on Behavioral Research to Influence Decisions”; July 2, 2015.
MillwardBrown Digital. “Getting Digital Right 2015”; July 2015.


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Feeding the Valley prepares to feed locals in need
Published 10:00 am Thursday, May 14, 2020
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Feeding the Valley Food Bank has dates lined up to provide more than 30 pounds of food to Troup County residents with no questions asked.
Jimmy Pruitt, the LaGrange warehouse coordinator for Feeding the Valley Food Bank, said food banks are being inundated with food from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and federal agencies due to COVID-19.
He said throughout the next 90 days, he is working with local government agencies to secure locations for drive-thru food drives.
On Tuesday, he went before the LaGrange City Council to inform them about their plans for the rest of the month.
There will be four mobile pantries by the food bank throughout the end of the month.
Pruitt said volunteers arrive at the sites at 8 a.m. and start giving away food at 10 a.m.
Starting on Thursday, May 21, the food bank will be at Franklin Forest Elementary in LaGrange.
On Saturday, May 23, there will be a distribution at Long Cane Middle School.
On Thursday, May 28, the pantry will set up at Callaway High School in Hogansville and on Saturday, May 30, the site will be Great Wolf Lodge in LaGrange.
“It’s totally a drive-thru scenario,” Pruitt said. “We have volunteers who grab these allocations of food, and people, our citizens, drive up, open their truck or door, and the volunteers place the food inside.”
He said there’s no pre-registration or any paperwork when picking up food.
“It’s simply drive up, get the food placed in the vehicle, and they drive away,” he said. “This food is designed to help people meet their need for food and security during this time.”
With each distribution, the family receives about 25 to 30 pounds of dry goods, like canned vegetables, dried fruits and rice. Pruitt said families receive about five to six pounds of frozen meat and three to five pounds of fresh produce or dairy if available.
“It has proven to be a very effective means of getting food into people’s hands during this time. There is no cost to them,” Pruitt said.
The food bank is looking to host 10 to 12 distributions through the end of July, and several of the sites have been selected, Pruitt said.
He did not reveal any sites beyond May 30.
He said the local law enforcement — Troup County Sheriff’s Office and the LaGrange Police Department — has agreed to provided traffic control and security for the events.
Pruitt said shortage of food isn’t a problem right now. Pruitt said Amazon Owner Jeff Bezos donated $100 million to food banks around the country, some of which went to Feeding the Valley.
Additionally, Pruitt said major grocery stores like Publix, Walmart and Kroger are funneling food into the food bank.


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The Hague, 12 February 2020
The judicial authorities in Stockholm have today formally indicted the main suspect of a large-scale digital sale of illicit drugs, who was arrested with the active involvement of Eurojust. The suspect of Swedish origin is supposed to have made profits of around EUR 1 million by selling heroin, cocaine, amphetamines and cannabis via the illegal Darknet. His activities had been ongoing for over three years when he was arrested in his hometown of Lund in September 2018.
Eurojust supported the Swedish authorities with the facilitation of European Investigation Orders (EIOs) and rogatory letters to Germany and the Netherlands as well as third countries, including New Zealand and Panama. The Spanish desk at Eurojust assisted by connecting the Swedish and Panamanian authorities and by providing judicial advice on the case.
Investigations into the case started in 2017 by the Swedish authorities. The sale of the drugs mainly took place in Sweden and amounted to a street value of approximately EUR 35 million.. In 324.000 online transactions some 17.000 persons in Sweden bought illicit drugs from the suspect via the Darknet. All these transactions were encrypted and paid for in bitcoins, with the illicit drugs delivered to the buyers by mail.
The indicted suspect was running the sale of the drugs by himself, but worked with a group of suppliers. Police and judiciary will now start further investigations into these suppliers and buyers. A group of accomplices of the main suspect has already been prosecuted and convicted for the supply and purchase of drugs in this case.
The suspect has now formally been charged for particularly gross drugs trafficking, money laundering and falsification of documents. Four co-defendants will be prosecuted for money laundering. The court case will start on 2 March in the District Court of Stockholm.
Photo © Shutterstock


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The Innopack confex is a perfect platform for exhibitors to demonstrate their latest developments in the fields of pharmaceutical packaging, labelling, drug delivery device design and engineering.
CPhI Conferences India, a division of Informa Markets in India is back with the most influential show, the West Pharma presents 11th Annual InnoPack Pharma Confex slated for 9th and 10th June 2022 at Sahara Star, Mumbai. The show will offer a unique combination of exhibition floor, semi-scientific conferences and a dedicated spotlight for innovations allowing the pharma packaging fraternity to discover the latest trends and revolutionary technologies transforming the packaging industry.
India has multiple challenges and providing best healthcare to a burgeoning population is one of the most critical. Despite improvements in the healthcare sector, chronic diseases are surging at a rapid pace. As per a WHO report, 20% of the country’s population suffers from at least one non-communicable disease and the treatments are estimated to cost India USD 6.2 trillion till 2030. Research and development at pharmaceutical companies has driven the growth of the pharmaceutical packaging market in India.
The Innopack confex is a perfect platform for exhibitors to demonstrate their latest developments in the fields of pharmaceutical packaging, labelling, drug delivery device design and engineering. It will also provide fledgling companies to discover whether their products can match market expectations.
Speaking on the announcement of the 11th Annual InnoPack Pharma Confex, Yogesh Mudras, Managing Director, Informa Markets in India said, “We are pleased to announce that the InnoPack Pharma Confex will return to its flagship in-person format with a focus on the pharmaceutical packaging industry which will no doubt facilitate its growth to reach an estimated $3 Billion by 2030, coupled with Government incentives and rebate programs. The Confex will provide the industry stakeholders a unique platform to see a comprehensive range of packaging and processing technologies while also affording them the scope for productive, in-depth discussions with vendors to solve pain points and address challenges.”
The Government of India has introduced the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for encouraging domestic manufacturing and achieving an Atmanirbhar Bharat. The adoption and compliance with regulatory norms in pharmaceutical packaging, along with standards about packaging recycling has bolstered the growth of pharmaceutical packaging market in India. The India pharmaceutical packaging market size was valued at $1434.1 million in 2020, and is projected to reach $3027.14 million by 2030 at a CAGR of 7.54% from 2021 to 2030.
The event will witness the presence of various Policy Makers, Industry Captains from Associations, Participations of Leaders from top pharma & biopharma companies. It has been well received by both MSMEs and large companies in form of participation and associations. Some of the key delegates include representations from companies such as Aurobindo, Dr. Reddy’s. Zydus, Piramal, Wockhardt, Glenmark, Cipla, GSK, Alembic pharma, Reliance Lifesciences, Macleods pharma, Sanofi, Indoco Remedies, J&J, among others.
The pharma packaging sector in India gained the much-needed impetus to be considered the preferred packaging partner worldwide. The conference agenda intends to accelerate the growth of this industry. The sessions over the two-day conference will be delivered by Vishwanath Swarup, Chief Operating Officer, Bharat Serums and Vaccines Limited, Dr. Aravindan Raghavan, Corporate Head - Global Operational Excellence, Syngene International Limited, Sriman Banerjee, Head of Packaging Development & CDE, R&D Pharma Sci, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Rajendra Vidwans, Biopharma Consultant, Ami Polymer Pvt. Ltd., Ravi Kumar, Head-Supply Chain , Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals(Janssen) and amongst other key packaging experts.
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MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) – The University of South Alabama will extend the use of online learning through the May and Summer terms.
They made the announcement on Facebook:
- Friends, family welcome retired naval commander home after he beats COVID-19
- Fundraiser set up for 22-year-old father who died after going missing in the water near Perdido Pass
- TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Home Goods to reopen most stores by end of June
- Smiles Behind the Shield: Saraland police officer nails birthday surprise
- The Park at OWA to open June 5


