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Demi Lovato's Diet Culture Promotion Branded 'Hypocrisy' Amid Yogurt Shop Controversy
Pop singer Demi Lovato, who uses they/them pronouns after they came out as non-binary, is facing another controversy after they were seen holding a microphone that has a soda brand logo which says "zero sugar"
The "Tell Me You Love Me" hitmaker attended and performed at the iHeartRadio Music Awards a few days ago and accidentaly promoted diet culture, this came after they blasted a yougurt shop on Instagram last month.
Days after their photos at the event circulated online, social media users are quick to judge the singer's "hypocrisy".
Fans insisted that Lovato is okay with promoting diet culture as long as they're "getting paid for it".
"just remember diet culture is ok if they pay you money." one Twitter user wrote.
Another Twitter user even called the pop star an "unhinged adult woman" (check out the Tweet below)
yes, yes I do and thousands of others with eating disorders where pissed at her for how she attacked a froyo shop. she sure is ok with attacking diet culture unless the diet culture lines her pockets. stop trying to defend an unhinged adult woman. pic.twitter.com/ukwOerkWAA— Blobfish GOT a job (@blob199222) June 2, 2021
Many users also slammed Lovato for shaming the yougurt shop, they pointed out that putting "sugar-free" items is not promoting diet culture but rather a better option for people with diabetes and other health conditions.
"it was extremely unprofessional of her to put a small business on blast for DARING to cater to people with celiac's and diabetes, taking their sugar free options out of context to label them as "diet culture vultures." a user wrote.
The frozen yogurt shop drama
In April this year, the "Give Your Heart A Break" hitmaker came under fire after they blasted a frozen yogurt shop in LA called "The Bigg Chill" for selling sugar-free options.
Lovato stated that the items are "triggrering and awful" for them as they are still recovering from an eating disorder.
The singer took to Instagram stories to call out the shop "Finding it extremely hard to order froyo from @thebiggchillofficial when you have to walk past tons of sugar free cookies/other diet foods before you get to the counter," they wrote.
The Bigg Chill later on defended their shop by posting on Instagram stories saying that their place are carrying items for people with diabetes, celiac disease, and those who are living a vegan lifestyle.
Following this, Lovato had posted a screenshot of their conversation with the shop. The Bigg Chill wrote "We cater to all of our customers needs for the past 36 years. We are sorry you found this offensive.".
Lovato has been candid about their recovery from eating disorder as they suffered bulimia in the past.
The pop star has not addressed the situation in the awards show as well as to the recent comments they received.


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A council about to auction off more than 400 paintings by famous British artists for hundreds of thousands of pounds has prompted calls for other authorities to follow suit.
Hertfordshire County Council is to give up 90 per cent of its £26.2 million art collection amid fears the cost of maintaining them in storage cannot be justified.
Works by renowned post-war artists including the Yorkshire sculptor, Barbara Hepworth, the English surrealist John Tunnard, the vorticist, Edward Wadsworth, and a pastel by the Scottish artist, Joan Eardley, will go under the hammer in March.
However, the move has been condemned by art lovers who claim the sale is a short-term money making venture that will see a “valuable and major collection” vanish into private hands.
Freedom of Information requests show in the four years to 2017, county councils in Leicestershire and Cambridgeshire sold £197,143 and £146,750 of their art respectively.
Auctions have been lucrative, with the Cambridge authority later selling for £60,000 Evelyn Dunbar’s Joseph’s Dream, initially valued at just £5,000.
Nottingham City Council, however, has insisted its £41 million collection would never be sold as a “quick win”.
Hertfordshire first will auction 160 works, with a further 268 pieces, each under £100, being sold later. The entire sale is expected to raise £300,000.
John O'Connell, of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, claimed people would be “bewildered” that a council had such a large collection.
“The council should be doing everything they can to bring down costs for families, so should consider selling off the entire art collection,” he said.
“Any council hoarding valuable art collections should immediately look to auction them off, as it's simply not fair to be increasing council tax when there are other financial means available.”
Armaiti Bedford, a Hertfordshire businesswoman whose petition to keep the art attracted 2,000 signatures, said: “This significant collection may legally belong to the council, but is really owned by us all.
“It is selling off the best works - our cultural heritage - for a miniscule amount compared to its £817 million annual budget. The collection should remain in the public realm and be donated to museums so we can all share it.”
Helen Little, a former curator at Tate Britain who signed the petition, said: “It’s alarming to see the UK losing another of its local authority collections developed with the spirit that good art and architecture should be for everyone.”
So far, 112 works have been donated to Hertfordshire organisations, with a further 1,074 due to be given to other local groups at a later date. [MUST KEEP] Experts at Cheffins Fine Art Auctioneers, which will hold the auction in Cambridge, said war painters have “achieved stellar prices” recently.
The council started its collection in 1949 as part of a national scheme to encourage children to appreciate art. The project was axed in 2017.
Councillor Terry Douris, cabinet member for education, said the sale was not intended to plug a funding shortage, but was “the sensible thing to do” as 60 per cent of the collection was languishing in storage.
The council retains, among other works, four statues, insured for £21.85 million, including a Henry Moore and two works by Hepworth.

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Ford Motor Co. is selecting the head of Apple Inc.’s motor vehicle task absent from the Iphone maker, a amazing development that brings the 118-year-outdated automaker an government with Silicon Valley chops.
Doug Subject is coming aboard as main innovative technological innovation and embedded devices officer, Ford mentioned in a assertion. Subject also beforehand labored as a best engineer at Tesla Inc. concerning two stints at Apple — most not long ago as a vice president in its specific projects group — and played a important function at Tesla in launching the Product 3 sedan.
The hire is a coup for Ford, which has built major strides underneath Chief Govt Jim Farley in convincing buyers it can contend with Tesla and other individuals on electric powered automobiles and technological innovation. Ford shares have just about doubled considering the fact that Farley took over in Oct, after his two predecessors presided more than a years-very long slump.
“This is a watershed moment for our corporation — Doug has attained so a great deal,” Farley said in a briefing with reporters. “This is just a monumental moment in time that we have now to actually remake” the automaker.
Bloomberg Information documented the shift previously Tuesday, citing folks familiar with the make any difference. Ford shares reversed a decrease on the news and rose .5% at the close of common trading in New York, when Apple gained about 1.6%, down from its intraday superior.
Apple explained that it’s grateful for the contributions Discipline designed and that it needs him nicely at Ford. The departure marks another considerable setback for Apple’s automotive endeavours. The company’s vehicle job has long gone through a number of technique and leadership shake-ups because it commenced to take shape all around 2014.
Apple has turn into the world’s most beneficial business, with an almost $2.6-trillion industry capitalization, by promoting smartphones, tablets, particular personal computers and companies. Traders and clients have been clamoring for new machine categories, and speculation about the vehicle challenge was rampant early this yr.
Some Apple engineers on the venture imagine the organization could launch a solution in five to seven yrs if the company decides to go forward with a person, individuals with understanding of the endeavours stated in January. Discussions with some major automakers, like Hyundai Motor Co., have stalled, Bloomberg claimed in March.
Area joined in 2018 and is at least the fourth member of the car group’s administration crew who has left given that February and the fourth Apple car division chief to depart since the division started.
Discipline is coming entire circle, having begun his job as an engineer at Ford. He returns as the critical player in the automaker’s press to make a continual flow of earnings from deploying solutions into vehicles by using program. Farley has claimed Ford’s long term is dependent not on promoting automobiles 1 at a time but on offering attributes to entrepreneurs to constantly update their vehicles like they do their telephones.
“There’s no business with a better background in this market,” Subject instructed reporters. “After assembly and chatting to Jim and other leadership at Ford, I became persuaded that not only was the history in this article, but that there was a deep want to genuinely alter and embrace these technologies.”
Recurring profits has turn into the holy grail for automakers seeking to crack totally free of the industry’s historic growth-and-bust cycles. Tesla has made available above-the-air updates for yrs Ford lately commenced providing features like a hands-cost-free driving process on its electric powered Mustang Mach-E and F-150 pickup for a payment.
Area mentioned he designs to keep his house in Silicon Valley whilst also paying for a new household in the Detroit location.
“I’m in Michigan correct now and I will be below each time I’m necessary in order to press issues ahead,” Discipline stated. But “it’s critical essentially in this purpose for me to make positive that I’m in contact with the talent and systems and factors that are rising in Silicon Valley.”
Bloomberg writers Giles Turner, Mark Gurman, Dana Hull and Ed Ludlow contributed to this report.
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Professional social networking service LinkedIn won the dismissal of a lawsuit seeking damages on behalf of premium users who had their log-in passwords exposed as a result of a security breach of the company's servers last year.
A judge has ordered a partial retrial in Apple's patent lawsuit against Samsung in California, and has cut hundreds of millions of dollars from the $1 billion in damages that Apple was awarded last summer.
Indian outsourcer Tata Consultancy Services has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit by paying US$30 million to employees deputed for work in the U.S. from India.
Apple has reached a settlement in a class-action lawsuit that claimed that its app purchase policy did not prevent minor children from running huge expenses for in-app purchases.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has reached a settlement with HTC America over security holes in the company's smartphone and tablet software that left millions of users' personal information at risk.
Google's famed "triumvirate" -- Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt -- will give oral statements over the coming weeks as part of a private antitrust suit brought against Google and six other technology companies by former employees.
The judge overseeing Apple's two lawsuits against Samsung in California has indicated she would like to put the second case on hold pending resolution of the first case, the trial for which ended last summer with a big win for Apple.
Facebook has scored an initial legal victory in its IPO case following a federal judge's dismissal of a group of investor lawsuits filed against the company.
Facebook is being sued by the family of a deceased Dutch programmer who held two patents dealing with sharing and updating social media content long before the social networking site launched.
California has terminated its contract with SAP in connection with a US$371 million software system that was supposed to overhaul the state's payroll system but instead ended up mired in major delays and cost overruns.
The U.S. International Trade Commission aims to wrap up its investigation into a patent battle between Apple and Samsung by August this year, it said Tuesday.
The High Court cleared Google on Wednesday of violating fair trade law by allowing companies to publish advertisements containing their competitors' names, handing a defeat to the country's fair trade regulator.
A court has rejected Oracle's appeal of a judge's ruling in the lawsuit Hewlett-Packard brought over Oracle's decision to stop porting its software to HP's Itanium server platform.
The Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZVB) has sued computer game distributor Valve because it prohibits Steam-gamers from reselling their games.
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First impression on unpacking the Q702 test unit was the solid feel and clean, minimalist styling.


