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Oxford Economics Africa has predicted that inflation will fall sharply in 2023 in emerging markets (EM) economies, including South Africa, as global commodity prices are softening.
This comes after consumer prices in the US, the largest economy in the world, eased to 7.7% in October from 8.5% in September.
Head of global emerging markets research Gabriel Sterne yesterday said that the fall in global commodity price inflation would lead to double-digit declines in annual import price inflation by next year.
“Global commodity price inflation is falling, and by mid-2023 we expect double-digit declines. We see more downside than upside risks to global commodity prices,” Sterne said.
“Most remain 30% higher than prior to Covid-19, even as demand weakens.”
US inflation remained high last month but showed tentative signs of moderation, driven by a jump in energy, food, and shelter prices but partially offset by declines in used vehicles and medical care costs.
The market’s main takeaway from the latest events is that peak inflation is behind and the Fed is indeed likely to slow the pace of hiking down.
This could be a sign that the US Federal Reserve is making some progress in the fight to restore price stability after launching the most aggressive tightening campaign since the 1980s.
Meanwhile, gold prices have steadied around $1 770 (R30 606) an ounce as traders reassessed the outlook for US rates following mixed signals from the Fed.
Investors are betting that the Fed would moderate the size of their rate hikes to 50 basis points from December after delivering four consecutive 75 basis point increases.
Sterne said they expected a strong and quick impact of global commodity prices on emerging markets consumer price inflation.
“Our statistical estimates reveal that the transmission of global commodity prices and producer prices to emerging markets consumer prices is quick,” he said.
“We estimated simple statistical models, which reveal that the transmission from global commodity prices to domestic consumer prices is strongest in Central and Eastern Europe Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA); with 52% of the impulse to import prices is seen in consumer prices, nearly double that in Asia and LatAm.”
Sterne said CEEMEA had been most afflicted by rising inflation because of its high consumption of food and fuel, low subsidies, and Russia-related spikes in fuel prices.
He saidemerging economies were most prone to food price-real wage spirals tend to be those that have recently experienced cost-of-living protests.
“We have found previously that real wages in these societies are more sensitive to food prices; a rise in food prices relative to overall consumer prices leads to higher real wages.
“Our assessment of fuel subsidies earlier this year revealed a few cases where these subsidies were high, transferring inflation risk to fiscal costs. Lower fuel price inflation is as welcome as soaring prices were painful.”


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The steep drop in technology stocks since Donald Trump's election provides a "compelling entry point" for many battered large-cap names, leading internet analyst Mark Mahaney told CNBC on Friday.
"I find Netflix extremely interesting going into '17 for a variety of reasons. So it's our top pick," RBC's Mahaney said on "Squawk Box," putting a $150 per share price target on the stock over the next 12 months, which would be a 30 percent increase from Thursday's close of $115 per share.
Trump was declared the winner over Hillary Clinton on Nov. 9, putting pressure ever since on big tech names, on the notion if the billionaire's campaign criticisms of net neutrality, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and immigration policies were to become policy, they could hold back innovation in the industry.
Since the close on Election Day, Netflix has dropped about 7.5 percent, the worst performer over the period among the so-called FANG stocks — Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google parent Alphabet. Ahead of Friday's trading, the broader market has risen about 2.2 percent since the close on Nov. 8.
Mahaney said he does not see "material changes" to net neutrality rules, which were designed to make sure all internet was treated equally, with no selective blocking or paid fast lanes for some content. Opponents feel the rules — approved by the FCC last year and based on a public-utility model — stifle innovation and hurt companies like Netflix.
Even if the net neutrality rules were dramatically overhauled, Mahaney believes Netflix would weather the storm because infrastructure costs for bandwidth and storage plummeted over the last decade.
"Most of [the] money they're spending goes on content and marketing. The infrastructure costs, the bandwidth costs, it's like 3 or 4 percent of their total cost structure. So it's pretty small," he said. "It probably wouldn't materially impact the Netflix P&L [profit and loss statement] or the Google or the Facebook P&Ls."
Mahaney isn't alone in seeing opportunity in tech. On Thursday, Piper Jaffray tech analyst Gene Munster wrote in a note to clients: "We would be buying the [Trump] fear priced into internet mega-caps." Piper Jaffray, like RBC, does not think Trump will roll back net neutrality.

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Tickets for Macca’s “Out There” tour at the Echo Arena sold out in five hours.
Fans queued throughout the night to bag their tickets to see the Beatles legend perform on Thursday, May 28.
Echo Arena tweeted this afternoon: “Tickets for @PaulMcCartney @EchoArena are officially sold out, see you in 79 days Macca.”
A spokesman for the Arena said the pre-sale yesterday was “phenomenal”. The final batch of tickets went on sale at 10am this morning.
Brian Jackson, from Allerton, was first in line when he arrived yesterday afternoon at 1pm.
He was among the first to purchase tickets when they went on sale at 10am this morning.
The 53-year-old, who works in a record shop on Smithdown Road, said: “It’s going to be a great night. It will be well worth the wait for the tickets.
“It’s been freezing and a long wait but we’ve had lots of laughs and the staff have been great giving us cups of tea.”
Michelle Flexen, 34, from West Derby started queueing at 8pm yesterday.
She said: “It was cold but the ECHO staff made it more comfortable for us by letting us use the bathroom and making us cups of tea.
“I think it might be the last chance we have to see McCartney in the city and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity.”
Prices for tickets started from £71.50 and went up to £88.50 and £135.


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Business department to boost its website
Website facelift at BIS to improve businesses’ access to information.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has reviewed and reorganised its website with the aim of making it more engaging.
Although the news has been dominated with government cuts, there has to be a balancing promotion of businesses and job creation, according to ministers. The BIS facelift has been designed to make the website more accessible to allow businesses to find the information they need easier.
In address to the House of Commons, business minister Edward Davey said, "In line with the cross-government channel strategy, content that provides practical guidance to small businesses has moved from the BIS website to the Business Link site, which is the official government website for businesses."
Access to online information was referred to in the government's Comprehensive Spending Review. While not referencing business assistance directly, the review paper underlined the use of the internet for public service delivery.
"The Government will use digital means, such as online and digital telephony, as the default option to deliver more of its services," the review paper said. "As a first step, this will be done for the initial application for Job Seekers' Allowance, new business tax registration with HMRC and key Driver's Licence services."
The creation of a 200 million network of technology centres, linking university researchers with business was announced this week. BIS will play a large part in fostering the necessary connections.
Business secretary Vince Cable said, "It is partly about removing government imposed obstacles to growth: onerous business taxes, red tape which suffocates small firms, and a slow oppressive planning regime."
For its part, the BIS website has expressed the department's aim of helping to support this new strategy by promoting innovation, enterprise and science to create an environment that will nurture the skills and opportunities required for success.
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The West has WhatsApp, China has WeChat, and the rest of Asia has Line. Just as its instant messaging competitors are rapidly expanding into other markets and diversifying their offerings, Line has decided to try its hand at mobile payments. In an effort to boost its own movile payments service, Line has acquired WebPay which is a mobile payments service that’s geared more towards developers.
Messaging app company Line announced today that it’s buying WebPay Holdings with an eye toward boosting its abilities in mobile payments. WebPay built a payment service aimed at developers. “The company is highly praised both at home and abroad for its cutting-edge technology, as well as service which offers easy to integrate API, short review period (3 working days in the shortest), secure payment system that does not process, transfer and store card data at member stores,” Line said of WebPay in a statement on the news. Ultimately, the deal should help Line grow its Line Pay mobile payments service, which launched in December.