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On Friday evening, there was a familiar sight near Washington Square: a line snaking out the door of Sweet Charlie's, a shop that opened last spring and helped launch a dessert craze in Philadelphia with ice cream mixed on the spot, poured onto hyper-chilled metal plates, and then scraped off into highly Instagrammable rolls.
But a few blocks away, in Chinatown, are four more rolled ice cream shops, all with the same gimmick. One, called I CE NY, was bustling on Friday; the rest were almost empty.
Yet, the proliferation continues.
As of April 2016, there was not one place to acquire a $7 cup of custom-mixed rolled ice cream in Philadelphia. Now, there are more than a dozen in the region. There's IceMax on South Street and Roly Cow on East Passyunk. In the suburbs, options stretch from Media (Boba Tiki) to Oreland (1°C Iceland) to Collingswood (Arctic Freeze). And within a mere three-block radius not far from Rittenhouse Square, there are three more newcomers this season: Seventh Heaven, yet another Sweet Charlie's, and the first Philadelphia location of New York's 10Below, due to open in the next month or so.
That's a lot of ice cream. Is it too much?
It could well follow the familiar arc of dessert fads past, said longtime Philadelphia restaurant consultant Harris Eckstut. But it's too early to tell.
"On one hand, you have the entertainment value. The Lion King's been on Broadway for 20 years, so there are shows that will last forever. And the numbers work, as far as costs to rent a small space, equipment is not expensive, it doesn't seem like you need a lot of training for staff. From a business aspect, it makes sense," he said. "But will the demand remain?"
And the fickle market for the affordable luxury of trendy, gourmet desserts has laid low others before.
There was the cupcake craze, which peppered Philadelphia with boutique bakeries, like Brown Betty (all three of its locations are closed); mobile vendors like the Buttercream truck (also gone); and outposts of national chain Crumbs, which expanded rapidly in the 2000s and crashed hard by 2014 (six greater Philadelphia locations shut down, plus 60 more nationwide).
Then the frozen yogurt boom swept through town, bringing the opening — and, a few years later, the closing — of self-serve shops Phileo and Sweet Ending, a mobile truck called Gozen Yogurt, and Philadelphia storefronts of international chains such as Tutti Frutti and Red Mango. Even the Walgreens at Broad Street opened a self-serve frozen yogurt bar, perhaps a high-water mark for oversaturation.
Stephen Ngo had no idea he was about to throw down in the rolled ice cream wars when he set out to open Teassert Bar. He had spotted the frozen treat in Las Vegas and New York and figured he'd be the one to bring it to Philadelphia.
"We were the first ones [in Chinatown] to sign the lease, in January 2016, and we ended up being the third shop to open," he said. "Nobody expected so many shops at once."
He tries to stand out with quality ingredients (he said some stores use a powdered ice cream base, but he makes his in-house with just sugar, heavy cream, and milk) and novelties like a sundae of rolled ice cream wrapped in a Hong Kong-style egg waffle.
Ngo is no stranger to competition. He's also in the bubble tea business — he sells it at Teassert Bar and at his three Royal Tea bubble tea trucks, parked at Temple, Penn, and Drexel. That was another dessert glut that swept through Chinatown; at least three bubble tea shops have opened and closed there since 2011.
He figures, looking around at nearby competitors, a similar shakeout might be in store for rolled ice cream.
"I've noticed some places are a little slower than others," he said. "I feel like, sooner or later, a shop might have to close down."
But outside Chinatown, entrepreneurs are betting there's room to grow.
Sweet Charlie's now has four stores, including one in Ocean City, N.J., and another in Rehoboth Beach, Del., and in December, it launched a franchising program that's reached Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina. It's also promoting its new Rittenhouse store with booze-infused flavors, like Kahlúa and rum raisin, to draw evening crowds.
That's impressive growth for a company that began after Cherry Hill 19-year-old Kyle Billig, who started the company with his brother, Jacob, and father, Steven, saw a Facebook video of a Thai street-cart vendor making the instant ice cream and began attempting to replicate it at home using a granite slab and dry ice.
Steven Billig said some customers return several times a week — even though it can mean waiting up to an hour.
"People tell us, 'Our kids want to wait in the line.' They think it's cool. They're taking pictures, texting their friends. So, people expect to wait, and that's sort of the allure."
He said that when he saw competitors popping up last spring, "at first we were a little concerned how it would affect our business model. But after about a month or two, the demand for our product just kept growing."
The company is expanding cautiously, he said. But they are trying to capitalize on a cultural moment whose longevity is uncertain.
Eckstut said if the quality is good enough, the model might have staying power.
"As an investor, the hesitancy is what the millennials want and will continue to want. I never say never. If the numbers work, maybe it's not just a six-month fad."
Besides, even in dessert fads, there have been survivors.
Philly, after all, still has plenty of frozen yogurt, including the local chain Kiwi Yogurt, which launched in 2009 and had 12 stores at the height of the fro-yo bubble.
Co-owner Matt Mealey watched with some alarm as competitors flooded the market. "Within a five-mile radius, in a place like Collegeville — which isn't really very densely populated — there were four or five other self-serve frozen yogurt shops at one point. Now, there are none besides us. But certainly when those places were opening, things got more challenging."
Now, it has stabilized at eight shops.
Mealey said the lesson for rolled ice cream is: "They're not all going to survive, obviously. It comes down to the operations." He said focusing on friendly customer service, keeping a clean store, and rolling out innovative new flavors, like a vegan, probiotic coconut-milk frozen yogurt, kept Kiwi going.
And, for all the bakery closures, this city is no cupcake desert, either.
Gretchen Fantini, who started the Sweet Box truck amid the cupcake bubble and opened a store on 13th Street in Center City in 2014, figures it never will be.
"Who doesn't love a really good slice of cake?" she said. "If you're really good at it and you work hard, people will come. I'm not scared of hard work. That may be the difference between me and another place. Now I work even more than when I started. I don't have a day off ever. It's very rare."
For now, though, maybe rolled ice cream makers don't even have to be good. While it's novel, the gimmick alone can be enough.
Seventh Heaven, one of the new rolled ice cream shops near Rittenhouse, was empty Sunday afternoon. Then a family of tourists wandered up, clutching Art Museum brochures, and they peered at the window before heading inside.