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In a recent proxy statement, Rite Aid disclosed it paid almost $1.31 million in total compensation last year to executive vice president, general counsel, and company secretary James Comitale, who resigned from the national drugstore and pharmacy chain May 21.
A Rite Aid spokesman told Bloomberg Law that the company doesn’t comment on personnel matters. Comitale didn’t return a request for comment about his departure, which comes about a month after legal recruiting firm Major, Lindsey & Africa announced it had been retained to lead a search for a new in-house legal chief at the Camp Hill, Pa.-based company, which has a new CEO in Heyward Donigan.
Rite Aid’s 2019 proxy shows that Comitale took home $754,554 in cash in 2019, along with $212,667 in stock awards. He currently owns $565,000 in Rite Aid stock, according to Bloomberg data.
Lumber Liquidators said in a May 28 securities filing that senior vice president, chief legal officer, and corporate secretary M. Lee Reeves had resigned the day prior to “pursue other opportunities.” Reeves, in a brief email to Bloomberg Law, said there were “a number of factors” that led him to transition out of Lumber Liquidators, but a “known new opportunity was not” one of them.
Reeves’ departure from Lumber Liquidators came the same day the hardwood flooring retailer announced its appointment of a new president and CEO in Charles Tyson, who had moved into the role on an interim basis in February following the abrupt resignation of former CEO Dennis Knowles. Reeves was hired by Knowles in June 2017.
A Lumber Liquidators spokesman told Bloomberg Law that the Richmond, Va.-based company intends to “conduct a search to backfill the role” held by Reeves, who before joining Lumber Liquidators worked as a partner at the law firm Nexsen Pruet and served as a deputy general counsel at Mooresville, N.C.-based home improvement giant Lowe’s Cos. Inc.
Bloomberg data shows that Reeves owns $379,000 in Lumber Liquidators stock. Reeves earned $815,687 in total compensation last year, including $516,948 in cash and $266,990 in stock awards, according to the company’s most recent proxy statement.
Denny’s Shift Change
Myers, who prior to joining American Tire spent three years as general counsel for snack food giant Snyder’s-Lance Inc., will report to Denny’s CEO John Miller and head the company’s legal function.
She succeeds longtime general counsel Timothy Flemming, whose LinkedIn profile shows that he retired in January. Flemming currently owns $1.14 million in Denny’s stock, according to Bloomberg data.
Children’s Place Switch
The company said in a May 22 securities filing that former general counsel Bradley Cost, who served in the role from December 2010 until his retirement in October 2019, had returned that day to replace Robert Karpf, a former deputy general counsel who succeeded Cost as legal chief in November.
Karpf earned more than $1.36 million in total compensation—$477,013 of that sum in cash—from the Children’s Place in 2019, according to a proxy statement. Karpf and Cost didn’t respond to requests for comment about their switch in positions, nor did the Children’s Place.
Cost received over $1.01 million in total compensation from the Children’s Place in 2018. He currently owns roughly $761,000 in Children’s Place stock, according to Bloomberg data, which values Karpf’s stock holdings in the company at almost $197,000. Karpf joined the in-house team at the Children’s Place in 2017 after seven years as deputy general counsel at Kate Spade & Co.
More Retail Recruits
Other notable in-house legal retail appointments include:
- Jeremy Holbrook was announced May 20 as the new general counsel at Lawrenceville, N.J.-based 1WorldSync Inc. The supply chain software company, which was sold last year to technology-focused private equity firm Battery Ventures LP, provides services to retailers. Holbrook spent the past dozen years in-house at Sears Holdings Corp., where he recently served as deputy general counsel.
- Boston Market Corp. said May 18 it promoted chief administrative officer and general counsel J. Randal Miller to president of the Golden, Colo.-based fast casual restaurant chain. Boston Market was sold in April to the privately held Rohan Group of Cos. Valentino DiGiorgio, general counsel of Newtown, Pa.-based Rohan, confirmed to Bloomberg Law in an email that due to Miller’s promotion, he is now corporate counsel and chief administrative officer at Boston Market.
- Raley’s Family of Fine Stores, a privately held supermarket giant, announced May 13 its hire of legal operations veteran Jennifer Warner as chief administrative officer. Warner, a former compliance chief and general counsel for the Americas at supply chain solutions specialist XPO Logistics Inc., most recently served as vice president of legal at Columbia Sportswear Co., an outdoor apparel and sportswear maker that has been hit hard by coronavirus-related business closures. West Sacramento, Calif.-based Raley’s owns the Raley’s, Nob Hill Foods, Food Source, and Bel Air Markets brands.


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What small-business owners think.
An article just published in The Times looks at companies that have decided to stop paying sales commissions to its sales representatives.
For example, Craig Gorsline, president of ThoughtWorks, a software company based in Chicago, talks about why he eliminated commissions and placed his entire sales force, a team of 40 stretching across 12 countries, on straight salary in 2012. He did it, he said, in part because the Internet has changed the role played by sales reps and because he believed commissions were distorting the relationships between his employees and his customers. Since making the move, Mr. Gorsline said, the company’s revenues have spiked.
The story also recounts the experience of RJMetrics, a software company that helps Web retailers track their sales metrics. It opened in Philadelphia in 2008, and it decided not to pay sales commissions. “I was worried it would poison the culture,” said Jake Stein, one of the founders. This year, however, the company had a change of heart.
To attract the best sales team, RJMetrics has concluded, it must pay commissions. “We have a great culture and we can win on those things,” Mr. Stein said. “But we wouldn’t want to have a big question mark and have someone think twice about working for us because somewhere else there is a better offer.” The company plans to put the new model into effect next year.
What do you think? Do commissions encourage the right behavior? Is it possible to attract top sales reps without paying commissions?


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Taking the first step in its effort to change the transportation industry in the Las Vegas Valley, Kaptyn Inc. will roll out Tesla vehicles to its fleet starting Monday.
Timed to coincide with the start of CES 2020, Kaptyn is introducing 30 Teslas, comprised of the electric car company’s Model 3, Model S and Model X vehicles. The fleet will be marketed toward high-end customers who might otherwise hail a limousine or black car service.
In October, the mobility technology company moved to purchase Desert Cab Co., ODS Chauffeured Transportation, and Whittlesea-Bell Transportation, comprised of Whittlesea Blue Cab, Henderson Taxi, Bell Limousine, Bell Trans and Presidential Limousine. The deal includes more than 1,400 vehicles, including 872 taxis, and is set to be finalized by the middle of January, Kaptyn CEO Andrew Meyers said.
The initial introduction of the Teslas to Kaptyn’s fleet is just a small portion of the electric vehicles set to be added to the inventory; the figure will be in the hundreds when fully rolled out in February, Meyers said.
“It’ll be the good, better, best of our premium offerings for the Kaptyn brand approach,” Meyers said. “We’re only putting out a portion of the vehicles that we acquired, due to the sheer fact we really want to focus on the driver and the customer first.”
Driver partners, as Kaptyn calls its drivers, have taken driver training sessions for the Teslas where drivers are learning how to operate the Teslas and increase their customer service awareness, Meyers said.
“We’ve been all hands on deck with that,” he said. “We have about 100 drivers and chauffeurs trained for the Tesla fleet of our service offering.”
Kaptyn will have its Teslas stationed at McCarran International Airport, with greeters recruiting possible passengers in baggage claim areas, with walk-up service available at both terminals.
Every Tesla will have a specific business card with a phone number that customers can call and hail a ride, in what amounts to a VIP reservation system, Meyers said.
In February in the full rollout of the electric vehicle program, a smartphone app will be introduced as well, allowing customers to book rides.
Kaptyn will incorporate electric vehicles other than Tesla models into its fleet, a move that is part of the company’s long-term plan.
“We absolutely expect this to be a huge opportunity not just for tourists’ movement … but also for our locals,” Meyers said. “The fact that they’re Teslas, they’re eco-friendly and efficient is an added benefit. This isn’t just to put a bunch of Teslas into the market and flood the market with vehicles.”
The introduction of electric vehicles lowers operating costs and reduces the carbon footprint the company has on the valley and asset utilization, helping separate the company from the traditional limousine ridership, he said.
“This is a very specific operating model where we believe the transition from internal combustion vehicles in the Las Vegas to premium electric vehicles (begins),” Meyers said.


