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UAE Circular Economy Council organized a virtual UAE-Canada High-Level Event on Circular Economy in partnership with the World Economic Forum, to highlight examples of Emirati and Canadian leadership in the circular economy.
The meeting was presided by UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Dr. Thani Bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada, Peter Schiefke, and moderated by Antonia Gawel, Head of Circular Economy & Innovation, World Economic Forum.
Dr. Thani stressed the commitment of the UAE to become one of the world’s most circular economies. The UAE is the first signatory of the World Economic Forum’s Scale360° Partnership which gathers together global partners to fast-track the move towards a circular economy by incorporating Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies and innovation.
“The circular economy offers global leaders an enormous opportunity to build a transformative post-COVID future that will pave the way for more resilient, equitable, and sustainable economies around the world. The UAE is proud to be leading on this front through the WEF Scale360° initiative, our close partnerships with countries like Canada, and our deep collaboration with private sector companies such as Majid Al Futtaim-Holding, which has prioritized the circular economy across its value chains.”
Peter Schiefke underlined in his statement the excellent bilateral relations enjoyed by Canada and the UAE. “Both the countries understand the enormous opportunity that the transition to a more circular economy offers us,” he said.
Also, he showed how Canadian businesses are updated to introduce efficient and innovative clean technologies to the market to address environmental challenges.
Antonia Gawel emphasized that public-private collaboration is critical in shaping global, regional, and industrial agendas efficiently, effectively, and sustainably. Ms. Gawel also recognized the leadership of the UAE and Canada in promoting the adoption of the circular economy and commended the UAE for their initiative to bring together a bilateral dialogue.
Mr. Schiefke expecting strong UAE participation at the World Circular Economy Forum (WCEF) 2021, which will be hosted by Canada in September 2021.
The WCE2021 will introduce dynamic new voices to the global conversation and take an in-depth look at circular possibilities in the North American and global context. It will also explore the “game-changing” actions and structural changes required to enhance the global circular transformation.


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this is what a break-up looks like
An award-winning new film from streetwear stalwart Soulland traces the wrenching journey, hickeys and all.
how to make the perfect skateboarding sneaker
In celebration of Soulland’s new Nike SB collaboration, we caught up with creative director Silas Adler and skateboarder Eric Koston to talk all things sneakers and skating.
five of the coolest things we saw at copenhagen fashion week
From Henrik Vibskov’s art school rave in the Meatpacking District, to the CPH Open skate competition, an art show by Vetements designer Maja Weiss and London’s Fashion East invasion, take a tour of the Danish capital city with i-D.
soulland and eric koston share their favorite copenhagen skate spots
i-D caught up with designer Silas Adler and the legendary American skater at the launch of their new collaboration with Nike SB during Copenhagen’s international skate competition.
eric koston talks skating, style, and soulland
As he announces his new collaborative project FRI.day with Nike SB and Soulland, we caught up with Eric Koston to talk the fusion of style and skating.
soulland created a tower of crushed cars for fall/winter 16
The Danish label sounds off on its hillbilly inspirations and shares an exclusive taste of its wild west soundtrack.
soulland and lee launch a collection of patchwork pieces
Customisation is key in their second collaboration together.
soulland's hip hop tailoring at spring/summer 16
The Danish label return to London and collaborate with Charlie Roberts.
soulland collaborate with artist charlie roberts
Ahead of their presentation at London Collections: Men this afternoon, the Danish brand have released a video of the artist at work.
soulland autumn/winter 15
Designer Silas Adler shows off a collection that finds the "Exotic Erotic" in Madchester and more.
soulland and lee team team up for spring/summer 15
The polka dot patchwork denim dream to launch on Saturday at Goodhood and Colette.
a love letter to timberlands
Document Studios celebrate the boot brand in its 40th year with beautiful book.

domain: news


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A recent survey conducted by ABI Research has revealed a trend that may have an impact on both iOS users and their devices. The survey revealed that over the last six months the size of apps for the iOS has increased in size –an increase of approximately 16 percent.
The survey showed that it is in the games genre where app sizes have increased. The average game app is now 60MB in size. This is equivalent to a 42 percent increase in size from March of this year.
The increase in size of gaming apps can be attributed to two different factors. First, Apple has increased the size limit for 3G and 4G downloadable apps to 50MB from the previous limit of 20MB. The increased limit has led to developers to make more complicated games that feature a significant bump in graphics quality as well.
Another factor to the increased file size is the Retina display that has been the main selling feature for the new iPad. Developers want to take advantage of the improved display by releasing apps that have more graphics bells and whistles. Old apps are also being given the Retina display polish through new updates that bump up their image quality. Unfortunately, these graphics improvements are not really felt by people who own the first two generations of the iPad.
The increase in app sizes has made an impact on iPad owners who only have 16GB models or iPhone owners with small storage capacities.
But it’s not only within iOS where app bloat is happening. Android apps have also reported a 10 percent increase in app size.


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Revealed at the Marvel Games panel at San Diego Comic-Con, a story trailer has been released for Marvel's Spider-Man.
Tag - Insomniac Games
At Paris Games Week, Sony and Insomniac Games released a new teaser trailer for Marvel’s Spider-Man, coming exclusively to PlayStation 4.
Insomniac Games has announced Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, the epilogue story for the Ratchet & Clank Future series.
Insomniac Games has announced that an animated Ratchet & Clank movie is coming to theaters in 2015.


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At the same time, Warner Bros. also developed a study guide for the film that it will send to urban high school history teachers in the nation's top 100 markets. It will also send "Malcolm X" book covers to schools. There are even two separate sound tracks to the film: One features period music from the film aimed at adults; the other contains contemporary popular music from the movie aimed at teen-agers.
Certainly Lee--who declined to be interviewed but who has had a hands-on role in each step of the film's marketing--has taken that approach. For more than a year, Lee has been wearing the "X" cap just about everywhere. And his high-profile friends, including Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, have also donned the caps.
"The 'X' has become an instant icon," said Edward H. Vick, chief executive of the San Francisco corporate identity firm Landor Associates. "It doesn't just stand for a movie, but for a passionate, deeply rooted issue: black pride."
It also stands for lots of free publicity--the best marketing that money can't buy.
"From Paris to Iowa, people are wearing 'X' hats," said Reginald Hudin, director of the films "House Party" and "Boomerang." "Spike has done a phenomenal job getting the word out."
Indeed, the "X" is everywhere. This month's Esquire magazine features a cover photo of Lee with his arms crossed in the "X" symbol. Print ads and billboards promoting the film simply show a giant "X"--something that required unusual cooperation from Denzel Washington, the actor who portrays Malcolm X in the film, who agreed not to have his face used in the print ads.
But Lee is still at odds with Malcolm X's widow, Betty Shabazz, the executor of the estate. She has hired Curtis Management Group of Indianapolis to license Malcolm X's name and likeness.
The firm is demanding back payments from Lee for use of the "X" logo.
The estate has no quarrel with Warner Bros.' use of the "X." At issue is the past sale of "X" merchandise by Lee's company, said Mark Roesler, president of Curtis Management, which also represents the estates of James Dean and Humphrey Bogart.
"One option is a lawsuit," said Roesler, whose firm has so far avoided taking Lee to court but which has sued five other companies that allegedly used the "X" without permission. "Suing Spike would be a last resort."
About 40 other licensees have paid the estate fees of up to 15% of sales to develop 160 products, ranging from $20 "X" caps to $60 "X" jerseys.
Briefly. . . .
The Los Angeles agency Rubin Postaer & Associates has won the estimated $14-million ad business for Phoenix-based US West Communications. . . . El Segundo toy maker Mattel is searching for a third agency to help handle its $80-million ad business, now divided between the Los Angeles offices of Ogilvy & Mather and Foote, Cone & Belding. . . . The Los Angeles agency Jon Byk Advertising has won the ad account for the Eisenhower Medical Center of Rancho Mirage and Palm Springs. . . . Julian Myers Public Relations, a "24-hour" entertainment industry PR agency, has opened in Century City.


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Food and Drink
Valentine's Day is just two weeks away. Yeah, it snuck up on us too. 😬
What's happening: If you want to kindle the romance without burning dinner, we rounded up 14 Denver restaurants (see what we did there?) featuring special offerings to celebrate with your sweetheart.
- Pro tip: Make your reservations ASAP.
Thirteen Colorado chefs and restaurants were named Wednesday among the nation's best as semifinalists for a James Beard award.
Why it matters: Taking home a James Beard award, which is like an Oscar in the food industry, can put a restaurant on the map.
Details: Here are the local semifinalists:
The cultural cornucopia that is Aurora makes the city a great place for dining, drinking and socializing.
Where to go: Here are our favorite places to visit.
Chef Kelly Whitaker doesn't do predictable. In fact, to access his new restaurant — arguably one of Denver's hippest yet — you'll need to take an elevator.
Details: Hey Kiddo, which debuted on Tennyson Street last Thursday, puts complexity and innovation at the forefront with elegant dishes that draw inspiration from around the world.
The map of breweries in Colorado is crowded, as Melanie and Matt Miller learned when they set out to start their own.
- "We spent a lot of time looking at all the pins of the breweries," Melanie Miller explained, "and we said, 'There's nothing [in Englewood]. Why is there nothing?'"
Say farewell to the beer that put Colorado on the map.
What's happening: Fort Collins-based New Belgium Brewing announced Tuesday a new recipe and fresh look for its iconic Fat Tire.
👋 Esteban here.
The National Western Stock Show is home to traditional carnival fare and some delicious barbecue and western fare.
What happened: I went to Sunday's Wild West Show and needed fuel before, during and after.
- This trendy spot specializes in creative cocktails and plates that pop, with dishes including crispy duck rolls, noodles with braised beef cheek, lobster fried rice and udon soup.
Get a free daily digest of the most important news in your backyard with Axios Denver.
Support local journalism by becoming a member.