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Darya is a crypto enthusiast who strongly believes in the future of blockchain. Being a hospitality professional, she is interested in finding the ways blockchain can change different industries and bring our life to a different level.
Tiger Global is considering a $500 million investment in Coinbase, which will make the plattform one of the highest privately valued companies in the US.
Coinbase continues to surprise customers coming with news every day. Recently, the company pleased investors with announcing a new listing policy which makes the listing process faster. Soon, Coinbase rolled out three new products aimed at educating people about cryptos and simplifying their first investing experience. Now, there is information about company’s deal with Tiger Global, a U.K. hedge fund that invests mainly in global consumer brands. However, Coinbase has not commented on the deal yet.
A couple of days ago, Tiger Global has performed the $245 million round for payments platform Stripe, and is now considering an investment in Coinbase. As reports from The ICO Journal read, Coinbase is going to raise up to $500 million at an $8 billion valuation.
“Coinbase is finalizing a deal that would value the company at about $8 billion, a transaction that would make Coinbase one of the highest-valued startups in the U.S. and help further legitimize the entire cryptocurrency industry.”
In August 2017, Coinbase was valued at $1.6 billion after a $100 million round. At $8 billion, the crypto platform would become the highest privately valued companies in the US. A part of the capital raised will be used to buy out existing shareholders, the rest will be invested in the company.
“The company, which has disclosed that it is profitable, has been talking with investors for almost all of 2018 about a secondary stock sale that would allow existing investors to cash out without the company necessarily raising new, fresh money for itself. Inbound interest was so high at one point that the company issued a stern warning to dealmakers to back off from the company and its shareholders.”
Thoughts about a possible Coinbase IPO emerged last year. Last December, Coinbase President Asiff Hirji said that “the most obvious path of Coinbase is to go public at some point, but there’s a lot for us to do between now and then, whenever that date is.”
One more news from Coinbase is connected with the recent changes in the staff. The company has welcomed the former CEO of Instinet, Jonathan Kellner, who will serve as a managing director of Coinbase institutional coverage group and lead institutional sales and support organizations. Moreover, Coinbase has hired Chris Dodds, a senior advisor to The Carlyle Group, currently serving on the board of Charles Schwab. He joins Coinbase as a member of the Coinbase Board of Directors.
We're proud to welcome Chris Dodds of the @CharlesSchwab Board of Directors to the @coinbase Board. His deep knowledge of financial services will be an asset as we head into this next chapter for the company and the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. https://t.co/5Kzv4cUeam
— Coinbase (@coinbase) October 2, 2018
Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong said:
“Chris brings world-class leadership skills, deep knowledge of the financial services industry, and significant financial and accounting experience… His addition to the Coinbase board is part of our effort to expand our financial services capabilities as we head into this next chapter for the company and the cryptocurrency industry as a whole.”
Currently, the company is in talks with Tiger Global. More information will probably become available soon.


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Boeing came to the Paris Air Show 2019 in a contrite mood over the two fatal crashes of its 737 Max which led to the global fleet being grounded.
Manufacturing is waiting for 5G, with two-thirds of industrial firms planning to use the network within the first two years of availability, a new report has found.
From entrepreneurial ventures through to multinationals, intellectual property is key for capturing the value of innovation, and a good IP strategy needs to be tied to, and will help deliver, business objectives.
Manufacturers generate massive amounts of data, yet very few put this intelligence to use. Over the years, most industrial businesses have lagged behind in their IT capabilities and it has cost them.
Automated manufacturing processes have been commonplace for many years. Quality control, however, is an area that has traditionally remained in the realm of human operations. That is until now.
The term 'blockchain' is little more than a decade old; related tech businesses are less than half that. Should manufacturers be embracing such a new, unfounded technology?
Capgemini’s manufacturing expert, Guy Williamson, reveals the opportunities that arise when businesses use data to accelerate product development and new business models.
My morning roundtables at this year’s Industrial Data Summit included discussions around the ‘Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Big Data’ and gaining greater ‘Supply Chain Insights’.
Vertical Farming is a new approach that could help solve the world’s escalating food chain crisis. And it is all made possible by data and lean manufacturing.
Breakdown. Downtime. Loss. Stress. Reputation. Big words in themselves, but put them all together and they are the stuff of manufacturers’ nightmares.


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A 57-year-old man from Arnold was arrested at his home for allegedly using a stolen debit card at an ATM. The man was seen in surveillance video at four Arnold businesses using the card to purchase items, Arnold police said.
The debit card was stolen on February 22 from an ATM at Arsenal Credit Union, 3780 Vogel Road. The man, who was arrested on March 4, was seen in surveillance video taking the card after the victim left it behind, according to the report.
The victim told police the card was used to make a total of $631.21 in fraudulent purchases at two hardware stores, a Mobil on the Run gas station and Petco in Arnold, according to the report.
Investigators identified the man as a suspect after he was seen in surveillance video exiting a blue 2006 Ford Explorer at the Mobil on the Run gas station, 3611 W. Outer Road. They used the SUV’s license plate to find where he lived, Arnold police said.
When police went to the man’s home on Peppermint Lane to arrest him, he was apparently wearing the same shirt seen in the gas station surveillance video, and he had on a blue flannel jacket that was also seen in the surveillance video. The suspect allegedly told police that he visited the stores where the stolen debit card was used, but did not recall shopping at the stores, according to the report.
The man was arrested and taken to the police station, where he was arrested and released pending a warrant application. Arnold police will seek a felony charge against the man through the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office for fraudulently using a credit device, Corporal. says Brett Ackermann.


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Demand for natural rubber tires is on the rise. Can a desert plant be the answer?
There might be a Schoolhouse Rock cartoon or a Mister Rogers' Neighborhood segment on how rubber is turned into play balls and tires and such.
We'll look into that, but until then Bridgestone is developing a way to turn a rubber-based, sagebrush-like plant from the desert into natural rubber tires.
According to USA Today, the Nashville-based tire company is looking for new ways to develop its line of tires to save on costs and to eschew the recent rubber tree crisis in South America.
Au Naturale Approach
About 100 years ago, American industrialists tried to use the same method to create rubber-based products, but to no avail. Synthetic rubber tires hit production and we've been driving on them ever since, but demand for natural rubber tires has climbed and tire companies are trying to accommodate.
However, tropical parasites in Brazil where rubber trees are harvested are literally eating away at the source and rubber plantations in Southeast Asia are ruining water quality.
Bridgestone's deal with polymer maker Versalis of Milan will focus on developing a sagebrush-like plant known as guayule for commercial harvests. It'll be a few years before this desert rubber can meet the demand it has now and produce 44 pounds per mid-sized vehicle. Natural rubber tires have been lauded for their strength, elasticity, and steering ability.
Sustainable natural rubber tires have been on the minds of those in the auto industry lately. In fact, General Motors Corp. announced partnerships with the world's four largest tire makers (Bridgestone, Continental, Goodyear, and Michelin) last year. The industry as a whole is looking to find new rubber supply plants to ease development pressure abroad.
So, what is guayule? It's a native plant seen throughout Mexico and desert parts of the U.S. If you've driven down the I-10 to Los Angeles you've probably seen a billion of these babies blowing in the wind. Bridgestone is not the only one doing something similar. Michelin is thinking up ways to extract rubber from a Russian dandelion. The game has changed, people.
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Dentons law firm representing Okanagan Cultivators begins the official licencing process for Okanagan Cultivators to receive from the government of Greece a cultivation license. Okanagan Cultivators has established relations in Greece with land, and partnerships that will allow Okanagan Cultivators to operate its cannabis cultivation facility. “This will be our largest independently owned and operated facility in Europe,” says Ken Fortier, Director of Operations for Okanagan. While Okanagan is in negotiations to acquire partnerships in other EU countries for cultivation the Greece facility is expected to be the largest production facility in Europe for Okanagan. “The products from the facility will stay in Europe and be delivered to our European clients,” said Miller CEO of Okanagan Cultivators. “We want to focus on and support the European cannabis market from the inside through European business in cultivation and distribution”.
Headquartered in Prague, CZ, Okanagan Cultivators does not have plans to relocate only to expand their operations to the countries in which they are doing business in. “Greece is an ideal place to set up cultivation, as we are also developing cannabis wellness for travelers looking to experience the Okanagan wellness concept”. Miller also stated that the production capabilities in Greece are massive and could easily be one of the largest cultivation facilities in Europe. “The European market should not have to rely on imports from outside Europe”, explained Miller, “There are more than enough opportunities to sustain domestic cultivation which is better for the European cannabis market”. Miller believes that the European cannabis market is well organized and managed by the government better than that of the USA and even Canada for regulation and support. European Cannabis Market Worth ~$37 Billion by 2027, Rising at a CAGR of 29.6% Between 2020 & 2027 – ResearchAndMarkets.com


