text:
Coca Cola created its the first NFT on OpenSea. The auction starts on the same day as International Friendship Day, July 30.
According to reports, the American multinational beverage giant appears to have entered the crypto sector dedicated to collector tokens, aka the NFT, to auction off its first collectibles. The auction will take place for exactly four days, starting on July 30 at 12:01 UTC and ending on August 2 at 20:00 UTC. Proceeds will be donated to Special Olympics International, a Coca Cola partner for more than 50 years.
In this context, President Selman Careaga of Global Coca Cola Trademark said:
“Coca-Cola is one of the most collectible brands in the world and shares its rich heritage with consumers through simple moments of joy for decades. We are excited to share our first NFT on the metaverse, where new friendships are formed in new ways in new worlds, to celebrate International Friendship Day and to support our longtime friend and partner Special Olympics. Each NFT was created to celebrate the elements that are at the heart of the Coca-Cola brand, reinterpreted to the virtual world in new and exciting ways. ”
The new NFT Coca Cola are specifically inspired by common moments of friendship and were created in collaboration with developer Tafi, a leading creator of its own 3D content for avatar and emoji systems.
Coca Cola’s NFT Friendship Box auction signing
Auction participants can apply for the Coca Cola Friendship Box NFT, a reinterpreted version of the Coca Cola collector’s item, and once opened, three more NFTs or unique digital merchandise will be available:
- Personalized bubble jacket Coca Cola Wearable.
- Friendship card
- A surprise to be revealed to the winners
This is a futuristic jacket with bubble lighting, specially designed with a gentle nod to nostalgic Coca Cola delivery uniforms. It can be unlocked in another version and worn on Decentraland.
The Friendly Card is a design of the famous Coca Cola business cards inspired by the friendship of the 1940s.
NFT auction dedicated to charitable operations
Coca Cola’s mission is entirely charitable and wants to donate the proceeds to a great friend: Special Olympics International.
Something similar was also suggested directly by His Holiness Pope Francis, NFT that were auctioned on AkoinNFT. Proceeds from the auction were donated to the Pope’s charity, the Scholas Occurrentes Foundation.
Meanwhile, another auction was set up this week NFT, the proceeds of which will be donated to ONLUS “Effetto Palla” from Oristana for animals in the Sardinian region affected by last week’s fires. The authors of the charity auction are specifically the cultural association The AB Factory, together with Antonio Marras and HACKATAO.


text:
As Target Canada tumbled into bankruptcy, Loblaw announced that its fourth-quarter profits more than doubled. What can be learned from this tale of two retailers?
The main reason for Loblaw’s surge was its acquisition of Shoppers Drug Mart last March, which turned it into Canada’s largest grocer and pharmacy chain. Shoppers contributed $3 billion to Loblaw’s $11.4 billion take in sales, a 50% jump. Profits more than doubled from the previous year as Loblaw also saw cost savings from the merger. The irony behind this success story is that it was likely Target’s arrival on the retail (Read more…)
I start my day with coffee and writing a post about good news. Today those two things merged rather well: it turns out drinking coffee regularly can lower the chances that one’s DNA will get messed up.
DNA is always doing bizarre things and if those things get too bizarre then it can cause some very bad mutations. For some reason coffee keeps your DNA doing the right thing.
As one commentator on Reddit said:
Their findings indicate that those who drank 750 ml (~3 cups) of coffee per day experienced 27% fewer strand breaks in white blood cells than (Read more…)
I saw the last Hobbit [8/10] movie on Friday, with Jeri. We had food at Montana’s just before. I had the veggie feta burger and it was very good, it tasted just like a meat burger. My distant cousin ended up being seated at the table next to us.
The most exciting part of the movie was in the first ten minutes, but it was overall enjoyable. It was plain that if you hadn’t seen earlier installations of this series, you’d feel a bit left-out. The part of the plot depending upon the Dwarf king’s promise was a bit weakened (Read more…)
There are tons of benefits from having a vegetarian diet from improved individual health to having less of an impact on the environment. Now there’s one more reason to have a vegetarian diet, or at least something close to one, it’ll help you live longer.
Scientists have long believed that an ultra low calorie diet – aproximately 60 per cent of normal levels – can lead to greater longevity.
But now a team of British researchers have discovered that the key to the effect is a reduction in a specific protein and not the total number of calories.
That means (Read more…)
One of the leading causes of deforestation right now is food production. As population levels grow we need more land to feed more people and this as resulted in the cutting down of forests for arable land.
We’ve already seen that a simple diet change can protect forests and save wildlife, and that one can slow deforestation by being vegetarian. But we know that people are often hesitant to make simple changes that can have large impacts, so what do we do?
Lucky for all of us, we don’t need to modify our behaviour as individuals. We do need (Read more…)
Read this Nov. 19 opinion column from the health blog Natural Society on socially-conscious rocker Neil Young’s decision to publicly boycott Starbucks over its support of GMO products.
I used to line up and get my latte everyday, but yesterday was my last one. ~ Neil Young
I, like Neil, have lined up at a Starbucks counter, waiting patiently behind ten people to get my caffeine fix. But there’s something that changed this habit. The coffee shop on every corner (there are almost 12,000 stores in the US) is helping to keep you in the dark about GMOs in your food and (Read more…)
Conservative Minister Leona A. is a disgrace. That means she’s a fine representative of the Conservative Party of Canada.
You may remember other Lying Leona blunders from such stories as Canada phasing out coal, and the Canadian government isn’t muzzling scientists.
This is awesome. The 3 competing projects are all so great, it’s honestly hard to choose. I was just talking about being able to invest in solar power though, so I may go with the SES option. $1000 gets a future co-op membership too!
It reads like a script for a scary movie: an alien parasite invading our brains, taking control of our minds, changing our behaviour silently, secretly; making us do what it wants. And it’s happening now, in homes across Canada and the USA. Alien puppet masters over-running the nation, one household at a time. But it’s […]
Industrial agriculture is not kind to the environment and has been attributed to deforestation of the rainforest to the massive bee die-off. Yet, we find ourselves attached to this 20th century model of centralized production. Lucky for civilization, this is changing!
Small scale urban agriculture is getting large enough as an industry to compete with the large scale industrial production.
Urban agriculture in large cities goes a long way in redefining the food industry, he said. Piloted by Alvarez and fellow Humber College Graduate Craig Petten, Aqua Greens is trying to do just that with an innovative yearlong growing cycle. (Read more…)
California’s Central Valley is facing record drought conditions
As British Columbians share a meal this weekend, giving thanks for the food with which we are so blessed, year-round, let us pause for a moment to consider where so much of it comes from: California.
Let us also say a prayer for the last truly productive tracts of local farmland we have left, now threatened by industrial development – first and foremost being the Peace River Valley, in northeast BC, where the proposed Site C Dam could wash away enough good agricultural terrain to feed a million people.
BC depends on (Read more…)
I was incited to blog about the “perfect” cuppa by an article in The Guardian titled, “How to make tea correctly (according to science): milk first.” As a user of many tea bags – a single bag per cup – I must protest. You cannot possibly get a decent cup of tea that way. The […]
For some time before I got this book, I’ve been aware that there is more to olive oil than meets the eye. Or tongue. How much more really was startling. When I started reading Tom Mueller’s 2012 book, Extra Virginity: the Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil, I was simply amazed at how little I […]
At a recent press conference in Vancouver, renowned agrologist Wendy Holm and lifelong Peace Valley farmer Renee Ardill spoke to the vast, quality farmland that the proposed Site C Dam would flood or disrupt.
“These soils are completely unique,” explained Holm, a past president of the BC Institute of Agrologists.
They are in an east-west running valley with a Class 1 climate. They are alluvial soils. These were undervalued by the BC Hydro process.
In fact, Hydro counted just 13% of the land that would be lost to future agriculture in its environmental report on the dam, Holm charged. She testified (Read more…)
You’ve got to hear about Rob. He’s an interesting guy, doing what I did last Summer except on a much larger and more successful scale.
Check out this short video from The Peace Valley Environment association and The Common Sense Canadian’s Damien Gillis on the extraordinary agricultural land that would be flooded by the proposed Site C Dam.
The Peace River Valley, in northeast BC, provides much of the province’s energy needs from two large dams and tens of thousands of gas wells. It is also home to some of the country’s best agricultural land, now it is threatened by the proposed Site C Dam, which would flood or disrupt 30,000 acres of rich farmland – enough, say expert agrologists, to feed a million people.
With (Read more…)
Damien Gillis and Kootenay Co-op Radio’s Suzy Hamilton discuss Canada’s plan to build a massive new hydroelectric project on the Peace River, while America is busy decommissioning dams.
The Peace is home to some of Canada’s best farmland, 30,000 acres of which would be impacted by the dam – enough to feed a million people. Meanwhile, Site C will likely cost taxpayers well over $10 Billion and continue driving up power bills.
Based on BC’s electrical self-sufficiency and the different stories the public has been told about the need for the project – from powering proposed liquefied natural gas projects and exporting excess (Read more…)
Nicola Tee wrote:
Hey! Just wondering why you have the archaic & sexist rule that your waitresses have to wear a minimum 1″ heel while they’re on their feet all night? The men don’t have the same rule. That’s terrible, and I actually won’t be back because of it. Please pass that on to head office, thanks.
Brown’s wrote: “the policy that our girls need to be in a 1″ heel is a brand standard…”
I won’t be opting to return to Browns because of this. I’m also going to be telling my friends to avoid Browns, and will (Read more…)
The gluten-free fad took another major hit to its already weakened credibility this week when researchers who had first diagnosed “non-celiac gluten sensitivity” found out that, oops, they were wrong. It doesn’t exist. A story in Business Insider tells the tale. In one of the best examples of science working, a researcher who provided key […]
What’s a marine biologist doing talking about world hunger? Well, says Jackie Savitz, fixing the world’s oceans might just help to feed the planet’s billion hungriest people. In an eye-opening talk, Savitz tells us what’s really going on in our global fisheries right now — it’s not good — and offers smart suggestions of how we can help them heal, while making more food for all.
The Peace River Valley is one of Canada’s most fertile regions (Damien Gillis)
Keeping the Peace Valley’s farmland and ecosystems intact would be worth $7.9 billion to $8.6 billion a year, says a new study from the David Suzuki Foundation.
The region, in northeast BC, is under threat from the proposed Site C Dam – which would flood or disturb over 30,000 acres of prime agricultural land – along with natural gas fracking operations, logging, mining and other forms of industrialization. The study is a follow-up to an earlier report which analyzed the area via satellite imagery, determining that some 67% (Read more…)
Want to lower your impact on the environment by reducing the amount of greenhouse gasses emitted to bring you food? Yes, you can ride your bike (or walk, or take the bus) to the grocery store instead of driving, but there’s an even simpler solution: adopt a vegetarian diet.
Researchers in the UK have concluded that the production of meat and animal-based foods produce a ton of waste.
The production of animal-based foods is associated with higher greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than plant-based foods. The objective of this study was to estimate the difference in dietary GHG emissions between self-selected (Read more…)
Just because it’s not good looking doesn’t mean it tastes bad. Growers take their odd-looking fruit and usually sell it to juice, soup, or canneries instead of grocery store. One grocery store chain in France decided to take the produce usually rejected by consumers and make something fun out of it. This marketing synopsis covers what they did:
Intermarché launched the Inglorious Fruits&Vegetables, a film, print, poster and radio campaign, celebrating the beauty of the Grotesque Apple, the Ridiculous Potato, the Hideous Orange, the Failed Lemon, the Disfigured Eggplant, the Ugly Carrot, and the Unfortunate Clementine. Now you can eat (Read more…)
As humans flock to cities and the surround them with suburban sprawl we have covered some of the most arable lands in concrete. This has caused problems of food security, access, and sustainability. Urban farming is nothing new and will continue to spread, but what about industrial-scale farming in cities?
A farmer in Japan has taken an old warehouse and modified it into an enamours and efficient farming operation using specialized low-powered LEDs.
The farm is nearly half the size of a football field (25,000 square feet). It opened on July and it is already producing 10,000 heads of lettuce (Read more…)