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Data availability and management firm Veeam says cloud service providers are helping to drive revenue growth.
The data backup channel vendor said first quarter revenues saw it record a 33% year-on-year increase in total bookings revenue, while enterprise new license bookings grew 17 percent annually. Cloud revenue enabled by Veeam Cloud and Service Providers (VCSPs) grew 59 percent YoY.
“It’s no small feat for a company with more than $600m in annual bookings to deliver 33% growth YoY,” said Peter McKay, COO of Veeam. “Looking ahead, we expect continued growth for the remainder of this year, fuelled by new Veeam product releases, joint product offerings with our Alliances partners, and further share gains in enterprise and Veeam-powered cloud solutions.”
Veeam said it added close to 12,000 paid customers in Q1 2017, keeping pace with its historical new customer acquisition average of around 4,000 per month. There are now 47,000 Veeam ProPartners and 15,000 VCSPs globally.
Veeam recently joined the Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Complete programme. The programme adds Veeam solutions to HPE’s price list so that customers can purchase complete HPE and Veeam solutions directly from HPE and its resellers, providing a one-stop shop for the validated solution.


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HAPPY 316TH BIRTHDAY, DETROIT! HAVE SOME FREE HUDSONVILLE ICE CREAM (DETROIT FREE PRESS)
Hudsonville Ice Cream is hosting a birthday party for Detroit – and you’re invited.
The Michigan-based creamery will hand out free ice cream from noon-3 p.m. at Cadillac Square (800 Woodward Ave.) in downtown, as well as raffles and “fun activities for the entire family,” according to the Facebook event.
Special guest and media personality Jay Towers will be on hand as well.
“Raffle prizes include a one-year supply of Hudsonville Ice Cream, tickets to Michigan’s Adventure, and gift cards to Kroger, Papa Romano’s and Dave & Busters,” says the Facebook event.
Read More Here.