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Posted October 08, 2018 06:32:03 The Apple Store in San Francisco has opened up a new water park called the Apple Park in San Jose.
A new water attraction has been built and the park is open to the public.
It’s not just a park.
Apple Park is a water park with a little bit of everything.
The water park is located at the intersection of Golden Gate and San Jose avenues, about two blocks from the Apple store.
There are a variety of water attractions including a water slide, a water boat ride, a boat ride with a floating boat, and even a water balloon ride.
According to the Apple website, the water park will be open to families, seniors, and people with special needs.
Waterpark locations and times have not been announced.


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NEW YORK: A small, upstart company that gives away its software for free is threatening to play spoiler to big rivals IBM and BEA Systems in the hotly contested market for business software that pipes data between applications.
"We have turned the heat up," JBoss Group founder and CEO Marc Fleury said of the privately held Atlanta, Georgia-based company's challenge to established players.
JBoss, which relies on a voluntary network of developers to build "application server" software, has won major corporate customers like motel chain Best Western International Inc. and telephone network operator MCI, formerly WorldCom Inc. Fleury says JBoss, which sells services to users of its free software, has revenues of between $1 million and $10 million per year.
Like Linux, JBoss is "open source" software that can be freely used, copied and modified. By contrast, IBM and BEA employ hundreds of in-house engineers and charge thousands of dollars for their programs. Users of BEA's flagship WebLogic software are not free to install, modify, or redistribute it without permission.
While JBoss is not making huge sums of money itself, analysts say it is sapping revenue from companies such as BEA (BEAS.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , two of the world's top 10 software companies.
"The pricing pressure is very strong," said Trip Chowdhry, an analyst at FTN Midwest Research. "Just like Linux has put pressure on other vendors."
JBoss bets it can make money selling services to make its software work with other programs its customers use. The company's Web site boasts that 50 percent of its staff time goes to building free software with the other half devoted to for-fee consulting work on behalf of clients.
In an era of cost-conscious development, JBoss, along with another rival, Apache Software Foundation, have wooed millions of programmers to try their free software.
JBoss expects its server software to be downloaded three million times this year, a 50 percent jump from last year. Companies such as German chemical conglomerate BASF AG and Nielsen Media Research use JBoss.
JBoss, whose software speeds communication between databases and computers on far-flung networks, remains puny compared to the $934 million in sales reported by BEA Systems Inc. last year. JBoss has only 30 employees.
"JBoss is a very credible threat to BEA," Fulcrum Global Partners's analyst Cheng Lim said. "But it shouldn't be a real concern in the near-term."
Chowdhry compared JBoss to Linux software distributor Red Hat Inc. in 1997. Back then, few believed in the future of a software company that gave away its products and relied on service revenue as its lifeblood.
BEA, which has 35 percent of the application server market, shrugs off the JBoss threat, saying price for the software is not the dominant factor when companies make buying decisions.


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Hong Kong-based viAct helps construction sites perform around-the-clock monitoring with an AI-based cloud platform that combines computer vision, edge devices and a mobile app. The startup announced today it has raised a $2 million seed round, co-led by SOSV and Vectr Ventures. The funding included participation from Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund, Artesian Ventures and ParticleX.
Founded in 2016, viAct currently serves more than 30 construction industry clients in Asia and Europe. Its new funding will be used on research and development, product development and expanding into Southeast Asian countries.
The platform uses computer vision to detect potential safety hazards, construction progress and the location of machinery and materials. Real-time alerts are sent to a mobile app with a simple interface, designed for engineers who are often “working in a noisy and dynamic environment that makes it hard to look at detailed dashboards,” co-founder and chief operating officer Hugo Cheuk told TC.
As companies signed up for viAct to monitor sites while complying with COVID-19 social distancing measures, the company provided training over Zoom to help teams onboard more quickly.
Cheuk said the company’s initial markets in Southeast Asia will include Indonesia and Vietnam because government planning for smart cities and new infrastructure means new construction projects there will increase over the next five to 10 years. It will also enter Singapore because developers are willing to adopt AI-based technology.
In a press statement, SOSV partner and Chinaccelerator managing director Oscar Ramos said, “COVID has accelerated digital transformation and traditional industries like construction are going through an even faster process of transformation that is critical for survival. The viAct team has not only created a product that drives value for the industry but has also been able to earn the trust of their customers and accelerate adoption.”


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The two-day trade and investment China international companies like International Import Expo (CIIE) generated potential business worth $4 billion, according to reports.
CCTV News App reported that more than 1,100 enterprises from over 50 countries and regions were present at the Shanghai event, with cross-border ‘matchmaking’ activities also held online.
Over half of the world’s top 500 companies and industrial leading enterprises participate in the exhibition, and a total of 145 countries, regions and international organizations took part in the event.
The conference boosted cross-border cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises at home and abroad, according to the Bureau of the China International Import Expo.
This year’s event had six exhibition areas covering: food and agricultural products; automobile; intelligent industry and information technology; consumer goods; medical equipment and healthcare products; and trade in services sectors.
Seven exhibits were unveiled in the automobile sector, among them the Porsche Mission R, an all-electric vehicle for motorsports. And Tesla’s robot, Tesla Bot, made its China debut during the expo, with the car manufacturers’ major product line – Model S Plaid, Model X Plaid, Model 3, Model Y – on display.
This time the expo has set up two special exhibit zones: Artificial Intelligence, covering 5,000 square metres, and Crop and Seed.
The world’s three leading seed companies, Bayer, Codihua and Syngenta, all participated in the expo, showcasing their new technologies in breeding, planting and mechanized production.
World-leading integrated circuit (IC) manufacturers said the fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE) is a valuable platform for expanding co-operation with China, expressing their desire for more investment in the vast market.
In the tech sector, US company Qualcomm, which has participated in the event for five consecutive years, displayed a number of phones which are jointly made with its Chinese partners, including Xiaomi, Honor, OPPO and Vivo.
“The CIIE is a valuable platform for communication and cooperation for Qualcomm,” said Meng Pu, chairman of Qualcomm China. “In the past five years, our cooperation in China has expanded from mobile phone to automobile, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, extended reality and other fields.”
Texas Instruments (TI) said revealed its plan for expansion of its assembly and test facility in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu at the event.
Jiang Han, vice president of TI and president of TI China, said: “The expansion of the manufacturing base in Chengdu and the upgrading of the product distribution centre in Shanghai further demonstrated the firm belief of TI to deeply invest in China and serve customers.”
The event also attracted chip companies from Japan and Europe, including Japanese semiconductor manufacturer Renesas Electronics Corporation and Dutch chip equipment company ASML.
The themes of the CIIE – openness and cooperation – are in line with the ASML’s overall purpose, said Shen Bo, ASML senior vice-president and president of ASML China. “Our participation in the CIIE also shows this attitude: to support the openness and cooperation of the industry, and hope to work with industry partners to promote technological progress,” Shen said.
Another major international company attending was Ikea, which unveiled its new Bruksvara range of affordable furniture at the CIIE.
Sven Rau, vice-president of Ikea China, said the company will be opening a new store in Hefei, capital city of East China’s Anhui province, at the end of 2022. A new store in the Linkong area in western Shanghai and the second store in Xi’an of Northwest China’s Shaanxi province are currently under construction.
Rau said that Ikea has attended every CIIE, describing China as one of the most important markets for the company.
“Through this exhibition, Ikea looks forward to participating in China’s economic development and addressing Chinese consumers’ demands for a green and diversified home, which in turn would help the company’s long-term business development in the Chinese market,” he said.