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Commentary by Trevor Culbertson
The ongoing and escalating conflict between Russian and Ukrainian forces has prompted Western governments to enact numerous and widespread sanctions against Russia and its oligarch class. The short-term consequences are constantly in flux while the outlook of the U.S. and worldwide payments industry will no doubt experience profound changes that are already unfolding in the week (of writing) since the Russian invasion of sovereign Ukraine.
Below are select updates and thoughts on what has happened so far.
Visa and Mastercard have officially cut off Russian-based financial institutions from their card networks, following suit with U.S. government sanctions. The ban is already being felt for those living in Russia, with numerous reports of foreign credit and debit cards being declined at ATMs, shops, and banks. In concert with other initiatives, Russia it seems has attempted to embolden their resistance to sanctions far in advance, including pushing their domestic card networks and payment rails to lessen their reliance on Western merchant services. For the moment, however, eCommerce and POS transactions alike will become more difficult if not impossible for Russian consumers and merchants to execute.
February 2022 SEC filings submitted by Mastercard and Visa revealed their annual revenue streams compromise 4% of Russian-related business activities for both card brands and 2% and 1%, respectively, of Ukrainian activity. American Express released a similar statement that stressed they are complying with any applicable sanctions, while stipulating that they have only one Russian-based card issuing partner with a “handful” of others that are merchant-facing. Amex recently scored a contract with Sberbank to expand its card network in 2021.
Russia’s domestic card network, Mir, released less than a year after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, captures only about a quarter of the market. That leaves just under 75% to Visa and Mastercard, a large gap of the three hundred million total credit and debit cards in Russia that could be filled with Mir and others once sanctions begin to be fully felt.
In addition to card brands shutting off access, the Central Bank of Russia has confirmed that Apple Pay and Google Pay are no longer accessible for at least a few Russian banks. Apple has taken it a step further by suspending all sales of its products in Russia, and the country will not receive further imports from Apple for the time being. Wise and Remitly, two major money transfer services have halted availability in Russia. Conversely, Revolut, Western Union, and PayPal and its international service Xoom all seem to be still operating in Russia, although PayPal has blocked select users and banks and will no longer accept new Russian accounts, while Western Union has declared that domestic transfers in Russia will be unavailable beginning April 1st.
In December of last year, Western Union announced an expansive partnership with Ukrainian financial institutions and the Commonwealth of Independent States (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) to grow international P2P payments. That partnership will likely prove vital for both Ukrainian and Russian people looking to receive remittances during the war.
SWIFT and Banking
One of the first sanctions to be put on the table and now implemented is the removal of a majority of Russian banks from the Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT, a worldwide interbank system connected to over 11,000 institutions that allows for safe and quick payments across borders. The Russian banks under scope are VTB, VEB, Bank Otkritie, Promsvyazbank, Bank Rossiya, Sovcombank and Novikombank. Any companies or institutions with over 50% ownership by these banks will also be removed from SWIFT. Two big exemptions to the ban are Sberbank, the largest in Russia, and Gasprombank. Both handle the vast majority of commodity transactions in Russia, namely oil and gas.
Russian banks that have been removed will no longer be able to satisfy payments to SWIFT members, although fears that this would prompt Russia to expand its previously domestic alternative, Financial Message Transfer System of the Bank of Russia, or SPFS, appear to have come true. SPFS is already synced with 23 foreign banks, mainly in Belarus, but reports of Russia seeking talks with China over a connected messaging system in some form have emerged. It remains to be seen how effective this transition will be, as SFPS is viewed by many as inferior to SWIFT in speed and reliability, and China’s own network, CPIS, typically handles less than 15,000 transactions a day compared to SWIFT’s 15 million.
A more concrete development has emerged though, with Sberbank now offering money transfers to Chinese Alipay wallets in yuan. This provides Russian civilians with another option to offset the dramatic drop in ruble valuation, which has hovered around 75 rubles to $1.00, and at the time of writing peaked at 116. Even with this dramatic drop, it could have been worse if not for Russia enacting sanction-proofing measures going back a decade, including a reduction in dollar-traded exports from 95% in 2013 to 10% today for big importers like China and Brazil.
Due to both inflation and the immense sanctions aimed at them, the Central Bank of Russia raised key interest rates from 9.5% to 20%. Regardless of specific sanctions, exposure, and further divestment, U.S. banks will ultimately feel some of the hurt currently being felt by Russia’s economy.
Cybersecurity and Crypto
U.S. officials from the Treasury Department and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) met with JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup executives last week to discuss potential cyber threats from Russian and third-party hackers and ransomware organizations. This comes as major Ukrainian banks and government agency websites were effectively inaccessible for a period of time just prior to the invasion.
While U.S. and European governments have implemented quick and harsh responses to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is a different story for cryptocurrency exchanges. Both the White House and U.S. Treasury Department, as well as the Ukrainian government, have formally requested crypto exchanges to halt access to Russian assets. Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken have all stated they will filter and block any users who they believe qualify as being under government sanctions, but will remain largely accessible for Russian users.
Not only will this further complicate ongoing legislation and regulation of crypto assets, but it has the potential of undermining attempts to punish and deter Russian military advancement. Current real-world examples already exist; North Korea and Iran both utilize cryptocurrencies to offload fiat assets and avoid similar sanctions. This will turn out to be a test on how free from regulation and centralizing cryptocurrency is, at least for those who hold them on exchanges. However, how much crypto is held on exchanges is debated; various reports estimate that only 6% – 12% of bitcoin is on exchange-based wallets.
The U.S., India, China, and Russia are all in the middle of how to deal with regulation and user protection of cryptocurrency. Those may change shape as the value of crypto as an anonymous and sanction-defying financial instrument could be challenged, with nations who are willing to heavily sanction Russia being cognizant of those who are not.
Ukraine and its people have formed a flourishing tech hub in Eastern Europe, and their own fintech industry association was in the middle of new initiatives to expand that hub to a global audience. These initiatives included blockchain and open banking, P2P payments, and online lending, as well as developing R&D offices for some of the largest tech companies in the world, including Google and Uber.
The above is just a small sample of the ongoing developments and unprecedented changes that have come to fruition and will continue to in the coming weeks, months, and years as the first major war in Europe since WWII has been sparked by Russia.
Sources: TSG, Reuters, Forbes, PYMNTS.com, Payments Dive, Wall Street Journal, CoinDesk, Bloomberg, The Paypers, Congressional Research Service, Baird, Bitcoin.com, Fortune, Protocol


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Use of alternative media to rise
PQ Media predicts that, by 2012, one dollar in every four will be spent on alternative media as advertising strategies change along with consumer habits.
Advertisers can now reach consumers in places they never could before such as in their pocket, while playing a game and during broadcast programs using a multitude of technologies and devices. In a recently released report, PQ Media refers to this as alternative media and defines it as, "Media buying strategies that attempt to bypass the clutter of traditional advertising and marketing in an effort to reach target audiences, primarily through new media such as the Internet, but also by using alternative means through traditional media such as product placement in broadcast television."
PQ Media's report predicts the use of such alternative media is set to rise at a compound annual growth rate of 17% over the next five years reaching $160.8 billion in 2012. A sluggish economy is partly to blame, says the report.
The sectors in which PQ Media expects to see the biggest gains are online search and event sponsorship. Online search is predicted to grow 113% to $26.1 billion by 2012 and event sponsorship to more than $33 billion, or 72%.
“By 2012, we anticipate one out of every four dollars spent on advertising and marketing will be earmarked for alternative media,” said Patrick Quinn, president and CEO of PQ Media.
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This Year in Leonardo News: What We’ve Been Up to in 2020
No matter how you look at it, 2020 is going to be a year to remember. Impossible to predict changes have disrupted the travel industry more than most. Here at Leonardo, we have risen to the challenge, working alongside our partners, forging new relationships, and keeping ourselves busy with major product changes and releases.
Over the course of this year, we have substantially increased our total property count, with plans to increase it by over 40% by early 2021. Throughout our conversations with hotel brands and travel channels this year, it’s been clear that our solutions provide real value. In these difficult times, both long-time and new customers have told us that we allow them to do more with limited resources.
Here’s some of what we’ve been up to over the past year.
In company news….
Leonardo + Achiga merge to expand solutions for the hospitality industry
In April, we announced our merger with fellow Jonas Software Hospitality company, Achiga. This merger has changed the way we innovate and develop new solutions, giving us new insight into the future of hotel distribution, content management, and digital experiences.
In product news…
This year saw the formal launch of our new Content Manager and Media Library tools, as well as the migration of our existing customers over to these solutions. While we were working on that project, we still had time to release new features for those products.
Content Manager Reports
We built in-app reporting for Content Manager, allowing customers to access and analyze reports. Using data from our travel channel partners and insight from hotel brands, we focused on metrics that increase conversion and revenue.
Media Library Reports
We also built out reporting tools for Media Library, our media gallery powered by Content Manager. With reports, customers can see who is accessing content, and which content is performing best.
We partnered with HotelPORT for content verification tools
As part of our commitment to streamlining content distribution, we forged a partnership that allows hotels to simplify content upkeep and maintenance, so that the description and details on their third-party listings are always accurate.
COVID-19 communications pop up for websites
Adapting to the fast-changing needs of the travel industry, our hotel website solution now has the ability to add and update key communications around health and safety.
In new partnerships…
We forged a number of new partnerships this year. Some of the highlights include:
- Lotte Hotels & Resorts
- Virgin Hotels
- Oracle Hospitality
In extensions and expansions…
This year, we signed many significant contract extensions. Some of the extensions that we published news about include our partners over at Grupo Posadas extending and expanding to a multi-year agreement. On the travel channel side of things, we enhanced our connection with SAP Concur to feed their mobile solutions.
Looking forward to 2021…
We have achieved a lot this year even in tough circumstances, and we’re looking forward to the future. We have new product features, new partnerships, and innovations that will improve distribution for the hospitality industry as a whole.
Curious how any of this news impacts your organization? Set up a time to chat today.


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Lemma stands in solidarity with the nation by lighting virtual candles
The entire activity was executed remotely using programmatic technology, thereby keeping in mind the safety of the employees and media owners
The nation stood in solidarity as people showed their support to each other on Sunday night by lighting a candle, sending out the message that we are all in this together. The OOH industry is the worst hit during this time and despite the crisis, has shown continued care & support around the globe by delivering mass messages of public safety and gratitude towards the medical staff, police, cleaning staff and other essential service providers
Lemma, on 5th April 2020 virtually lit up digital billboards at 9.00 pm for 9 mins, in solidarity with the nation. The gesture not only showed gratitude towards the medical staff and the police but also served as a reassurance that the OOH industry will bounce back
"The OOH industry globally is in darkness with articles after articles outlining the decline in business as the world comes to a standstill. Lighting this candle virtually is in a way giving hope to the OOH industry and media owners that this darkness will be dispelled and we'd come back stronger and Brighter!" - Merlin Coutinho - Marketing Head, Lemma.
The entire activity was executed remotely using programmatic technology, thereby keeping in mind the safety of the employees and media owners & abiding with the rules of the lockdown.
Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India)For more updates, be socially connected with us on
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We are excited to announce that VentureSpur will be presenting at Accelerator Demo Day in Washington D.C. this Friday, July 19th!
The event is hosted by the U.S. Small Business Administration and Global Accelerator Network and will feature around 20 accelerators across the country. VentureSpur was selected alongside other high quality accelerators who will pitch their models to potential funders, discuss what makes their accelerator model high functioning, successful, and their plans to scale their scope of work.
We are thrilled to be able to share about our program and for the opportunity to make the nation aware of the many promising startup ventures being founded and grown in Oklahoma, Texas and our region!
For more information about this event, please visit the SBA announcement on their website here!