domain: news


text:
Canadians would have to sift through a stack of different reports if they wanted to piece together how their tax dollars were spent on big auto bailouts, says a new report by the federal auditor general.
TORONTO -- The Toronto stock market advanced Tuesday amid stronger than expected showings for Canadian retail sales and U.S. economic growth.
The global economy will gradually improve over the next two years but Japan will grow less than previously expected while the euro zone struggles with stagnation and an increased deflation risk, the OECD said on Tuesday.
Canadian stocks rose, after falling the most in three weeks, as retail sales advanced for the first time in three months and economic growth in the U.S.
OTTAWA The federal Competition Bureau says a subsidiary of Just Energy Group Inc. has agreed to pay $7 million in penalties, restitution and other costs related to complaints over its door-to-door water heater marketing practices in Ontario and Quebec.


text:
In a recent interview with CGTN, Xie Dong, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at IBM Greater China Group, shared his insights on the financial sustainability of ChatGPT-like large language models (LLMs). Xie emphasized that while these models have ignited interest and excitement in the AI community, their implementation comes at an extraordinary cost that might be beyond the reach of many enterprises.
The cost conundrum and its barrier to implementation
Xie pointed out that the deployment of ChatGPT and similar language models could lead to exorbitant expenses for companies. He drew attention to a report by Analytics India Magazine, which indicated that OpenAI, the developer behind ChatGPT, might face financial challenges and even bankruptcy due to the staggering operational costs of around $700,000 per day to maintain the model. This revelation underscores the substantial financial burden associated with operating such advanced AI systems.
The driving force behind these high costs is the resource-intensive nature of training large language models, which demands a significant number of graphics processing units (GPUs). Xie explained that even after the GPUs are set in motion, substantial financial resources are continuously “burnt,” regardless of user engagement. This cost escalates significantly when measured by the number of tokens processed, making the expenditure for each usage surpass even the most imaginative estimates.
Revolutionary potential amid financial hurdles
Despite the financial challenges, Xie acknowledged the revolutionary impact of ChatGPT and similar technologies. He positioned these models as a tipping point in the realm of artificial intelligence, signaling the advent of generative AI. However, he also cautioned that this could be just the beginning, with generative AI poised for further growth and innovation.
IBM’s strategic direction in AI
Xie’s insights shed light on IBM’s strategic approach to AI. While IBM has a history of AI milestones, such as Deep Blue’s victory over Garry Kasparov and Watson’s triumph on Jeopardy, the company has been exploring diverse avenues for AI development. Xie highlighted that, instead of focusing solely on creating ChatGPT-like models, IBM’s researchers have been delving into foundation models. These models are trained on vast sets of unlabeled data, enabling them to cater to various tasks and domains.
Building on foundation models, IBM aims to craft specialized and sophisticated models tailored to specific enterprise use cases. Xie emphasized that this approach allows IBM to provide more value to its clients, enabling them to address domain-specific challenges effectively.
Generative AI’s promising future and regulatory landscape
IBM’s new platform, powered by foundation models, also introduces generative AI capabilities. The company anticipates that the generative AI market will burgeon, projecting a value of $8 billion by 2030. Xie cited an impressive figure of over 85 million job vacancies in this burgeoning sector.
However, concerns over AI regulation have surfaced globally. To address these concerns, Xie highlighted the importance of compliance with data protection regulations and safeguarding privacy. He stressed the significance of reliability in both the data used to train AI models and the models themselves. Xie’s viewpoint aligns with the broader sentiment that ethical and regulatory considerations are pivotal for responsible AI development.
Xie Dong’s perspectives offer a comprehensive overview of the challenges posed by the financial demands of ChatGPT-like large language models. Despite these challenges, Xie remains optimistic about the transformative potential of generative AI and IBM’s strategic focus on building specialized models that cater to diverse enterprise needs while prioritizing regulatory compliance and privacy protection.


text:
Adjusting to a higher US savings rate
29 June 2009 - The outlook for the US economy is improving. An examination of the economic data reveals that green shoots outnumber yellow weeds - - but not by a huge margin. The shape of the recovery remains uncertain though it would be reasonable to exclude a traditional v-shaped rebound.
Past cycles have conformed to the aforementioned shape. However, the current downturn has been anything but normal. We have experienced the combination of a severe housing crash and a banking bust, leaving behind many elements of weakness in the system that will take time to resolve.
Inevitably, after the excesses of the previous boom and some badly-burned fingers in the ensuing recession, one would expect a degree of caution in the behaviour of banks, households and firms. It may be a while before animal spirits have revived.
The financial state of the banking system is not nearly as robust as the authorities have made out. There has been a concerted attempt to make them look healthier than they are by changing the rules and hoping that market conditions will recover rapidly enough to allow a genuine improvement in their finances.
In the meantime, banks are likely to be careful about extending credit and adding to their loan losses. Even when the economy gets more traction, banks will continue to be more stringent about making loans to households and small businesses than they were in the previous boom period. So households will no longer have access to easy borrowing or be able to tap into home equity to shore up their spending, recalling that these were two important sources of spending power in the past.
Both house prices and the stock market have declined dramatically from their peak, wiping out a big chunk of household net worth. Rationally, they need to increase their savings rate in order to rebuild their assets, which will of course mean that consumption growth has to be curbed.
There is some evidence, based on surveys done by consumer-related companies, of a more frugal mindset developing among American consumers. In the past, they have been famous spenders with some of the lowest savings rate among developed economies. So, switching to the new orientation will be hard as it represents a new experience but, at the same time, they have to take account of the realities.
The latest economic report shows that personal income grew at a substantial 1.4% pace in May. But this was largely due to government transfer payments via the stimulus programme. The job market remains weak, which means that salary growth will continue to be under pressure. Meanwhile, the savings rate rose to 6.9% and is expected to remain high. This has raised concerns that economic growth will be seriously held back by households’ propensity to save at a higher rate.
It should be noted that repairing household balance sheets is a healthy process and is beneficial for the economy in ensuring stable long-term growth. And the adjustment to a higher savings rate is unlikely to cause the economy to fall back into recession if it occurs gradually rather than abruptly.
Nor does it follow that the US is condemned to have an exceptionally low growth rate for years to come because of households’ reduced propensity to consume. It is quite possible for other components of aggregate demand to grow at a more rapid pace, compensating for slower consumption growth.
For now, government spending is the main driver, but it will have to be scaled back in the future as the debt load rises dramatically. Of the two other main components of demand, namely business investment spending and exports, the latter can have a more significant role in both boosting growth in the US and reducing global imbalances.
Rising US exports would, of course, go hand in hand with higher imports by the rest of the world. And this requires an open trading system and policies by foreign governments that are conducive to higher consumer and business spending.
For example, China has a significant trade imbalance with America. Higher Chinese imports along with business spending and consumption growth would help to reduce the gap. One problem, however, is that even though domestic demand growth in China may rise rapidly and policymakers may place few overt restrictions on imports from the US, Chinese appetite for the mix of products available from the US could be limited. Many of the technology-related products that the Chinese would like to buy are restricted by the Americans for “security” reasons.
But in a multilateral trading system, this bilateral problem could be alleviated to some extent by the US increasing its exports to other countries from which China can then raise its imports. In any case, if the slowdown in American consumption growth is not offset by higher spending elsewhere overall growth could be lower in both the United States and at a global level.