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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - The Hershey Co. HSY, +0.43% on Monday said it is now targeting $10 billion in net sales by the end of 2017. The company will be focusing on five core brands globally - Hershey's, Reese's, Hershey's Kisses, Jolly Rancher and Ice Breakers - as part of a new strategy. "Our marketplace and financial results over the last few years validate our consumer-driven approach to core brand investment in both U.S. and key international markets," said CEO John Bilbrey in a statement. The chocolate maker also said it now expects long-term net sales growth of 5% to 7% and adjusted earnings per share growth of 8% to 10%. For fiscal 2012, Hershey reaffirmed its outlook for full-year net sales growth of about 7% to 9% and earnings per share in the range of $2.82 to $2.92. Wall Street analysts expect Hershey to earn $3.13 a share, according to a survey by FactSet.
Have breaking news sent to your inbox. Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Bulletin emails. Sign up here.


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Microsoft is rolling out a new Video Encode feature native to Windows 11 that should make it a more attractive platform for video pros.
The latest Insiders build includes some small but welcome improvements to the Start menu and taskbar, but there's still a lot of work to do to make Windows 11 all it can be.
A proof-of-concept security exploit that works on all Windows 10 and Windows 11 system is already being tested by hackers, and there's only so much you can do to protect yourself.
The latest Windows 11 update resurrects Microsoft's infamous office assistant. Unfortunately, 3D emoji for the OS are nowhere in sight.
Microsoft has announced that Windows 10 will now be updated annually — falling in line with the cadence of Windows 11 updates.
Microsoft is launching a student-focused version of Windows 11, Windows 11 SE, alongside a $249 Surface laptop in a bid for some of the K-12 market currently cornered by Chromebooks.
I tried macOS as my primary operating system for the first time after a lifetime of using Windows — here's what I learned.
Become a Windows 11 power user with these shortcuts for quickly accessing Snap Layouts, Desktops, and more.
In this step-by-step guide, we show you how to upgrade a compatible PC from Windows 10 to Windows 11.
Windows 11's TPM requirement has caused headaches for users trying to update to the new OS on older machines. A new video explains Microsoft's stringent security requirements.
Microsoft has provided an official registry hack to get around Windows 11's strict CPU and TPM 2.0 requirements.
Microsoft's Surface event revealed new Windows 11 hardware debuting next month. We recap all the announcements.
Windows 11 is officially out, and while it offers some neat new features it’s not quite the revolution I was hoping for.
Glossy colors and a lot of hype isn't enough to sway our senior editor, who already splits his time between PC and Mac, to go all-in on PCs.
Back in June, Microsoft announced that Android apps will work on its latest operating system. But Windows 11 has arrived with Android app support still in development.
To run Windows 11, a trusted platform module, or TPM will be required. But what is a TPM? Does your laptop or PC already have it? If not, can you install one? Here's everything you need to know.
Want to try an ISO of the new Windows 11 without signing up for the Windows Insider Program? We explain how to do a clean install of Windows 11 today
Take a tour through the new Start Menu on Windows 11, with new features, a slick redesign and a new home on the taskbar.
Windows 11 will have more stringent hardware requirements when compared to previous versions. This includes having an 8th generation or newer CPU. Here are all the compatible chips.


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Four Foods Group Poised to Join Tech Unicorn Club
Silicon Slopes—Utah is home to four tech unicorns—privately held companies that are valued at $1 billion or more. Now, a Utah restaurant company appears to be poised to join the unicorn club. That’s according to Four Foods Group CEO Andrew Smith, who said his company is on a growth trajectory that should take it to $1 billion within a year.
Smith spoke during a Startup Conversations event presented by Silicon Slopes and hosted at Salt Mine. In discussing the many projects Four Foods Group has in the works, Smith said the upcoming year “is probably going to be the one that will make Four Foods Group the first billion-dollar restaurant operator here in Utah.”
Smith launched the company in 2009 with his wife, Shauna, when the duo approached Kneader’s Café and Bakery with an offer to open a franchise of the concept in the Alpine area. It was the fifth location for Kneader’s, and its first franchise.
This was the couple’s first foray into the restaurant industry. Previously, Smith had been a tech entrepreneur for 11 years. After he sold his final tech company, he discussed the next steps with Shauna.
“Maybe we should just do something really simple. Let’s do restaurants,” he recalled telling her. “Because restaurants are super simple. You just put the money in, you open ’em up. People come and give you money. They’re all happy. There’s no problems.”
In reality, he said, the restaurant business “is one of the hardest businesses you can get into.”
Despite the challenges, Four Foods Group has grown into a major force. It now operates 47 Kneader’s locations throughout the country, with a total of 108 restaurants in its national portfolio. In late 2016, Four Foods Group purchased a majority stake in R&R Barbeque, and it began quickly growing the award-winning barbeque brand. The restaurant now has three locations in operation, with at least six more in development—including in the newly renovated Vivint Smart Home Arena.
Four Foods Group also purchased The Soda Shop, with two locations, and 48 Little Caesar’s locations in the South. Just a few months ago, the company purchased Mo’Bettahs, a Hawaiian food restaurant chain with six locations. On top of all that, announced Smith, “We are buying Swig in two weeks.”
The Little Caesar’s acquisition was a strategic growth move, said Smith. Instead of owning a handful of locations within a large brand, the strategy is to “aggregate and be the number one group in that brand. So our goal is to have 300 to 400 in the brand in the next four to five years. And we’re well on the way.”
Four Food Group offers a unique platform for new restaurant concepts, said Smith. The company provides myriad services, including real estate site selection; development and construction; recruiting, training and developing employees; and HR payroll systems, as well as other food service software solutions.
Smith said they take their time performing due diligence on new restaurant concepts before deciding whether to purchase them.
“We’re approached by a lot of brands,” he said. “But when you dig into it and look under the hood,” either the food quality is not there or the margins are not where they should be.
Four Foods Group aims to have a diverse portfolio, said Smith. That includes diversity of menu, as well as real estate footprint. You can only build so many drive-through locations in an area, for example, because of land and real estate constraints. He said Four Foods Group also looks for niches where there is not a lot of competition—such as fast-casual barbeque or Hawaiian food. And the margins need to be healthy.
Much of the company’s growth has come in the past couple of years, and Smith said there is much more opportunity on the horizon.
“We’ve really put our head down and just grown,” he said. “But now is the time that we’ve now learned what we’ve learned, we’ve got amazing people on our team—I’d say a world-class team—and we understand that this needs to be blowing up.”
It’s that world-class team that Shauna Smith, who is the chief merchandising officer at the company, credits for the company’s success.
“We have surrounded ourselves with people who are smarter than us and have better ideas than us. If we’ve got any really great talent, it’s that we know how to pick good talent,” she said.
When asked what his ultimate goal is, or what he envisions as his stopping point, Andrew Smith said, “This is the last thing I’m going to do for the next couple decades of my career, because there’s always going to be that new restaurant, that new concept. And for us, I think we’re going to build brands and build them so they have longevity behind them.”


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With the shifting demographic of investors comes a shift in mindsets – young investors want to back brands they consume and believe in. This has opened the door to a new world of market influences and factors that investors now need to take account of, including the impact of celebrity endorsements on publicly-listed companies and their stock performances.
We’ve all seen the story – last month Elon Musk tweeted two words that caused a stock to shoot up. Those words? Use. Signal.
With one single tweet, Musk caused Signal Advance’s market cap to rise from $55 million to $660 million in just two days. But what is Signal Advance? It’s not the messaging app – it’s a completely unrelated biotech company.
Elon went on to advocate for Bitcoin on new social media app Clubhouse, and even added #Bitcoin to his Twitter bio, sending the cryptocurrency skyrocketing.
In 2018, when Weight Watchers (WW) signed on DJ Khaled as an ambassador, the company’s stock surged 7%.
What’s even more interesting is the potential for negative impact. In 2018, Kylie Jenner said she didn’t like Snapchat’s new interface, causing the social media giant to lose $1.3 billion after its stock plummeted 6%.
But if you’re like me and have never used a Snapchat filter, or don’t follow an influencer’s every move on social media, you may have been left out of the loop.
So, here’s my take:
- Hype: Younger generations are more passionate about brands they can relate to, and that by itself builds hype around brands. This paired with a celebrity endorsement, such as Elon Musk’s, could send a company’s shares to shoot up. A great example of this is the acquisition of Supreme for $2.1 billion; the streetwear brand built extreme hype with its limited drops and affordable luxury prices.
- Reputation: Having a celebrity endorsement, let alone that of the richest man in the world, naturally leads to positive brand reputation. This can do wonders for a company and its stock performance, especially if the celebrity’s followers are the brand’s target consumer or investors.
- Company performance: As an endorsement brings more hype and excitement around a certain product or company, what follows is a jump in revenue. For example, after Elon’s tweet about messaging-app Signal, the app became the number one downloaded app across multiple app stores.
Celebrity endorsements seem to be a new market influence to watch out for. Is it because of how quickly information disseminates in the age of social media? The power of Twitter has been seen far and wide. Or, is it because of the new wave of young investors trading on new mobile-first trading apps? Perhaps it is the deadly combination of both.
Even without celebrity endorsements, we have all seen or felt the influence of social media. When Zoom Video Communications (ZM) made its debut on the stock exchange in early 2019, Zoom Technology (ZTNO) – a Chinese company – jumped 80% in just two hours of trading. Or in 2013, as investors were awaiting Twitter’s (TWTR) IPO, Tweeter Home Entertainment Group gained 1000% (after the stock mix-up, Tweeter’s ticker was changed from TWTRQ to THEGQ).
The launch of forums has further put the power of social media influence into the spotlight, as we have seen with the recent short squeeze ‘battle’ involving Reddit feed /Wallstreetbets and hedge funds. Leading Redditors were able to influence a wave of investors to buy and hold shares such as GameStop, AMC and Nokia, and the hedge funds that were shorting the respective stocks certainly felt the heat. In the midst of all this action, Musk tweeted “Gamestonk”, sending GameStop shares even further.
In the days that followed, GameStop surged, hitting a high of over $480 before plummeting back to earth at around $100 a share. While the stock seems to have stabilised, the driving forces behind this historic market event – young investors backing what they believe in – are likely here to stay.
There is a wave like we’ve never seen before – the new generation of wealth creators care about causes that are important to them and look up to role models and leaders who are disrupting industries. My takeaway? It’ll be a while before I make my first TikTok video, but I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on those forums.