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Econometric analysis concludes that healthy eating campaign has contributed to significant uplift in child vegetable consumption
Veg Power has resulted in £92 million of additional vegetable sales since its Eat Them to Defat Them campaign was launched in February 2019.
These figures, based on econometric analysis of retail sales data from the campaign’s launch in February 2019 through until December 2021, equate to nearly one billion child portions of veg.
The analysis was compiled by Pearl Metrics, an independent analytics consultancy, using retail sales donated by IRI Worldwide.
It supports Veg Power’s 2021 campaign evaluation which found that nearly 60 per cent of children who participated in the schools programme claimed they ate more vegetables as a result.
Further details on the econometric analysis can be found in this report from Veg Power.
Veg Power CEO Dan Parker said: “This econometric analysis substantiates the feedback we get from surveys. Eat Them to Defeat Them is making an improvement in children’s diet both during and well beyond the weeks of the campaign. This is great news for children’s health as well our veg growers and for the environment too.”
Running for its fourth consecutive year, the £3m TV advertising campaign for 2022 has just finished, with support from ITV, Channel 4 and Sky. Adverts appeared on the channels in February and March, reaching 61 per cent of UK households with children aged 4-9.
Susie Braun, director of social purpose at ITV, said: “This campaign has been able to make a real difference to what gets in shopping baskets and ultimately in tummies. It’s incredible to see such a huge, proven uplift in vegetable sales across the country as a result of this collaborative campaign.”
This year’s Eat Them to Defeat Them advert was once again developed by adam&eveDDB who work on the campaign pro bono, with support from media agency Essence who planned the off-air media for the campaign.
Meanwhile, the schools’ programme reached more children than ever before, with one million children taking part across 3,845 schools. It launched after February half term with a different family-favourite veg featured each week.
Participating schools enjoyed veg tasting sessions, teaching aids, and games, and pupils received a vegetable reward chart and sticker pack to encourage their veg eating habits at home.
Funding was provided by major supermarket and food brands Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Dole, Lidl, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose


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Tiffany & Co. has long been the purveyor of luxury jewelry, patronized by the rich and the famous. Often synonymous with grand weddings and glamorous anniversaries, its jewelry has long served as a status symbol of sorts, coveted by big names and high profilers alike, ranging from Hollywood to the political scene to, well, people who could simply afford it. But that seems about to change.
A certain 28-year-old living in New Jersey shopping for an engagement ring for his fiancée reportedly found a couple of comparable pieces in Manhattan’s diamond district. It wasn’t enough that they were just as good as the rings Alan Feid saw at Tiffany’s flagship store at Fifth Avenue – they also cost a mere fraction of Tiffany’s rings.
“At the end of the day, I don’t think there’s much of a difference when it comes to the style or the quality,” he said. Fied joins a new age of millennials who appear to be increasingly unimpressed by brand names. According to Neil Saunders, chief executive of retail research firm Conlumino, Tiffany’s “old-world luxury” charm is losing its sparkles, as the new generation moves towards a new search for more value-for-money goods.
Tiffany is not alone in this new trend. Macy’s Inc has also reported a similar phenomenon, as their customers start moving away to off-price retailers in search for similar apparels that cost a fraction of what they can get at Macy’s. These millennials reportedly make up a growing demographic of high earners who are not quite considered rich, averaging on annual salaries of $100,000 to 250,000.
See also: Top 5 most expensive engagement rings
As they lose interest in established brands like Tiffany’s and Macy’s, the new generation appears to favor brands that can offer a modern look or perhaps, a collection of niche jewelry. According to Saunders, the brand is not quite looked upon in the negative sense, but rather “as being somewhat tired and traditional”.
“Younger consumers especially see it as a place that is for the older generation and for a different era,” he said.


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Venture capital firm London Venture Partners has raised $80 million that will be used to fund video games startups.
As reported by GamesBeat, this is LVP's third fund and will be used to give seed cash to startups in both Europe and North America. There's no indication where the VC firm has managed to raise this cash from.
To date, LVP values its games investments at $18 billion. These have included tech firms such as Unity and NaturalMotion, but also games developers including Clash of Clans giant Supercell.
“We are incredibly proud that an LVP investment has come to signify a stamp of approval for games startups,” said London Venture Partners general manager David Gardner.
“Our Fund III will allow us to continue to bring our deep backgrounds as game entrepreneurs and executives with large scale product and operational expertise to identify and help founders and teams with great potential.”
He added: ”While we have incredibly high standards and invest in only 1.5 per cent of companies we evaluate, we are set apart from most VCs who wait for metrics to guide their investments because our own games careers have given us the ability to recognise patterns, trends and disruptive ideas very early on.”


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CRA Innovation & Technology – Canada
Toronto, Ontario — “The touchless economy isn’t coming, it’s here,” said Daniel Williams, a principal with Pariveda Solutions and digital strategy, implementation, and analytics specialist at the beginning of his presentation to Guild 21.
The online presentation Ready for the Touch-Less Economy: How will we do what we do in a different world? Williams provided Guild 21 members with advice on how to not just survive, but thrive, in an economy that has been moving away from face-to-face contact far longer than it has been social isolating.
“We’re all dealing with the coronavirus situation–and social isolation–around the globe. It is being called the touchless economy,” said Williams. “Regardless of whether the coronavirus hit our world or not, we were already moving toward a touchless, frictionless economy. Look at Alexa. Look at mobile devices that let you order food. It was all about moving toward touchless.”
According to Williams, industry professionals would be wise to look back at the Great Recession for clues on how to succeed.
“The businesses that did increase profits did so by improving corporate partnerships and accessing new technologies,” said Williams. “The lesson for today is to look at your current customer base and think about who you can serve.”
According to Williams, the collision sector is well-placed to succeed–if business owners find ways to broaden their customer base.
“Shops have a lot of skills available to them. Being able to take those skills and figuring out where you can offer more services and build more customers,” said Williams. “You can redefine what markets you are in, your clientele, and what services you do.”
Sponsored by Verifacts, Guild 21 Conference Calls are open to all members of the collision repair industry and the wider automotive claims economy.
Credit to Collision Repairmag.


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Kia’s Incoming Electrification
The future is coming fast, and Kia is looking to be one of the first to usher it in. The future is electric, and a combination of market forces and government regulations over the past 72 months have made it very clear that internal combustion engine, or ICE, powered cars will rapidly be made historical before the middle of the century. Even now, with much of their technology still in relative infancy, electric cars present a much better option for daily driving than an ICE vehicle. Kia plans to release future EVs to capitalize on these engineering realities with Kia EVs.
They are hundreds of times simpler in terms of their powertrain, which leads to enormous reliability gains. And the combination of the ability to charge overnight at home and huge efficiency improvements over standard engines makes them both much cheaper to operate than ICE cars and trucks as well. Not to mention, they will be much faster. Kia has already begun the journey towards electrification with versions of its current lineup, integrating the legendary Kia dependability into electric versions of its Soul and Niro vehicles. As of now, the company is developing an electric vehicle platform that its future vehicles will ride on. And there are quite a few future vehicles in mind already.
Kia EV History
Kia has recently been building up towards an electric vehicle future. Plans have been rapidly set in motion, and overall, Kia and Hyundai have been working together to quickly produce electric vehicles for the masses. The first tastes of these efforts were seen in prototypes and concepts, vehicles not yet ready for production, but which offered a great preview of what was to come nonetheless.
The Ray was a sleek 2010 concept car in the shape of a futuristic sedan, which was a plug-in hybrid. The Kia Futuron SUV concept, shown first at the 2019 China International Import Expo, is a step further. The Futuron is a fully electric “coupe SUV” concept that showcases what Kia can do design-wise with electric vehicles. With more freedom thanks to the new electric drivetrain, Kia was capable of penning a staggeringly futuristic design that incorporates powerful electric motors and all-wheel drive. The concept also makes note of Level 4 autonomous capabilities, which would allow the Futuron to drive itself anywhere within city limits.
Electrifying current models is the immediate result of these previews of the future, and for that, Kia has implemented almost off-the-shelf motors and batteries to meet rising demand. These vehicles offer more than enough range, speed, and capability to match their gasoline-powered siblings while at the same time offering much lower running costs and the same interior and chassis that made them successful as gasoline-powered vehicles to start with. But electrifying current models is just the beginning. Kia’s future plans indicate that they are currently building a new EV-specific platform to get the most out of the electric powertrain, and this platform will be modular enough to support a wide range of vehicles.
Right now, one can go into a Kia dealer and drive away in an electric car. And not some tiny, impractical runabout either, but a vehicle that could replace the one in your driveway now. Granted that these models are not as well optimized as those to come, but they offer an excellent look at what is coming in a short few years. These current electric versions of existing models took Kia very little time to put together, yet the same quality and reliability found in the brand’s other models has carried over into the new propulsion methods these still quite normal-looking crossovers use. Despite using off-the-shelf technology, Kia’s excellent integration has meant these vehicles have specifications that would have been shocking even a decade ago.
The 2019 Soul EV electrifies the already popular Kia Soul. Designed as a quickly-available daily runabout, the Soul EV only provides 111 miles of range but does so with a very small 30 kWh battery pack. This means overnight charging can be performed easily, even with a standard wall outlet. The Soul EV’s range is enough to do all the daily errands, and when charged at home, the Soul doesn’t need to ever visit a charging station while out and about. Practical, good-looking, and simple, the Soul EV will be a great step for Kia EVs, and an exciting redesign is anticipated to arrive soon.
The Niro EV is the first mass-production Kia EV that can be used as an all-around vehicle, with a 239 miles range from its moderately sized 64 kWh battery pack. While this pack’s true potential is only unlocked with a fast charger, these systems are available from Kia for the home and are increasingly common across the country. Now electric road trips are not just possible, but for many routes are actually rather easy.
The Niro EV supersedes the earlier Soul EV, offering no real drawbacks in daily use when compared to gasoline-powered vehicles. Additionally, the running costs of the Niro EV are much lower than a gas-powered Kia. Also, because one would never have to visit a charging station or filling station for regular daily use thanks to home charging, it is more practical and convenient. To top it all off, the Niro EV’s electric motor delivers a substantial 291 pound-feet of torque the instant the driver floors the accelerator pedal.
Kia’s electric future is like a pair of electric car headlights in the mirrors of an ICE-powered car. Bright and approaching fast. What this future will quite literally ride on is the E-GMP platform, being developed with Hyundai. This is a platform built specifically to maximize the positive attributes of electric vehicles and is necessary not just to compete with other automakers as the world goes electric but to build vehicles that dramatically outperform current cars and trucks.
The metrics that will be enhanced by this electric performance cover every base, including efficiency, power, convenience, economy, speed, and practicality. Evidence of how dramatically this change will affect the capabilities of Kias is exemplified by the fact that vehicles on the E-GMP platform could produce up to 600 horsepower. The current highest performance Kia, the brand-redefining Stinger, makes a maximum of 365 horsepower. While electric vehicles are still heavier than their gasoline-powered counterparts, almost doubling the horsepower and adding electric torque is virtually certain to create the fastest Korean car ever. With 11 new electric vehicles planned to release by 2025, Kia has made it a mission to be at the leading edge of the electric vehicles market.
Power, capability, and ease of use are the hallmarks of electric vehicles. Requiring less maintenance, producing more speed, and costing less over the long run, EVs have made themselves the future. The Soul EV was a good first step, and the Niro EV currently on sale is a solid contender, all using relatively standard technologies and supported by the same dependable Kia engineering that has underpinned so many other cars. But the upcoming models based on the new E-GMP platform promise to be truly transformative, allowing vehicles to do things formerly unheard of for any car or truck, all for a reasonable Kia price. If you have any questions about the current Niro EV, get in contact with us today or visit us to test drive this spunky EV for yourself.