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A mobile court raided an unauthorized acid production factory in Jashore on Thursday afternoon and fined the owner of the company Mamun-ur-Rashid Tk 200,000 and sentenced him to jail for one year for producing, storing and marketing unauthorized products.
The bench clerk to the Magistrate of the mobile court Md.Jalaluddin said the Mobile court came to know that an organization called MR Enterprise in Kismat Nawapara area of Jashore Sadar upazila was making and storing acid products like Vixel, Hand Sanitizer etc. without approval from the authority. Then led by Executive Magistrate of Mobile court Kazi Atiqur Rahman fined the owner of the company Mamun-ur-Rashid under sections 37, 43, 50 and 53 of the Consumer Rights Protection Act 2009 for manufacturing and marketing products without the approval of BSTI.
Mobile court sources said, the owner of the company Mamun-ur-Rashid used to produce these products under the open sky and without any chemist. Mobile court also banned producing these products without the permission from the district administration.
Officials from the drug administration, Consumer Rights Directorate, RAB and police were present during the operation.


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Customers in Australia also complained about the service—from double billing to slow speeds. Bad reviews on product sites significantly outnumbered the good. Tellingly, the source also revealed that subscriber numbers are low in Australia—there were just 25 customer activations in February 2020. Although numbers are said to be picking up, today, only three people are left from a team that was 25-strong—a marketing person, sent from Singapore; a single customer service representative; and the former general manager of Australia, who is now working on ad-hoc projects.
Ironically, Circles’ lack of a physical footprint—something it has long considered an advantage—may have hurt its overseas ventures. “Not having stores sometimes hurt its credibility and subscribers are not confident about the kind of service it can offer. [This can] Often result in slower growth in markets, or it will have to roll out aggressive promos like it did in Australia, with its four-month free offering,” said Batra. Circles doesn’t even sell its SIM cards at stores.
Circles’ Bengaluru centre, too, saw a similar fate.
Cuts and bruises
Bengaluru, which was supposed to be a centre to develop applications outside the telco business, saw a hiring surge in May 2019. “But over months, that really did not take off, I guess, and the office sort of became a back office for their Singapore operations,” said a former employee, who was laid off from the Bengaluru centre..
There was a management struggle, where local executives had no real power, said the person quoted earlier. Singapore was pulling the strings. Things started going downhill when Dhanush Hetti, the new chief technology officer, came onboard. The management made employees work extra hours despite knowing that these employees were not going to be part of Circles’ future plans, the person added.
The layoffs started all of a sudden in November 2019. “Before Diwali, there was a performance review, which was weird because we had one a few months back,” said the former employee. “They gave us more work during the process; we thought it was performance evaluation, but in fact, it was just extra work.”
A list of people were fired, purportedly over performance, the source said. While three employees still work out of Bengaluru, it’s all a charade to show that the centre is not completely shut, the former employee claimed.
Even in Singapore, its best performing market, employees were not spared.
While the company was on its expansion spree, Circles had also entered new sectors in Singapore, eventually getting trapped in its own concentric circles.
It launched its event discovery platform, Discover, in November 2018. The platform was the MVNO’s digital shot at moving beyond telephony, with artificial intelligence learning a user’s preference and recommending events they would be interested in. The plan was to eventually offer tickets that could be purchased directly on the app.
The MVNO was also attempting credit and a rewards programme—Rides for Rewards, which was linked to the commuter payment system, EZ-Link. The programme offered points for every ride taken which could then be redeemed for rewards. Circles was also looking into building an e-wallet and issuing its own card for use, the person noted.


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We are excited to announce the launch of the new AWS HPC Blog channel. Follow this channel to learn about the latest AWS HPC product releases, best practices for running HPC workloads on AWS, AWS HPC customer stories, and how to integrate your workloads with solutions offered by AWS Partners. Stay tuned for more exciting posts to come!
Get started by reading the first AWS HPC blog post by Deepak Singh, Vice President of AWS Compute Services.
If you are looking for more AWS HPC content, don’t forget to check out the new HPC Tech Shorts video series.


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- TouchBase has released collectible trading cards featuring Silicon Valley’s top investors and advisors.
- Cards include notable investors like Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham and Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen.
- The cards include stats for each investor, like their total number of investments and number of exits.
- A pack of five cards goes for $US59.99.
Ever think you’d hear someone say: “I’ll trade you a Paul Graham for a Marc Andreessen?”
A San Francisco company is hoping that the tech industry’s biggest VC dealmakers have attained the same kind of celebrity status that has driven kids to trade baseball cards for generations.
New collectible trading cards, created by a company called TouchBase, feature Silicon Valley’s top investors and advisors, including Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham, Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen, Benchmark general partner Bill Gurley, and Mary Meeker, formerly a partner at Kleiner Perkins.
The cards include stats for each investor, like their total number of investments and number of exits.
They’re also not cheap. A pack of five cards goes for $US59.99.
But, as TouchBase mentions on their website, “the VCs featured have had multiple exits, but are on their way to more. This makes their cards highly collectible.”
Some of the rarest VC cards include Don Valentine (Sequoia, an investor in Atari), Mike Markkula (Angel, an investor in Apple), and Jenny Lee (GGV, an investor in Alibaba). A recent Boing Boing report showed one lucky collector scored a Sam Altman in their pack.
A TouchBase spokesperson wouldn’t confirm how many different VC cards exist today, but said it’s “always creating new series.” In fact, on the company’s website, visitors can suggest new investors or founders that they’d like to see added to the collection.
To view the entire collection, TouchBase is offering a limited number of private showings in their San Francisco office.
Packs will start shipping in November – right in time for the holidays.