text:
New Street Research lowered shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) from a neutral rating to a sell rating in a research report sent to investors on Monday, The Fly reports.
Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports on AAPL. Atlantic Securities reaffirmed a neutral rating and issued a $205.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, August 1st. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Apple from $184.00 to $199.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a report on Wednesday, August 1st. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on Apple from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, August 1st. Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a neutral rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, August 1st. Finally, BidaskClub raised Apple from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, August 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating, thirty-two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock presently has a consensus rating of Buy and an average price target of $219.51.
AAPL opened at $215.46 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $1,020.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.39, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.31 and a quick ratio of 1.24. Apple has a 1-year low of $149.16 and a 1-year high of $219.18.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $2.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $2.18 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $53.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $52.43 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 43.50% and a net margin of 21.98%. The firm’s revenue was up 17.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.67 earnings per share. analysts predict that Apple will post 11.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Apple declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, May 1st that authorizes the company to buyback $100.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the iPhone maker to purchase up to 11.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 13th were issued a dividend of $0.73 per share. This represents a $2.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.70%.
In other news, insider Johny Srouji sold 14,976 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.74, for a total transaction of $2,811,594.24. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 73,302 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,761,717.48. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Craig Federighi sold 47,796 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.50, for a total transaction of $9,917,670.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 412,571 shares in the company, valued at $85,608,482.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 141,066 shares of company stock worth $28,208,138. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cortland Associates Inc. MO boosted its holdings in Apple by 28.6% in the fourth quarter. Cortland Associates Inc. MO now owns 4,250 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $719,000 after purchasing an additional 945 shares in the last quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Apple by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. now owns 374,732 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $63,416,000 after purchasing an additional 5,941 shares in the last quarter. Vantage Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Vantage Investment Advisors LLC now owns 88,499 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $14,977,000 after purchasing an additional 1,777 shares in the last quarter. JLB & Associates Inc. boosted its holdings in Apple by 10.8% in the fourth quarter. JLB & Associates Inc. now owns 92,614 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $15,673,000 after purchasing an additional 8,995 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Canal Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 13.9% in the fourth quarter. Canal Capital Management LLC now owns 25,792 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,365,000 after purchasing an additional 3,147 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.11% of the company’s stock.
Apple Company Profile
Apple Inc designs, manufactures, and markets mobile communication and media devices, and personal computers to consumers, and small and mid-sized businesses; and education, enterprise, and government customers worldwide. The company also sells related software, services, accessories, networking solutions, and third-party digital content and applications.
Read More: Investing in Dividend Stocks
Receive News & Ratings for Apple Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Apple and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.


text:
The company is expected to launch at least two variants - OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro - as the official website has two forums that confirm the names.
Even Ice Universe on Twitter has decided to make its own contribution, announcing that the smartphone will count on the Super AMOLED display from Samsung with 2K resolution and 90 Hz refresh rate (similar to that of the iPad Pro).
Moreover, the OnePlus 7 Pro is said to come with a pop-up selfie camera mechanism. Apart from that, there have been numerous leaks and rumors regarding the OnePlus 7 and the OnePlus 7 Pro giving us a pretty good idea what these devices will have to offer.
In a recent interview, Pete Lau had shared some vital information on the OnePlus 7 Pro smartphone.
The brand is expected to introduce a 5G variant of the Pro as well and now, it is dubbed the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G. OnePlus 7, on the other hand is expected to feature the same design as its predecessor. The setup could include a massive 48-megapixel primary sensor, an 8-megapixel with an f/2.4 telephoto sensor (3x zoom), and a 16-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide sensor. Emphasizing more on the display, OnePlus CEO confirmed via Twitter that "Indeed, our new product will utilize all-new display technology".
Given that OnePlus has launched its devices for less than what they cost in Europe - the 6T debuted at $549 in the U.S. and €549 in Europe - it's reasonable to assume that the 8GB/256GB OnePlus 7 Pro will retail for $749 in the U.S. The base 6GB/128GB could launch at $699, with the 12GB/256GB edition coming in at $819. OnePlus promises a day's charge in just 20 minutes with Warp Charging. May 14, 2019 will see the company unveil its latest flagship and this time, more than one smartphone is expected to be revealed.
The OnePlus 7 series will make its debut in less than three weeks" time, and right on schedule the "out of stock' sticker has begun appearing alongside certain OnePlus 6T variants in the USA and across the globe. Both the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro will come in two storage options - 128GB and 256GB.


text:
Honda said it has reached out to the owners more than 18 million times with mailed notices, emails, phone calls and even home visits. The company says repairs are free and parts are available.
The CDC previously sent a health alert, saying the outbreak included at least 55 people in 12 states. One died and at least five others had permanent vision loss.
Conagra Brands issued the recall after discovering a packaging issue that may have spoiled certain canned meat and poultry products that shipped nationwide, officials said.
The expanded recall includes four batches of Banana Boat Hair & Scalp Sunscreen Spray SPF 30 products after samples contained the cancer-causing chemical benzene.
The products 'may be adulterated with' Listeria monocytogenes bacteria.
U.S. consumer safety officials said the children’s lounge pants failed to meet federal flammability standards, which could pose a burn risk who kids who wear them.
Roughly 30,000 ZLINE gas ranges sold at stores like Best Buy, Lowe’s, and The Home Depot have now been recalled after dozens of reports of carbon monoxide emission, the CPSC said.
Ford says the backup camera can fail, preventing the rear camera image from being displayed.
No action is required by consumers who do not have a peanut allergy or intolerance.
The recall is for some 2023 year model cars, including the C40, XC40, and S60 models.
The helmets can fail to prevent injury in the event of a crash, according to CPSC.
The recalled pajamas from Selfie Craft Company came in a variety of 26 designs and were sold widely online and in boutiques.
The 86-inch TVs can become unstable when they’re on the stand, “posing serious tip-over and entrapment hazards," the CPSC says.
A recall for the product was first issued in April 2019. At the time, 30 deaths were connected to the product.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says in documents posted Thursday that water can accumulate in the spare tire wheel well and damage the fuel pump control unit.
The glue on the inflatable paddleboards can separate at the seams and the boards can deflate unexpectedly, "posing a drowning hazard," officials said.
About 28,000 ZLINE gas ranges are being recalled because the oven can release “dangerous levels” of carbon monoxide while in use, which can cause illness or death, officials said.
The highway safety administration issued hundreds of recalls this year, some even warning owners not to drive their vehicles. Here's how to see if yours is on the list.
The potential presence of a nitrosamine impurity has prompted Lupin Pharmaceuticals to issue a recall of some blood pressure medication, per an announcement.
Quinapril is used to treat hypertension and lower blood pressure.


text:
A Linden man fired by Wal-Mart in Hartland Township for aiding an assault victim in the store parking lot says he rejected the store's offer to return to his job.
Kristopher Oswald said Thursday that Arkansas-based Wal-Mart has been "unwilling to compromise" in negotiating a return to his job, which he lost Oct. 13 when he assisted a woman who screamed for help in the store parking lot.
"The entire situation has left me with incredible anxiety," the 30-year-old Oswald said. "Wal-Mart feels it's absolutely not their responsibility to help an associate harmed while on the clock. I have refused ...


text:
The Brooklyn Cyclones are inviting young fans to participate in a unique art contest, with the winning baseball design to be produced into a 2011 giveaway item at a game in late August!
Students between the ages of 5-16 have the opportunity to submit a baseball design themed around Brooklyn or the Cyclones- for consideration. A Cyclones panel will determine five finalists, whose designs will be posted on the team’s official website, brooklyncyclones.com. Fans will then vote online for their favorite design. The top five artists will be invited out to the Cyclones game on Wednesday, June 22, for a special pre game ceremony and meet and greet opportunity with the team.
“After the great success our YOUniform contest had in 2010, we wanted to give the young fans another opportunity to showcase their work with the Brooklyn Cyclones,” said Cyclones General Manager Steve Cohen,
The winner will receive a Cyclones prize pack: 24 of your design baseballs to share with your family and friends, and will throw out a ceremonial first pitch on the day their ball is given away (date TBD). All entries will be showcased in an “art show” at the ballpark’s Brooklyn Baseball Gallery at the Finalist Date on June 22, 2011.
ALL ARTWORK MUST BE SUBMITTED BY FRIDAY March 25th
The top five (5) designs will be posted on the website on Monday March, 28th. Voting will conclude on Friday April 1st.
For more information about the Baseball Design Contest, please contact Alexa Atria at 718.449.8497 or via-email at [email protected].


text:
Mike Marlar made his third race with K&L Rumley Racing a winning won Monday night as late model competition kicked off during the DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park
Officials from the USRA have announced a new agreement with Arnold Motor Supply, with the automotive giant becoming the official auto parts store of the USRA and title sponsor of the Iron Man Challenge.
With more than 330 race cars representing eight different classes on the property at The Dirt Track at Charlotte Friday for the OneDirt World Short Track Championship, there was a lot to see
Persistent rains throughout the area have forced Volusia Speedway Park and DIRTcar officials to cancel Tuesday night’s races at the DIRTcar Nationals.
The FASTRAK Racing Series powered by Chevrolet Performance has released its touring schedule.
Casey’s General Store has renewed its support of the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals and the Deery Brothers Summer Series IMCA late model tour.
Tanner English has been named the driver of Stone-Weaver Racing's No. 116 dirt late model for the upcoming racing season.
Yamaha Motor Corp. revealed the R1 Dirt Track Concept Car Wednesday afternoon at Eagle Raceway.
Five drivers and three contributors will make up the newest class of inductees into the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame.
Grit House, a premium lifestyle apparel brand, has been named the title sponsor of the Route 35 Super Late Model Challenge Series between Selinsgrove and Port Royal Speedway competitors.