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OHIO COUNTY, W.Va. (WTRF) – After being open for four years in Wheeling’s Centre Market, Buffalo Creek County and Primitive Decour decided now was a great time to host an open house.
Despite offers to move their location elsewhere, the owners tell us they are happy to stay in Centre Market, and they’ve grown their business each year. Buffalo Creek offers a variety of country and farmhouse style goods, including many handmade items.
They are open Tuesday through Friday from 10:00am to 5:00pm, and also from 10:00am to 3:00pm on Saturdays. They are closed Sunday and Monday.


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“This must raise wider questions about the operation of the art market,” said the aristocrat who had the painting sold for millions less than what it ended up making just months later.
Vivienne Chow 5 December 2022
This painting, Grace, was created by a famous artist called Jean Baptiste.
The news agency Reuters reported that Simon Dickinson, an art dealer in London, was cleared of negligence charges after a family of aristocrats accused him of pricing their Chardin painting too low when he sold it. Within just a few months, the painting had been resold for millions more than the price that Dickinson had asked for.
The Countess of Wemyss and March, Amanda Feilding, and Vilma Ramsay who are the trustees of the Wemyss Heirlooms Trust said they’re disappointed with the outcome of the trial, however they will now consider their options in light of this judgement.
Le Bénédicité is an oil-on-panel painting in the Louvre Museum’s collection, painted by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin. There are a number of copies of this painting, four of which it’s believed were done by the artist: one of these, the original prime version, was created in 1740 and given as a gift to King Louis XV; another version was acquired by Catherine II in 1785, who died before she could get it home to Russia and left it in her will for her son Tsar Paul I to bring back with him when he returned from his travels; a third version was given by Dr de la Caze to the Louvre in 1869; and a fourth that has been owned by members of the Wemyss family since 1751, after Francis Charteris wend travelling abroad and brought it back home with him.
The Chardin painting, once owned by Simon Dickinson, senior director at Christie’s and art advisor to the family, was sold in 2014 to Stockholm-based art dealer Verner Amell for £1.15 million (or $1.96 million given historic exchange rate). There was doubt that it had been entirely painted by the French painter because experts were not able to confirm this.
Upon purchasing the painting, the new owner authorized a “deep clean” that revealed Chardin’s signature that had previously been obscured.
Le Bénédicité was back on the market and sold days later in January 2015 to Michel David-Weill, a former chair of Lazard who is known for his illustrious art collection. For this piece, he paid $7.5 million in cash (roughly equivalent to £4.9 million at the time). He even threw in a painting valued at $3 million to seal the deal.
The Wemyss Heirlooms trustees said that Dickinson “handled the sale in an unprofessional and shoddy manner, and in breach of their duty to the principals,” claiming they were owed the profits between the two sales prices.
This means that a judge in the London High Court, Judge Simon Gleeson, has ruled that Dickinson’s valuation of £1.15 million was not negligent. “I think it is fairly clear to me, and I am sure that your lordships would agree with me, that this best-guess solution to a complex pricing problem, in short from an exercise in 1:Many approximated valuations, is nowhere near the most prudent appraisement of the 2002 Radley furniture purchased by Ms Dickinson,” he wrote in his decision
The judge pointed out, in regards to the David-Weill sale, that their prices were “hard to understand on many levels.” And even though this sale did not show any negligence on Dickinson’s part, it was not enough proof to argue that he was negligent in setting the painting’s price at £1 million.
“I accept that the agreed price was an estimate, not a precise price. But without evidence of negligence, I must find for the defendants,” the judge said.
Dickinson said in a statement that the court agreed that he was selling paintings legally by attributing them to “Chardin and studio.”
While acknowledging that the museum’s decision to purchase the contested painting was made “entirely properly, in good faith and for a reasonable price,” the Trustees raised a final concern about their exposure to risk. They questioned whether there are broader implications of purchasing at market value from art dealers who are not subject to public levies or of selling without auction under an arrangement that does not satisfy the Uniformity of Titles Act.


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Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Inc. today announced the long-awaited launch of its social marketplace for nonfungible tokens called Coinbase NFT, which will allow anyone to view the market and make it available to a select number of customers to buy and sell NFTs.
The marketplace is now available in beta after being announced in October when Coinbase opened signups for a waitlist for access. A small set of beta testers are being invited now based on their position on the waitlist and others will be added over time gradually to make profiles, buy, and sell on the new market.
Coinbase NFT seeks to add a social experience to the minting, buying, selling and trading of NFTs, which are digital assets that represent ownership of virtual items, music and video game items. Profiles will allow users to display their NFT collections as part of self-expression and build communities around the NFTs they purchase and entertain conversations surrounding them.
“The rise of NFT communities has shown us that online conversation extends far beyond the moments around transactions,” Sanchan Saxena, vice president of product at Coinbase “We’re building a place that’s for more than just buying and selling. We want Coinbase NFT to be a place that helps creators and collectors build and engage their communities.”
Once users are signed in users will be able to post comments directly on NFTs, and upvote and downvote comments and thus join in conversations. Doing so will also create an ongoing feed of what users are interacting with and talking about, making it easier for the community to discover NFTs, creators, collections and each other.
The beta marketplace is already stocked with a number NFT collections from launch partners who are featured creators including the “rainbow-puke” stylings of Doodles, the women-led NFT collection Boss Beauties and Azuki. The platform will also include features such as royalties so that creators can continue to make money off their work after the initial sale.
In order to jumpstart the sales and transactions of NFTs for beta users, there will be no Coinbase transaction fees for a limited time. Eventually, fees will be added, but they will be in line with other marketplaces, Saxena said, and notice will be made before that happens.
Coinbase NFT currently only supports Ethereum-based NFTs and payments in ether. However, the marketplace will soon integrate other blockchains in the future and there are plans in the works to allow the purchase of NFTs using credit cards. Earlier this year, Coinbase partnered with Mastercard for exactly this upcoming feature.
The launch of this marketplace means Coinbase will be competing with other massive markets already entrenched in the NFT industry such as OpenSea, which launched in 2017, Rarible, MakersPlace and others. The NFT market itself raked in $41 billion in trade volume during 2021 and Coinbase will be introducing its 89 million users to that market through its platform.
“We’re just getting started and can’t wait to explore new ways to bring people together around NFTs and the creators behind them,” Saxena said.


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For Meghan Chambers, preparing for another opening day is all too familiar. In September 2010, she pulled an all-nighter when she opened Jellybeans in the Brentwood Center, and just 21 months ago she opened Staxx in the French Quarter plaza on East Republic Road.
“And that was just for one location,” Chambers says after arriving at the now side-by-side stores at 9:30 a.m.
Jellybeans, a clothing store for toddlers, is already leaving its Brentwood Center home to relocate next to Chamber’s 10-year-old upscale women’s store. May 16 is opening day for both stores at their new digs in the roughly $22 million mixed-use complex Farmers Park. And no matter how much was left to be done, the stores would open by 10 a.m. Friday.
The day before the grand opening, the 33-year-old mother of two daughters is a blur of motion, voice and hair. Her day starts where it would end – at midnight at Farmers Park. She didn’t leave Thursday morning until after 3 a.m., and wouldn’t fall asleep until around 4:30. In her southwest Springfield home, the daughter of local business icon and SRC Holdings Corp. CEO Jack Stack would hit snooze a few times before waking for good at 7.
Chambers has enough time for an 8-minute hot bath – she timed it – but no sit-down breakfast. There are emails to read, checklists to write and checks to pick up from the bank. The girls were up late visiting mom at the stores on Wednesday, so it was important she sneak away quietly before they wake.
“I just can’t leave if one of them is crying for me to stay,” says Chambers, who along with husband Neil Chambers of SRC’s Global Recovery Corp., lean on the help of nanny, Audra, and a team of relatives. Chambers is the middle of five children, and her girls know their cousins well.
At 9:30, her daylong battle to establish phone and Internet service at the stores begins as Chambers enters the door to Staxx with her smartphone in hand. Dressed in overalls and camo Ash shoes, Chambers tries to sort out what seems to her to be a blame game between Mediacom and AT&T. Her service date was set the week before (when the Chambers were vacationing at Disney in Florida) as May 20, and that wouldn’t work.
During the next hour and a half, the 5-foot-2-inch Chambers settles into her role as queen bee, answering questions on the color of fixtures and the height of shelves. She doesn’t sit until 11, just before a meeting with contractor Adam Pyle of Adam Pyle & Associates. Chambers says she is still sore from Wednesday and is committed to sitting some throughout the day.
After more talks about store layout and her security system, Chambers relaxes into lunch with her daughters and their cousins around 1 p.m. Her thick, black hair is pulled into a ponytail as she works in mom-mode, putting bracelets on her daughters and keeping the children from hiding playfully between racks of clothes.
The move to Farmers Park accomplishes several things at once for the ever-moving Chambers. It puts her two stores next to each other, making oversight and problem solving more efficient. Beyond convenience, she believes in the power of the progressive community to attract her customers.
“I believe in Farmers Park. This took two years of thought and planning and looking at traffic counts,” Chambers says. “Don’t get me wrong, I love fashion, but I’m more interested in running a business. That’s where my dad comes out in me, I guess.”
She says she reluctantly started sharing information about the firms’ financials with her employees a few years ago on advice from her father, who is known nationally for promoting open-book management. The move worked, she says, as employees began to look for efficiencies with new product lines after she began letting them see revenues, expenses, operating margins and the bottom line.
“They started asking, ‘What’s the return on that?’ and treating it like their own business,” Chambers says.
By 2:30, she’s headed to a storage unit near her home on a hunt for fixtures. Along the way, her friend and helper Gabe Jackson is answering emails on Chambers’ smartphone. Jackson, a former employee of Staxx who has moved to southern California to be a department manager at a Saks Fifth Avenue store in Beverly Hills, took vacation time to help Chambers pull off the store openings.
The pair don’t find fixtures, but instead spot a vintage chair and couch for the store.
By 4, Chambers is back at the stores and the battle to sort out Internet and phone systems wages on. By 6, the system is communicating internally, but it will be a few days before full service is in place.
As the sun sets, Staxx is looking complete and Chambers’ focus shifts to Jellybeans, where she hangs and sorts clothes until around 4 a.m.
Chambers says her mother – whom she compared to Mother Teresa and Oprah – told her recently she was proud of the work she had done to pull off the openings. But Chambers says that was premature.
“I’ll exhale when I unlock the doors,” she says, allowing room for a smile and some reflection. The demographics of the nearby ZIP codes had been studied, after all. “This was what I dreamed of as a little girl.”