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Esports must definitely benefit from the world of acceleration, despite being in 2020, it is continuing to grow. Dr. Sarut Vanichpun, Director of Sea will be joining the conference to tell us how business models and marketers attract the eSports industry, gamers and audiences. Dr. Sarut joined Sea 3 years ago but before that he has been working in a tele company and has always keen his eyes on game and esports. And he’s also a big fan of gaming. Dr. Sarut started explaining the revolution of esports and gaming.
To look back 10 years ago, online gaming is just a pc game. And slowly, you will see the growth starting to change into a mobile game which is a device that everyone must have. Before being a mobile game, gaming was in a form of pc and control that you need to be able to afford to have one. But right now everyone can access it. That is definitely the turning point when we see the gaming industry starting to grow into a mass audience and population, not just a niche group of people anymore.
Fast internet also made a mega change in esports. First with the mobile, it is more individual. You can play the game alone. But right now is the trend of online gaming. You need an online community. You need to play the game with other people. The introduction of 4G and upcoming 5G is going to change the way people interact with each other on online platforms gaming. The game will be more engaging and people will see how fast and easy to download the content to access. It is definitely the new experience for game users.
Garena World 2019 is the example of how esports has grown so much over the years. 10 years ago nobody would believe that one day the world would have an Esport event where people gather to compete in online gaming and also over 200,000 attendees joining the event. It is something you can not imagine but it just happened last year in 2019 by Garena. And Dr. Sarut believes that it is the biggest esports event in SouthEast Asia. The event was for 2 days with the total engagement of 31 millions online views. We also have international competitions joined us as well. As seeing the esports trends shift over the past few years, not only the gamers themselve join the event but also the fans of the esports players and teams join the event. People were truly engaged with the content as they found it entertaining. So it is not just to play the game anymore. This has shown that gaming is starting to move into the mainstream. It’s a new entertainment platform that everyone can enjoy. It is following the direction of a real sport where you don’t have to technically play that sport but you can be a fan and enjoy watching the players play. This could bring a lot of sponsorship and partners to support the esports industry because they also want the same type of engagement that esports could provide.
Dr. Sarut gives an example of how the company brings new experience and collaboration to the audience. Free Fire is the garena development game which received a phenomenon success.
In 2019, Free Fire is the number one download in the gaming industry. And for the second quarter of this year during the lockdown of Covid-19, the number of game users peaked at over a hundred millions users. Free Fire has been a very huge success so it inspired us to always create new content of gaming to offer to the users. Later, garena made a global collaboration with Netflix series ‘Money Heist’. The Characters of the series are very unique, they are all wearing red jumpsuits. We took over the content from Money Heist and put the characters in the Free Fire game which people can create their own characters with costumes. So basically it is not just a game for the audience anymore. Garena brings the whole new experiences to offer to the users through the game platform which could lead to more engagement and a better satisfaction.
Dr. Sarut said that Sea has been working with a few universities with their Esports and Gaming program and plans to expand to more universities in the future. The purpose of the program is to develop their skill and invite them to come train with garena and Sea during the event for example of Garena World 2019. They will have them to learn and experience the real event. Sea not only wants to expand their projects to the university's students but the company also wants to educate high school students for the available career option for them. Garena Academy is a website providing information on career assessment which relates to your interest in order to find the skill you need to improve. They want to be the guide for high school students to choose the right career path they want. This is a very good way to educate outsiders as well that the gaming industry is not just being a gamer but it has plenty of opportunities and options for young generations to discover.
Despite the disruption of Covid-19 affecting various sectors, it seems like it is beneficial to the online gaming industry. Dr. Sarut has given the opinion that one of the reasons that garena rise during this time is that they know how to adapt to the situation. Especially when they have to cancel their Garena World 2020 because of social distancing policy. It is obvious that the majority of gamers are staying home ever since before the lock down. So they have more time to enjoy the game and content we have to offer which leads to our goal to be more creative on the content in order to gain more engagement in return. Including making them stay home more is our intention as well. However, pandemic has made Sea change their strategy in terms of organizing their offline event. Because at the end of the day, gathering people to engage for an online gaming experience live is better than experience online individually. This is an opportunity to improve our ability in creating more creative game content. And we also want to develop our hybrid event which makes people be more engaged and participate with the online platform. For the future and the trend of esports for the rest of 2020 and 2021, Dr. Sarut believes that he only sees people are more and more engaging with the industry both at individual level and business. The business levels can take esports as an opportunity to expand their business and attract the targets. And for those who want to participate in esports, they can learn from a lot of professionals who now make gaming a career. Furthermore, Dr. Sarut would love to see more support from the government in the gaming industry in the future. It will push up the growth of the digital economy. As online gaming is a platform that gathers lots and lots of people together, they will lead to more creative opportunities in making something new and stay relevant to your customers.
This is just a sampling of the great content you’ll find at the Techsauce Global Summit 2020. Check out all the sessions here http://summit.techsauce.co.


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According to the National Retail Federation's 2009 Back to School Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, the average family with students in grades Kindergarten through 12 is expected to spend $548.72 on school merchandise, a decline of 7.7 percent from $594.24 in 2008. Total spending on back to school is expected to reach $17.42 billion.*
2009 back-to-college and back-to-school spending combined will total $47.50 billion.
According to the survey, the economy is having a major impact on back-to-school spending as four out of five Americans (85 percent) have made some changes to back-to-school plans this year as a result. Some of those changes impact spending, with 56.2 percent of back-to-school shoppers hunting for sales more often, 49.6 percent planning to spend less overall, 41.7 percent purchasing more store brand/generic products and 40.0 percent planning to increase their use of coupons. Others say the economy has impacted lifestyle decisions, with 11.4 percent saying children will cut back on extracurricular activities or sports and 5.7 percent saying that the economy is impacting whether their children will attend a private or public school.
"The economy has clearly changed the spending habits of American families, which will likely create a difficult back-to-school season for retailers," said Tracy Mullin, President and CEO of NRF. "As people focus primarily on price, strong promotions and deep discounts will ultimately win over back-to-school shoppers this year."
Spending in most back-to-school categories is expected to decrease, with the one bright spot being electronics. According to the survey, the average family plans to spend $167.84 on electronics purchases, compared to $151.61 last year. Families will also spend an average of $204.67 on clothing and accessories, $93.59 on shoes, and $82.62 on school supplies.
Discount stores (74.5 percent) will be the most popular destination for back-to-school shoppers, followed by drug stores (21.5 percent), while more than half of back-to-school shoppers will head to department stores (54.4 percent) and nearly half (48.4 percent) will shop at a clothing store. Additionally, 22.2 percent will shop online, 20.8 percent will shop at electronics stores and 18.2 percent will shop at a thrift store.
"Americans will be looking far and wide for the best back-to-school deals, using newspaper ads, online promotion codes, and a lot of comparison shopping before making decisions," said Phil Rist, executive vice president, Strategic Initiatives, BIGresearch. "This year, many parents hope to begin back-to-school shopping early to spread the spending out over a longer period of time."
To read more survey results, visit: www.nrf.com


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We all know Elon Musk and company are used to thinking big. Even so, the recent announcement that a Tesla Semi truck would be unveiled in September caused jaws to drop and heads to shake. In the trucking industry, there was plenty of skepticism, but also a healthy concern for the future. “Commercial vehicle makers… Read more »
Search Results Found For: "Cummins"
Business is picking up for Wrightspeed, the manufacturer of plug-in powertrains for heavy-duty vehicles headed by Tesla founder Ian Wright. The company is expanding its supply chain team, bringing on experts with experience at Tesla, Ford, Cummins, and others, and scaling up operations to meet demand from customers such as New Zealand bus operator NZB… Read more »
Long-haul trucks are going to be a tough nut for EVs to crack, but it’s never smart to bet against Tesla. That’s the one-sentence summary of the trucking industry’s reaction to Tesla’s recent announcement that it will unveil an electric semi-truck in September. The challenges involved in electrifying big rigs are huge. The battery for… Read more »
New Flyer is one of North America’s largest bus builders, and zero-emission buses (ZEBs) are a growing part of its business. In 2016, the company delivered 213 “equivalent units” as zero-emission buses (one standard transit bus or motor coach equals one equivalent unit, one articulated bus equals two). This represents 8.3% of New Flyer’s total… Read more »
Ian Wright is originally from New Zealand. He came to California in 1993, where he happened to be a neighbor of Tesla founder Martin Eberhard. He worked with optical switching systems at a company called Altamar Networks until it went out of business, then decided he wanted to start his own company. Eberhard and his… Read more »