text:
Now hiring -- HouseValues Inc.
Surging Kirkland company will add 130 jobs this quarter
Published 10:00 pm, Thursday, April 28, 2005
HouseValues Inc., which earlier this week posted record revenue and profits, plans to go on a hiring spree in the next couple of months.
The 6-year-old company yesterday said it will add 130 people in the second quarter, primarily at its Kirkland headquarters.
The new hires will boost employment at the fast-growing company to about 480 -- nearly triple the size of its work force from a year prior.
"We have been seeing extraordinary demand from both home buyers and sellers and real estate professionals, and to keep up with that, we are hiring at all levels throughout the organization," said HouseValues Chief Executive Ian Morris.
- Starbucks holiday cup causes social media buzz over hand holdingFoxM9NJ
- Morning Business Outlook 11/22Fox7
- WOW Air's Black Friday Deal Is $99 Flights — and They're on Sale NowTaLTIME
- Mark Suster Says These Are the Hot Trends For VCsCheddar
- Analyst Notes Challenges for New Tesla TruckAP
- HSA v. FSAFox5Atlanta
- United Way hosting career fair for DPSCD studentsFox2Detroit
- Kellogg’s Will Open a NYC Cereal Café Five Times Bigger Than Its Times Square Pop-UpFAWTime
- Lyft is going internationalWibbitz
- Chinese FinTech CFO on IPO Day: Mobile, Blockchain Will Drive Industry InnovationCheddar
- All the Black Friday deals that matter right nowWibbitz
- Buena Vista winery hopes visitors will return in droves after the wildfiresKTVU2
- David Does It: Coca-cola StoreFox35Orlando
- This Company Wants You to Get Beach-Ready at HomeCheddar
- Newly-Public Aquantia Is Now Coming For Self-Driving CarsCheddar
- Conde Nast shuts down Teen Vogue magazine
- 8 fast and easy ways to make extra money
- Geo Group revenues up for quarterSunSentinel
- Lennar to merge with CalAtlanticSunSentinel
- Why Nexa Resources CEO Tito Martins Says Now Was the Right Time to IPOCheddar
The company plans to add multiple positions in sales, marketing and customer service, Morris said.
HouseValues, which helps real estate agents use the Internet to find new home buyers and sellers, has grown at a rapid clip in recent years.
It moved into a new 65,000- square-foot headquarters in Kirkland in December, which Morris said is filling up quickly.
Revenues also have increased. The company reported an 89 percent jump in the first quarter and this week posted its 16th consecutive quarter of profitability.
The online real estate sector is attracting additional interest from entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, bringing up the possibility of new competition.
Earlier this year, Expedia founder Rich Barton announced plans to start an online residential real estate service.
Morris said the hiring boom is not in a reaction to competitive pressures.
"This is a great space, so we expect over time there will be more competition," Morris said.
"We have just tremendous awareness out there growing in the real estate community, and we are seeing a lot more demand from real estate professionals."
More than 12,000 real estate agents now subscribe to the service, Morris said.
HouseValues, which raised $62 million in an initial public offering in December, was ranked the ninth-fastest-growing technology company in North America last year by Deloitte & Touche.
The company's stock has fallen 12 percent since the initial public offering, closing yesterday at $13.20.


text:
Round Up: Packaging
Here is your weekly round-up of packaging news. Next week’s round-up will focus on processing news. To submit an item for inclusion, please contact Carly Wood at email@example.com.
- BrewDog backed distillery LoneWolf has chosen a Beatson Clark bottle originally intended for pharmaceutical products for its new craft gin.
- Unilever has unveiled its new technology to recycle sachet waste. This technology, called CreaSolv Process, has been developed with the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV in Germany and is inspired by an innovation used to recycle TV sets.
- Growing concern for the environment, combined with consumer preference for healthy living, is driving increased trust in glass as the ultimate packaging choice for food and drinks. According to a Europe wide independent survey, 85% of Europeans would recommend glass to their friends and family. This marks a 15% increase since eight years ago.
- Saica Pack has rebranded Tyrrells’ shelf ready packaging for its range of Poshcorn popcorn. The rebrand encompasses the entire portfolio of the Poshcorn range, including its six, eight, 12 and 24 pack versions.
- Plastic packaging specialist Gizeh has developed a new twin chamber cup for the market launch of a new yogurt dessert line of Müller.
- This month low calorie soft drink Zeo is celebrating a brand relaunch to mark the introduction of a new, no added sugar range.


text:
Roche Kapa HyperExome V2 Probes
Roche has launched its Kapa HyperExome V2 Probes, a whole-exome sequencing panel that provides a key update to the company's Kapa HyperCap Target Enrichment portfolio. The new panel covers recent versions of the ACMGv3.1, RefSeq, CCDS, ClinVar, Ensembl and COSMIC genomic databases within a compact capture target of 43.2 Mb with low sequencing requirements, the company notes on its website. The new T2T (telomere-to-telomere) genome assembly was utilized as part of the design process to identify potentially problematic regions not apparent in the GRCh38 genome assembly, Roche said. The new kit has been optimized using real-world samples in the Kapa HyperCap Workflow including the Kapa EvoPlus, Kapa HyperPlus and Kapa HyperPrep Kits to efficiently cover hard-to-capture regions, the company added.


text:
BANGALORE: Yahoo, the online search portal, is hoping to increase its ad revenues by over 40% in India this year, a prediction made in anticipation of advertisers in the country increasingly transferring their budgets onto the web from TV and print.
The internet advertising industry in India is currently valued at $100 million (€75.3m; £69.9m), with a market share of around 2.5%.
Yahoo expects the online ad market to grow by between 25% and 30% this year – with display spending set to rise by 40% to 50% – and the sector's share to grow by 7% in the next three years.
In particular, Pearl Uppal, Yahoo's Indian sales director, argues that while spending by sectors like retail and real estate will slow, fmcg, telecoms, automotive and entertainment outlay "are growing", which "has more than compensated for the loss."
While Uppal expects advertisers to shift their spending from TV and print to online, he also argued that ad rates in the two more mainstream media have fallen by around 50% in the last 12 months.
By contrast, online advertising charges "have neither gone up nor gone down," meaning the medium is "competitively priced," but also "can't raise prices for the next eight to ten months."
Data sourced from DNA India; additional content by WARC staff


text:
General Mills has announced that it expects to meet its organic sourcing and growth goals by 2019, thanks to its portfolio of organic brands including Annie's Homegrown, Cascadian Farm, and Muir Glen. These goals, which include expanding its organic acreage to 250,000 and growing its natural and organic portfolio to $1 billion, were first announced last year.
To continue to grow its organic sector, the company is paying for transition costs for would-be organic farmers. The company strives to send “clear market signals” with regard to the growth of the organic market to farmers considering organic transition, according to Food Navigator.
“Contrary to mythology, it’s not just millennials who are buying organic… all generations are participating,” notes Katrina Heinze, a General Mills executive.
From the Organic Authority Files
General Mills is also investing in much-needed organic industry research, including specialized crops and organic oat variety trials.
Natural and organic products have been General Mills' strongest growth sector over the last few years, with a ten percent average annual increase since 2005. Annie’s Homegrown, acquired by General Mills for $820 million in 2014, has grown 40 percent over the past year, thanks to the introduction of new products including an organic popcorn line.
The continued development of organic products is essential to the thriving organic marketplace. An October report showed that current organic production was not meeting consumer demands for products; despite projections by Allied Market Research that the global organic food and beverages market is expected to triple the 2015 market by 2022, organic supply is still not able to meet increasing consumer demand.
The organic and natural sector is one of four investment opportunities upon which General Mills is currently focusing, along with Häagen-Dazs ice creams, snack bars, and Old El Paso Mexican foods, according to a February announcement by General Mills President and CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening.
Related on Organic Authority
Majority of Supermarkets Don't Meet Consumer Demands for Organic Food, Report Shows
General Mills and Organic Valley Are Increasing U.S. Organic Dairy Production
Annie's Homegrown Encourages 'Everybunny' to Buy Organic


text:
British Telecom’s Ribbit cloud computing division brought its Web phone application to the mobile device market Nov. 3 in the form of Ribbit Mobile, which lets users manage calls and messages to mobile phones from their computers.
If that thrust sounds like services such as Google Voice and VoxOx, that’s because it is similar. Ribbit Mobile rings mobile phones from computers, routes mobile calls to other phones and lets users answer their mobile calls on the Internet, all with a few mouse clicks from Ribbit’s phonelike touch-button interface on the desktop.
Like Google Voice, Ribbit Mobile transcribes voicemail to text and sends it to users via SMS and e-mail, so that users don’t have to tap into voicemail to listen to messages. The application also includes an online message inbox.
However, unlike VoxOx and Google Voice, which until last week required users to have a special Google phone number, Ribbit Mobile doesn’t require a new phone number.
Users link their mobile devices to Ribbit and record a new voicemail greeting. When calls come in to the mobile phone, users can answer it or ignore the call. If they choose not to take the call from their mobile phone, the call will be redirected to the Ribbit platform, Crick Waters, executive vice president of strategy and business development at Ribbit, told eWEEK.
This is where things get interesting. Ribbit Mobile shuttles the call to a home or office landline, a VOIP phone, a computer, a widget embedded on a Website, Skype, MSN or Google Talk, depending on where the user has specified the Ribbit platform to route calls.
If the user doesn’t answer the call, the call goes to the Ribbit messaging platform, where any message a caller leaves is converted into text and delivered via an audio file and a text message to SMS, e-mail or any other screen. Users can append notes to annotate the voicemail transcriptions they receive.
Ribbit Mobile also includes a backup phone online, so that when a user’s device is lost, stolen or mobile service is unavailable, users can still access their calls as long as they have a computing device with Web connection. Ribbit Mobile also connects to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, surfacing profile information from callers who are members of those social networks.
Google Voice might be free and VoxOx might provide a bit more functionality, but Ribbit Mobile has something those services lack-the benefit of a developer platform that lets developers outside Ribbit write applications to extend the cloud-based calling experience.
For example, third-party programmers created a Ribbit iGoogle gadget to let users manage their calls from their iGoogle Web page. Others created an Adobe Air application that lets users play back their Ribbit messages.
Ribbit Mobile is currently free as a “professional edition” for users to download. This includes unlimited calls and automated voicemail transcriptions. Ribbit will charge $30 per user per month for the professional edition when it launches the service from beta in 60 to 90 days. The company will also offer a free Basic edition and a Plus edition for $10 per user per month. In addition, Ribbit plans to launch apps for the iPhone and BlackBerry platforms.
To entice more developers to extend the platform, Ribbit also unveiled a Developer Rewards program to compensate developers based on how much their applications are used. This usage-based revenue share model is a twist on the classic revenue share model for developers of mobile app platforms such as the iPhone, Waters said.
Those interested in using Ribbit Mobile can sign up here to get an invite, a move that mirrors the gradual rollout method for Google Voice.