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Nvidia is cutting the prices of RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 ahead of its next-gen GPU Launch. Gamers should watch out as the company could be discounting Ampere graphics cards this very week.
Nvidia Is Cutting the Prices of RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 Ahead Of Its Next-Gen GPU Launch
A new slew of leeks making the rounds on the internet has revealed that Nvidia is planning on cutting down the price of its GeForce RTX 3090 and 3080 graphic cards. And if this is true, this means that these prices will be happening just before the launch of the Lovelace GPU launch by the company.
When Will the Cut in Price Take Effect?
The price cuts are reportedly set for this week although at the moment no word on an exact date has been announced as per Benchlife and VideoCardz. And by the time this happens, it will be affecting some of the best graphic cards in the market such as 3090 Ti, 3090, 3080 Ti, and 3080.
The leaked documents from Benchlife show that the new MSRPs will place the RTX 3090 Ti at $1,499, the RTX 3080 Ti at $1,099, and the RTX 3090 at $1,299, and the RTX 3080 at $799. Presently, there are no reports on whether the other cheaper 3000-series graphics cards will also be getting any cuts in their prices.
The Rumors Have Been Backed By So Many Online Retailers
It already seems that the rumors have been backed by some popular and many online retailers who already have started to post cut down prices. The drops in prices however have been inconsistent with the leaks.
Newegg for instance has been posting all new prices for all high-end cards except for the RTX 3080. The EVGA direct US store on the other hand is posting all newly leaked MSRPs. BestBuy however is only acting on the drop in price for the 3090 Ti.


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When it comes to a powerful Android tablet, Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 and Tab S7 Pro are the best options out there. If you’ve been thinking of getting yourself a new high-end tablet, then now might be a perfect time. Samsung is now offering its flagship Galaxy Tab S7 series at a discounted price tag. Not only this, but the chaebol has also discounted the mid-range Galaxy A51 to make the way for its successor. It looks like the price drop for the Galaxy A51 might be the permanent one but there’s still no concrete evidence. Well, let’s see how much you can save if you decide to buy the mentioned Galaxy devices.
Galaxy Tab S7 series is now up for grabs for the lowest price thanks to a new discount!
Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 is now up for grabs on Amazon.com at a discounted price tag. You can avail of up to 25% discount depending on the model you decide to go with. For those who’re unaware, the Galaxy Tab S7 and S7 Plus come in two connectivity options – WiFi and LTE. Of course, there are different storage configurations as well. Here’s a look at the price after discount of each such model.
Gizchina News of the week
- Galaxy Tab S7 (WiFI)
- Galaxy Tab S7+ (WiFi)
Galaxy Tab S7 series comes in two different color options – Mystic Black and Mystic Navy. The Black color variant has the lowest price tag at the time of writing this. That is why we decided to mention that only. You can always go ahead and check the pricing for other color versions on Amazon US. If you’re planning to buy the cellular version of the tablet, then you’ll have to see whether the carrier of your choice is offering any discount or not.
Galaxy A51 receives a price discount as well
Samsung recently launched its latest Galaxy A52 smartphone in several markets. Well, the device has yet to make its way to the U.S. It looks like the company is making the way for the successor as it has now put the Galaxy A51 on discount. You can now avail a discount of 13% on the affordable smartphone. Here’s the look at the prices after the discount.
- Galaxy A51 128GB variant – $349 (after $50 discount)
It looks like the discount is only applicable on the black color variant. This means that you will not see the discount on any other color variants and the 5G model.


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Globally active contract manufacturer Flextronics, with 200,000 employees and its headquarters in Singapore, has a new weapon to add to its arsenal in the form of a license from RocTool, a small company in France with a big development in heating and cooling technology for injection molds. Flextronics has taken a production license agreement from RocTool to use that company's injection mold heating and cooling technology for the next five years. The license covers the manufacturing of various electronic parts such as electronic tablets, e-book readers, gaming and other electronic accessories.
Flextronics plans to integrate the RocTool technologies into a facility it runs in China, and from there work to further industrialize the process on a larger scale. RocTool's two flagship technologies, Cage System and 3iTech, are both included in this license. Flextronics already uses the RocTool technologies for some production parts at its facility in Zhuhai, China and the coming months will include expansion of those production lines and the industrialization of the process on a larger scale.


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Longtime Ubisoft employee Darryl Long has been appointed managing director of Ubisoft Singapore and Ubisoft Philippines. Long has worked on major Ubisoft franchises like Far Cry and Rainbow Six and was most recently managing director of Ubisoft Winnipeg.
What does this new appointment mean for Ubisoft Singapore?
Long joins Ubisoft Singapore as it struggles with Skull & Bones, an open-world pirate game that's been in development for quite some time. According to a Ubisoft press release, Long will bring "hands-on knowledge of both tech and producing great AAA games". Ubisoft Philippines, the other studio Long will oversee, is a co-development studio on projects like Assassin's Creed Valhalla and the aforementioned Skull & Bones. Ubisoft is likely hoping Long can turn the fortunes of that ill-fated pirate adventure around.
For his part, Long says he is "incredibly impressed" by the work of Ubisoft Singapore and Ubisoft Philippines thus far. He goes on to say that his priorities with both companies will be to build a "culture of trust, inclusion and collaboration", which takes on a new meaning in the wake of recent revelations regarding Ubisoft's internal practices. It remains to be seen what Long's priorities will be in terms of reorganizing or restructuring Ubisoft Singapore and Ubisoft Philippines.
What does this mean for Skull & Bones?
Long's appointment as managing director for these two studios will be encouraging for anyone looking forward to Skull & Bones. For some time now, there have been murmurs that Ubisoft has rebooted development on the troubled project, reviving it as a live service game more in line with Rare's Sea of Thieves. Ubisoft appointing Long to this new position could suggest they might be looking to kickstart that revival, or take the game in a different path than it was currently going. However, it's also possible the project won't get any love under Long's direction. It's too early to tell right now, unfortunately.
Skull & Bones has a troubled production history. It was first announced back at E3 2017, after which Ubisoft went quiet about the project. In July last year, rumors began to swirl that development on Skull & Bones would be rebooted with the aforementioned live service elements. September 2020 saw Ubisoft posting an update on the game's development, stating that it "needed more time" to work on the game and "dreamt something bigger" for it than had previously been announced.
Later in 2020, Darryl Long's predecessor, Hugues Ricour, was removed from his position following a "leadership audit". Speaking to Kotaku, Ubisoft said it was "impossible for him to continue in this position" following an audit conducted by "external partners". This came in the wake of multiple departures following allegations of harassment and inappropriate behavior. With that in mind, it's possible Ricour was one of the employees found to be engaging in such behavior. Alternatively, it may be that they were unhappy with the progress of Ubisoft Singapore's first project as lead studio. Either way, it shows that there were problems at the studio, which necessated bringing in an outside, experienced voice to the studio in Ubisoft's mind.
We will, of course, bring you more on this - including whether or not Ubisoft has decided to drag Skull & Bones from Davy Jones' Locker (or I guess Darryl Long's locker now) - as soon as we get it. Until then, it might be time to start sharpening your cutlass and brewing your homemade grog again.
What do you think of Darryl Long's new job? Let us know in the comments below!


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Trucks Too Expensive? It’s All Relative!
One of my first posts after joining the Ford Trucks Enthusiasts team was to write about how pickup trucks have become so expensive.
I suggested bringing back the Ranger as a lower-cost alternative to keep people in the Ford family. Many of you agreed that the price of a new truck is out of control.
But in some parts of the country, a high-price, high-optioned truck is exactly what the market wants, and the manufacturers are more than happy to deliver.
The Houston Auto Show is one of, if not the, largest auto show in the state of Texas. The city is full of money, thanks to the healthcare and energy industries.
At the Detroit Auto Show, I didn’t see a single Aston Martin inside Cobo Center. Here in Houston, the local dealership brought over eight of them. Even the local Pagani dealership was there showing off the Huayra (above.)
At the Ford display, they had several F-150s on display. One of the trucks, a 2015 F-150 King Ranch, carried a sticker price of $62,000.
These high priced trucks exist because people in this part of the country are buying them. While the idea of trucks in Texas sounds cliche, the fact of the matter is people want to buy a truck that they can take to work during the week, and drive to church on Sunday.
With Texas being the largest truck buying state in the country, it’s no surprise that manufacturers try to cater to that.
Tell us what you think in the forums.>>


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Raspberries, mulberries at Bloomington market
New produce available at the market this Saturday will be raspberries, mullberries, goumi berries, wax beans and green peppers.
Other produce available will include arugula, cucumbers, dried hot peppers and mushrooms, kohlrabi, parsley, salad mix, spinach, turnips, zucchini, eggs, goat milk caramel, maple syrup, summer sausage and pear and apple vinegar.
Plenty of produce, prepared goods other handmade items will be available from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market, at 401 N. Morton St.
Ellettsville Farmers’ Market
Some of the items that will be available at the Saturday’s market will include Hopscotch coffee, Smoke Eaters Barbecue, lettuce, cabbage, cucumbers, radishes, herbs, plants and flowers for your garden.
The vendors will also have baked goods and and locally grown fresh food and farm products.
The Ellettsville Farmers’ Market will run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Endwright Center, 631 W. Edgewood Drive.
Anyone interested in serving as a welcome volunteer, reserving an information table, or becoming a vendor, sponsor or supporter can email email@example.com.
Smithville Farmers’ Market
Venders will bring in fresh local produce, brown eggs, fresh roasted coffee, sweet breads, baked pies and breads, jellies and jams, as well has handmade items.
Some of the produce available will include tomato, asparagus, lettuce, kale, Swizz chard, broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash, bunching onions, rhubarb, as well as strawberries and sweet and sour cherries.
The market will be open from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. located south on Strain Ridge Road in Smithville, set up at the shelter house of Smithville Park next door to Redman Hall Fraternity Lodge.
Area farmers' markets
• Bloomington Community Farmers' Market, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, at the Showers Complex, 401 N. Morton St., Bloomington
• Ellettsville Farmers' Market, 8 a.m.-noon Saturday, at the Endwright Center, 631 W. Edgewood Drive, Ellettsville (closed in aug.)
• Smithville Farmers' Market, 8 a.m.-noon Saturday, at the Smithville Park shelter house on Strain Ridge Road in Smithville
• Tuesday Farmers' Market, 4-7 p.m. Tuesday, at the corner of Sixth and Madison streets in Bloomington
• Wednesday Farmers' Market, 7 a.m. to noon Wednesday, at Bloomingfoods parking lot near Kmart East on East Third Street in Bloomington
• Owen County Farmers' Market, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, at 459 W. Morgan St., Spencer