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The Lenovo ThinkPad X13s is the first Windows 11 on Arm laptop I’ve tried that’s based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 chipset.
Recent Windows on ARM Stories
The Lenovo ThinkPad X13s is an ultraportable laptop powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 and Windows 11 on Arm.
The Xiaomi Book S 12.4” is the company's first-ever Windows 11 on ARM tablet, and at €699 it's cheaper than Microsoft's Surface Pro X.
I installed Visual Studio 2022 17.3 Preview 2 on a Windows on Arm PC. It was a stark reminder of the challenges this platform still faces.
Spotify has quietly released a native Windows on ARM desktop client in beta.
Microsoft unveiled today Project Volterra, a new ARM-based mini PC designed for Windows developers.
The Apcsilmic Dot 1 is a new entry-level Windows on ARM mini PC that looks like a good alternative to the Snapdragon WOA Mini PC released last fall.
Lenovo unveiled today the new ThinkPad X13s, the company’s first Windows on ARM laptop powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 chip.
Well, it took long enough, but Microsoft is finally testing native OneDrive clients on Windows on ARM and M1-based Macs.
While the world waits for Qualcomm’s NUVIA acquisition to bear fruit, the chipset maker will foist another minor upgrade on PC users.
According to one report, Microsoft has an exclusivity deal with Qualcomm for Windows on ARM (WOA) that’s expiring soon.
The ECS LIVA Mini Box QC710 Desktop is aimed at developers interested in porting their apps to Windows on ARM.
Windows 11 on ARM adds 64-bit Intel app emulation, but fans have been wondering whether that will come to Windows 10 on ARM too. It will not.
The ECS LIVA Mini Box QC710 Desktop is a low-end, Snapdragon-powered Windows 10 on ARM mini-PC that can be upgraded to Windows 11.
In an interview this week, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said that his firm will finally have competitive laptop CPUs, but not until late 2022.
Lost amid all the excitement around Windows 11 are some much-needed improvements to Windows on ARM. Is the renaissance finally here?
Microsoft today announced ARM64EC, a new way for developers to build native apps for Windows 11 on ARM.
Microsoft today announced the public availability of the first 64-bit version of Office that runs natively on Windows on ARM.
Microsoft is refreshing the Surface Pro X with the second-generation of its custom built ARM processor and a new Platinum finish.
Microsoft working on adding support for 64-bit apps to Windows on ARM via emulation according to a new report, but it may not arrive till 2021.
Microsoft's new Edge browser can now run natively on Windows on ARM devices, including the new Surface Pro X.
Like many of you, I'm eager to discover how, or even whether, this new chipset advances the platform and makes it viable for day-to-day use.
Microsoft is releasing a new ARM64 SDK that'll let developers build native 64-bit apps for Windows 10 on ARM devices.
Microsoft is finally revealing the first set of Always Connected PCs powered by Windows on ARM and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 processors.


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Funko Pop! vinyl figures have become a huge pop culture collectible over the last few years, and it’s is just growing bigger and bigger all the time.
One of their newest releases will be for the wildly popular video game series, Batman: Arkham Asylum. It will include vinyl figures of Batman, The Joker, Harley Quinn, and Killer Croc.
Funko Pop! vinyl figures are modeled in a Japanese Chibi style. They stand 3 3/4 inches and hundreds of characters have been produced from movies, TV, comics, musicians, and even wrestling.
These figures are currently available for pre-order and are scheduled to arrive in November 2014.
Check out all of the Batman: Arkham Asylum Pop! vinyl figures and pre-order them now!
Source: Entertainment Earth News


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Bitcoin and NFTs are the new preferred payment method for athletes who wish to directly invest
By KATHERIN RAYGOZA- firstname.lastname@example.org
Cryptocurrency is creeping into the sports industry after many leagues suffered financial losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To recoup their losses, professional sports organizations have turned to cryptocurrency as a form of compensation for athletes who wish to further their investments.
After former Arsenal full back Kieran Gibbs received half his pay in Bitcoin while playing for Inter Miami CF, the Premier League for soccer in Europe, begun talking about including cryptocurrencies as the players method of payment. This caught the attention of several other plays and it could be the future of English Leagues.
“All roads lead to Bitcoin,” Gibbs said. “It’s just going to take time for people to trust what this thing is. It’s similar to what we saw on the internet, I believe. It took a long time for that to happen, and now many people believe you can’t live without it. It’s an avoidable part of our lives.”
Cryptocurrency is a digital payment method and/or currency that doesn’t require authorization from banks or trusted third parties to verify transactions. Instead of having access to physical dollars, people can now make payments purely as digital entries. Thousands of different types of cryptocurrencies exist, including Bitcoin and a Non-Fungible Token (NFT), which are one of the most popular ones today.
The main aspect of this type of currency creates units of cryptocurrency that are found through a process called mining, which uses units that are kept in cryptographic wallets, but uses generators that can be downloaded onto a computer to create these units.
Cryptocurrency first entered the National Football League (NFL) in May 2019 when former offensive tackle from the Carolina Panthers, Russel Okung, tweeted that wanted to receive his pay in Bitcoin. A year later in 2020, he let the world know that he has become the first NFL player to receive his salary in cryptocurrency. At the time, Okung was making $13 million and received 50 percent of his earnings in Bitcoin.
The NFL is using Zap Strike — a Bitcoin investment and payments company that transacts over the “Lightning Network.” This means that Zap Strike facilitates ordinary currency into Bitcoin almost instantly.
New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley earned more than $10 million in endorsements and sponsorships deals and decided to start having his entire income from these deals converted into Bitcoin
“You see inflation,” Barkley said. “You see how high it is right now, and you learn that you can’t save yourself to wealth. That’s why I’m going to be taking my marketing money in bitcoin.”
Since some sports seem to be appealing to crypto nowadays, it represents an opportunity for cryptocurrency companies to expand their network. Crypto is appealing to the sports industry because its most popular players are currently earning more money with the investments they are and also. This is happening at a time when teams are still financially recuperating from the pandemic.
“They’re beginning to exhaust the early-adopter market,” Columbia Business School professor R.A. Farrokhnia said to Sports Illustrated. “They have an incentive to try to increase the market, the number of participants, the volume of trades and so on.”
So far some players from the NFL, MLB, NBA, and MLS are currently using cryptocurrency. Many crypto companies are attempting to make their way into the sporting world, but explaining crypto to fans or people who watch is something that is tricky — particularly in the limited amount they can explain in a sports advertisement. Because of this, they instead focus heavily on building trust.
As crypto slowly is being incorporated into sports, it is also becoming widely used as a form of payment amongst the fans. Tickets and merchandise are being purchased through cryptocurrencies, allowing the clubs to pay for the players’ salaries allowing them to transfer their fees.
Despite the rise of excitement and opportunities in crypto-assets in the sporting world, there are many risk factors that sport clubs are conscious of. The value of assets in crypto continues to grow, but there are many risks involved that still remain uncertain.
Written by: Katherin Raygoza — email@example.com