text:
The UK government is inching towards taking a decision on Huawei’s role in the UK’s 5G and fixed-broadband networks.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) – a branch of the intelligence service GCHQ – has documented all the facts ahead of giving its view.
And civil servants at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) are weighing up the financial consequences of ordering a ban or new limits.
In theory, a decision could come as soon as next week but it is likely to take a bit longer.
Those following developments would be forgiven for having a sense of deja vu.
It was only in January that the UK government announced, following a lengthy review, that the Chinese firm could continue to provide equipment and expertise to the UK networks, albeit with a new cap on its market share.
Washington has continued to assert that Huawei poses a national security risk – most recently claiming it is either backed or owned by the Chinese military – something the firm denies.
But it is not this, but rather the threat of new US sanctions, that might change the UK’s course.
The sanctions threaten Huawei’s ability to provide the behind-the-scenes kit that transmits data back and forth, as well as its ability to make the handsets and other consumer goods for which it is renowned.
To understand why, one needs to become acquainted with a little-reported side to the tech industry.
When Huawei announced its flagship Kirin 990 5G chip last year, it boasted “over 10 billion transistors are condensed in this tiny chipset”.
The reason such intricate products can be made is that the days of laying out such chips by hand have long passed.
Instead, the semiconductor industry relies on a type of software known as electronic design automation (EDA).
“It’s theoretically possible to manually design today’s chips, but it’s extremely difficult and would take a long time,” explains Jim Tully, an independent industry analyst.
“Instead, automated software is used to help with the physical layout of the chip, but also to design its logical functionality – its arrays of memory cells and microprocessor cores, its ability to compress the signals and also to carry out special functions for the inputs and the outputs of a chip.
“And the software is also used to simulate the chip working, because once you put it into the manufacturing process it is extremely expensive.”
In practice, humans carry out the design work by describing the behaviours they want in computer code, and the software then translates this into a physical design.
The problem for Huawei is that the three leading EDA software-makers all have ties to the US. And the sanctions forbid the Chinese firm and the third parties that manufacture its chips from using “US technology and software to design and manufacture” its products.
Synopsys and Cadence are both based in California. And while Germany’s Siemens bought Mentor Graphics in 2017, it still has its headquarters in Wilsonville, Oregon.
Even if Huawei could get round this, the sanctions also ban fabricators from using semiconductor manufacturing equipment based on US tech.
That effectively locks Huawei out from the equipment needed to print the smallest-sized transistors currently possible, which in turn limits how efficiently its products can run.
So, while Huawei could try to skirt round the sanctions by shifting its business to China’s predominant foundry – Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) – that company, too, needs to obey the US rules or would face consequences of its own that might threaten its wider business.
Trying to survive
There have been reports that Huawei hopes to weather the storm by drawing on a stockpile of chips it has built up before the sanctions bite.
Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported Huawei had secured up to two years of supplies of the “most essential components” it needs to continue making mobile-tower base stations and cloud computer servers.
But UK ministers may decide that it is just too risky for the country’s telecoms infrastructure to be reliant on a company that might not be able to provide its own components and would have to fall back on others from as yet unknown suppliers.
And looking more widely, Huawei may find it impossible to keep driving forward its smartphone photography and other consumer-focused innovations if it cannot equip its devices with next-generation processors.
When the sanctions were first announced, one of Huawei’s chiefs suggested they posed an existential threat.
“Survival is the keyword for us now,” said one of its chairmen, Guo Ping.
The US still has time to back away from the measures before they are due to come into effect in September.
And in the past Washington has granted licences to some US firms excluding them from previous bans.
Even so, if the UK government is looking for a reason to revisit January’s decision – perhaps to help secure a US trade deal or prevent a backbench revolt – the arcane world of chip design might provide the solution.
The mood music has changed dramatically since January.
That decision was already hard-fought, with opposition in the cabinet to giving Huawei a role in 5G. But since then, the US has intensified its campaign, not just with the sanctions but also warnings about intelligence sharing and defence relationships.
At the same time, the mood politically in Westminster has shifted with a significant backbench rebellion in March now spurred on by the coronavirus crisis which has highlighted dependencies on China.
All of that means a change may well be coming in the UK approach, but the exact nature of it remains unclear.