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Your favorite Apple, iPhone, iPad, iOS, Jailbreak, and Cydia site.
07-31-2012, 05:42 PM #1
FTC Reportedly Fining Google $22.5 Million For Safari Privacy Violations
For months, we have heard rumblings about the possibility of the FTC fining Google millions of dollars in response to the Internet search giant's alleged creation and deployment of false code meant to willfully work around user privacy settings in Safari - Apple's web browser.
As MMi reported in May, early suspicions suggested that Google's fine could amount to at least $10 million. This would be the biggest measure the FTC would take to remedy and punish a violation of Internet privacy, a phenomenon the agency wants to massively reduce as consumers grow more concerned with their online rights.
On Tuesday, Reuters received a tip from two-well connected sources who confess that the FTC is backing a substantial $22.5 million fine against Google. Although Google maintains that the tracking was inadvertent and that no personal or sensitive user information was collected, Google will likely pay the fine without issue as a means to settle this longstanding and embarrassing matter.
The top search engine provider is also the subject of a wide-ranging antitrust investigation by the FTC and European regulators over accusations that it manipulated search results to favor its own products.


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Hyderabad: In Hyderabad, tomatoes have turned costlier than mangoes as the price of the vegetable has breached Rs. 100 per kilogram mark in the retail market.
The cost of the tomatoes in Hyderabad is in the range of Rs. 90-110 per kilogram in the retail market whereas, the mangoes are being sold for Rs. 50-80 per kilogram.
In the first week of April, tomato prices in the city were between Rs. 10 and Rs. 12 per kilogram. It reached Rs. 50 to Rs. 60 a kilogram in the first week of May.
Reasons behind rise in tomato prices in Hyderabad
One of the reasons behind the spike in tomato prices in Hyderabad is the supply-demand mismatch. The summer season is also responsible for the hike in prices.
During the summer season, especially in May, the supply of tomatoes from the farms within the state decreases due to crop damage.
In order to satisfy the demand of tomatoes, local traders get the vegetable from Karnataka and other states. However, due to the rise in fuel prices, the traders are forced to increase the prices to pass on the expenses.
At present, around 60 percent of Hyderabad’s tomato demand is being catered by the supply of the vegetable from other states.
It is expected that the tomato prices in Hyderabad will come down by mid-June.
Mango prices in Hyderabad
Meanwhile, the prices of mango in Hyderabad have come down slightly.
In the retail market, the price of benishan mango which was Rs. 80-100 per kilogram two weeks ago is now dropped down to Rs. 50-70 per kilogram.
The prices of other varieties of mangoes also witnessed a slight dip.


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- Table of Contents
- Full Issue in PDF
- Francisco J. Sánchez Sworn in as Under Secretary
- Growing the Economy of the Future
- Containing Corruption and Reducing the Cost of Doing Business
- Raising Export Literacy, One Community College Student at a Time
- Short Takes
- Trade Calendar
- World Trade Week 2010
- World Trade Week 2014
- World Trade Month 2013
- World Trade Week 2012
- National Export Initiative Anniversary
Featured Trade Event
The presentation of Export Achievement Awards from the U.S. and Foreign
Commercial Service will be a part of New York’s World Trade Week celebrations. Here, in 2009, Jim Cox (left), Northeast regional director, presented an award to a representative of Berklay Cargo Services. (U.S. Department of Commerce photo)
World Trade Week 2010
Although international trade has always played an important role in the U.S. economy, its place is destined to become even more prominent now. President Barack Obama recently announced the National Export Initiative calls for doubling U.S. exports in the next five years.
World Trade Week was first observed in 1933, during another era of economic troubles when the world was just beginning to recover from the Great Depression. Then known as “National Foreign Trade Week,” this event has since expanded its reach throughout the month of May as it seeks to recognize the importance of international trade to job growth and the overall well-being of the economy.
This year, World Trade Week will be celebrated across the world with numerous events, seminars, and award ceremonies. In the United States, New York and Los Angeles are among two of the cities that will be organizing World Trade Week activities.
Activities in New York will kick off on May 17 with an awards ceremony and networking event, followed by a series of informative seminars and workshops. For more information, visit www.worldtradeweeknyc.org.
Los Angeles will observe World Trade Week on May 3–7, beginning with an awards breakfast featuring keynote speaker C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Peterson Institute of International Economics. For more information and a listing of other events in Los Angeles, visit www.worldtradeweek.com.
The International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, manages this global trade site to provide access to ITA information on promoting trade and investment, strengthening the competitiveness of U.S. industry, and ensuring fair trade and compliance with trade laws and agreements. External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein. This site contains PDF documents. A PDF reader is available from Adobe Systems Incorporated.


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Keeneland has cataloged 1,555 horses, headlined by champion Abel Tasman (Quality Road), for its 61st January Horses of All Ages Sale, to be held Jan. 7-10, it was announced Tuesday. The catalog includes 701 broodmares and broodmare prospects, 597 yearlings, 252 horses of racing age and five stallions. Supplementary entries are being accepted.
Abel Tasman is cataloged as a broodmare prospect and will sell Monday, Jan. 7, as Hip 288. The daughter of top stallion Quality Road is a six-time Grade I winner in a career that saw her bank nearly $2.8 million in earnings. The champion 3-year-old filly of 2017 will be offered as part of the Taylor Made Sales Agency consignment for co-owners China Horse Club and Clearsky Farms.
“The presence of Abel Tasman adds a great deal of excitement to this year’s January Sale,” Keeneland Vice President of Racing and Sales Bob Elliston said. “This sale traditionally gives breeders–both domestic and foreign–an opportunity to purchase quality broodmares just before the start of breeding season. It also is a notable marketplace for buyers shopping for racing prospects and horses of racing age.”
Prominent 2018 graded stakes winners sold as yearlings at the January Sale include MGISWs Catholic Boy (More Than Ready) and Mind Your Biscuits (Posse); Grade II winners Catapult (Kitten’s Joy) and Ms Locust Point (Dialed In); and Grade III winners Code Warrior (Society’s Chairman), Flameaway (Scat Daddy), Limation (Alternation), Mucho Gusto (Mucho Macho Man) and Toinette (Scat Daddy).
The January Sale also features mares in foal to 151 different stallions, as well as newly turns yearlings representing 152 unique stallions.
Each of the January Sale’s four sessions begins at 10 a.m. ET, with a live stream of the sale available on Keeneland.com. Catalogs are also available online at Keeneland.com. Print catalogs are scheduled to be delivered the week of Dec. 17.


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Grove Collaborative Furthers Retail Expansion with Entry Into Harris Teeter and H-E-B, Reaching Milestone of More Than 4,000 Total Retail Stores
Leading sustainable CPG company’s plastic-free household products are now available on shelves at 4,000+ stores across several national retailers
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Grove Collaborative Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: GROV) (“Grove” or “the Company”), a leading sustainable consumer products company and Certified B Corp, today announced the latest entrance of Grove Co., its flagship home care brand, into two additional retailers’ stores and digital sites – Harris Teeter and H-E-B – bringing the brand’s retail footprint to more than 4,000 stores.
This expansion is the latest in a series of growth landmarks for the distribution of the Company’s Grove Co. brand, following its recent expansions into CVS, Kohl’s, Meijer and Giant Eagle, as well as recently doubling its product assortment at Target. Grove Co.’s planet-friendly hand soaps and hand soap dispensers are now available in select H-E-B stores, while its full cross-category product offering, ranging from cleaners, dish soaps and hand soaps, may now be found in select Harris Teeter stores.
“Our ability to grow the Grove Co. distribution footprint across the United States, and having our products now available in more than 4,000 stores, is an incredible achievement in making plastic-free products available to the large number of customers interested in reducing their environmental footprint,” said Stuart Landesberg, co-founder and CEO of Grove Collaborative. “Our increased presence in retail stores exposes our brand and products to more customers, and the more people we can reach, the more progress we make in leading the CPG industry out of its reliance on plastic packaging. We know that consumers want to make sustainable choices, and this latest expansion into Harris Teeter and H-E-B is a testament to our ability to make those choices readily available.”
Grove continues to push retail expansion as part of the Company’s omni-channel strategy, as it sees significant long-term opportunity for the business and the sustainable CPG category. With a growing presence in retail through its partnerships with national retailers, the Company continues to extend accessibility to its high-performing and sustainably packaged products, while growing its brand awareness. An assortment of Grove Co.’s planet-friendly and consumer-friendly products will be available in select Harris Teeter and H-E-B stores and on their websites.
About Grove Collaborative Holdings, Inc.
Launched in 2016 as a Certified B Corp, Grove Collaborative Holdings Inc. (NYSE: GROV) (“Grove”) is transforming consumer products into a positive force for human and environmental good. Driven by the belief that sustainability is the only future, Grove creates and curates more than 150 high-performing eco-friendly brands of household cleaning, personal care, laundry, clean beauty, baby and pet care products serving millions of households across the U.S. each year. With a flexible monthly delivery model and access to knowledgeable Grove Guides, Grove makes it easy for everyone to build sustainable routines.
Every product Grove offers — from its flagship brand of sustainable home care essentials, Grove Co., plastic-free, vegan personal care line, Peach Not Plastic, and zero-waste pet care brand, Good Fur, to its exceptional third-party brands — has been vetted against Grove’s strict standards to be beautifully effective, supportive of healthy habits, ethically produced and cruelty-free. Grove Collaborative is a public benefit corporation on a mission to move Beyond Plastic™ and in 2021, entered physical retail for the first time at Target stores nationwide Grove is the first plastic neutral retailer in the world and is committed to being 100% plastic-free by 2025.
For more information, visit www.grove.com.
Source: Grove Collaborative, Inc.
Released October 19, 2022


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The company is rolling out its fully autonomous, real-time optimisers for the entire cement production line.
More Product news news
The company has launched a split roller bearing with substantially higher radial and axial load capacities.
The company has introduced Ruckit Field, a new mobile experience to support bulk material suppliers, haulers, and buyers in lowering costs and optimising truck usage.
U.S. TSUBAKI’s BS-F series backstop prevents cams from rolling over, even if an unexpectedly large reverse torque occurs.
The new model retains the key benefits of the company’s EZ Flexx50 Bricking Machine, offering a light weight and high load capacity, whilst also featuring a stair-stepped deck.
The company has developed the new robot to meet the extreme requirements of the toughest hard rock underground work.
The Industrial Gas Filtration and Generation Division of Parker Hannifin Corporation has announced a new filter, BHA® TotalPleat™.