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Leigh Maxwell Captures Camouflage in a Capsule
Designer Jennifer Maxwell spent a year developing a collection that uses a mix of diamonds and gemstones to elevate the pattern.
Having grown up in the Midwest, Jennifer Maxwell, the designer behind Leigh Maxwell, gets it. “That’s the Iowa perspective as well; I’m in the middle of deer-hunting country.”
But there are other perspectives too, one of camouflage-as-fashion—which Maxwell says she sees all over Los Angeles, where her jewelry is made—and of appealing to luxury consumers who’ve sought a different sort of life since the onset of the pandemic.
COVID-19, Maxwell noted, caused some people to relocate from crowded urban locations to wide open spaces like Big Sky, Montana, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, bringing more customers to luxury retailers like Belle Cose, which has stores in both places.
Leigh Maxwell does well in both those locations, with Maxwell creating a Teton charm exclusively for Belle Cose that sells “non-stop,” store owner Jane Carter-Getz told Couture.
Inspired by time spent in the national parks out West, Maxwell also has made a couple of hand-carved elk pendants that have sold at both stores.
“For me, [camo] just kind of seemed like a natural leap and I hadn’t seen it done in fine jewelry,” the designer said.
To start, Maxwell leaned into the greens of fall, sourcing gorgeous green sapphires and tourmalines, and then spent a year in a Goldilocks-esque phase of development. She had to try out numerous sizes and patterns for the collection, called simply “Camo,” to get it just right.
If the pattern was too small, it wouldn’t read like camouflage.
When the size was right, there was the matter of balancing texture and color so the pieces were recognizable as camouflage without being too literal.
“It had to feel right for her,” explained Beth Ann Bonanno of The Gems Project, the luxury brand development agency that represents Maxwell. “I could like it or [someone else] could like it but, as always, it had to connect to the designer.”
“Camo can be read a lot of different ways by a lot of different people. It had to be set right and the colors had to be right,” she said.
“It was very important to me that it did feel like luxury.”
Accompanying the main stars of the Camo collection—the elegant earrings, slim cuff, and the designer’s signature heart, which is a cornerstone of her brand—are what Maxwell refers to as the “supporting cast members,” the hand-carved acorn pendants and pinecone earrings.
There are also the pieces she created previously that can be interpreted as camo-adjacent, like the elk pendant.
The Leigh Maxwell camo capsule collection soft-launched this fall via a series of trunk shows, making stops in stores including Neiman Marcus, Elizabeth Anthony in Houston, Marissa Collections and GemBox in Boston.
This week, Maxwell and her team will head west from the brand’s headquarters (and her home) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Belle Cose in Big Sky and Jackson Hole to show the Camo collection there for the first time.
In Las Vegas at the Couture show this summer, retailers will have a chance to see, buy and order it for their stores.
From bench jewelers to appraisers, Jewelers of America’s updated guide shares an overview of how much industry employees are being paid.
Sandra Cochran has more than 25 years of retail experience.
Distinguishing natural diamonds from laboratory-grown stones – now more available than ever – has been difficult for jewelers. Until now.
The WaxJet 400, recognized as the world's fastest wax printer, is bringing in a new era of precision and efficiency to industry.
The Conference Board’s revised January reading suggests consumers did not start off 2024 as confidently as previously thought.
The gemstone mining company’s “Celebration Sapphires” collection has launched in India.
The auction house sold all 11 “MoonSwatch Moonshine Gold” suitcases, donating the proceeds to eye care nonprofit Orbis International.
Matteo Farsura, former exhibition manager of Vicenzaoro, will oversee the Italian Exhibition Group’s various jewelry and fashion shows.
The upcoming show will have an immersive “47th Street Experience” for attendees.
Set to be held in Venice, it’s a look through the maison’s history.
Sebastian Clarke and Katherine van Dell, frequent appraisers on “Antiques Roadshow,” will join the new office.
Sherry Smith dishes on the month’s highs and lows and the two categories consumers were loving ahead of Valentine’s Day.


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Lifestyle Yahoo Lifestyle
'I shouldn't have worn the green shirt': Mom finds out that schools use greenscreens for class photos after it's too late
Laurel Boone Hutsell recommended that her son Carter wear a green shirt, so that it would really pop against any gray or taupe background the school would be using.
Celebrity Yahoo Lifestyle
Drunk man takes a taxi to his parents' house, falls asleep on the couch only to realize his parents don't live there anymore
The man took off his shoes at the door, got himself a drink, and fell asleep in a stranger's home.
Celebrity Entertainment Tonight
The model attended the country crooner's concert over the weekend.
Business Business Insider
Across the country, in towns big and small, people are still filing into popular chain sandwich stores to buy subs. According to foodservice research company Technomic's 2017 chain restaurant study, reported on by Restaurant Business magazine, sandwich sales increased 2.9% over the previous year. But with hundreds of chains to choose from, how is anyone expected to find the best one? We put four chains to the test to see which one you should buy. The four sub restaurants we picked all made the top 10 in the sandwich category of the 2017 chain restaurant report. They are: Subway Jimmy John's Jersey Mike's Potbelly Here's how they stacked up.
Mollie Tibbetts: How Police Tracked Down Her Alleged Murderer
There is a very good chance that August 21, 2018, will forever be known as the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency. On Tuesday afternoon in New York, Michael Cohen (the other one) - Trump’s former lawyer, fixer and consigliore - pleaded guilty to a litany of criminal offenses, including bank and tax fraud. But the most troubling piece of news for President Trump is that Cohen pleaded guilty to a campaign finance law violation, in which he admitted in open court to acting “in coordination with and at the direction of” a federal candidate in ensuring the silence of porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal. Who is that federal candidate? Donald Trump. What is
U.S. KSTU - Salt Lake City
A Utah mother chased down a 36-year-old man after allegedly catching him trying to record her 12-year-old daughter from an adjacent dressing room stall at a Rue 21 store.


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A 2014 ruling by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), a little-known regulatory body created by the Tariff Act of 1930 to regulate imports, could have far-reaching implications for the borderless Internet.
In a case brought by Align Technology against ClearCorrect Operating, in which the former charged that ClearCorrect violated patents on invisible teeth aligners by importing digital files crafted by a Pakistani firm, the ITC ruled that its regulatory authority extended to “electronic transmissions of digital data.” Leaving aside the intellectual-property components of the case, the ITC’s ruling, currently under appeal, has left a lot of companies and organizations worried over the uncertainty of global e-commerce.
As I point out in an article for The Hill today:
This ITC ruling could potentially lead to the erection of a digital trade wall around the United States, with all digital data flowing from overseas subject to search and seizure by the ITC.
Of course, “search and seizure” isn’t the same in the digital realm as it is with ports-of-entry. After all, those pieces of imported “digital data” that the ITC claims to have regulatory powers over can’t be stopped and searched at the border – not without the assistance of Internet Service Providers (ISP) acting as its agents. As I explain in the aforementioned article:
Unlike physical goods entering U.S. ports, digital data cannot be stopped and inspected at the border. As the … [Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge] amicus brief points out, “Internet data transmissions enter the United States through … internet service providers [ISPs]. Thus, the ITC’s decision to treat data transmission as imported articles raises real and unanswered questions about the enforcement role that such service providers will be forced to play.”
Will ISPs begin site and content blocking? Are Google and other content providers now to be subject to the ITC’s new, self-declared regulatory powers? Many questions remain in the wake of the initial ruling – here’s hoping the appeals process offers a rejoinder to the ITC and makes this newfound uncertainty a moot point.