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Two days after the legal close of its merger with Compaq Computer, HP officially launched the new company and announced details regarding company strategy and product roadmaps. According to HP, new business and functional organizations are in place with management teams named three layers deep. Dedicated account teams have been appointed for HP’s 100 largest global customers, and the company announced strategic efforts aimed at vertical industries including financial services, manufacturing and process, and communications. Detailed product roadmaps were announced for business and consumer products, and HP’s OpenView brand will be adopted for all systems management software. HP launched a new company Web site in six languages and nine countries, and will be fully deployed in all countries where legally permissible within sixty days.
After months of public whining, litigious drama, and miscellaneous hue and cry, it is a relief to see the “new HP” officially launched. More than that, it looks as if HP has successfully delivered on the first phase of a highly complex merger. The three-deep management appointments include nearly as many Compaq vets as HP stalwarts, undermining the claims of many who believed that the deal was more about subtracting a rival than adding core capabilities. Likewise, the newly announced product sets support issues we have discussed since the merger was announced last fall. Many detractors claimed that this deal was all about PC sales and that so much overlap existed between HP and Compaq’s other solutions that the inevitable sacrifice of Compaq products on HP’s altar would push droves of terrified customers toward the exits. To our way of thinking while overlaps did exist (notably in workstations and high end servers), the assets of both companies could be successfully exploited if dealt with evenhandedly. We were happy to note that the new product sets, which rely heavily on Compaq products in Intel servers, fault-tolerant servers, business PCs, and notebooks and handhelds, suggest that pragmatism, not HP cheerleading, led the day.
Does that mean the deal has crossed the finish line finally and for good? Not quite, since a merger this size is more comparable to a decathlon than to a single event. While we believe HP has gotten off to a better start than many industry watchers believed (and many competitors hoped), a good deal of work remains to be done. Looking ahead, we see a pair of specific challenges. The larger of these might be described as a shortage of overarching strategy. Much of what was delivered this week was designed (or perhaps homogenized) to quell concerns among HP and Compaq customers and shareholders. While the new org charts and product sets are unlikely to scare many people out of the HP tent, we fear that few new customers will be inspired to come on in. In sheer size, HP may be the world’s second largest IT vendor (behind IBM). Who the company is, what it means to the market, and their vision of where IT’s future resides remains somewhat fuzzy, and this week’s announcements did little to clarify the issue. Our second area of concern has to do with cultural issues. Traditionally, Compaq has been a highly disciplined organization that traded trust for responsibility among its workers. Historically, the enormous freedom HP granted to individual divisions and work groups, a vaunted aspect of the “HP way,” resulted in both technological innovation and organizational confusion. What “way” will the new HP pursue? That remains to be seen, but if HP wishes to make this merger a complete success, we believe they need to address the lack of apparent strategic vision and the cultural blending as intelligently as they did the two companies’ product sets.
IBM has announced that it is deploying a custom commercial game grid for the online video gaming in conjunction with Butterfly.net, a development studio and infrastructure provider to the online video game market. Butterfly.net specializes in Massively-Multiplayer games that allow users to connect via PCs, consoles, and mobile devices. The new Butterfly.net grid will allow massive multiplayer games to exist within a single “persistent-state” world, as opposed to being broken up into segments based on server usage. It will also allow for distributed artificial intelligence providing interaction between players and between the game itself and players, across the entire virtual game world. The grid will also allow game providers to run multiple games simultaneously, allocating resources as needed to more popular games. The grid allows for hot-swappable components, permitting game updates and patches to be made without taking the entire game down for repairs. Butterfly.net intends to demonstrate the new grid at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles on May 21.
IBM and others, notably Compaq — er, HP — have been talking about grid computing for some time now. While exact definitions may vary from company to company, the central theme is one of shared, flexible resources, network intelligence as it relates to resource allocation, multiple computer interconnection, and strong redundancy and fail-over capacity. In other words, a network of linked computers that is flexible and intelligent enough to handle the increasingly complex demands of modern enterprise networks. Given that grid computing has been largely focused on the enterprise, this announcement is a bit of dazzler, since staid old IBM has not really been known for its involvement in cutting edge media.
That is not to say that this is a misstep by Big Blue. Quite the contrary, for several reasons. First, the whole concept of grid computing — or even IBM’s “autonomic computing” — has been a slow, arduous sales and education process to the world at large, and to increasingly skeptical buyers of IT products and services. Promises of self-healing, intelligent networks that require less and less human monitoring and intervention sound a bit fantastic to many IT buyers. Here IBM has a demonstration model that allows for intelligent resource management, massive user bases, complex computing tasks, resource allocation and modular updates and repairs. The second reason we believe this move to be a good one for IBM is that it makes good business sense. While IT vendors have focused heavily on enterprise markets, they must also come to grips with the needs of the media markets that are hoping someday to actually find a convergence point between television and the Internet. While one can argue just how far away that convergence is, one cannot dispute the idea that it will be attained on the back of complex, self-managed and flexible network infrastructure. IBM getting a leg up in this market could mean substantial new revenues in the future. For those competing with IBM who choose to ignore this space, it could one day be “game over.”
McAfee.com has announced the availability of McAfee.com SpamKiller, a managed service designed to block unwanted emails to end users’ mailboxes. SpamKiller connects to the users POP3 or MAPI email server and blocks emails from known spammers. SpamKiller also provides filtering against commonly used SPAM text in subject lines, body of the text, message headers, and country codes. SpamKiller also attempts to diminish future spammings by sending a false “bounced” message back to the sender indicating the mailbox is no longer functional. The idea here is to have spammers remove apparently invalid email addresses from their lists. SpamKiller can be configured to automatically send a complaint message to the system administrator at the spammer’s service provider. SpamKiller also allows users to protect emails they do desire by creating a “friends” list, and stores blocked email for thirty days. McAfee.com has positioned this offering not only for consumers but for small and medium businesses as well. The one-year subscription to SpamKiller is $39.95, with an introductory offering at $29.95.
There is no doubt that spam has maintained its constant position as one of the most annoying features of the Internet experience. Spammers have continuously been creative in their ability to dodge enforcement. Spam lists are incredibly cheap and apparently very lucrative. SpamKiller joins McAfee.com’s existing list of managed services, including antivirus, firewalls, privacy, and PC maintenance. In many ways SpamKiller is very similar to McAfee.com’s antivirus service as it provides constant updates to the list of known spammers, just as the anti-virus offering maintains up-to-date profiles of known and new viruses. Such is the power of software as a service; its update capabilities are near real time with little or no intervention from the user.
Since spam is a constant and real annoyance, and there are no signs that it will be going away anytime soon, McAfee.com will have to maintain its vigilance in countering highly motivated spammers. As these types of services become more widely used, spammers will become more creative in their efforts to counteract SpamKiller and its related offerings. This is clearly not a rest-on-your-laurels situation. We do find it interesting to note that McAfee.com is openly pushing this service not only for consumers but for small and medium businesses as well. To date, McAfee.com has been primarily consumer-focused. By offering such services to SMBs it has the opportunity for up-sells and cross-sells with its other offerings, most notably antivirus and firewall services. SMBs are in the business of selling products or services. Most are not in the IT security space, just as they are not in the electric generation and distribution business or the business of providing their own telephone service. The fact that these services are not run by SMBs themselves does not diminish their importance to those businesses. It is apparent that key IT components — like antivirus, firewalls and anti-spam technology — will join the list of “cost of business” utilities that require little or no maintenance effort from the end consumer and may lead the future charge toward Modular Service Computing.
IBM has announced several new releases in its WebSphere software line focused on reducing the cost and difficulty of integrating disparate business applications and systems. The new releases include WebSphere Application Server 5.0, which supports new interoperability features that are part of J2EE 1.3; application integration through the Java-based J2EE Connector Architecture; and new security features among others. WebSphere MQ Event Broker allows organizations to publish subscription-based information across the network, Internet, or pervasive devices. WebSphere Business Integration 4.1 includes technology acquired from CrossWorlds Software and provides companies a way to automate business processes that integrate multiple applications that target customers, suppliers, partners, and employees. WebSphere Portal Version 4.1 will enable businesses to integrate information via Web services: applications can repurposed as portal applications and published to a UDDI repository. In addition, new WebSphere “enterprise modernization” tools are positioned to help customers reuse existing software to participate in a Web services world. These products will be available in Q3 2002. No pricing information was released.
WebSphere is certainly a growing and highly visible brand; one that has been helping IBM pursue its vision for middleware, Web services, and Modular Service Computing. As witnessed by the version numbers, this family of products hardly represents the new kids on the block, but besides the ongoing technological and feature advancement, there appears to be a change in how WebSphere is being positioned in the marketplace; namely that WebSphere is becoming a platform as opposed to a loose confederation of point products. These latest WebSphere technologies carry a strong message of integration and redeployment of existing resources. While this is not new, the collective capabilities expressed make it clear that organizations that want to embrace Web-based applications or create Web services can have a partner in IBM. Besides the benefits afforded customers, we believe these announcements shed light on future IBM strategies.
While we have heard a lot about GRID computing in recent times, many tend to think of GRIDs as a scaling and fortifying of hardware resources. But the reality is that the software platform typified by WebSphere is absolutely essential for GRIDs to function effectively. In this light, we believe it is essential for IBM’s GRID initiatives to have a base software platform that from a technological and marketing perspective form an integral part of the solution, as opposed to point product(s) add-ons. This solution approach across a variety of hardware and OS configurations would give Big Blue some advantage over one of its chief UNIX competitors, Sun Microsystems, whose behavior with respect to Solaris 9, SunONE, etc., clearly indicates that even McNeely and crew recognize the differentiating power of software, especially network focused middleware, in the quest to compete for important hardware sales. Overall, we believe these announcements indicate that WebSphere has reached the next stage in its lifecycle: the recognition that the time is ripe to embrace a platform as opposed to point product strategy in order to maximum the opportunity not only for IBM, but its many customers as well.
Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) has announced the TrueNorth initiative, which the company described as a strategy for open information management, along with complementary hardware and software products. HDS described TrueNorth as an open and collaborative storage management framework with policy-based automation tools, virtualization-assist capabilities, and storage systems. HDS is offering the HiCommand Management Framework, including the HiCommand Device Manager, an open standards (XML, SOAP & CIM) based message bus that HDS says will allow management components from Hitachi and participating ISVs to plug and play across hardware from Hitachi and other storage vendors. The company also announced the HiCommand Developer’s program, which provides HDS APIs, support and a testing environment for participating ISVs. HDS introduced two models of the new Lightning 9900 V Series. The Lightning 9970 V is a small footprint single-cabinet unit that scales up to 9TB, and is designed to support mission-critical applications and small-scale consolidation. The multi-cabinet Lightning 9980 V can be scaled up to 75TB of raw capacity and used for larger scale data pooling and information sharing. The 9900 V systems feature a virtualization-assist layer that HDS says can mix multiple heterogeneous servers on a single port. No pricing or availability details were included in the announcement.
While there is a good deal to chew on in these HDS announcements, it is probably wise to consider what the company’s TrueNorth initiative does and does not offer. On the plus side, the new Lightning 9900 V systems provide a major step up for HDS, with triple the bandwidth and double the cache of previous 9900 series boxes. HDS’s claim that the 9900 V machines can be used to consolidate storage and simplify management (thus reducing overall costs) is a believable notion backed up with serious hardware, and is a model being pursued in one way or another by virtually every storage vendor. Likewise, the open standards basis of the company’s HiCommand Management Framework fits in with current trends in and out of the storage industry.
However, we found some serious quibbles with the company’s virtualization assist layer, since mixing multiple heterogeneous servers on a single port hardly qualifies as true virtualization, where the storage from multiple networked devices is pooled into a single, centrally managed storage resource. In fact, HDS may have made a tactical error by equating this new feature with virtualization, therefore muddying the waters for future product releases. Additionally, we found ourselves suffering a bit of déjŕ vu while reviewing TrueNorth, since leveraging shared APIs, automated processes, industry standards and a dedicated developer’s program sounds eerily similar to the WideSky initiative EMC announced months ago. This is not especially surprising, since the processes both initiatives focus on are at the heart of current trends in data storage. It is equally unsurprising that storage players are trying to leverage everything they can against the competition and the market’s current instability to gain or retain turf. In the usual game of technology leap-frog, this initiative on its own merely provides parity with sector leader EMC, unless HDS can convince players such as long time ally Sun and perhaps new pal IBM to adopt, not just support, this framework as their own.
The European Union (EU) approved new rules that would require non-EU-based companies to collect value added taxes (VAT) on Internet-delivered products sold to customers in the EU’s fifteen member countries. The new rules take effect on July 3, 2003. To legally offer digitally delivered products, non-EU companies will have to register with EU tax authorities and charge a VAT on all transactions delivered to EU citizens. The new VAT will be applied to products including computer games, software, e-books, digital magazines, and MP3 recordings, and will also apply to electronic services that are delivered or consumed online such as pay-per-view TV and radio broadcasts. EU companies currently collect VAT on products they deliver to EU bloc citizens, but will be exempted from collecting VAT for services they provide outside the EU. The U.S. Treasury department expressed ongoing concern regarding the new rules, after threatening in February to file a case against the new rules with the World Trade Organization. An EU spokesman suggested that a separate measure to charge VAT on “hard” shipped goods such as books or computer hardware could be considered in the future.
The new EU rules offer a fascinating view into an international battleground that has both everything and nothing to do with the Internet. The limited reach of the rules (to touch only digitally delivered products and services) suggests that the actual dollar amount of VAT collected will be relatively small. But it reveals basic difference in opinion of and approach to the Internet. In the U.S., Internet boosters have followed the “Golden Goose” theory of Internet promotion that suggests that collecting taxes on Internet sales will drive consumers back to real world strip malls (though it is interesting to note that despite the no tax policy, online purchasing remains a miniscule part of overall U.S. consumer spending). Europe regards the Internet as simply a product/service delivery system, like the telephone, that deserves to be taxed accordingly. Given the divergence in those two views, it is no wonder that the EU has long regarded U.S. Internet tax policies as inherently unfair. What will the net effect of the EU’s new VAT rules be for U.S. companies? For one thing, without the tax-free incentive, we expect EU consumers are likely to look and shop nearer to home for future technology purchases. For another, since the complexities of collecting and paying VAT according to the EU’s new rules will add layers of expense to a retail environment whose profit margins are already razor thin, we would not be surprised to see prices rise accordingly for EU customers. In other words, EU consumers will pay for these changes, whatever the outcome.
But from a purely practical standpoint, we are curious to see just how effective the EU will be in enforcing the tax rules against companies in countries not bound by EU regulations. Since the Internet is both everywhere and nowhere, what would happen if U.S. companies refused to play by (and the U.S. government refused to enforce) the new rules? That is a pithy issue, and one that begs the question why the EU decided to float the VAT in the first place. We believe the new rules should be considered a virtual shot across the bows of the U.S. ship of state. Despite giving doctrinaire lip service to the power of free markets, the Bush administration has been adept at backing subsidies for important industries/constituencies in this election year, first in the steel belt and more recently for farming concerns. But what is seen as mere support of critical industries at home is regarded as mere protectionism overseas. From that viewpoint, while the imposition of a new VAT on digitally delivered goods and services may be small potatoes, the EU’s threat of a future VAT on hard delivered goods would be a very big deal, indeed. We believe that while the new EU VAT is likely to be a relatively minor issue overall, it proves clearly that globalization, like politics, remains essentially local.
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Intel beats analysts' first quarter forecasts
Intel's profits beat Wall Street forecasts again as it released its figures for the first quarter of 2012.
The world's largest chipmaker posted first-quarter revenue of $12.9bn (£8.4bn) and net earnings of $2.7bn.
"The first quarter was a solid start to what's expected to be another growth year for Intel," said Intel chief executive Paul Otellini.
He said that in the second financial quarter "we'll see the first Intel-based smartphones in the market".
Despite the positive outlook, Intel shares fell 2.81% in after-hours trade, having closed up 0.23% at $28.47 on the Nasdaq.
Mr Otellini also said that in the coming months Intel would ship products "based on 22nm tri-gate technology in high volume, and accelerate the ramp of our best server product ever, providing a tremendous foundation for growth in 2012 and beyond".
The firm envisages second-quarter revenue of $13.6bn plus or minus $500 million.
Analysts, who have been urging Intel to move more quickly into the tablet and mobile market, had predicted Intel would post $12.84bn in revenue for the first quarter and $13.45bn for the second quarter.