text:
They’re the brands this beer town was built on: Portland Brewing, BridgePort, Widmer Brothers.
For decades, they ruled craft beer not only in Portland but in Oregon and beyond, with wide distribution and venerable names like MacTarnahan’s, BridgePort IPA and Hefe. Craft beer drinkers had their favorite and supported their brewery.
Then something changed. The number of breweries across the nation took a massive leap, going from 1,500 a decade ago to about 7,500 now. With more options, habits shifted, and a fickle, younger generation of craft enthusiasts grew up with little brand loyalty. Instead of grabbing the same old favorites, the craft consumer now is likely to cruise the beer aisle looking for a new release or belly up to the nearby taproom for something fresh they’ve never tried – then take a crowler to go.
Add in external factors analysts say could be cutting into beer consumption -- like legal marijuana and reports of Millennials and Gen Z drinking less and preferring wine and liquor to beer -- and the craft-beer industry has a problem, observers say.
The increased competition is roiling a once-steady landscape and claiming victims. In the past year, Portland’s once-beloved BridgePort Brewing, gone. Portland Brewing’s and Widmer’s once-packed restaurants, closed. Alameda Brewhouse and Burnside Brewing, history.
The breweries most in jeopardy tend to be older, larger and with wide wholesale distribution. In contrast, the model for success -- though in more modest terms -- are smaller operations that self-distribute or have moderate distribution with multiple avenues to sell their beer.
“We live in an age of promiscuity,” says Sam Holloway, a brewery consultant and University of Portland entrepreneurship professor. “For consumers, there’s never been a better time to be a beer drinker. But for a brewer, the old model of best practices doesn’t apply anymore.
“You look at the top 50 (in the U.S.), they’re struggling. These are really good entrepreneurs, really smart people doing everything right, and the industry changed.”
‘IT’S JUST GAME ON’
U.S. beer sales overall were down 1% in 2018, according to statistics released by the national Brewers Association, which tracks the beer industry. But craft beer continued to grow, with barrel output up 4% from 2017. Add in the craft breweries bought by Anheuser-Busch In-Bev and other big beer corporations – a segment not counted statistically as “craft” anymore – and craft consumption is even higher, by 9 million barrels.
While that’s not craft’s heady double-digit growth of a few years ago, it still accounted for about a quarter of the $114 billion in U.S. beer market revenue last year.
Much of that growth can be tied to this: Last year in the U.S., 1,049 breweries opened and 219 closed. In Oregon alone, nearly 300 breweries are now operating, with about 120 of them in the Portland area.
“There’s just too much beer out there,” says Jason Mcadam, the former owner of Burnside Brewing, which shut down in February. “Out-of-state breweries, small breweries, it’s just game on.”
Gary Fish, founder of Deschutes Brewery, said he has seen ups and downs in the market since the brewery, now Oregon’s largest, opened three decades ago in Bend. But this downturn feels different.
“With this many breweries, there’s not enough market, enough consumer purchase to sustain them all,” Fish said. “We’ve got 25 breweries in Bend. We used to kind of ‘own the market’ in Bend. That’s no longer true. We’re fighting alongside all these little, tiny breweries.”
For Mike De Kalb, the co-founder of Northeast Portland’s Laurelwood Brewing, the key is trying to stay fresh and continue to brew world-class beers, but even that doesn’t guarantee success anymore.
“There’s just too many choices, too many brewpubs,” De Kalb said. “But you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to stand out. You’ve just got to be better than the next guy.”
‘SHINY NEW OBJECT’ OVER LOYALTY
Beyond the sheer number of breweries, another phenomenon is complicating the lives of brewers: fickle customers. They want what’s new and something they’ve never had before. They will stand in line for hours for a new release from a brewery that has all the buzz. And brand loyalty? Nope.
“The consumer is like, what’s new, what’s awesome? I’ve never heard of this beer, I gotta give it a try,” said Mcadam, who said increased competition was among the reasons Burnside closed. “There’s no allegiance to flagship beers or breweries anymore.
“Everything you put out has to be different. It’s flashy and glittery. People aren’t buying the same beer over and over like they used to.”
Matt Schumacher, who opened Northeast Portland’s Alameda Brewhouse in 1996 but closed it in November amid strangling competition and “circumstances” he declined to discuss, said what craft-beer consumers say and what they do are often two different things.
“In beer, the customer feels like there’s an attachment to their brand, but there’s really not,” Schumacher said. “It’s a fake loyalty. If I have a kickass Alameda shirt, you’ll wear it, but it doesn’t mean you’re going to go buy my beer. They’ll wear the Alameda shirt when they buy a 6-pack of 10 Barrel.
“10 Barrel is a perfect example,” he continued. “Remember the frickin’ outrage people had in this town when (Anheuser-Busch InBev) bought them? Where’s everybody hanging out now? On their rooftop.”
And consumers’ desires for something ever-new creates an unintended consequence, says Ben Edmunds, brewmaster at Northeast Portland’s Breakside Brewery: Beer quality suffers.
“Whether you call it customer promiscuity or lack of loyalty, that absolutely impacts how we compete,” Edmunds said. “It means there are less-refined beers on the market. Brewers lament that. Because I’d love the chance to remake a lot of beers, but consumers are interested in getting something different.
“That may be a monster we created ourselves. Breakside started making 100 beers a year 10 years ago and people thought we were crazy. We may be the victims of our own interest at the full market level because now everyone’s doing that.
“It really begs the followup of what do you do when you’re not the shiny new object. Everyone eventually is that.”
ONLY SO MANY TAPS AND GROCERY SHELVES
For decades, the goal for many small breweries was distribution: Start selling in your backyard, capture distributors’ attention, get your beer onto store shelves in your region and maybe elsewhere, then reap the benefits. And if you did it well enough, you might even get the big payday: Selling your brewery to an AB InBev or MillerCoors, either whole or part.
But that seems to be a fading vision.
“There’s a real tide change happening in distribution models,” Edmunds said, “and older models – the regional, midsize breweries – that script is working less and less.”
Holloway, the craft consultant, said the wholesale channel is a tough place to be right now.
“With AB InBev, Heineken, the grocery aisles are becoming increasingly competitive and harder to get your product into market. If you want to follow that model, you’re about 20 years too late.”
So if a brewery is built on big revenue from out-of-state sales, it could be overleveraged and in trouble. Some are looking toward alternatives to their traditional approaches. Widmer, for example, is beginning to brew hard spritzers. Ninkasi Brewing, the 35th largest craft brewer in the nation but who saw declines last year, has launched a seltzer line as well as created “cooperatives partnerships” with other breweries.
Deschutes, which distributes in about 30 states and Canada, in 2016 announced it would build a production brewery in Virginia to better serve the East Coast. But since then, the 10th biggest craft brewery in the nation has seen negative growth and, as a result, put the expansion plans on hold.
“At some point we have to behave like the company we are, not the company we want to be,” Fish said. “There are some tough decisions that go along with that. … We’re waiting for a little more clarity as to what happens, whether or not -- or when -- we build a brewery there. There’s too much uncertainty to justify that risk.”
Distribution is and continues to be the most pressing issue facing the industry, said Ben Parsons, co-founder of Baerlic Brewing and an Oregon Brewers Guild board member. Access to market is becoming more and more difficult, especially for smaller breweries, he said, and laws that make it difficult or impossible for brewers to switch distributors make it even tougher.
“You have an insane increase in the number of breweries having to rely on fewer, larger distributors,” Parsons said. “And if you are continuing to rely on antiquated franchise laws — wherein breweries don’t have the ownership to their own distribution rights — then how can you have a fair and equal access to market?”
Danelle Romain, executive director and lobbyist for the Oregon beer and wine distributors association, said brewers in Oregon are free to self-distribute or use a distributor. She said the law allows the distributor to recover fair market value if a brewery chooses to leave, a set-up that covers the distributor’s investment in developing the brand. And she said fair market value is the price that a willing buyer and a willing seller would pay if they knew all of the facts of the brand.
Parsons, however, says current law allows “little to no room to renegotiate or walk away from (a brewery’s) distributor relationship without taking on an insane and unrealistic financial burden.” That’s why he says self-distribution is often the smartest course for a small brewer.
One brewery doing that is Montavilla Brew Works in Southeast Portland. Founder and brewer Michael Kora said staying small feels right. Self-distributing is hard work but gives the brewery some freedom.
“Doing it ourselves and being self-distributed is a really nice advantage right now,” Kora said. “We can brew what we want and be experimental and not be so throttled down by having to brew two or three brands at once and put all our eggs in one basket.”
Self-distribution also provides Kora time to give customers the attention they need.
“We’re not trying to get to 100 accounts in a day. People (in distribution) are overtaxed,” Kora said. “They don’t have enough sales force to get out and cover the sales territory.”
That said, Kora is like many other small brewers: The idea of getting his craft into more hands is appealing. He’d like to expand, he just wants to do it wisely.
“Everyone’s looking around with their eyes wide open because it’s kind of scary out there,” Kora said. “We don’t want to grow too fast.”
Despite the challenges for all size breweries, many in the industry remain optimistic.
“I think there’s tons of room still,” Edmunds said. “It’s just not as easy to grow, period; and you’re not going to see many breweries grow to the size of Ninkasi.”
Added Holloway: “I always say, strategy is about winning. As the entrepreneur you get to decide what winning is.”
If you want to define winning as paying a living wage, he said, then that’s what your success looks like.
“As long as we stay dispersed, and as long as consumers continue to buy beer from their brewery or bottle shop,” Holloway said, “this craft brewing renaissance can continue to grow and be successful.”
Oregon’s leading breweries
Number of barrels sold in Oregon in 2018
- Deschutes Brewery: 66,186
- Widmer Brothers Brewing: 58,773
- Hop Valley Brewing: 50,392
- Ninkasi Brewing: 50,227
- 10 Barrel Brewing: 48,794
- Pelican Brewing: 25,255
- Boneyard Beer: 24,928
- Full Sail Brewing: 22,505
- Portland Brewing: 21,804
- Breakside Brewery: 20,348
Portland beer industry closures in past 10 months
- Columbia River Brewing, small Northeast Portland brewpub, closed May 2019
- BridgePort Brewing, one of Portland’s first breweries, closed February 2019
- Burnside Brewing, small brewpub in close-in eastside, closed February 2019
- Widmer Brothers Brewing, one of Portland’s first breweries, closed North Portland tasting room January 2019 after closing Gasthaus restaurant in November 2017
- Alameda Brewhouse, Northeast Portland brewpub since 1996, closed November 2018
- Portland Brewing, another of Portland’s first breweries, closed pub November 2018 but continues brewing for distribution
- Lompoc Tavern, a longtime Northwest Portland tavern, closed September 2018, though other Lompoc Brewing locations continue operations in Portland
-- Andre Meunier
More beer coverage:
- Portland 8th in U.S. for breweries per capita. The ‘other’ Portland is No. 1
- Mikkeller Portland pops open to overwhelming crowds at ex-Burnside Brewing home
- West Coast Grocery fights to right ship after rough launch: Portland Breweries Series
- 2019 Oregon beer festivals you won’t want to miss
- Beer by the numbers: Craft beer jobs grow while big beer stalls, new study finds
- Laurelwood Brewing made ‘family-friendly’ the thing: Portland Breweries Series
- Baerlic Brewing, as quintessential Portland as they come: Portland Breweries Series
- A beer lover’s guide to central Oregon
- We’ve visited 10 Portland breweries so far; here are the 10 best beers


text:
Microsoft blames old update for Xbox 360 issue
Future firmware is fine
Microsoft has responded to yesterday's reports that the forthcoming firmware update could cause games to stop working, claiming the issue is related to a previous update instead.
The company had acknowledged reported problems, stating a "recent update" had prevented a small number of gamers from playing retail discs. Many customers were rubbing hands in anticipation at a free replacement should their console be affected by the update.
Sorry folks, it's probably not going to happen.
Quick to quash the reports was Xbox Live's Director of Programming, Larry Hryb, aka Major Nelson, who wrote on his blog:
"Clarification time! The console replacement plan that is the subject of some of today’s headlines is related to a previous update, NOT the system update that has been in public beta and will be deployed shortly.
"The new disc format that is part of the beta has been rigorously tested across all Xbox 360 models and there are no known compatibility issues."
The latest update - which ushers in added piracy protection and support for XGD3 - rolls out from today. ®


text:
LG U+ CEO Hwang Hyun-sik speaks to reporters during a press conference held at the MWC 2022 in Barcelona on Wednesday, local time. (LG U+)
BARCELONA, Spain -- LG U+ will export virtual reality content to Zain Group, a mobile carrier in the Middle East with more than 50 million users, in its effort to take initiative in the burgeoning global XR market.
During a press conference held at the Mobile World Congress 2022 in Barcelona on Wednesday, local time, LG U+ CEO Hwang Hyun-sik said the South Korean telco will aim to sell content to Zain Group, Oman’s No. 1 mobile carrier Omantel and Malaysia’s No. 3 player Celcom.
“Starting with the partnership with Zain Group, which has 50 million users, LG U+ will aim to export its platforms including U+ Idol Live and U+ Live,” Hwang said.
“When 5G was commercialized in 2019, we thought deeply about what kind of value we can provide to customers. We thought that the way we watch videos should be different and decided to offer XR service.”
The CEO further added that LG U+ has since exported $24 million of XR content and solutions. The firm will further supply the global market with K-Pop content, which is taking the world by storm.
In particular, Idol Live, which allows fans to participate virtually in concerts with hyper reality in real time will play a critical role in spreading Korean content, the CEO added.
Regarding the dispute between LG U+ and CJ ENM, the CEO explained that the conflict has been resolved, adding that CJ ENM content will continue to stream on the LG U+ platform.
In June, CJ ENM, a Korean entertainment giant, cut the feed of its 10 channels to LG U+, demanding a 175 percent increase in royalties. LG U+ refused to accept the demand, saying that it had already raised royalties 9 percent in 2019 and 24 percent in 2020.
As the conflict continued, authorities intervened to protect consumers. But the two firms failed to reach an agreement, resulting in the termination of the partnership last year. The two reportedly filed lawsuits against each other, but dropped their cases for strategic reasons.
Now that the conflict has ended, the two companies are tasked with signing a contract for the next two years. The two companies agreed on signing a contract first, but challenges remain. LG U+ expressed concerns about how access to information about CJ ENM’s content had been denied. Simply put, LG U+ didn’t know which content would come from CJ ENM. It remains to be seen whether CJ ENM will provide LG U+ with information such as ratings.
On top of targeting K-pop fans, LG U+ will provide business-to-business 5G solutions, targeting smart factories and artificial intelligence contact centers as their main customers.By Son Ji-hyoung and Kim Byung-wook Korea Herald correspondents (firstname.lastname@example.org) (email@example.com)