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Comic Con Africa is back, bigger, and better – so say the organisers of the pop culture event that celebrates fandoms from all galaxies.
More than 60 000 people are expected to grace the Gallagher Convention Centre between September 21 and 24.
Carol Weaving, of Reed Exhibitions Africa and part of the organisers of Comic Con Africa, said they had moved the convention from last year’s Kyalami venue mainly because of space.
“We did not expect the number of people that we got [last year],” Weaving said at a media launch in Lone Hill on Tuesday afternoon at the Jaguar Land Rover Experience centre.
Weaving said the team realised it was “really hot” and people – especially cosplayers who wore intricate and sometimes heavy material-laden outfits – found it difficult to commute from the parking areas to the festival itself.
“The halls are also much bigger [this year], because if you remember last year it was really, really packed and at one point we had to close the doors because we were worried about safety.”
This year there will be seven halls filled with everything from gaming to the latest movie releases, to photograph and signing areas, to meeting the creators and artists of various comic books and cult media.
And if everything seems a little overwhelming or you need to plan your days to the minute, the KFC-sponsored Comic Con has also launched its own app that will be your digital guide to everything Comic Con Africa related [See below to download the app].
Headlining this year’s guestlist will be William Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk in Star-Trek; Anthony Mackie, who played Falcon in the Marvel Avengers movies and who was supposed to attend last year but was stopped by a hurricane on the day of his flight; and Isaac Hempstead Wright, who played Bran Stark in Game of Thrones.
Local artists like Jason Masters (Guardians of the Galaxy, Wolverine and Batman), Sean Izaakse (Avengers and Fantastic Four), Bill Masuku (Captain South Africa and Razor-Man) and Loyiso Mkize (Supa Strikers and Kwezi Comics) will also be in attendance at the Artists’ Alley, with fans able to get their comics signed, commission prints and engage with the people who draw the superheroes we look up to.
Comic Con has also struck a deal with the Gautrain to make sure that trains will run normal schedules and not reduced weekend schedules to Midrand station for the four days of Comic Con, with designated Uber drop-off areas also made visible.
Kids Con a First
The 2019 edition of Comic Con Africa also has a dedicated hall for children who, from the ages of 3 to 12, will be able to have a convention specifically focused and dedicated to the little minions.
In coming up with ideas of what kids want, Comic Con Africa brought on board 12 children for its “Little Experts” advisory team.
The children’s insights were then curated to create an experience that, Carla Massman - portfolio director at Comic Con - says, will be “unforgettable, dynamic and modern” and have parents itching to join in on the fun.
The Jaguar Land Rover Kids Con will have a life-sized Monopoly game, Nerf battles, VR-experiences, an Nintendo area complete with Mario and Luigi present and the “largest Lego event in Africa”.
The Lego event will have 1000 square metres of Lego plus everything from building your own world to having Lego displays to competitions and prizes.
But if you are thinking of leaving the kids and going to explore “the adult” side of life, don’t.
“Kids Con is not a drop-off zone,” Massman says.
“We want to make it a family day out. So, you can go to Comic Con and visit the Kids Con. We have enough activities so that the grownups can also enjoy it, because we want mum and dad with the kids on stage.”
From a security perspective, every child will also be fitted with an armband with a phone number to call should they wander off.
There will also be cosplay prizes for the best-dressed family.
Gaming Industry Boost
eSports and gaming have also been a major experience point for Comic Con lovers with this year’s larger venue providing for even more interaction and engagement.
This will all be under one hall that will be dedicated to gaming from “free-play zones, racing SIMs and the latest gaming equipment”.
There will also be prizes in excess of R1 million up for grabs while the inaugural South Africa Gaming Awards will also take place over the four days.
There will also be a chance to compete for spots at national and international gaming competitions, while DOTA2 and multiplayer first-person shooter game, Counter Strike: GO, will also have tournaments where you can see the masters in action.
Another very interesting feature this year is the Business of Gaming Forum set to be hosted on September 23, which will explore the tremendous growth and investment potential of this sector.
City Press reported that the South African games sector is worth $1.3 trillion and is only set to grow.
Comic Con says the forum is “directed at business investors, brand executives, brand agencies and managers as well as content creators, game developer and eSports businesses”.
Ben Myers, who together with Cukia Kimani became the first fully South African game developer company (Nyamakop Games) to develop a game for a Nintendo console, will also be leading a panel on the business of game development.
Weaving says the forum “will offer thorough insight into this ever-growing industry”.
Cosplay - The art of creativity
Two international cosplayers – LeeAnna Vamp and Italian Leon Chiro – will also be visiting Comic Con Africa this year.
Both are renowned for their amazing designs and cosplays with Chiro being the cos-model for the champion Rakan from League of Legends.
There will also be panel discussions on why cosplay is important for children especially from a creative side and how to cosplay on a budget.
Cosplay competitions with prize money of R20 500 and a trip to Chicago, to compete in the world cosplay competitions, will also be up for grabs.
Comic Con Africa takes place from September 21 – 24 at the Gallagher Convention Centre. Tickets are R160 per day and R500 for a four-day pass, that gets you access to Comic Con and Kids Con. Children under 6 enter free. See ComicConAfrica.co.za for more.
Download the Comic Con Africa app here.


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The jewellery trade is big business. Jewellery sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s last year totalled more than $1bn (both auction houses reported sales of around $550m). Collectors, whether buying for pleasure or investment, are swotting up on the field and vying for top-notch pieces. Those keen to add to their collection may be spoiled for choice at Tefaf Maastricht with exhibitors such as Van Cleef & Arpels, Reza, Wallace Chan, Hemmerle, Glenn Spiro, S.J. Phillips, Hancocks and Didier Ltd exhibiting top-notch vintage and contemporary pieces. Ahead of the fair, we spoke to a few specialists about the field.
The demand for Art Nouveau pieces, last seen in the 1980s and 1990s, is back, says Christie’s jewellery department head, Keith Penton. He has also noticed a growing appetite for “bold and colourful” pieces from the 1960s and 1970s, typified by the designs of Bulgari, which often incorporate contrasting gems in yellow gold mounts. But not all admirers of the period want to “go down the gemmy route”, says Tefaf exhibitor Guy Burton, the bespoke director of London’s Hancocks, which sells vintage as well as contemporary pieces. “Gold jewellery from the 1960s and 1970s by jewellers such as Cartier and Illias Lalaounis has become a big trend. We’re being asked about this almost more than anything else,” he says. Meanwhile, period pieces by Van Cleef & Arpels and Cartier (London dealer S.J. Phillips is bringing several Cartier pieces to Tefaf, including a pair of fan-shaped aquamarine earrings) and original jewels by Suzanne Belperron and René Boivin continue to be favourites.
A good provenance, particularly a royal or celebrity one, always helps to peak a collector’s interest. Sotheby’s worldwide chairman of jewellery, David Bennett, says the auction house’s noble jewels sales experienced a 64% growth from the dedicated sales launch in 2007 to 2016. Securing the sale in 2012 of the Beau Sancy—a 34.98 carat diamond Henry IV of France gave to his wife Marie de Medici in 1610—for CHF9m was a major coup for the auction house in this niche market. At Tefaf, Hancocks is offering the late Deborah Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire’s Art Deco diamond necklace by Cartier (around 1925; price on request).
Art on your sleeve
A decade ago, if you told a collector they could wear a Lucio Fontana around their neck, many would have laughed. Interest in artists’ jewellery has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, says the London specialist dealer Didier Haspeslagh of London’s Didier Ltd. “There is a huge community of art lovers who recognise each other by their jewellery. It signifies that they belong to a very exclusive club,” he says, adding that he exports to the US 80% of the pieces he sources in Europe.
There is a huge community of art lovers who recognise each other by their jewellery. It signifies that they belong to a very exclusive clubDidier Haspeslagh
So why did this aspect of Modern and contemporary artists’ oeuvre elude collectors’ attention for so long? Often pieces were made for friends and so have largely remained in private collections, says Karine Lacquemant, the curator of From Calder to Koons, Artists’ Jewellery: the Collection of Diane Venet at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (7 March-8 July). Alexander Calder carried wire in his pocket and made jewellery during casual conversations; he is thought to have made around 2,000 pieces, says Haspeslagh, who is bringing a 1960s gold brooch by Calder to Tefaf (£50,000). His stand is themed around the Museum of Modern Art in New York’s 1967 exhibition of artists’ jewellery and will include pieces from that ground-breaking show. Jewellery by Calder, Picasso and Dalí are particularly prized, he says.
The jeweller’s workshop
How does a jeweller keep a goldsmith in their employ for 30 years? “Keep the job interesting and challenging,” says Christian Hemmerle from the eponymous fourth-generation German jewellery house, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. (The company’s former work master is in his 70s and although semi-retired, he still comes in to set the really big gems.) “We want to create one-of-a-kind jewellery that hopefully will be displayed one day in the world’s museums,” he says. “We’re happy to create and push boundaries year on year, which is quite a challenge.”
Hemmerle’s innovative designs pair quality gems (sometimes set backwards to create a spiky effect) with often-overlooked materials such as wood and iron. In 2016, the company released its [AL] Project collection, in which gems are mounted in anodised aluminium settings. So far, their craftsmen have developed more than 25 different colours of aluminium, from sky blue to crimson. To mark the firm’s anniversary, Hemmerle has gone back to its roots as a medals and orders maker to the Bavarian royal family and has created a collection based on designs found in its archive. The collection will debut in Maastricht. Hemmerle does not disclose prices, but auction results over the past five years show that pieces go for between $10,000 to almost $850,000—the latter being for an 8.8 carat diamond ring sold in 2016 at Sotheby’s in Geneva for quadruple its low estimate.
One of the backbones of its 22-strong Munich workshop is its apprenticeship programme, Hemmerle says. The atelier currently has three apprentices who train for three-and-a-half years under a head work master. After two years they can begin to create pieces for customers and by the end of their training they should be able to make a piece from sketches drawn by the Hemmerle family. “We invest in our people,” Hemmerle says, explaining that they educate with an eye to keeping the trainees after their apprenticeships. “It’s important for it to be a passion and not just a job,” he says.
Designs are distributed according to one’s aptitude and a single goldsmith works on a piece from start to finish; if it should later need to be repaired, it goes back to the original goldsmith. “If we give the ideal piece to the ideal craftsman, the outcome will be better and that is our ultimate goal than rather to think from a marketing or commercial point of view,” he says, adding that production is not dictated by the fairs coming up. And how long does a goldsmith have to work on a piece: “There is no time limit. It takes as long as it takes, says Yasmin Hemmerle.
New ‘kid’ on the bejewelled block
After 25 years of selling his one-off pieces to some of the biggest jewellery houses in the business, Glenn Spiro decided to set up shop and trade under his own name. In 2014, he established G and, in 2016, moved his atelier to a space in London’s Mayfair formerly occupied by Queen Elizabeth’s couturier, Norman Hartnell. In four short years, the house of G has become a force to be reckoned with in a very select industry. Case in point: Arnaud Bamberger, the former director of Cartier, recently joined as honorary chairman.
The truth is, if I love [the gem], I’m going to buy it, so I try not to see too much because I fall in love very quicklyGlenn Spiro
G is making its debut at Tefaf Maastricht this month. Prices for his jewellery start at around $40,000 and go up to the tens of millions. Spiro says his pieces “stand alone” and have “personality, style and wear-ability”. Whereas many houses start with a design, 99.9% of the time Spiro starts with the gem. Although the gem takes priority, he does not seek them out because he finds the good ones just too hard to resist: “The truth is, if I love it, I’m going to buy it, so I try not to see too much because I fall in love very quickly.” And who are his customers? “A woman who has the confidence to buy what she likes, not what she thinks she should like,” Spiro says. The Art Newspaper understands that one confident customer, a celebrity out to run the world, is donating a piece to London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.