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Businesses Bouncing Back After Main Break
Local business owners continue to feel the effects of the Chestnut Street water main break in downtown Kimball, which occurred two weeks ago.
Hometown Hardware owners said they are waiting on "Infrastructure and air quality tests," which are being done by their insurance company.
Kelli Patterson told the Observer that "We will open as soon as we know it is safe for all and can get it all cleaned out."
Patterson was also appreciative of all the concern and support from the community.
Meanwhile, Sheer Images/Heidemann Electric reported no more water in the building, but fans are running in the b...


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USA: Sara Lee Corporation promotes three key executives
Sara Lee Corporation announced yesterday that its Board of Directors has promoted William A. Geoppinger to executive vice president of the corporation, and L.M. (Theo) de Kool and Wayne R. Szypulski each to senior vice president of the corporation, effective immediately. As Executive Vice President - Chief Executive Officer of Sara Lee Foods, Geoppinger, 62, oversees the operations for Sara Lee's global foods business. Based at Sara Lee Foods headquarters office in Cincinnati, Geoppinger will continue to report to C. Steven McMillan, president and chief executive officer of Sara Lee Corporation.
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With an interactive art sale including more than 50 works of digital non-fungible tokens that can be accessed via QR code, crypto mania has reached Penn Station in New York City.
The “Art in Motion” exhibit, which opened on October 4, is curated by Plug Talk Media creator Nathan Nakhmanovich, popularly known as Mogul, and will turn Penn Station into a first-of-its-kind digital art bazaar, with NFTs from dozens of digital creators.
More than 200 media assets will be spread over Penn Station, the busiest transportation hub in the Western Hemisphere, as part of the station’s dominance. Mogul and executive producer Eric Spivak, also known as Motivate, hand-picked the artists in the exhibit.
The NFT revolution
Nakhmanovich said the campaign is a “statement on the NFT revolution and the power of OOH.”
Other NFT galleries have used smaller public and private settings, but the “Art in Motion” gallery will bring NFT to the actual scale of public transit demonstrating how to efficiently shift attention from IRL to digital for the general public, Nakhmanovich said.
This year, NFTs have been in the spotlight; over $2.5 billion in NFT sales were recorded in the first six months of the current year alone, and an NFT was sold for a whopping $69 million in March.
NFTs, which were first introduced in 2014, may be anything from movies to music to memes, but they’ve grown in popularity among artists as a new way to acquire and sell digital artwork.
Digital art culture
“Art In Motion” is a watershed moment for all of us. Creators, collectors, and curators alike will benefit greatly from the unique use of QR codes related to Arts and Culture,” Spivak said.
“We’re thrilled to be collaborating with Mogul to exhibit and support brilliant independent producers in the famous Penn Station,” Alexander Bercow, OpenSea’s Partner Success Lead, said.
“We feel we’re simply touching the surface of what’s possible with blockchains and tokenized media,” he said, pointing out that “this activation is proof that NFTs are transforming the way society interacts with art.”
Image courtesy of Cointelegraph News/YouTube
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News: Service expanded for Chinese tourists in Europe.
China’s biggest third-party payments platform Alipay, is planning to strike deals with brick and mortar retailers in Europe to expand its services for Chinese tourists and expats.
The affiliate of Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group is planning to offer additional services for the Chinese Alibaba Group. However, the company is not looking to provide its services to European customers, Bloomberg reported.
Alipay Europe, Middle-East and Africa head Rita Liu was quoted by the publication as saying: “Europe is a popular destination for our Chinese customers, so it’s an important market for us.
“We’re actively looking for partners across Europe — merchants who want to cater to Chinese tourists or technical providers on the payments side. But we have no plans to target European customers.”
To offer the new services, Alipay has negotiated with many retailers in Paris, including Printemps.
Last week, it signed a deal with Axa to sell travel insurance to its Chinese customers. It is also in talks with Germany’s Wirecard to make its mobile wallet service available for customers in nearly 69 stores at Munich Airport.
Liu said that the company is holding talks with other technical, retail and payment partners in France, Germany, the U.K. and Italy, to strengthen services.
It has already implemented the cross-border strategy in the US by partnering with firms like Uber Technologies, Airbnb and Macy’s.
According to a data provided by the China Tourism Research Institute, the number of Chinese tourists travelling to other nations stood at nearly 120 million last year, with France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany being their most popular destinations outside Asia.
On an average, a Chinese tourist spent $875.
When compared to other nations, China is far ahead in competing to maintain a lead in the emerging digital payments space.
Chinese company Tencent Holdings has a user base of 700 million on its WeChat messaging platform, which offers financial services, including payments.
Tencent’s user base is huge compared to combined subscribers of mobile wallet provided by Apple, Google or Samsung.
Ingenico Group innovation head Michel Leger said: “The key battle for digital giants today is scale on the merchants side. That’s true for anyone from Alipay to Apple or Facebook.
“They each have a relationship with millions of consumers, but they need the other side of the equation — the address book of merchants.”
A major payments and financial services conference Money20/20 held in Copenhagen in April, Alipay revealed its official expansion into the European market.
Currently, Alipay has 450 million active users in China, with more than 200 financial partners. This equates to more than 50% of the market share in online payment and 80% in mobile.


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Self-publication is starting to lose its stigma. Now even The New York Times is offering reviews of self-published titles. The ultimate goal for many authors, however–including those who self-publish–is to have their work picked up by a publishing house. What’s more, publishers other than Amazon are getting into the self-publishing business. For the complete story from NPR, “Self-Publishing: No Longer Just A Vanity Project,” click here.
Amazon withdrew ads from The New Republic after Franklin Foer published an article critical of Amazon.
Amid dire predictions about the future of journalism, The New Yorker’s John Cassidy delivers some sunny news.
Hachette introduces “in-stream Twitter purchasing” of a few titles.
The editor, Franklin Foer, is leaving, and TNR promises to become a “digital media company.” Instead of twenty issues a year, the magazine will produce…


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This week, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Apple’s key chip supplier, will begin mass-producing 3nm chips. Apple is the main user of the new process, which could initially be applied to future M2 Pro chips that are anticipated to power updated MacBook Pro and Mac mini models.
Apple Silicon chips for 2023 Macs and iPhones to be based on TSMC’s 3nm process
In accordance with previous rumors that stated 3nm mass production will start later in 2022, a new report from DigiTimes claims that TSMC is will begin mass production of its next-generation 3nm chip technology on Thursday, December 29.
TSMC is scheduled to hold a ceremony at Fab 18 at the Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) on December 29 to mark the start of commercial production of chips using 3nm process technology. The pure-play foundry will also detail plans to expand 3nm chip production at the fab, according to sources at semiconductor equipment companies.
Apple’s M2 chip is based on the 5nm process. If its new Macs feature chips based on the 3nm process, there is going to be a significant improvement in performance which would be impressive considering the glowing reviews the M1 chips and the M2 chip have gotten thus far. Apple also plans to release several new Macs in 2023 with the M2 Pro and M2 Max chip options including the long-awaited Apple Silicon Mac Pro, updated 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, and a refreshed Mac mini.
In addition to the tech giant’s third-generation Apple Silicon chips being based on the 3nm process, the A17 Bionic chip for the 2023 iPhone 15 lineup is expected to be based on TSMC’s enhanced 3nm process. Currently, Apple recently re-used TSMC’s 5nm process for the A15 chip in iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, and the 4nm process for the A16 chip in iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max.
TSMC initially planned to expand the production of its 3nm chips earlier in the year. However, there was an issue with Intel that forced TSMC to slow down production. Subsequently, the chip supplier had to adjust equipment orders for 2023 and adjust the scale of its CapEx planning for 2023, which is now expected to be lower than in 2022.