text:
BEIJING, Jan. 19, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, and ARM (LSE: ARM; NASDAQ: ARMH.US), the leading provider of semiconductor intellectual property (IP), announced the winners of the ARM - ST University Design Contest 2015 in China.
The contest, in its third year, encourages university students in China to design innovative smart applications using STM32 Nucleo boards as hardware platform and the GCC open-source compiler or the MDK-ARM software development environment.
From its March 2015 launch to its close in November 2015, the 3rd edition of the ARM - ST University Design Contest has attracted more than 800 teams of 2,000 students and teachers from 203 universities across 31 provinces in China. The contest offered three rounds of evaluation - from preliminary to semi-final and final.
"The response was overwhelming, with more than a 10% increase in participation from the previous years, and the quality of submitted designs was very high, and applications ranged from drones, to robots, smart vehicles, and infotainment," said Arnaud Julienne, Senior Director, Microcontroller, Memory & Secure MCU Group, Greater China & South Asia, STMicroelectronics. "Encouraging the innovativeness and capability among these young talents to integrate and apply the latest embedded technologies drives technology innovation and talent enhancement in the region and helps students to successfully integrate smart devices into both innovative and entirely new applications."
The contest entries covered a wide range of applications using sensors, motion control, wireless connectivity, mobile, and other products. Twenty-one teams were shortlisted for the two-day final round with finalists who demonstrated their works and answered questions from a panel of judges. These judges comprised executives of ST and ARM, as well as scholars and experts from China Software Industry Embedded Association and top Chinese universities including Peking University, Beijing University of Technology, Zhejiang University, and East China Normal University.
The overall champion team of this year's ARM - ST University Design Contest is Lab440 (V1.1), from East China Normal University, who designed a smart text reader based on image-processing techniques. The reader helps senior citizens read instructions printed on medicine containers where the text font size is often quite small. The application uses Contact Image Sensors to read the text and convert it to speech through TTS (text-to-speech).
A joint first prize was awarded to Dream Team from Suihua University and Conquer Team from Jinan University, who submitted STM32-based Telepresence Robot using Virtual Reality and a Pulse-Control Simulator, respectively.
"China is set to become a leader in the smart-device industry and IoT deployment, so supporting the development of the Chinese engineering community is vitally important," said Khaled Benkrid, Worldwide University Program Manager, ARM. "The ARM - ST University Design Contest gives Chinese university students access to the latest ARM-based ST technologies with teaching and training materials provided by the ARM University Program. This will make students work-ready as they are equipped with industry-standard skills and tools."
ST is a global leader in the semiconductor market serving customers across the spectrum of sense and power and automotive products and embedded processing solutions. From energy management and savings to trust and data security, from healthcare and wellness to smart consumer devices, in the home, car and office, at work and at play, ST is found everywhere microelectronics make a positive and innovative contribution to people's life. By getting more from technology to get more from life, ST stands for life.augmented.
In 2014, the Company's net revenues were $7.40 billion. Further information on ST can be found at www.st.com.
ARM is at the heart of the world's most advanced digital products. Our technology enables the development of new markets and transformation of industries and society, invisibly creating opportunity for a globally connected population. We design scalable, energy-efficient processors and related technologies to deliver intelligence wherever computing happens, ranging from sensors to servers, including smartphones, tablets, digital TVs, enterprise infrastructure and the Internet of Things.
Our innovative technology is licensed by ARM Partners who have shipped more than 75 billion System on Chip (SoCs) containing our intellectual property. Together with our Connected Community, we are breaking down barriers to innovation for developers, designers and engineers, ensuring a fast, reliable route to market for leading electronics companies. Learn more and join the conversation at http://community.arm.com.
For Press Information Contact:
Sr. Corporate External Communications Executive
+86 10 5797 9928
Corporate External Communications Manager - Greater China
+886 (2) 6603 - 2505
+86 10 8217 2028
Director, Digital Marketing & APAC Corporate Marketing
ARM - ST University Design Contest 2015 http://hugin.info/152740/R/1979809/725247.pdf


text:
In the two decades that Steve Applebaum has run his family's lumber and textile business on Chicago's South West Side, he never has written a congressman or called an alderman. His politics were limited to loyally pulling the Democratic lever every time he went to the polls.
But when Applebaum heard about Gov. Rod Blagojevich's proposal for a new tax based on a company's gross receipts, he got political fast. He wrote his congressman, he fumed at the governor, and he began seriously contemplating whether he might have to move his 90-year-old family business, A. Lava & Son, out of Illinois.
Applebaum's accountant told him that his company, which has sold lumber and textiles to manufacturers since his great grandfather started it, could pay as much as 4 percent of its revenues in new taxes.
Applebaum isn't against taxes in general. "When President Bush talks about lowering taxes is good for business, I think that's just a bunch of baloney," he said. What he is against is the idea of taxing his company based on what it takes in, rather than what it puts into the bank.
"The numbers are huge. It's a very substantial tax. And it ignores my performance. Whether I'm profitable or not, I pay," Applebaum said. "There are years when you make money and years when you don't make money. It ignores that."
Applebaum sells his lumber to a bedmaker at 48th Street and Kedzie Avenue, Englander Bedding Co. Whatever tax he pays, he would have to pass the cost on to Englander. And Englander, which competes primarily against imported products that wouldn't have to pay the tax, would have to eat the extra cost. That, or pass it on to customers and take a hit against competitors who don't manufacture in Illinois.
That process--increasing the tax payment at each step along the production chain--is called "pyramiding" by tax experts.
Pyramiding is an apt name. It can cause a seemingly insignificant-sounding tax of, say, 1 percent to 1.5 percent of revenues, to build up. Each time a good or service is sold by one company to another, the tax is levied.
As a raw material becomes, step by step, a finished product, the tax can be levied numerous times. The total tax hit can run as high as 5 percent to 6 percent of the product's retail value.
In the state of Washington, where a gross-receipts tax is law, the multiplier effect has had a remarkable distorting effect. Because of the pyramiding, statistics from the state's department of revenue show, Washington state's taxable revenues in 2005--the base from which it levied the tax--actually exceeded the total amount of the state's economic output. The tax base of $381.6 billion was 142 percent of the state's actual gross domestic product of $267.3 billion. Companies that year paid gross-receipts taxes of $2.49 billion.
Blagojevich needs to find new revenue sources as the second-term governor with big ambitions proposes expansions in the state's health and education programs. It's understandable he would go after business, too. In his budget address, Blagojevich noted that Illinois' biggest 12,521 corporations paid, on average, only $151 a year in state taxes. Given their combined $261 billion in sales, Blagojevich figured, those companies could pay more.
There are other persuasive statistics the governor didn't use. From 1997 to 2004, half of all Illinois companies paid no state tax at all. Another 28 percent paid less than $5,000.
If Blagojevich's new tax were aimed at the non-payers, the big corporations that seemingly can afford the hit, few people might be concerned. The trouble with receipts taxes, though, is that big companies find it easier to avoid paying them than small companies do.
Big companies can buy up their suppliers, for example, and eliminate a taxable step on the production line. Washington state found that some companies set up out-of-state offices to "purchase" products from their Washington factories. That reduced some of the taxes that otherwise would have been added in the process.
The various avoidance schemes are limited only by the imaginations of corporate tax departments. But the work of ducking taxes, in itself, is not productive activity.
"You're creating a unique tax structure," said J. Thomas Johnson, president of the Taxpayers' Federation of Illinois. "When you create that new structure, you have to worry about what the uniqueness of our tax will do to job growth in the state."
Indeed, no state bordering Illinois has a gross-receipts tax. For some companies, a move across state lines becomes attractive. For others, manufacturing in Illinois simply becomes that much less competitive with aggressive pricing not just from other states, but from China and other low-cost competitors.
The rhetoric in Blagojevich's budget address seemed aimed at dividing working people and corporate fat cats. But Applebaum said he has more in common with his company's 60 workers than with the millionaires invoked by Blagojevich.