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TEMPE, AZ -- Amtech Systems reported March quarter net revenues of $32.8 million, basically flat with a year ago but down from $73.6 million in the December quarter.
The sequential decrease was primarily due to the shipment in the fiscal first quarter of all the equipment for Phase II of a large solar turnkey project. The timing of large semiconductor orders and shipments also contributed to the sequential decrease.
The company, which owns BTU, reported solar sales of $12.6 million and semiconductor and SMT sales of $20.6 million.
Net income was $2.8 million for the period, which ended Mar. 31.
At quarter's end, backlog was $63.1 million, $28.1 million in semi/SMT and $35 million in solar.
"Our semiconductor and polishing businesses are continuing to show year-over-year growth with sales of higher-margin products contributing to the sequential increase in our gross margin," said Fokko Pentinga, chief executive.
The company expects fiscal third quarter revenues of $34 million to $37 million.


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Amazon said it was working to fix an issue with its Alexa-enabled devices causing them to spontaneously burst into laughter.
Amazon confirmed that it was aware of the problem on Wednesday night, in news first reported by The Verge, though did not provide further details of what was causing it or how long it would take to fix.
Its voice assistant Alexa is activated on Echo smart speakers through voice commands.
Users have been posting about the issue on social media for the past two days, with one claiming he asked Alexa to turn off the lights, but instead heard a woman laugh.
“Alexa but please don’t try to kill me in my sleep,” another user said in a post on Twitter, after her Echo device began laughing unprompted.


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Here comes the Expo rush! Almost 40% of Dubai firms looking to hire
Overall outlook on sales was positive with 97 per cent of the businesses expecting either an increase or no change in their sales volume in Q1 2014.
Around 39 per cent of businesses in Dubai are expected to increase their employee headcount in the first quarter of 2014 compared to 27 per cent in the corresponding period last year, a new survey has found.
According to the quarterly business confidence survey conducted by the Dubai Economic Development (DED) during Q4 2013, service and manufacturing firms were found to be more optimistic about hiring than trading companies.
The emirate’s business confidence was also on the rise as 63 per cent of respondents foresaw better economic conditions in Q1 2014 compared to 58 per cent in Q4 2013. Dubai’s business confidence index for the final quarter of 2013 rose to reach 144.3 points, up from 141.6 points in Q3 2013, DED said.
In Q1 2014, around 62 per cent of Dubai businesses also expected to see stronger net profits based on increasing demand and improved margins. Larger companies, though, were more confident about profits than the small and medium enterprises, the survey said.
Overall outlook on sales was positive with 97 per cent of the businesses expecting either an increase or no change in their sales volume in Q1 2014. Around 71 per cent also expected selling prices to remain stable, the survey added.
Architecture and property firms were buoyed by the emirates’ rebounding real estate sector and the influx of new projects, especially after Dubai’s successful Expo 2020 bid. Around 88 per cent of restaurants and hotels also expected to see stronger performance in the first quarter of 2014 on the back of strong tourist numbers.
Driven by a rise in demand from other major sectors, around 64 per cent of firms in the transportation sector also saw a rise in contracts this year, the survey said. However, exporters in Dubai were less confident compared to the emirate’s overall business community due to lower optimism on selling prices.
Increasing competition from international firms, rising rental and leasing rates along with government fees and regulations topped the list of challenges faced by Dubai businesses, the DED said.
© Motivate Publishing. All rights reserved.
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- IMF report details the crippling economic effects of conflict in MENA
- Start Up Lebanon entrepreneurs head to Silicon Valley Roadshow
- An inside look into the MENA's salary trends
- DED sees 12 per cent increase in licenses during Q4 2013 as economic activity remains robust in Dubai
- Hubris and greed: the toxic combination that drove the rise and fall of Arabtec?
- DED business survey reveals increasing optimism about business activity in Q4 of 2011
- Energy, consumption lift Saudi Q3 business confidence


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Volkswagen Arteon US Arrival Delayed Over Emissions Testing
Originally slated to arrive Q3 2018, the Arteon will now be available ‘sometime early 2019.’
Volkswagen is delaying the U.S. launch of its flagship Arteon sedan due to unspecified roadblocks with the car's emissions testing, according to Automotive News. It looks like those wanting to get their hands on the sleek-roofed VW in the States will have to wait a few months longer, even though it has apparently been available in Germany since 2017.
Originally slated to hit American dealerships in the third quarter of this year, the Arteon is reportedly being pushed back to "early 2019" thanks to "delays in the certification process caused by a backlog in meeting [new] WLTP worldwide emissions testing." That's the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedure, a new emissions testing standard established by the European Union that aims to test new cars under more realistic driving conditions.
Serving as a successor to the CC (originally known as the Passat CC), the Arteon will be powered by a 268-horsepower, 2.0-liter, turbo four-cylinder and will ride on Volkswagen's MQB platform that underpins the current Golf, Jetta, and Audi A3. It rocks a long, coupe-like body not unlike that of the Mercedes-Benz CLS and Audi A7—or the Honda Accord and Kia Stinger if you'd like examples closer to the Arteon's expected price point.
The sleek sedan enters a marketplace where ride height is apparently king and relatively low-slung vehicles like the Arteon are falling into a slump. How much this delay will further compound this car's seemingly uphill sales battle remains to be seen.
We've reached out to Volkswagen for further comment and will update if we hear back.


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Members of the team that created Apple’s ubiquitous virtual personal assistant, Siri, are set to put their artificial intelligence (AI)-powered assistant into the next generation of Samsung’s flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S8, reports indicate.
Samsung confirmed on 6 November that the Galaxy S8 will come loaded with the ‘Viv’ AI assistant, created by Viv Lab, according to Reuters.
Viv Labs is an AI startup helmed by Dag Kittlaus and Adam Cheyer, and Chris Bringham, all of whom helped to bring Apple’s Siri assistant into being. Apple bought their first startup, an SRI International spinoff, in 2010.
The news that Samsung intends to feature Viv Labs’ AI assistant comes as little surprise. The South Korean smartphone giant agreed to buy Viv Labs in early October, with the move being seen as a response by Samsung to Google’s launch of its new Pixel AI assistant.
The company said at the time that it was committed to virtual personal assistants as part of its broader vision to deliver an AI-based open ecosystem across all of its devices and services.
Samsung is also in the process of working to repair the damage from the fallout of the Galaxy Note 7 debacle, with the troubled model being pulled from sale and production after a slew of incidents in which the devices caught fire or exploded due to a battery fault.
The Note 7 saga has seen airlines around the world ban the device from flights, and has even reportedly prompted Samsung to engage rival, LG, for the supply of new batteries.
In New Zealand, the industry body overseeing the telecommunications market, the TCF, has gone so far as to blacklist the device from use on any of the country’s networks.
“Each mobile phone has a unique identifying number called an IMEI number and if this number is blacklisted the phone will not operate on any mobile network in New Zealand,” said TCF chief, Geoff Thorn.
Now, as the company eyes a multibillion-dollar profit hit from its Note 7 problems, it is already considering how the next generation of its smartphones can turn around its fortunes in the market, with the Galaxy S8 slated for sale early next year.
Regardless, Samsung is remaining tight lipped about what types of services would be offered through the Viv assistant, according to Reuters, with the company saying only that the platform would let customers use third-party services.
"Developers can attach and upload services to our agent," said Samsung executive vice president, Rhee Injong, during a briefing, according to Reuters.
"Even if Samsung doesn't do anything on its own, the more services that get attached the smarter this agent will get, learn more new services and provide them to end-users with ease,” he said.