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April 6, 2020
The American Farm Bureau Federation calls on USDA to help US farmers
The Farm Bureau said US farmers need financial assistance from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) as COVID-19 impacts the country's food supply chain, reported Reuters.
In a letter posted by the trade group to the USDA, it asked for special direct payments to be channelled towards dairy producers, livestock farmers, cattle ranchers and other farmers.
In addition, the group also called for emergency funding for ethanol plants and corn growers who cannot sell crops to the plants, as well as livestock producers who now have no feed supply from the facilities' by-products.
The American Farm Bureau Federation wants all sectors in the country's agriculture industry to benefit from the COVID-19 stimulus bill, which gave USDA's Commodity Credit Corp an additional US$14 billion and US$9.5 billion towards assisting livestock producers, dairy farmers, specialty crop farmers and local agricultural groups.
The letter from the Farm Bureau urged the USDA to make immediate dairy product purchases to help offset foodservice and school meal programme losses.
As restaurants and schools have closed to due COVID-19, producers are scrambling to shift products from wholesale foodservice markets towards retail, a problem for milk, butter and cheese processing plants.
Many dairy farmers are being told to dispose their milk by cooperatives.
Another request by American Farm Bureau Federation in its letter to the USDA is to buy beef, pork, poultry and aquaculture products for use in food and nutrition programmes.
The Trump administration has used the Commodity Credit Corporation, created during the Great Depression to compensate and assist the US agriculture industry with close to US$30 billion in the last few years, especially during the trade war with China.


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Simplify3D, developer of premium 3D printing software, has formed a new partnership with Flashforge USA, the maker of the Creator, Creator Pro, and Dreamer 3D printers, to bring together hardware and software in a pre-calibrated package.
Simplify3D and Flashforge say they share a common goal aimed at letting users spend less time on “cumbersome technology processes and more time creating stunning 3D prints.”
The deal means Flashforge will include Simplify3D Software in their Creator Pro and Dreamer bundles. Those bundles from Flashforge include a 3D printer, software, and a glass print bed.
Simplify3D offers a single, integrated application which simplifies workflow and allows users to import and manipulate geometry, repair mesh problems, apply custom print settings, slice files, and generate G-Code instructions. Users can also watch an animated preview of their build sequence, manually control their printer, and print from an SD card or via USB.
Recent updates to the software include a new feature to help users achieve dimensionally accurate parts and customize the fit between meshing objects like creating a set of meshing gears or altering the sizing for a series of bolt holes. Simplify3D says the new feature allows a user to easily modify the tolerances between these parts and quickly move from a tight fit to a loose fit with a single click.
FlashForge says they’re focused on making 3D printing widely accessible to institutions, architects, engineers, designers, and the broad consumer and prosumer market.
FlashForge says they’ve been expanding their 3D printer distribution around the world since launching their Creator in 2013, and, in 2014, the Creator Pro and Dreamer. The printers have gained acceptance for their capability, performance, and durability.
FlashForge says the Creator Pro and Dreamer bundles give users an easier startup experience and offer straight out-of-the-box printing capability, and Simplify3D says the advanced features in their software will allow users to steadily upgrade their 3D printing capabilities.
According to FlashForge, they’ve sold thousands of 3D printers worldwide since their inception in 2011, and they have a dedicated, US-based support team. Based in Ohio, Simplify3D was founded in 2013 following years of involvement in open-source and grassroots 3D printing initiatives.
Have you ever used a FlashForge 3D printer or Simplify3D software? Let us know in the FlashForge Joins Forces With Simplify3D Software forum thread on 3DPB.com.
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One of Britain’s biggest department stores, Marks & Spencer (M&S) is no doubt looking a little red-faced since social media users pointed out the store’s latest ad for its bread ‘contained some D’.
While M&S had meant the D to be referred to as a shortened version of vitamin D, Twitter users clearly have a more risqué mindset, choosing to focus on the colloquialism that D equals ‘dick’.
However, while being mocked mercilessly online, many users didn’t believe M&S would be that silly, reckoning it was done on purpose to get some attention.
Whatever the case, it makes for a good ol’ chuckle on hump day.
— Sarah McMullan (@SarahMcMullanNZ) August 17, 2015
— Charlie Lawrance (@charlielawrance) August 18, 2015
— Bee Social Marketing (@BeeSocialUK) August 18, 2015
@marksandspencer advert has worked then Put the D in
— Sarah (@SarahTr3) August 18, 2015
— Oli (@OliTheBlog) August 18, 2015
Lead image via Mashable.
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Bayernwerk AG delivers electricity, gas, water or heat to 5 million people in Bavaria, which is 41% of the population. Close to 1.200 municipalities and over 2 million households rely on the secure supply of utilities we all take for granted.
Bayernwerk enlisted the help of the Vivaldi Partners team in Munich to build the brand from the inside and strengthen the company’s attractiveness as an employer in order to better serve its customers.
We conducted a workshop series to co-create quick-win action items, as well as long term measures. More than 500 participants developed over 2.000 ideas for next steps and our employer branding campaign reached all 3,000 employees via internal newsletters, the company intranet and in-person sharing. Our collaborative efforts brought to life Bayernwerk’s company vision to “improve peoples lives” to all employees.
We’re excited to announce that Vivaldi Partners and Bayernwerk were awarded Queb’s “Best Internal Employer Branding Campaign” in the 5,000 employees and less category this past week.
Good to know their 2 million customers are in such good hands!
(Full disclosure: Bayernwerk is a regional subsidiary of E.ON, one of the biggest utility companies in Europe for whom Vivaldi Partners developed their global brand strategy.)


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Download this executive summary (April 2014; 2 pages; pdf)
Download the full report (12 pages; pdf)
Link to the press release
by Gerry Bradley, M.A.
The complete elimination of the corporate income tax as a meaningful revenue source for the state of New Mexico appears, unfortunately, to be within sight. Making significant changes to the corporate income tax (CIT) structure has been popular with state leaders of late. A bill that makes corporate net operating losses deductible for twenty years was passed in the recently concluded 2014 legislative session and signed into law. An omnibus tax bill that made several changes to the state’s CIT code was enacted in 2013. Both bills are expected to lower tax revenue collections.
The reasoning behind recent CIT legislation was to encourage economic development. In general, however, the academic literature is skeptical about the efficacy of using the tax system for such purposes.
CIT and the States
The existence of a corporate income tax is a fairly typical part of a state’s tax system. All but four states tax the net income of the corporations earning profits there. In 2009, the U.S. Census Bureau found that corporate income taxes accounted for some $40 billion in state government revenues.
There are several rationales for the corporate income tax, the most common of which is the benefit principle. Because corporations benefit from having transportation infrastructure, an educated workforce, and public safety services, corporations should help pay the costs.
When corporations aren’t required to pay their share of taxes to support these services, either individuals end up paying more to make up the difference or those services are cut. Cutting such services is likely to end up hindering a state’s ability to entice new businesses and keep existing ones.
A Small but Crucial Role
The CIT plays a small—but crucial—role in New Mexico’s revenue structure. The CIT accounted for just 4.6 percent of the state’s revenues in FY12 and FY13, rising very slightly to 4.8 percent as the economic recovery gained a little steam in FY14.
Some forms of taxation are more stable than others—meaning they fluctuate less over time. As the line graph on page 2 shows, the growth of CIT revenues has been very stable compared to the erratic growth of the general fund as a whole. The annual growth in general fund revenues has been quite unstable in recent years and will continue to be choppy in the near future. That the CIT helps to stabilize general fund revenues is a feature that policy-makers should be aware of when thinking about making more changes to this revenue source.
The CIT in New Mexico is paid largely by the mining, manufacturing, and management of companies sectors, with those three sectors accounting for about two-thirds of corporate income tax receipts.
In general, the tax for multi-state corporations is determined by three factors—the company’s payroll, property, and sales in the state—in proportion to the corporation’s total income.
About 30 percent of CIT paid in New Mexico comes from the property factor, 40 percent from the sales factor, and 30 percent from the payroll factor. In 2013, however, the apportionment method was changed for manufacturing. By 2018 the manufacturing sector will be allowed to apportion solely based on sales in New Mexico. This change is a real boon to manufacturers that may have a large payroll and property holdings here but sell most of what they make in other parts of the country.
The 2013 legislation also reduced the CIT rate from 7.6 percent to 5.9 percent in stages, with a complete reduction taking place in 2018. The revenue lost from these two changes to the CIT were initially expected to be $111.6 million in FY17, according to the fiscal impact report.
For many big-box retailers that operate in multiple states, the 2013 legislation will require them to file their returns using the ‘combined’ filing method, which keeps them from sheltering their New Mexico profits in other states. This change is expected to increase tax revenue from the retail sector. While this is a positive change in the CIT code, the combined reporting requirement should be expanded to include all multi-state corporations. Policy-makers should also require an annual tax expenditure report that accounts for all tax credits, deductions, and exemptions, and analyzes them for effectiveness, as well as include sunsets for all future tax expenditures.
Tax cuts to lure companies to the state are a dubious form of economic development. While corporations looking to set up shop may find the state’s corporate tax code attractive, other more important factors may outweigh tax considerations.