text:
Would you Adam-and-Eve it? Londoners now have their own domain. New local top-level domains have arrived in another major city as people and businesses in the British capital can proudly add ".london" to their Web address. Cor blimey, guvnor!
New local domain names are sprouting up around the world thanks to the(ICANN), the body in charge of the admin of Web addresses. .london follows Germany's .berlin and Austria's .wien, with , .miami, .vegas, .stockholm and .istanbul soon to come.
Applications at buydomains.london begin today and are open for the next three months, known as the "sunrise" period. The first .london sites have already appeared -- East End football team West Ham and hamper emporium Fortnum and Mason are among the first to secure new cockney domains with whufc.london and fortnumandmason.london.
"Be it a small London café or one of the capital's prominent sports clubs, a .london Web address offers a stronger online connection to the London community surfing the Web," says Jan Corstens, a partner at both Deloitte and ICANN's Trademark Clearinghouse, the body that safeguards trademarks in the new domains.
"This is a good move for major hub cities like London," says Mark Skilton, Professor of Practice at Warwick Business School. "It's critical this digital branding is not missed as Berlin and other cities move to develop their digital presence.
"With some large early-entry cloud brands like Google, Amazon and others already dominating [the Internet], it's important that the next level of digital ecosystems -- which will see the Internet of things pervading into homes, work, connected transport, health, retail and many others -- is balanced with regional and social identity for everyone and not just select providers."
Not everyone is impressed the new wave of TLDs, however. Some critics see the opening up of top-level domains as a money-making scheme for the people in charge of the Internet. Industry expert Graham Charlton of eConsultancy, for example, because "companies are forced to buy .uk domains when they already have perfectly good .co.uk domains. The only people who see the point of this are Nominet and domain registrars."
In terms of cost, a .london domain name can cost £49.95 ($84, €60), whilesuch as .book are expected to change hands for substantial sums.
More local TLDs at least add new meaning to a Web address rather than simply repeating an existing form. "I think the .london domains are a different matter," continues Charlton, "as they perform a separate function: allowing businesses to associate themselves more closely with London. Perhaps this will influence Web users' opinions of the company in question, or maybe it will make no difference.
"But as with any new domain, there is the issue of protecting trademarks and guarding against the risk of domain squatters or others taking a brand and registering it as a .london domain."
ICANN has opened up top-level domains to many new words on top of .com, .org and the rest -- all Google websites could end ".google", for example. But this proliferation of potential URLs won't be cheap for anyone with a website, as you now have to think about registering a bunch of suffixes in order to avoid someone else snapping them up and profiting from confused Web surfers looking for your website. In one of the first trademark disputes over new TLDs, for example,.
Established names looking to get a .london URL for their trademark have to register with a trademark clearing house, which will then give them priority over opportunistic cybersquatters -- but extra expense comes from the fact that in this new Internet landscape buying just one domain may expose you to squatting.
Are local domain names a good idea for the people and businesses around you, or a money-making scheme for the overlords of the Internet? Step in time to the comments to tell me what you think.
Updated at 3pm BST: Included comment from Graham Charlton.


text:
Labor & Environment
Law & Crime
Health & Welfare
Seoul & Provinces
Multicultural Youth Award
Biz & Tech
Retail & Food
Economic Essay Contest
Thoughts of the Times
Today in History
Blondie & Garfield
Letter to the Editor
Travel & Cuisine
K-dramas & Shows
Asia Model Festival
Europe & Africa
On the Spot
Wed, October 20, 2021 | 19:05
Caffe Bene suffers from rapid growth pains
Move over Starbucks, homegrown brand Caffe Bene is fast catching up with its U.S.-based rival.
| 2011-01-12 18:46
Can Paris Baguette, Tous Les Jours make it overseas?
The ``bakery war’’ between Paris Baguette of SPC Group and Tous Les Jours of CJ Foodville recently sank to a new low, when a debt-ridden baker of Tous Les Jours plotted to bring down a cross-street rival Paris Baguette in Pyeongtaek by planting a dead rat in a loaf of bread.
| 2011-01-07 18:56
Twinsumers, social-lites, wellthy will set trends for 2011
``Social-lites and twinsumers,’’ ``urbanomics,’’ ``pricing pandemonium,’’ ``Made for China’’ and ``wellthy’’ are just some of the consumer trend buzzwords to watch out for in 2011, according to Trendwatching.com, a leading consumer trends firm.
| 2010-12-30 17:06
Why are firms calendar-crazy?
It’s just over a week before the New Year, so how many 2011 calendars and diaries have you received?
Counterfeit Vuitton bags — distorted status symbol
The streets of Seoul are filled with women of all ages carrying easily recognizable Louis Vuitton canvas handbags on their arms. One may initially assume these handbags are all real, but this is Korea, where the highest quality counterfeit luxury goods are easily available to buy in the streets or on websites.
| 2010-12-21 17:41
Chinese investor pulls out due to tension
Some prospective foreign investors are increasingly becoming concerned about the escalating tension on the Korean Peninsula, with one Chinese investor already postponing plans to invest in a major property development project in Incheon.
| 2010-12-20 17:13
Will shoppers bear Vuittons arrogance?
At any given time of the day, there are sure to be people waiting in line outside the Louis Vuitton boutique at Lotte Avenuel, downtown Seoul.
| 2010-12-20 17:07
Times Square fails to draw shoppers
When you say Times Square, you immediately think of the famous New York City landmark, and not a shopping mall in the Yeongdeungpo district of Seoul.
| 2010-12-19 16:27
Cosmetic firms boosting target-specific marketing
Korean women’s obsession with beauty products will show no signs of waning throughout next year. According to a report by Korean cosmetics giant Amore Pacific, Monday, sales in the domestic cosmetics industry will jump by 6.5 percent to 8.4 trillion won in 2011.
| 2010-12-13 17:11
Gasoline prices soar
The winter blues will be felt by motorists at the pump, as gasoline prices have soared to their highest level this year.
| 2010-12-10 18:06
Speculating on 'Squid Game'
Korea's solar energy project backfires
North Korea continues slamming 'Squid Game'
Kim Jong-un's half-brother was linked with South Korea's spy agency: report
Controversy rises over booster shot for Janssen vaccine
Weather forecaster warns of disappearing spring and fall
6 out of 10 Seoulites want to work in 'metaverse' offices
Korea's self-developed space rocket Nuri ready for launch
'Living with COVID-19' policy raises expectation for liquor businesses
Korea faces possible 3 percent inflation
Daily life in Haiti after a series of environmental disasters and political unrest
About Korea Times
Terms of Service
Code of Ethics


text:
But he faces a huge challenge to achieve this target, as the area of rainforest still reported to be lost under his rule is more than three times the size of New York City.
The past few years have seen an alarming rise in deforestation.
The Amazon rainforest is a crucial buffer in the global fight against climate change.
Deforestation surges in 2022 despite pledges
Future of UK fossil fuels at stake in test case
UN to unmask fossil fuel lobbyists at climate talks
The new satellite data was presented by Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research (Inpe) on Thursday.
“We have reached a steady downward trend in deforestation of the Amazon,” Environment Minister Marina Silva told reporters.
Inpe singled out June as the month that saw a record 41% drop in forest clearance compared with the same period last year.
Lula, who took office in January, has vowed to reverse policies of his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, who promoted mining in indigenous lands in the Amazon.
Earlier this year, Lula decreed six new indigenous reserves, banning mining and restricting commercial farming there.
Indigenous leaders welcomed the move – but stressed that more areas needed protection.
And while deforestation was reported to have fallen, fires were up in the statistics.
In June alone, satellite monitoring detected 3,075 fires in the Amazon – the highest number since 2007.
Many of the blazes – releasing vast amounts of carbon emissions – have been linked to the clearing of previously deforested areas.
Lula, who previously served as Brazil’s president in 2003-2010, has also been pushing for the world’s richest nations to pay for various initiatives aimed at saving the rainforest.
In April, research by Global Forest Watch monitoring network showed that an area of tropical forest the size of Switzerland was lost last year around the world as tree clearance surged.
It said that some 11 football pitches of forest were lost every minute in 2022, with Brazil dominating the destruction.
It suggested that a political pledge to end deforestation made by world leaders at the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in 2021 was well off track.
The Amazon is the largest rainforest in the world, and 60% of it is in Brazil.
Due to the large number of trees growing there, it is often called “the lungs of the planet” on account of how the trees absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen.
Softwood lumber market refers to the sum of the supply, demand and related industry chain markets of softwood lumber. Softwood wood is a kind of high quality wood, because of its low density, light weight, moisture-proof and insect-proof, environmental protection and so on. Here are a few aspects of the softwood lumber market:
Supply of cork wood: The supply of cork wood comes mainly from tree species such as cork oak. These species need to grow in a specific climate and geography, so the supply of softwood wood is limited and the price is relatively high.
Demand for cork wood: The demand for cork wood mainly comes from wine stoppers, building decoration materials, household goods, sporting goods and other fields. Among them, wine stoppers are one of the main application areas of cork wood, and the demand for building decoration materials and household items is also increasing.
Softwood-related industry chain market: Softwood-related industry chain market includes softwood-related processing equipment, softwood-related products, softwood-related packaging materials, etc. The development of these industries has also contributed to the growth of the softwood lumber market.
Overall, the softwood lumber market is a market full of opportunities and challenges. As people’s concern for environmental protection and health continues to increase, the demand for softwood lumber will continue to increase. At the same time, the supply of softwood wood and the related industrial chain market also need to continue to develop and improve to meet the needs of the market.
The wood processor market refers to the sum of the suppliers and related industrial chain markets of the wood processing industry. The following are several aspects of the wood processor market:
Suppliers of wood processing industry: Suppliers of wood processing industry include forest planting and forest conservation industry, adhesive industry, wood processing equipment industry, etc. These suppliers provide raw materials and equipment for the wood processing industry and are the basis for the development of the wood processing industry.
The demand side of the wood processing industry: the demand side of the wood processing industry is mainly the building decoration industry, wooden furniture manufacturing industry, paper industry (wood pulp), cultural and educational office supplies industry and musical instrument manufacturing industry. The development of these industries has a direct impact on the wood processing industry, as they require the use of a large number of wood products.
The industrial chain market of the wood processing industry: The industrial chain market of the wood processing industry includes wood processing equipment, wood products, wood products packaging materials, etc. The development of these industries has promoted the growth of the wood processing industry, but also led to the development of related industrial chain markets.
In general, the wood processor market is a market full of opportunities and challenges. As people’s concern for environmental protection and health continues to increase, the demand for wood processing industry will also continue to increase. At the same time, the suppliers of the wood processing industry and the related industrial chain market also need to continue to develop and improve to meet the needs of the market.