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Plus, meet and greet fitness and figure professionals
PITTSBURGH, April 3, 2008 /PRNewswire/ --
WHO: GNC, along with figure professionals Michelle Adams and Allison
WHAT: The MORE Magazine Health and Wellness Expo
(part of the More Magazine Marathon and Half-Marathon)
WHEN: 12 -7 p.m. April 4, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 5, 2008
WHERE: Altman Building, 135 W. 18th Street, New York (between 6th and 7th
Come to GNC's booth at the Expo to:
-- Meet Michelle Adams, International Federation of Bodybuilding figure
professional, and Allison Frahn, World Natural Bodybuilding Federation
pro figure competitor and fitness model -- and pick up health and
wellness information, tips and autographs.
-- Enter the Amino Vital "Go for the Gold" Sweepstakes for a chance to win
a trip for two to cheer on Team USA at the 2008 Olympic Games in
-- Score free giveaways from GNC: heart rate monitors, scales, juicers,
mini-massagers, moisturizers, GNC product samples, the original Perfect
PushUp and other fitness equipment -- plus free GNC Gold Cards, which
will get you 20% off everything at GNC the first week of every month
for an entire year.
The 2008 MORE Magazine Health and Wellness Expo will feature activities and information designed to motivate and energize! Runners and non-runners alike will have the opportunity to participate in health screenings, gather nutritional information and samples, meet expert panels, enter raffles and more. The event, which expects to draw more than 7,000 visitors, is free of charge and open to the public.
For more information about the Expo, please visit: http://nyrr.org/races/2008/more/expo.asp
To learn about the Marathon and Half-Marathon, visit: http://nyrr.org/races/2008/more/about.asp
GNC, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pa., is the largest global specialty retailer of nutritional products; including vitamin, mineral, herbal and other specialty supplements and sports nutrition, diet and energy products. GNC has more than 4,900 retail locations throughout the United States (including 978 franchise and 1,358 Rite Aid store-within-a-store locations) and franchise operations in 49 international markets. The company -- which is dedicated to helping consumers Live Well -- also offers products and product information online at http://www.gnc.com/.
|SOURCE General Nutrition Centers, Inc.|
Copyright©2008 PR Newswire.
All rights reserved


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Dish Network has announced that it has updated one of its popular applications for the iPad. The app is called the Dish Explorer app and is designed to allow the iPad user to control their DVR among other things. Using the app viewers can control much of the Hopper Whole Home DVR system with their tablet.
Updates that Dish has made to the app add in some controls to the virtual remote that the app was missing previously. Those controls are a TV power button to turn your set on and off and the ability to control the volume of the TV. I think anyone that has used the app will agree those were irritating omissions.
The app is also been updated to help the user find more content that they want to watch. A new “Picked for Me” section has been added that is packed with personalized content recommendations. Content in this section is chosen based on the user’s viewing habits.
The updated app is on the App Store right now for download. Dish first launched the Dish Explorer app in 2013. It is a second screen app that features social media support, remote control capabilities, and more. The app is gaining users with Dish saying that it increased active users 225% in its first year.