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December 18, 2020
Chief Economist Scott Brown discusses current economic conditions.
The holiday shopping season is critical for most retailers. For some, the season is make or break for the whole year. The November retail sales report was weaker than expected, although amplified by the seasonal adjustment. No surprise, consumers are increasingly shopping online. The pandemic has reduced the seasonal traffic at the brick-and-mortar stores. Seasonal adjustment issues are also evident in other areas, such as manufacturing and construction. In turn, much of the recent noise may see a reverse echo in January and February.
Retail sales fell 1.1% in November (+4.1% y/y). Motor vehicle sales fell 1.7% (+6.0% y/y), but fell 9.8% prior to seasonal adjustment (vs. -2.6% in November 2019). Sales at clothing stores fell 6.8% (up 4.8% before seasonal adjustment, compared to +17.7% in November 2019). Department store sales fell 7.7% (up +14.7% before adjustment, compared to +28.2% in November 2019). People have been shopping for Christmas, just not as much as usual. Is online shopping making up the difference? Sales at non-store retailers (including mail order and internet) edged up just 0.2% in November, but were up 13.9% before adjustment (up 29.3% y/y, compared to +8.9% y/y in November 2019). The pandemic accelerated two retail trends that have been apparent in recent years: the rise of internet shopping and ongoing weakness in brick-and-mortar retailing.
Motor vehicle production exhibits a strong seasonal pattern. Output falls sharply each July, due to the summer factory retooling shutdowns (a few decades ago, these were spread out over the summer, but they have become increasingly concentrated in the first week in July). Output also dips in November and December, reflecting the holidays. Motor vehicle output rose 5.3% in November, but was down 6.2% before seasonal adjustment. Vehicle production was unchanged from a year earlier. Note that while consumer demand for vehicles has been strong, business demand (including car rental agencies) has remained soft.
Seasonal adjustment can exaggerate minor quirks in the economic data. That is likely to be the case for the December employment figures (due January 8). While we may see further hiring in delivery services, retail hiring is likely to be softer than normal. We normally lose education jobs in December, but with less hiring in previous months, we ought to see fewer let go this December. Similarly, if you didn’t hire as many people in retail as you usually do in November and December, there will be fewer seasonal layoffs in January. A lot of this noise should balance out over time, leaving a slower trend in job growth in the near term. Job growth should pick up as vaccines are distributed.
The Fed’s Summary of Economic Projections showed that officials were less pessimistic about GDP growth in 2020, but the outlook for short- term interest rates was little changed. Most Fed officials expect the federal funds target rate to remain near 0% through 2023. The Fed is likely to alter the monthly pace of asset purchases in 2021, but that will depend on how fast the economy recovers, which in turn, will depend on how the current surge in COVID-19 cases plays out.
In the meantime, stay safe. Celebrate the holidays remotely if you can. We’ll see you in 2021.
The Fed’s Revised Summary of Economic Projections
The Fed’s revised projections were in line with the general view among private economists. While the economy is expected to have declined less in 2020 than was projected in September (which was less bleak than the outlook from June), expectations of short-term interest rates were little changed. In the release, the Fed included assessments of risk and uncertainty. Most officials view the level of uncertainty in the outlook as high. Risks to the growth outlook remain skewed to the downside, but much less than in September.
In the revised dot plot, most Fed officials (13 of 18) expect no change in short-term interest rates through 2023.
The Fed now expects real GDP to fall about 2.4% in 2020 (4Q/4Q), vs. a September forecast of -3.7% and a June forecast of -6.5%. GDP is seen rebounding 4.2% in 2021 (vs. September’s forecast of +4.0%), followed by 3.2% in 2022 (vs. +3.0%) and +2.4% in 2023 (vs. +2.5%).
The unemployment rate is expected to average 6.7% in 4Q20, vs. projections of 7.6% in September and 9.3% in June. Fed officials anticipate that the rate will drop to 5.0% in 4Q21 and 4.2% in 4Q22
Despite the change in the Fed’s monetary policy framework, which allows for periods of inflation above 2% following periods below 2%, Fed officials expect inflation to remain below the 2% target. Fed officials expect the PCE Price Index, its key inflation gauge, to hit 1.2% this year (4Q/4Q), the same projection made in September, with core inflation at 1.4%.
Recent Economic Data
Retail sales fell 1.1% in November (+4.1% y/y), down 0.9% ex-autos (+3.6% y/y), reflecting the pandemic’s impact on holiday shopping. Sales at department stores fell 7.7% (+14.7% before adjustment, vs. +28.2% in November 2019). Sales at non-store retailers (includes internet and mail order) edged up 0.2%, but rose 29.2% from a year earlier, compared to +8.8% in the 12 months ending November 2019.
Business inventories rose 0.7% in October (-4.0% y/y). While this is just one month of the quarter, it’s likely that faster inventory accumulation will add to 4Q20 GDP growth. Business sales rose 0.9% (+2.2% y/y).
Industrial production rose 0.4% in November (-5.5%), with factory output up 0.8% (-3.5% y/y). Motor vehicle production rose 5.3%, following three monthly declines (prior to seasonal adjustment auto output fell 6.2% in November). Ex-motor vehicles, manufacturing output rose 0.4% (-3.9% y/y).
Building permits rose 6.2% in November, to a 1.639 million seasonally adjusted annual rate. Single-family permits, the key figure in the report, rose 1.3%, up 22.2% from a year ago. Note that single-family starts fell 16.1% before seasonal adjustment, vs. -20.0% in November 2019.
The current account deficit, the broadest measure of foreign trade, widened to $178.5 billion in 3Q20 (about 3.4% of GDP), compared to $104.3 billion (1.9% of GDP) in 4Q20.
Gauging the Recovery
The number of new daily COVID-19 cases has continued to surge. Increased social distancing, whether state mandated or voluntary self-preservation, should slow the pace (and the economy), but we are likely to see the surge get worse before it gets better.
The New York Fed’s Weekly Economic Index fell to -2.70% for the week ending December 12, down from – 2.47% a week earlier (revised from -2.39%) and a low of -11.45% at the end of April, reflecting the increase in jobless claims and reduced electricity output. The WEI is scaled to four-quarter GDP growth (for example, if the WEI reads -2% and the current level of the WEI persists for an entire quarter, we would expect, on average, GDP that quarter to be 2% lower than a year previously). Note that the weekly figures are subject to revision.
Jobless claims rose to 885,000 in the week ending December 12, up from the previous week’s jump to 862,000. Figures tend to be choppy in November and December, but the recent rise likely reflects the impact of the COVID-19 surge. Claims have been distorted throughout the pandemic, reflecting multiple filings and fraud. The total number of individuals receiving some kind of unemployment benefit was 20.6 million in the week ending November 28 (in the employment report, the number officially “unemployed” was 6.7 million).
The University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index rose to 81.4 in the mid-month assessment for December (the survey covered November 23 to December 9), vs. 76.9 in November and 81.8 in October. The survey noted partisan splits after the election. Expectations improved on vaccine news, but the current surge in COVID-19 cases had no significant impact on evaluations of current conditions.
The opinions offered by Dr. Brown are provided as of the date above and subject to change. For more information about this report – to discuss how this outlook may affect your personal situation and/or to learn how this insight may be incorporated into your investment strategy – please contact your financial advisor or use the convenient Office Locator to find our office(s) nearest you today.
This material is being provided for informational purposes only. Any information should not be deemed a recommendation to buy, hold or sell any security. Certain information has been obtained from third-party sources we consider reliable, but we do not guarantee that such information is accurate or complete. This report is not a complete description of the securities, markets, or developments referred to in this material and does not include all available data necessary for making an investment decision. Prior to making an investment decision, please consult with your financial advisor about your individual situation. Investing involves risk and you may incur a profit or loss regardless of strategy selected. There is no guarantee that the statements, opinions or forecasts provided herein will prove to be correct.
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If digitize or die is the only way forward, companies are more than halfway to death’s door.
In an article on “The case for digital reinvention,” consulting firm McKinsey & Company pointed out that too many companies are too far behind when it comes to tapping the technology that will ensure they live to see a future.
“Digital technology, despite its seeming ubiquity, has only begun to penetrate industries,” McKinsey researchers noted. “As it continues its advance, the implications for revenues, profits and opportunities will be dramatic.”
On average, according to McKinsey, industries are less than 40 percent digitized, and that 60 percent of leftover opportunity is going to start costing them.
The one industry reaching the digital mainstream is media and entertainment at 62 percent digital penetration, though retail follows closely behind at 55 percent digitized.
“Digitization has only begun to transform many industries,” McKinsey noted. “Its impact on the economic performance of companies, while already significant, is far from complete.”
Because the spread of digital technology has increased competition within industries, current levels of digitization have reduced average revenue growth by 6 percentage points, according to McKinsey. And if industries were at full capacity for digitization, the shift would be putting twice as much pressure on revenue growth.
While declining growth rates don’t exactly sound favorable, McKinsey reiterated that these stats are averages across industries and that those industries performing strongly are three times more likely to generate market-beating economic profit than those slower to embrace digitization.
“As companies digitize business processes, profits increase, even though little momentum in top-line growth accompanies them,” McKinsey said. “The biggest future impact on revenue and EBIT [earnings before interest and tax]…is set to occur through the digitization of supply chains.”
While advancing technological capabilities in the supply chain could weigh on revenue growth and profit more than other areas of digitization to start, it could provide the most business opportunity in the longer run. However, very few companies are focusing their digitization efforts on improving supply chains. In fact, just 2 percent of respondents surveyed in McKinsey’s study said their investments are focused on supply chains. The majority of respondents (49 percent) are honing in on upgrades to distribution channels and marketing.
“That focus is sensible, given the extraordinary impact digitization has already had on customer interactions and the power of digital tools to target marketing investments precisely,” McKinsey pointed out. The question now, according to the report, “is whether companies are overlooking emerging opportunities, such as those in supply chains, that are likely to have a major influence on future revenues and profits. That may call for resource reallocation.”
Companies need to be bolder with their investments in digitization, according to the report. Those that are most assertive in their efforts will be able to restore the majority of any loss in revenue and profit growth and position themselves to further surpass more passive competitors.
“Such results will require action across all dimensions, not just one or two—a tall order for any management team, even those at today’s digital leaders.”
A look at how companies that failed to react and adapt to changing times have allowed new brands that are better tapped into the zeitgeist to steal share.Read more
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J.Crew has been shifting in its seat trying to adjust to a new normal of shrinking sales and growing debt, but nothing has quite yet paid off, so the company is cutting its prices.Read more
It’s official. Coach, Inc. is snapping up shares of handbag brand Kate Spade.Read more
This week, consumers called for better children's apparel, retailers turned internally to remedy their financial woes and apparel incubators improved China's manufacturing sector.Read more
Whether and how much consumers care about sustainability may be an ongoing question the industry wants an answer for, but one thing that’s clear is that though some consumers do care, sustainability isn’t the first thing they think of.Read more
Gymboree tapped former Tilly's executive Daniel Griesemer as its new CEO, JC Penney appointed Marci Grebstein as its new EVP and Wolford creative director Grit Seymour is leaving the company.Read more