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Burger King India is reportedly interested in acquiring 85% shares of PT Sari Burger Indonesia, the management of Burger King Indonesia, along with a direct investment worth US$ 40 million. This acquisition plan was announced on Friday (8/27) and will be effectively open for 90 days ahead. Currently, a subsidiary company of F&B Asia Venture, Quick Service Restaurant Indoburger Pte Ltd., holds the majority share of 66,48% at Sari Burger Indonesia, while the remaining 33,52% are still owned by PT Mitra Adiperkasa Tbk (MAPI). It’s worth mentioning that Sari Burger Indonesia is valued at US$183 Million, and The initial offering is for controlling ownership, as well as direct investment. Following thereafter, Burger King India and F&B Asia will perform due diligence and appoint the appropriate advisers and intermediaries to begin negotiations on the agreement. It is also said that Burger King India is considering and negotiating the various financing options available.
In the first quarter of 2021, PT Mitra Adiperkasa (MAP) was performing considerably pleasing; it was reported that their net sales amounted to Rp4.3 trillion. However, the implementation of Community Activities Restriction Enforcement (PPKM) has dramatically affected sales that have been made, dragging it down to Rp1.44 trillion in June of the year 2021. In actuality, MAP is still on the right track as PPKM has heightened the public's desire to shop products, namely fashion, sports, lifestyle, kids, digital, and food and beverage (F&B). The Vice President Director (V.P.) of MAP Group, Sharma, disclosed that to reach consistent quarterly earnings potential, MAP Group launched several strategies. Some of which include maximizing the offline ecosystem potential as well as integrated online platforms, including market penetration in unified retail through MAP Club, which currently has 4.3 million members. "We are also establishing a foundation for long-term growth through investment in new brands, new businesses, and new markets that will supplement strength and scale to future earnings," he explained in a MAP Group public expose, Thursday (19/8). The sizable increase in sales of new products, particularly F&B sectors, also transpired due to MAP's eagerness to support the delivery of brand-new products, a powerful marketing strategy, and a targeted CRM campaign so that the gross profit margin can increase to close to 2%.
In addition, the public was astounded by the news of the United States sandwich outlet, Subway’s return to Indonesia. The collaboration was carried out with Subway and PT Sari Sandwich Indonesia, a subsidiary of the food & beverage (F&B) retailer of PT Map Boga Adiperkasa Tbk (MAPB), which is also part of PT Mitra Adiperkasa Tbk (MAPI). According to the joint agreement, PT Sari Sandwich Indonesia will officially run Subway in Indonesia, increasing MAPB's business portfolio to eight premium international brands. Moreover, Indonesia will globally be the first country to implement the Subway exclusive country franchise model. Based on this model, MAPB will be the spearhead and sole company for Subway development in Indonesia. “MAPB recognizes the important role of F&B retail and has always partnered with the best in class brands. Thus, Subway is the best option for us," stated V.P. Sharma, Group CEO of PT Mitra Adiperkasa Tbk. on (8/23). All in all, as we progress through this pandemic, MAP Group's business expansion can improve its F&B retail sector and add new colors to the F&B market.
What would you like to learn next week? Comment, Like & Share!


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Sallie Mae completed its acquisition of Upromise on Aug. 23, 2006, joining the nation’s top paying-for-college company with the top saving-for-college company.
Sallie Mae announced on Aug. 23, 2006, that it has completed its acquisition of Upromise. The deal joined the nation’s top paying-for-college company with the top saving-for-college company and brought two new business lines to Sallie Mae while adding millions to its customer base.
As the leading U.S. education finance company, Sallie Mae has 10 million borrowing customers and manages $127 billion in student loans.
Meanwhile, Upromise has over 7 million members who have joined what is one of the largest marketing services coalitions in the U.S. in order to earn cash rewards when they and their families purchase gas or groceries, dine out or buy other goods and services from more than 450 participating companies. Members can then invest their rewards and personal savings in 529 college savings plans.
Upromise is the leading administrator of direct-to-consumer 529 college savings plans, administering almost 1 million college savings accounts and managing $11 billion in assets with tax-advantaged 529 investment options through partnerships with seven states.
Launched five years ago, Upromise’s partner companies include such corporate giants as McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and ExxonMobil.
Additionally, the company offers a Upromise credit card, which is featured on CreditCards.com and allows parents to save for a child’s college education by leveraging everyday credit card purchases to earn rewards.


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First Choice on course for £60m
First Choice forecast it will make profits of £60 million this year and said it was winning market share from most of its rivals including Airtours which will shortly have to decide whether to make its £950 million takeover bid unconditional.
Airtours is in the unusual position of having won more than 50% acceptances for its bid but has had it referred to the European competition authorities for an inquiry which could last up to four months. A merger deal between First Choice and Kuoni is also on the table.
First Choice chairman Ian Clubb said: 'We are playing a straight bat because 50% of our shareholders have said they like the Airtours deal. It seems highly unlikely that that deal can be struck in the short term. If Airtours does not go unconditional on 24 June we will definitely be presenting to our shareholders that we are better off with Kuoni than without.'
Losses in the six months to end-April rose from £17.8 million to £20.6 million with last year's acquisition of Unijet accounting for £5 million of losses. The company's full-year profit forecast is £60 million, up £10 million.
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Robert Jolly Named Birmingham Business Journal’s 2020 CEO of the Year
Birmignham Business Journal
December 4, 2020
Robert Jolly, CEO of Retail Strategies and Retail Specialists, has been named the 2020 CEO of the year in the 25-49 employees category by the Birmingham Business Journal.
The award recognizes excellence among top executives in the metro area for businesses of all sizes. The virtual event was held on December 3rd where the honorees and finalists were recognized.
“Robert is a phenomenal leader for both of our companies,” said Scott vonCannon, chief operations officer at Retail Strategies.
“Culture is everything to him and he cares much more about the employees’ personal welfare – their relationships with their family, their friends, their faith – more than the production they have here at work. He makes this a great environment for all of us and we’re very proud and excited for him.”
Birmingham’s commercial real estate scene continues to evolve, thanks to a mix of transformative redevelopments, high investor interest, big moves and excitement generated by the Opportunity Zones program, among other factors.
But behind those big deals and emerging trends are the individuals who are leading the local CRE scene.
Jolly is the co-founder and CEO of both Retail Strategies and Retail Specialists, delivering the vision of growth while overseeing the day-to-day operations for each brand. He is a CCIM Designee, a Charter Member of Vistage International CEO Group, and a board member of SouthPoint Bank in Birmingham.
About Retail Specialists
Retail Specialists, LLC is the premier retail real estate services firm in the south. We are committed to long-term relationships in property management, retail representation, development, leasing, and brokerage. Founded in 2005, we’ve thrived through tough times and shine under pressure. A unique mix of experience, technology, and data have proven successful in a business we love.