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Nearly all humans, and a large proportion of wildlife, are contaminated with environmentally persistent long-chain perfluoroalkyl compounds. That revelation, around for a decade now, has brought dramatic change to the fluorochemicals industry.
Spurred on by academic researchers and concerns from environmental and consumer advocacy groups, chemical companies have worked with the Environmental Protection Agency to phase out perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and are in the process of phasing out perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). The companies are replacing PFOS, PFOA, and their associated compounds with shorter perfluoroalkyl chain compounds that impart the same functional properties as the longer chain compounds. Although the alternatives are just as persistent, they aren’t as bioaccumulative and appear to have a better toxicity profile—which is still being confirmed by testing—and are thus considered sound replacements.
The chemical inertness of these fluorocarbons and their simultaneous hydrophobic and lipophobic character make them useful for manufacturing a variety of plastics and as surface treatments for industrial and consumer products, explains David W. Boothe, global business manager for DuPont Fluoroproducts. He says people have come to take such products for granted: nonstick cookware, grease-proof fast-food wrappers, stain-resistant carpet, and water-repellent clothing. Less visible are critical applications such as components of fuel hoses for cars, hydraulic fluids for airplanes, insulation for telecommunications wiring, and as surfactants to aid application of pesticides, enhance wetting properties of paints and coatings, and improve flowability of fire-fighting foams.
“The societal benefits of fluoroproducts—boosting gas mileage in cars while cutting air emissions, adding durability to clothing, improving semiconductor and communications cable performance, and increasing fire-fighting speed—help consumers save money and make products safer, last longer, and environmentally friendlier,” Boothe emphasizes.
The downside is that, over time, emissions from the manufacture and use of PFOS and PFOA have meant that they are ubiquitous in the environment, where they have no natural analogs. The compounds are found in places ranging from pristine areas of the Arctic to sludge in municipal wastewater treatment plants. And they’ve infiltrated nearly every corner of the food chain, from herring to humans.
PFOS and PFOA are known to exhibit toxicity in lab animals, but so far their toxicity to people is uncertain, says Toni Krasnic, coordinator for perfluorochemicals in EPA’s Office of Pollution Prevention & Toxics. EPA has yet to make a full judgment of whether these compounds pose an unreasonable risk to the public, Krasnic says. One holdup is that to effectively deal with PFOS and PFOA, the research community has to scrutinize the compounds’ associated precursors and derivatives, too. “It makes the whole risk-management issue more complicated,” Krasnic says.
Scientists studying the fluorochemicals agree that, given the persistence, long-term exposure to PFOS and PFOA and their associated compounds can reasonably be anticipated to result in adverse health effects. But at the same time, the fluorochemicals are too useful to society and are too large of a market for chemical companies to abandon. Those realizations prompted EPA and chemical firms to start working toward finding sustainable solutions.
The PFOS and PFOA families of compounds have been produced since the late 1940s. PFOS is a degradation product of perfluorooctane sulfonamide derivatives, including perfluoroalkyl sulfonamidoethanols (PFASEs), that were originally the key components used to make 3M’s Scotchgard brand of stain-protection products.
PFOA’s ammonium salt and, to a lesser extent, its longer perfluorononanoic homolog have been used in small amounts as surfactants to help solubilize fluorinated monomers in the industrial emulsion polymerization of tetrafluoroethylene to produce DuPont’s Teflon and other fluoropolymers. PFOA and other perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs) are also inadvertent degradation products of long-chain fluorotelomer alcohols (FTOHs), a set of oligomeric compounds built up from tetrafluoroethylene by a free-radical telomerization process. Chemical companies use PFASEs and FTOHs to add fluorinated pendant groups to polymers and surfactants that are then used to coat metals, paper, carpet, and fabrics.
Fluorinated compounds were first noted in human blood in the late 1960s, and by 2000, PFOS and PFOA were specifically identified and discovered to be virtually anywhere scientists checked. PFOS currently is found at higher concentrations in blood than PFOA, about 20 ppb versus 4 ppb on average in the U.S. Chemical production workers tend to have levels about 100 times higher, according to EPA data.
Animal studies indicate that when the chemicals are at moderate to high levels—mostly above 1,000 ppb—they cause developmental problems, liver toxicity, immune system problems, and benign tumors. In some people, higher levels of PFOS and PFOA correlate with higher cholesterol levels and a higher incidence of thyroid disease, as noted in studies based on data from the National Health & Nutrition Examination Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. But other studies by academics, EPA and other federal agencies, and the companies themselves indicate that the chemicals so far are not firmly associated with any increased risk for cancer or other adverse health effects in people.
Nevertheless, when it became clear that PFOS was accumulating in people and the environment, 3M took a proactive step and, in cooperation with EPA, voluntarily began phasing out production of PFOS, PFOA, and PFOS-related products in May 2000. It was a daring move for 3M, the leading global producer and only U.S. maker of the PFOS family of compounds. The company decided to take a chance on reworking its product line to sustain its $300 million business.
In 2003, 3M unveiled a new version of Scotchgard, reformulated with chemistry based on perfluorobutane sulfonamide and its related alcohol in place of PFOS chemicals. The ultimate degradation product, perfluorobutane sulfonate, has a much shorter half-life in people: about one month versus 5.4 years for PFOS and 3.8 years for PFOA.
EPA went on to use provisions of the Toxic Substances Control Act to limit future U.S. manufacturing and import of PFOS and its related chemicals, Krasnic notes. As a follow-up, EPA expanded its investigation of PFOA.
As a result, in January 2006, EPA and the eight major companies that make or use PFOA launched the 2010/2015 PFOA Stewardship Program to formally put a stop to environmental release of PFOA and its related compounds. The companies—Arkema, Asahi, Ciba, Clariant, Daikin, DuPont, 3M/Dyneon, and Solvay Solexis—committed to reducing global facility emissions and product content of PFOA and its associated compounds by 95% relative to 2000 levels by the end of this year. The companies also committed to working toward fully eliminating PFOA emissions and product content by 2015, leading the firms to start switching over to shorter chain replacements.
The impact of the 3M phaseout and the PFOA stewardship program is already evident, Krasnic says. PFOS levels in U.S. adult blood donors dropped by 60% and PFOA levels by 25% from 2000 to 2006, according to a study by 3M scientists (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2008, 42, 4989).
“On the one hand, this study shows that what we are doing is effective,” Krasnic says. “On the other hand, we see a trend that as we phase out these chemicals in the U.S., they are being picked up in other parts of the world, such as China.” If manufactured goods containing these chemicals are imported, there will still be a source of exposure in the U.S., which could undermine the transition to the short-chain alternatives, he points out.
Industry efforts to phase out the problematic long-chain fluorochemicals have stimulated an evolution in the scientific understanding of PFOS and PFOA. These developments have required the efforts of many academic scientists around the world—in some cases, working side by side with EPA and company scientists—to paint a clearer picture of how perfluorochemicals have infiltrated the environment and our bodies.
In 2006, a landmark study by Konstantinos Prevedouros and Ian T. Cousins of Stockholm University, in collaboration with DuPont’s Robert C. Buck and Stephen H. Korzeniowski, provided the first detailed account of the global production history, direct and indirect emissions, and fate of PFOA and its homologs (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2006, 40, 32). Prevedouros and coworkers estimated the global historical emissions of PFOA from 1951 to 2004 for direct manufacture and use, plus indirect sources such as residuals in finished products.
They determined that up to 6,900 metric tons of PFOA, or around 10% of total production, was directly emitted from chemical plants. Most of the material was released in process wastewater prior to 2000, before companies significantly tightened their emissions controls. An additional 350 metric tons was indirectly emitted. The team also determined that ocean surface waters contain a majority of the compounds and that ocean transport is responsible for most of the distribution around the globe.
But the ocean transport mechanism can’t fully explain how PFCAs have ended up on land in remote locations away from water. Scott A. Mabury of the University of Toronto, a leading PFOS/PFOA researcher, reasoned that there must be an atmospheric transport component in addition to the oceanic transport mechanism described by the Stockholm researchers.
As laid out in a series of papers over the past decade, Mabury and coworkers studied the physical properties of PFOA, FTOHs, and related compounds independently of available chemical company data and showed that the compounds can be found in the atmosphere and in indoor air. Mabury’s group, in collaboration with Derek C. G. Muir of Environment Canada, also conducted monitoring studies to show that PFCAs with chain lengths up to C15 are in the Great Lakes and in the water and snow across remote regions of the Canadian Arctic. In these locations, the fluorochemicals exist at concentrations that match the researchers’ model predictions for atmospheric transport of small amounts of the compounds.
In other modeling studies, James M. Armitage in Cousins’ group at Stockholm evaluated the global transport and projected future trends in PFCA distribution in the environment out to 2050 (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2006, 40, 6969, and 2009, 43, 5830). The team’s key observation is that although PFCA concentrations near chemical plants should decline as producers phase out the chemicals, concentrations in the Arctic marine environment will continue to increase until about 2030, as PFCAs are globally distributed. The group has also explored the transport and fate of PFOS, but that effort has been hampered by lack of complete data on global emissions (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2009, 43, 9274).
Robin Vestergren in Cousins’ group has additionally tracked pathways of exposure to PFCAs, finding that human exposure is fundamentally different from that of wildlife (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2009, 43, 5565). For example, PFOA is more prevalent in people, but the longer perfluorononanoic acid tends to be more common in animals, Vestergren notes.
Food is now the likely dominant pathway of PFOA exposure for most people, Vestergren says. However, for those living in areas near chemical plants that make or use the chemicals, drinking water is likely the more dominant source. Inhalation or other exposure to residual compounds such as FTOHs in consumer materials followed by metabolism is another source, he notes. So even with the PFOA phaseout slated to take place by 2015, “people and wildlife will still continue to receive a fairly constant low-dose exposure far into the future,” Vestergren adds.
Because PFOS and PFOA are the ultimate degradation products for the perfluoroalkyl compounds, they might be the least troublesome of the fluorochemicals in the environment, Mabury believes. His group has been piecing together the chemistry of the sulfonamido and fluorotelomer alcohols in the global environment. Taking into account that PFOS has largely been phased out globally, Mabury has focused more on FTOHs, although most of his observations are relevant to PFASEs as well, he says.
In smog-chamber studies carried out with atmospheric chemist Timothy J. Wallington of Ford Motor Co., Mabury and his colleagues unraveled a degradation pathway between FTOHs and the corresponding PFCAs. They determined that for most of a sample tested, the long perfluoroalkyl chain “unzips” to eventually form carbon dioxide and fluoride ion. But in 1–10% of the sample, the chains remain intact and react with chlorine and hydroxyl radicals, leading to a photochemical chain of events that convert FTOHs to aldehyde and then other intermediates. Ultimately, PFOA and other PFCAs are produced.
Mabury’s research led to a couple of key findings about the perfluoroalkyl chemicals. “The acids bioaccumulate only if there are at least seven perfluorinated carbons in the chain,” Mabury says. “And for each additional carbon, the rate of bioaccumulation goes up by a factor of seven.” Mabury attributes this phenomenon to the hydrophobicity of the compounds, which have a tipping point between six and seven fluorinated carbons. That property is the basis for the C6 and shorter chain replacements, he notes.
In one of the Mabury group’s latest discoveries, Jessica C. D’eon found that fluoroalkyl phosphoric acid diesters used as surfactants on grease-proof food wrappers and pizza box liners occur in high concentrations in human blood bank serum (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2009, 43, 4589). This study marks the first time that a commercial product, rather than PFOS or a PFCA, has been found in human blood, Mabury notes. “No one thought that these chemicals came off the paper,” he says. “It seems to confirm that the fluorosurfactants, not just residual PFASEs or FTOHs, can be metabolized and be a significant source of PFOS and PFOA in humans.”
All that research has finally led Mabury to what he thinks is the key point of the PFOS/PFOA story. Some of the intermediates in the FTOH-to-PFCA pathway are 10,000 times more toxic than PFOA to Daphnia, a freshwater planktonic crustacean used as a “canary” for studying toxicity of chemicals in aqueous systems, Mabury says.
One unique aspect of the PFOS and PFOA compounds is that they are not lipophilic like other persistent organic pollutants. So instead of binding to lipids and being stored away in fat, the electrophilic intermediates might form covalent adducts with proteins and nucleic acids, Mabury says. That has several implications in the hunt for more sustainable replacements, he notes.
The new shorter chain compounds have less steric hindrance than the longer chain analogs and thus a higher potential to interact with biomolecules, Mabury believes. “It may be that the longer chain compounds are less toxic because of steric hindrance,” he says. “But it also is possible that if the shorter chain compounds are more reactive, then their half-lives are so short that their toxicity is less important. That is something we still need to find out.”
In addition, an important difference between the PFOS and PFOA groups of chemicals is that the sulfonamide group in PFASEs acts like a wall between the reactive functional group and the nonreactive perfluoroalkyl chain, limiting further reactivity. FTOHs don’t have that wall, Mabury points out, meaning they are more likely to form electrophilic intermediates and potentially be more toxic.
Either way, Mabury is convinced that all perfluoroalkyl compounds with reactive end functional groups—regardless of chain length—will ultimately end up as stable perfluoro acids in the environment. He agrees that removing residuals such as FTOHs and going with the shorter chains is a start toward reducing exposure. But to fully resolve the perfluorochemical problem, chemical makers will need to alter the basic chemistry so the molecules can degrade to innocuous compounds in the environment, Mabury suggests.
Currently, there are no U.S. standards for PFOS or PFOA in food or drinking water. But now that PFOS and PFOA are becoming better understood, federal agencies are edging toward stronger regulatory control (see page 24). Several states have already set their own drinking water guidance in the range of 0.04 to 2.00 ppb. In January 2009, EPA announced nonbinding provisional health advisories for drinking water of 0.2 ppb for PFOS and 0.4 ppb for PFOA.
And DuPont and 3M joined forces to fund a study led by former EPA toxicologist Robert G. Tardiff of the Sapphire Group consulting firm to determine a “drinking water equivalent level” (Food Chem. Toxicol. 2009, 47, 2557). The study concluded that a safe level of lifetime exposure to PFOA in drinking water is up to 6.5 ppb; average levels of PFOA in drinking water are below 1 ppb, with the exception of water found near some industrial sites, where the average level is 3.5 ppb, according to the study.
In May of last year, PFOS and its associated chemicals were among nine new sets of chemicals added to the original “dirty dozen” list of persistent and bioaccumulative chemicals under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (C&EN, May 18, 2009, page 9). And last month, EPA established the first “chemical action plans” for certain chemicals, including PFOS and PFOA, which could extend the reach of the PFOA stewardship program to include a ban on some chemicals (C&EN, Jan. 11, page 9).
“We now have a lot of the pieces to understand PFOS and PFOA—we know about exposures from water, air, and food—but we still are not certain how important each of them is,” EPA’s Krasnic says. EPA is working to determine if revised drinking water health advisories are needed for PFOS and PFOA. That assessment, scheduled to be completed by the end of this year, “will in part drive whatever additional action we will need to take,” he adds.
Like other companies in the stewardship program, DuPont has been busy introducing new technologies as it eliminates PFOA and long-chain FTOHs. For example, the company’s new Echelon technology removes 99% of residual PFOA from metal, fabrics, architectural materials, and electronics coated with fluorotelomer polymers. The company also developed short-chain PFOA replacement technology for fluoropolymer production and has used it in global manufacturing facilities to make product test materials for its customers and for regulatory approval.
“Our replacement technologies aren’t just a drop-in solution,” Boothe says. “We are talking about hundreds to thousands of variations of these products that each have to be qualified with our customers and their customers all the way down the value chain in order for them to be viable. We took a risk in committing significant resources to address this issue, and that risk paid off—this was a big transformation.”
EPA is taking a more active role in working with companies as they develop the short-chain replacements, Krasnic says. “To date, we have seen more than 100 chemical replacements for the PFOS and PFOA chemicals,” he notes.
As the new chemicals are evaluated and go on the market, they are accompanied by a binding agreement that puts limits on the production and use, Krasnic adds. If data in the future show that there is a concern for these chemicals, the agreements serve as a mechanism for dealing with them without having to take regulatory action.
Looking further down the road at possible nonfluorinated alternatives or compounds that are fluorinated differently, “we are seeing some of those as well,” Krasnic notes. “But so far that is confidential business information that EPA can’t disclose. A lot of companies have made it clear that the shorter chain fluorochemicals are not the final PFOS or PFOA replacements but are intermediate chemicals until better alternatives can be developed.
“We realize we have to be really careful in how we deal with any new compounds that come in because the problems with PFOS and PFOA were a surprise to us in 2000,” Krasnic adds. “We don’t want to be surprised again.”