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London, (01/04/2022) – Edgar, Dunn & Company (EDC), an independent, global strategy consulting firm specialising in payments and digital financial services, today announced the promotion of Volker Schloenvoigt to Director.
“I am pleased to announce the promotion of Volker to a Director in our London office. Many of our clients will know Volker well from past engagements with us and recognise his deep payments expertise, which will be important in contributing to our continued growth.”, said Peter Sidenius, CEO of Edgar, Dunn & Company.
“I have been working in the payment industry for many years now and the pace of change has been absolutely tremendous at times. I am delighted to continue leading our payment acceptance practice in cooperation with colleagues across the world and supporting our clients in navigating this dynamic payment industry to address their challenges for years to come. EDC has been serving clients for over 40 years and I am excited to be part of this company working with such talented colleagues beside me” (Volker Schloenvoigt, Director at Edgar, Dunn & Company).
Volker has over 20 years of experience in payments in strategy development, financial analysis, M&A and commercial due diligence, benchmarking, pricing & interchange, as well as market entry and product development work. He has supported many clients on these topics, including issuers and acquirers, international & national schemes, regional & global processing companies, large regional banks, private equity groups, Fintech and technology vendors.
Volker holds an MSc in Industrial Engineering from Technical University Karlsruhe, in Germany and an MBA from Glasgow Caledonian University.


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Summer is over and winter is almost here, meaning that the sun will be out even less in the coming months. With bikini season over, many teenage girls and young women are turning to indoor tanning beds to maintain their summer glow. Some may think they look more attractive and healthy with a tan, but the reality is that exposing their skin to harmful UV rays, whether from the sun or indoor tanning, causes serious damage that can make them extremely unhealthy and age prematurely.
A consumer update by the FDA reports the serious repercussions of using indoor tanning beds. According to the update, people who use indoor tanning beds are 75 percent more likely to develop melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, compared to those who don’t use the beds, and the risk increases with use. A special article published earlier this year in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, stated that high-pressure tanning units may emit 10 to 15 times the dose of UV-A rays than the dose emitted by the sun midday. The lamps used in tanning beds can also be more dangerous than sunlight because they can be used at the same intensity all year, whereas the sun’s intensity varies depending on the weather and time of year. The FDA is proposing changes that would make the regulation of sunlamp products more strict, including premarket review, performance testing, and warnings against the use of them by minors.
The FDA also warns that exposure to UV radiation can cause eye damage, skin burns, and premature aging of the skin. Those who are concerned about having bronzed skin now will have more wrinkles, fine lines, and dark spots later if they continue to expose their skin to this dangerous radiation. In addition, they will not only have more signs of aging, but these signs will appear sooner than if they had refrained from tanning. The choice to stay away from UV rays now will help keep your skin looking youthful and beautiful.
As an alternative to indoor tanning beds, we suggest trying spray tans or self-tanning lotions to achieve a truly healthy glow. With the winter and cold weather approaching, lotion that has bronzing qualities will work double time to keep your skin moisturized and glowing. Also, don’t forget that your skin is still being exposed to UV radiation even when the sun is behind the clouds. Be sure to use a moisturizer with a broad-spectrum SPF of 15 or higher every day, rain or shine, on your face, neck, hands, and any other area of your body that is exposed to the sun.
If your skin is already experiencing signs of sun damage, Skin Physicians & Surgeons has several treatment options to restore beautiful, healthy skin. We offer skin cancer examinations, skin cancer surgery, as well as nonsurgical cosmetic procedures, such as fractional laser treatment, to minimize wrinkles, fine lines, acne scars, sun spots, and other signs of aging. Please call (909) 981-8929 or fill out our online contact form to schedule your consultation. We look forward to hearing from you!


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POTTSVILLE, Pa. - Breyers, Ben & Jerry's, Edy's and Yuengling's: Which is not like the others? Trick question. They all make ice cream.
POTTSVILLE, Pa. — Breyers, Ben & Jerry’s, Edy’s and Yuengling’s: Which is not like the others?
Trick question. They all make ice cream.
The supermarket freezer aisle got a little more crowded yesterday as Yuengling — a name more associated with ale, porter and lager than vanilla, chocolate and strawberry — took its place alongside the familiar brands.
Beer drinkers know Yuengling as a 185-year-old family owned Pennsylvania brewery. What they might not realize is that Yuengling used to make ice cream, too, starting in 1920 at the dawn of Prohibition.
Now Yuengling’s Ice Cream is back after an absence of nearly 30 years, available at hundreds of stores in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Delaware and New Jersey. More stores and markets could be added.
This incarnation of Yuengling’s Ice Cream comes from a separate company with no connection to the brewery. But it already has capitalized on that famous name. Yuengling’s initial run of 100,000 quarts rolled off the production line ahead of schedule because of high demand.
“One of the biggest things in putting a new product on the market is getting brand-name recognition, which is a problem we don’t have,” said Yuengling’s Ice Cream President David Yuengling, a cousin of brewery owner Dick Yuengling and great-grandson of the man who started the original ice cream company 94 years ago.
Made by a small dairy in Tamaqua, Pa., Yuengling’s is available in 10 flavors.
The original Yuengling’s dairy was spun off into a separate company after Prohibition ended. It continued selling ice cream and other dairy products for the next half-century. David Yuengling’s father closed the business in 1985 because neither of his sons was interested in taking over, and Yuengling spent the next three decades in the computer industry.
A few years ago, a family friend approached him about rebooting Yuengling’s Ice Cream. Yuengling, 51, was ready for a career change, and he realized the Yuengling name would probably get his product an initial lick.
Branding expert Rob Frankel, author of The Revenge of Brand X, said defunct but well-regarded brands can do well when they’re resurrected.
“In Yuengling’s case, there’s a lot of really great, rich history. The fact that it was an ice cream born of Prohibition has a neat story to it. It’s almost like it was bootlegger ice cream,” he said.
Beer-flavored ice cream, alas, isn’t in the cards. And while there’s been talk of floats made from Yuengling beer and Yuengling’s ice cream, you won’t find David Yuengling partaking.
“I’m certainly not gonna try it,” Yuengling, a direct descendant of the brewery’s founder, said. “I just can’t see beer and ice cream together.”