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One Community. One Voice.
Jobcase is an online community empowering the world’s workers. We know success is shared, which is why we developed technology to bring our proud community of workers together with the companies who need their skills. Over 130+ million registered members rely on Jobcase to find jobs, tools, and support they need to improve their work lives and help companies succeed. We’re one of the fastest growing technology companies in Boston, a Workday Ventures Partner, and an industry affiliate of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL). Jobcase also collaborates with employers, nonprofits, and government agencies to both improve and diversify access to opportunity in the workforce.
Jobcase holiday customer treatment survey – learn about the impact that holiday stress can have on workers with customer-facing jobs.
America@Work 2022 – an in-depth look at the state of American workers, gaps between what workers want and what employers offer, and qualities of a good employer.
Holiday customer treatment survey – Learn about the impact that the holidays have on workers and customer-facing jobs.
America@Work 2022 – An in-depth look at the state of the American worker and qualities of a good employer.
In the News
Nearly 50 organizations launch ‘Tear the Paper Ceiling’ campaign
This is how we can all drive positive change for American workers
Dear CEOs: It’s time for real change to support your employees – Fred Goff
Jobcase builds a social platform for worker empowerment – a Workday Ventures story
Wages up – needs to continue to get people back to work: Fred Goff talks to Jeff Cox


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With the holiday season upon us, it’s time to think about that shopping list. Here are a few gift ideas for those creative types.
Uncovering worthy gifts for the adventurous world traveler can be difficult. From a travel diary to a language course to a tricked-out Nikon camera, presents that are both fun and useful are the way to go.
Online retail giant Amazon.com is closing an Irving distribution center and scrapping plans to expand Texas operations after a dispute with the state over millions of dollars in sales taxes.
Amazon is demanding an audit on which the state bases its demand for $269 million in uncollected sales taxes.
Amazon buys world’s biggest bag o’crap..and it’s called Woot. Those are the exact words the on-line shopping network used to break the news of the sale on it’s website…woot.com.


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At present, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is speeding up the pace of "going out" of rare earth enterprises in the region. Not long ago, Baotou Hongbo technology limited liability company with the Russian national energy company group company to jointly develop the European tank Kyrgyzstan rare earth mine has signed a memorandum of cooperation, the project preparatory work into the fast lane. This marks the initiative in the country "The Belt and Road" under the guidance of Inner Mongolia international cooperation in the field of rare earth production capacity to build an important fulcrum of Mongolia and Russia economic corridor breakthrough.
It is reported that the company through Europe and Russia Hongbo tank companies, will have Jiesaiyi Kyrgyzstan base II rare earth mining rights, the two sides will jointly develop the rare earth ore, 600 thousand tons of ore mining plan each year, and built 6500 tons / year of rare earth carbonate production line.Rare Earth Extractant PC88A /P507/
Of course, before this, Chinese Nonferrous Metals Group "going out" has been a step ahead, the company has been associated with Mongolia, Burma, Kyrgyzstan and other neighboring countries Chinese enterprises, committed to the rare earth mine development, international engineering contracting, international labor cooperation, import and export business, in cooperation with these countries. And Chinese Nonferrous Metals Group for nearly two years in these areas the proportion of the profits increased significantly.Rare Earth Extractant PC88A /P507/
As a long-term national strategy, accelerate the implementation of The Belt and Road ", and have some fruit in the air plant along the country, will be a strong impetus for the development of rare earth industry in china. As the world's rare earth industry leader "boss", China's rare earth industry how to make use of their own advantages, to integrate into the "The Belt and Road", get rid of industry experienced development lags behind other issues, Baotou Nonferrous Metals Group Company and macro BOT Chinese try very good, worthy of reference of the same trade.
Industry experts Wang Xiaotie believes that the rare earth industry as a strategic emerging industries in the country, "Belt and Road Initiative" initiative led by great. At present, the world rare earth industry and market pattern began to change dramatically. In the development of diversification of the world rare earth resources and rare earth application market development, our country has enough international cooperation and competition advantage, a full range of "going out", not only conducive to the adjustment of the rare earth industry upgrade, can also control the global rare earth market right to speak more.Rare Earth Extractant PC88A /P507/
In fact, some rare earth enterprises of China are boldly implement the "going out" strategy, such as the Leshan Sheng and rare earth Limited by Share Ltd teamed up with us a consortium of companies, with a $20 million 500 thousand bid control the mountain pass rare earth ore.
Under the background of economic globalization, transnational corporations have the number and size of a country is an important symbol to measure the level of economic development, is also the country to win the international competition advantage, get important tools to dominate the global resources rights. Therefore, China's enterprises through overseas investment in expanding the international business, improve the management level, expand the enterprise development space at the same time, also to promote China's sustained and rapid economic development and upgrading of industrial structure, close to China and the world economic exchanges play a positive role.
In fact, the domestic rare earth market interconnection The Belt and Road "under the goal, the ensuing market information, logistics information, transaction information massive increase in this rare earth forced enterprises to upgrade, increase the production and circulation of information and network technology, modern management, provide convenience for enterprises to tap international rare earth from the depth and breadth of the market potential.Rare Earth Extractant PC88A /P507/
With the advance of re import and export trade pattern, the circulation of China's rare earth production data and information, remote and automatic management level will continue to enhance the ability of enterprises, integration of resources, efficient operation of market segments, will greatly enhance the change of management mode of the enterprise will have the quality of rare earth. At the same time, China's rare earth enterprises "going out" to participate in the development and cooperation of other countries is not only a win-win result, but also an important opportunity for us to win the right to speak in the international market.
Rare Earth Extractant PC88A /P507/


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Airline easyJet has launched a recruitment drive urging folks over the age of 45 to hitch its cabin crew, as the corporate attracts up a brand new technique to rent workers within the UK amid a scarcity of staff.
The airline stated it has seen a 27% enhance in crew aged 45 and over previously 4 years, together with a 30% enhance in these of their 60s over the previous 12 months.
The brand new marketing campaign is aimed toward “empty nesters” – older folks whose youngsters have left dwelling – and staff in search of a brand new profession problem in life.
It follows analysis by the UK service which revealed greater than 78% of UK adults over 45 stated they wished a brand new problem when the children left dwelling.
Greater than half (58%) stated they had been most excited to start out a brand new profession, the survey of two,000 folks confirmed.
The trade has confronted extreme issues recruiting workers post-pandemic, leading to lengthy queues at airports, flight delays, cancellations and misplaced baggage over the summer time.
Throughout the top of the airport unrest in July, easyJet’s chief govt, Johan Lundgren, was crucial of the federal government’s refusal to permit extra visas for EU cabin crew and floor dealing with workers, saying ministers had not responded positively to trade calls for to calm down the foundations. fill vital roles.
In August, Michael O’Leary, the boss of rival agency Ryanair, stated the UK’s exit from the EU has harmed recruitment for the airline trade and “turns into a catastrophe for the free motion of labor and one of many actual challenges going through airways. The British economic system”.
This week, Charlie Cornish, chief govt of MAG, which owns Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands airports, stated there may be “little doubt” that Brexit has broken the UK economic system and “massively exacerbated” the issue of recruiting workers.
British corporations have struggled to seek out workers, partly due to adjustments within the workforce after Covid-19, resembling extra folks on long-term sick go away, but in addition due to the top of free motion for EU residents, who’ve misplaced the automated proper to work. in England after Brexit.
The easyJet cabin crew drive comes after Halfords launched a recruitment drive for 1,000 new technician roles over the subsequent 12 months by focusing on retirees. Additionally they wish to enhance the variety of girls in technician positions.
In August, the chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, Dame Sharon White, stated there was no enterprise within the UK that was not discovering it “very tough to recruit for the time being” and urged the federal government to concentrate on getting the 1 million most. over 50s who had left the workforce in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic are again at work.
Talking on BBC Radio 4’s In the present day programme, he stated: “We now have 1 million extra folks working. Some consider it because the ‘nice retirement’. I consider it as a ‘life reappraisal’, as a result of these are principally folks of their 50s.
Michael Brown, director of cabin companies for easyJet, stated: “Our individuals are on the coronary heart of all the things we do, and it is the nice and cozy welcome and glorious customer support that our cabin crew are famend for.”


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Pantone may have declared ‘Living Coral’ the colour of 2019, but judging from what we’ve seen on the runways and streets, we’d make a case for green instead. Global fashion search platform Lyst announced earlier this year that online searches for pistachio and sage green had seen a major spike, and it’s safe to say that the greed for green is still going strong. Pistachio, in particular, seems to be the shade du jour.
Just to be clear, pistachio isn’t the sometimes alarmingly bright green you’re used to seeing in gelato. It isn’t mint or emerald or last year’s hot favourite kelly green either. Rather, pistachio is a soft green that ranges from the pastel hues of a macaron to the muted tones of moss. Surprisingly subtle and palatable, pistachio is perfect even for the colour-averse who might recoil at the thought of wearing green.
Pistachio crept onto our radar with this year’s Spring/Summer collections, seen at labels like Jacquemus, Priscavera, and Staud.
Pistachio proves to be evergreen with its sweeping presence on the Fall/Winter 2019 runways. Seen everywhere from Sally LaPointe to Jil Sander to Marc Jacobs, the colour shows off the versatility of its palette.
Of course, if you don’t put it on Instagram, did it really happen? Check out some of the looks that bring a pop of colour in pistachio.
Even Princess Diana was a fan way back when.
Why pistachio, and why now? Is it because of the calming effect of green, especially now when mental health issues are rampant? Is it because green is a gender-neutral colour, in a time when gender issues are coming to the forefront of consciousness? Is it our love for all things matcha, filtering into fashion? Who knows! But we sure hope it’s here to stay.