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What you need to know
- A Galaxy Active rugged phone has popped up in a new render.
- The render suggests that the phone is coming to AT&T.
- It might launch on August 9.
Samsung's big phone release for this second half of the year is the soon-to-be-released Galaxy Note 10, but that's not the only handset that the company is working on. Recently, a leaked render of a new Galaxy Active phone made an appearance.
As we can see in the render, the Galaxy Active has a very rugged design. It's likely water and dust-proof to some degree with military-grade drop protection, but specifics on this front are unknown. There is a lock of some kind on the back of the phone, along with a single rear camera and a fingerprint sensor.
Moving to the front of the Galaxy Active, there's a display with pretty large bezels by 2019 standards. There are also three physical buttons for Home, Back, and Multitasking.
Samsung used to be pretty consistent with releasing Active variants of its flagship Galaxy S phones, but the last one that was released was the Galaxy S8 Active from 2017. There were rumors of a Galaxy S9 Active, but that never came to fruition. With that said, the phone shown in this new render looks identical to what was thought to be the S9 Active when it was spotted during MWC 2019 earlier this year.
In regards to possible specs, the rumor mill was previously suggesting a 5.2-inch 2540 x 1440 display, Exynos 9610 processor, and a hefty 4,500 mAh battery back when the S9 Active was being talked about.
Outside of that, however, not much else is known about this mystery Active phone. The AT&T logo in the status bar suggests the phone will at least be sold on the carrier (or be an exclusive), and the date of August 9 on the lock screen hints that the phone could be announced very soon — perhaps at Samsung's Unpacked event next Wednesday alongside the Note 10?
Whatever's going on here, we'll be sure to keep an eye out for any updates and keep you posted.
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Expand the Note 10+ storage with one of these microSD cards
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Shoppers are more wary of making big purchases, local charities see a drop in hard dollar donations and thefts put a dent in their ability to help others.
By Melonie Magruder / Special to The Malibu Times
Malibu may be known as the playground of the rich and famous. But it is not immune to the vagaries of a morose financial market, according to Malibu residents and local business leaders, even when approaching the holiday season. Holiday shoppers are guarding their wallets and merchants and charities are feeling the squeeze.
All types of local businesses have felt the hit from the worsening economy.
Alan Goldschneider, general manager of Malibu Beach Inn and outgoing president of the Malibu Chamber of Commerce, said that business is “down a bit from last year.”
“We had a buzz last year, having just opened,” he said. “This year, I think business travelers are spending fewer nights on the road and retirees are not taking the weekend trips they normally do.”
To combat the downturn, Goldschneider said, “We’re doing a lot of value-added stuff, where our rates stay the same, but we throw in a free meal.”
While he said he expects to be fully booked for New Year’s Eve, Goldschneider said Malibu businesses just have to tighten their belts.
“Malibu has seen tougher times with fires,” he said. “We’ll bounce back. We just need to think outside the box.”
Tighter fiscal constraints have hit local charities as well. Nikita Clark usually posts herself outside Starbucks, seeking donations for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Coalition.
“We only have 77 beds left to house at least 5,000 kids in L.A. County,” Clark said. “Donations are usually OK here in Malibu, but I’m lucky if I raise $200 a day now.”
Jack McShane, incoming president of the Boys and Girls Club of Malibu, said his organization is being doubly hit-by reduced private donations and a rise in parents working more to stay afloat.
“Our membership is up 20 percent over last year,” he said. “We have more kids who are staying longer after school because parents are working later. At the same time, our donations are down considerably at a time when we need to upgrade our facility.”
McShane said the club provides free snacks every day and free meals on Fridays. “It would be nice to have a large grocery store donate snacks,” he said.
Some charities are struggling not only with a gap in traditional contributions. They are losing the donations they’ve already acquired.
Joe DiDonato heads The Orphan Foundation, a nonprofit in Newbury Park that provides grants to families who adopt institutionalized children. Much of their funding comes from donation boxes distributed to local businesses. DiDonato reports that the charity has lost nearly half their donation boxes to opportunistic thieves.
“Our boxes are clearly marked that these funds benefit orphans,” DiDonato said. “People come in and just twist them off the counter. We’ve lost about 100 boxes this year. Hopefully, they are using the money for food.”
Like McShane, DiDonato said the loss of funds comes at a time when they are most needed.
“The people who are adopting children, the people we help, are losing their jobs right now and are more in need than ever,” DiDonato said. “We’ve gone from thinking about bottom lines to thinking about life lines.”
Sgt.. Tui Wright of the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station said the newly formed Burglary Apprehension Team, or BAT, has dealt with an anticipated seasonal rise in burglaries in the local area.
“We have a number of deputies deployed throughout the region, targeting vehicle thefts and burglaries,” Wright said. “So we have seen a marked decrease in this type of crime. And we’re up at least 25 percent from last year in clearance rates of crimes. So we’re catching the bad guys.”
Wright urged vigilance from residents to avoid unpleasant holiday surprises.
“Keep your purchases in your trunk, where they are not visible to thieves who smash windows,” he said. “Watch your neighbor’s house and if you see anything suspicious, like a strange car in the neighborhood, report it to us.”
A visit to the Malibu Country Mart two weeks before Christmas revealed stores less active with gift shoppers than in holiday seasons past. And those who are frequenting Malibu’s commercial hub are much more prudent with their purchases.
Heidi Staun of Topanga was visiting the mart more to enjoy the noontime sunshine with her daughter Soleil than to shop. She said she would contribute to her favorite charities this year, but that her purchasing will be lean.
“The economy is so bad because we Americans are very good at buying stuff we can’t afford,” Staun said. “We need less stuff. I’m hoping this whole thing makes people revisit their priorities.”
Jennifer (who did not want to give her last name) is in telecommunications and said, “This year has been OK for myself and my husband, but we’re holding onto our money in case next year is worse. I’ve cut way back on shopping.”
Michelle Klein was checking out the wares in the Malibu Colony Store and said the only way she controlled her spending this year was to do everything early.
“I set a budget and finished my holiday shopping last month,” she said. “I noticed that advertised sales are much more aggressive this year. I’m getting more discount offers in the mail.”
Tina Nicholls, owner of Malibu Colony Store, said customers come into her shops looking for bargains. “Things have picked up a little this week after a very slow time,” Nicholls said. “It won’t make up for the rest of the year, but it helps. I’m lucky and have a very loyal customer base here. They don’t ask for it, but I offer them discounts because I see that people aren’t buying the big-ticket items. They’re not buying gifts for their employees.”
The manager of Juicy Couture, who did not want to be named, said flatly, “Traffic is down everywhere. All the stores are offering promotions now.”
A barista who has worked at Starbucks for three years said he noticed a “huge drop” in tourist traffic this year. “I’m sure it has affected all the vendors here,” he said. “It’s been really slow the last few months. Only locals.”
However, not all is so bleak. Some charities are still seeing the silver lining of locals’ giving. The Children’s Lifesaving Foundation, which helps low-income and at risk youth, reports it managed to throw two local holiday parties for low-income youth with the help of Malibu residents and businesses who donated time, food and other items, and local schools that held toy drives.
“We were a little worried this year,” CLF founder Maria D’Angelo said. “But, everyone came through, as usual! It was miraculous!”


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Cadbury Australia has launched its newest character, Caramilk Wallaby, representing the nation’s love and involvement in sport.
The Caramilk Wallaby features on Cadbury’s new Caramilk share pack, which features 12 individually wrapped 12g pieces of Caramilk chocolate, and is exclusively available in Australia.
Paul Chatfield, Vice President Marketing ANZ at Mondelez International, said they are excited to be introducing a new Cadbury character to Australians.
“We know the Wallaby is such an intrinsic Australian character, with deeply ingrained roots in sport, and nothing reflects Aussie’s love for sport more than our prized Wallabies and Wallaroos rugby teams. No matter whether a sporting or Caramilk fan, this new character is for all Australians to enjoy and celebrate.”
As a proud sponsor of the Australian National Rugby Union Teams, the Wallabies and Wallaroos, Cadbury has marked the announcement and its link to rugby and sport through a creative content piece starring Wallabies player, Mark Nawaqanitawase. The wider team are also on board to support the announcement and new character release.
The Caramilk Wallaby share pack is available now at leading retailers.


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Here are the details for the first day of UKIP’s Spring Conference
UKIP’s Spring Conference starts in Bolton today, and judging by what they’ve got lined up for the first day it looks like attendees are in for a real treat…
Someone has turned their dead family dog into a rug and is selling it because the "new dog keeps trying to hump it"
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SSI SCHAEFER a leader in reusable packaging systems, announced today the appointment of Andy Schumacher as Vice President of Packaging Systems.
Andy has been in the industry for almost 20 years and has a deep understanding of reusable packaging. Andy’s market expertise and industry connections, sales acumen, and ability to build key relationships fit perfectly with the vision of SSI SCHAEFER.
Effective immediately, Andy will take over the day-to-day responsibilities for the packaging group.
“While we look forward to Andy’s leadership, the packaging team would like to thank Dave McCulloch for his years of dedication and service and we wish him success in his future endeavors,” stated Arnold Heuzen, President of Schaefer Systems International, Inc.


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An unconventional publishing could shortly start cropping up across vogue occupation boards: “Wanted: Metaverse style and design specialist no working experience vital.”
Style brands piling into the digital style craze are exploring that acquiring the persons necessary to run in the metaverse can be just as sophisticated as the technology by itself. Gurus in Web3, non-fungible tokens and other rising categories have a great deal of alternatives: position postings mentioning “metaverse” skyrocketed by 1,042 percent involving November 2020 and November 2021, according to Indeed. Posts applying the key phrase “crypto” are up 300 per cent about the exact same period. Organizations recognized extra for their runway looks than their tech chops could not be the to start with option for major expertise.
Makes are greater off actively playing the extended activity when it comes to expertise acquisition and education, authorities say. That can necessarily mean education current staff members in new skills, and broadening the kinds of people they seek the services of for tech and engineering roles in the first spot. In some situations, that may well mean hiring modern faculty graduates or early occupation pros from adjacent industries who have completed months-extended coding courses.
“What we’ve witnessed with a bunch of companies who need to fill positions [for the metaverse], is that they’ve had to have tremendous overall flexibility in the qualifications of those persons,” stated Abby Hunter-Syed, a partner at LDV Money, an early-phase venture fund that invests in visible know-how businesses.
Imagining Outside the house the Box
3 several years in the past, when Tommy Hilfiger established out to have 100 % of its clothing manufactured via 3D style by 2022, the firm realized this would call for an overhaul of its organisational processes and its individuals.
So it established an inner incubator, called Stitch, that operated like a “corporate start off-up” built up of two groups: software program engineers who would create proprietary 3D design technological innovation and “creatives” who could coach and “transform” the company’s present layout groups, stated Martijn Hagman, main govt of Tommy Hilfiger Worldwide and PVH Europe.
Whilst the model is even now a methods off from its ambitious concentrate on of utilizing 3D layout throughout its total apparel array — it’s around 55 percent of the way there, Hagman claimed — the incubator by itself was the essential tool in supporting it appeal to the calibre of tech talent needed to get this sort of a job off the ground.
“You want to offer people tech-minded people an ecosystem where by they can actually excel in their main competency and establish a little something that is new, distinctive and inspiring to them,” mentioned Hagman. “To entice this talent, the Tommy Hilfiger and PVH names by itself are not more than enough.”
The brand will use this very same system with a new incubator, Metaverse Studio, which will help the firm “experiment and take a look at and learn” how to turn out to be a formidable player in the virtual reality area, he mentioned.
Like numerous vogue manufacturers, Tommy Hilfiger is also relying on third get-togethers to realise its virtual ambitions, Hagman reported. In addition to collaborations with Roblox and Animal Crossing, the model has given that 2019 worked with Obsess, an e-commerce system that builds digital shops.
But if the metaverse is to live up to its hoopla and style companies are to definitely income off of it extended-time period, they will require to map out a talent system that permits them to develop their personal bench energy. The setting up area for most businesses is finding an preliminary pool of 3D designers and engineers who are qualified at doing work with or developing technological know-how.
“I think the greatest problem to retain the services of for nowadays is a senior 3D engineer simply because everybody requires them,” reported Hunter-Syed.
Not each individual business will have to have to form an incubator like Tommy Hilfiger but to attract professional engineers, they’ll require to give salaries that contend with tech giants like Google and Meta, instead than their manner peers.
“The very first phase we experienced to choose was to explain to individuals that we can fork out more and that we are generating one thing seriously fascinating,” said George Yashin, chief government at Russia-based Zero10, an app and trend-tech get started-up that will allow buyers to purchase and have on electronic clothes. “[In response] we obtained fellas from some of the greatest companies in Russia.”
Yet another solution is to hire new structure and engineering university graduates. A absence of encounter is not automatically a challenge, said Neha Singh, founder and CEO of Obsess, which has also worked with Coach, Dermalogica, and Farfetch to generate their on the web retailers employing augmented truth that mimics in-man or woman buying.
In 3D design and style, most professionals have backgrounds in architectural visualization — where by they work with serious estate developers and architects to create 3D renderings of properties — or video video game development, Singh claimed.
“What we in fact want is a blend of these [expertises] as effectively as a handful of other techniques – and this is challenging to find,” she said. “So, in a way, much less expertise is fantastic due to the fact these [people] are ready to find out … they can look at points that are being carried out in the metaverse and construct their ability established in the direction of it.”
A “passion for fashion” really should be at the leading of the record of qualifications, claimed Hunter-Syed.
“What you are really hunting for is people who are artists who now have to turn out to be 3D,” she claimed.


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KB Kookmin Bank, Lotte Card and NongHyup Card will not be able to issue credit cards for the next three months
Data stolen in January included names, emails, physical addresses, social security numbers, credit card numbers and phone numbers but no passwords or Card Verification Value (CVV) numbers were compromised. According to the BBC, the three firms – KB Kookmin Bank, Lotte Card and NongHyup Card – were also hit with a fine of six million won (£3,371) each.
“The three companies neglected their legal duties of preventing any leakage of customer information, and [to comply with] internal controls,” said the South Korean Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) in a statement.
The FSC declared that the banks were guilty of neglect, and said they will be unable to issue new cards for the next three months. With the fine almost negligible, it is the temporary suspension that’s set to punish the banks: the South Korean credit market is highly competitive, and not being able to sign up new customers for a whole quarter could ruin a less capable business.
Data breach Punishment
As many as 104 million cards were compromised in the January breach – the largest in South Korean history. It was allegedly perpetrated by a contractor working for the Korea Credit Bureau, a credit ratings agency similar to Experian and Equifax in the UK.
It is thought that the contractor saved the data on a USB stick for more than a year, before attempting to sell it to marketing companies though two accomplices. All three have now been arrested.
An average South Korean owns four credit cards, and the incident resulted in thousands of customers besieging the offices of the credit card issuers. Many of those affected have cancelled cards or applied for new ones.
The incident prompted a public apology from the banks, and the resignation of several executives. Many customers are now considering joining class action lawsuits against the organisations involved in the breach.
Even though the data cannot give a third party access to the customers’ funds, it can make them the target of fraudulent marketing emails and calls.
In December, US retailer Target was breached, exposing credit card details of as many as 110 million people.
How well do you know network security? Try our quiz and find out!


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Since the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act became law in 2008, the dangers of heavy metals contained in promotional products, particularly ones targeted at children, have become well known.
Even with this increased awareness, New York’s Rockland County is taking the additional step of enacting a brand new “Toxic Toy” law, which essentially bans all toys that contain any of these seven chemicals—benzene, lead, mercury, antimony, arsenic, cadmium, and cobalt—in any amount “greater than zero.” According to county executive Ed Day, “This is serious. Beyond the disappointment children have when perfectly safe “Happy Meal” toys are now banned by an absurd law, we now have significant economic issues, such as toy stores who are mulling over pulling other toys, clothes and even child car safety seats off [the] shelves too!”
The Safe to Play Coalition, which represents the Toy Industry Association (TIA), fought against, and successfully turned back, a similar law passed in Albany. According to coalition attorney Rick Locker, “there is no way to test these chemicals down to zero.” And TIA officials add, “Nothing is more important to toymakers than preserving the safety of children at play. Unfortunately, Rockland County’s so-called ‘Toxic Free Toys Act’ is inefficient, unnecessary, illegal, and does nothing to strengthen toy safety.” What do you think? Too much or justifiable action on the part of Rockland County?
Along similar lines, frequent complaints against Alibaba involving the sale of counterfeit goods popped up ahead of an expose´ published in a recent issue of Forbes magazine that asserted that Alibaba’s huge counterfeit issues will never be eliminated. According to the Forbes article, “The scale of the fakery is enormous–at any given time Taobao (Alibaba’s online bazaar) offers millions of suspect goods for sale, from handbags to auto parts, sportswear to jewelry. When Forbes searched for listings on Taobao with the word ‘Gucci’ and set the preferred price range under 300 yuan, (less than $50), well below the price of real Gucci products, 30,000 results popped up.”
While the products may not be real, the problem certainly is. Would you agree?
If you’d like to read more on these topics, please check out my column at Promo Corner Blog.