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Stop Press: Falcon’s F900 flies in to Commercial Kitchen Show
Award-winning cookline featured on Nelson’s Catering stand
Visitors to the Commercial Kitchen Show will have the chance to see an award-winning cookline in the shape of the Falcon F900. An F900 suite is to be on display on the Nelson’s Catering stand, number G36.
Designed and manufactured in Britain, the F900 only launched late last year yet is already winning plaudits around the globe. “F900 cooklines have been installed and are working well in kitchens from Guernsey to the Gulf, and this is an ideal platform to further showcase the equipment,” says Barry Hill, marketing manager at Falcon. (more…)
Stocks take half the time, have more yield, and are perfectly clear in multifunctional appliance
Set in the iconic building on the Southbank, the Oxo Tower Restaurant offers an eclectic menu built around British and European classics. It serves over 200 covers a day but, like many urban restaurants, kitchen space is limited. This means catering equipment needs to be as efficient as possible, while delivering the best cooking results. Recently head chef Jeremy Bloor installed a FRIMA VarioCooking Center. He and his team are so impressed they are about to install a second one.
“I first saw the FRIMA at a catering exhibition,” says Jeremy. “Its versatility and ease of use were very impressive.”
FRIMA solves one of the catering world’s oldest problems: how to cook porridge without having a scorched, sticky pan to clean at the end.
Porridge is the food of champions. It’s more popular today than ever. Yet there’s a problem: it sticks. For chefs in busy kitchens the ultra-stickability of porridge means, however much customers may love it, it’s far from popular with kitchen staff who have to clean the pot, pan or kettle it’s made in.
Now FRIMA has solved the age old problem with an ‘intelligent porridge process’ for its VarioCooking Center Multificiency. (more…)
Counter refrigeration increases workspace
Counter refrigeration is a popular option in commercial kitchens, combining large capacity storage with a practical prep surface.
But efficiency is the vital benefit for refrigeration at new coffee shop and pantry
Andrew Rigby believes that any garden centre without catering is going to struggle. He and his brother David recently built a new coffee shop, called Rigby’s, at their Pimbo Garden Centre in Upholland near Wigan. The bespoke building, which replaced two greenhouses, also houses an upmarket farm shop called The Pantry. “Catering is the fastest growing part of our sector,” he says. “We’ve invested heavily, but it’s the way to go. Now even on poor days we have customers on site. We have some clientele who come for the coffee shop, with no intention of looking at the plants.” (more…)


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Lack of trust among UK consumers towards financial data protection
- Security , Data Protection , Fraud Detection , Security
- 21.02.2017 12:15 pm
According to ACI Worldwide, majority of UK consumers have doubts about the ability of businesses and financial institutions to manage confidential data safely. For instance, 19 percent of respondents say they do not trust firms to protect their data and 33 percent responded they are unsure. Confidence levels were similar across the globe and only three countries had more than 50 percent of respondents indicated that they trust institutions to protect their financial and payments data.
The Global Consumer Survey: Consumer Trust and Security Perceptions held survey among more than 6,000 consumers. The respondents represented about 20 countries and were surveyed on their perceptions and opinions toward fraud in shopping, data protection, and the ways they want to engage with firms to minimise fraud.
More than a third of UK respondents (35%) consequently see theft by computer hackers as the biggest fraud risk. While using cards for purchases via telephone, using a phone or tablet to shop or pay bills and shopping online are all perceived as less risky. After experiencing fraud or data breach, 56 percent of UK consumers said they would stop shopping with a given merchant.
Other key findings of the report:
-Mobile Wallet Adoption: Mobile wallet and payments adoption is strongest in regions where other electronic payments options—particularly card payments infrastructure—is less mature, for example India (56%), Thailand (51%) and Mexico (38%) compared to ‘mature card markets’ in Europe like the UK (14%), France (15%) and Netherlands (20%).
-Mobile Wallet Security: Consumers show a surprisingly high level of confidence when it comes to mobile wallet security. For example, 93 percent of UK respondents say they believe mobile wallet technology is secure or somewhat secure, one of the highest rates globally.
-Fraud Education: Consumer education on fraud awareness varies significantly across and within regions. In the UK, only 39 percent of consumers say they have received anti-fraud information from their bank. Across Europe, the picture is similar with at least one-third of consumers saying they don’t recall receiving any anti-fraud information.
-Fraud Prevention: Consumers are generally willing to interact with organisations in order to mitigate fraud. The majority of UK consumers (55 percent) prefer to be contacted by a bank via mobile phone if there is unusual activity on a bank account or card.
Overall, the research shows that consumers want to proactively manage fraud, particularly by leveraging mobile technology – whether it’s text or talk. This willingness opens opportunities for financial institutions and merchants to optimise the ways in which they reach out and communicate with consumers, ultimately improving customer experience while reducing operational costs and fraud losses.

domain: news


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The current Ford Ranger available in the market today first made its official debut nine years ago. Yes, the current-generation Ranger has been around since 2011, and Ford has yet to introduce its all-new successor.
However, it seems that Ford wants to max out the lifespan of the current Ranger as it released a teaser video announcing the debut of yet another facelifted version of its nine-year-old midsize pickup truck.
LIVE: NEW FORD RANGER 5
The facelifted 2021 Ranger will be launched in Thailand tomorrow, November 5. The teaser video is short but it gives significant hints in regards to the facelifted Ranger.
The video showed a glimpse of three different Ranger trims. The teaser previewed a gray-colored Ranger as well as an orange one, the latter could hint at the exterior look of the updated Wildtrak.
Could this be the updated Ford Ranger Wildtrak?
While the images are not that clear as of this writing, you can tell that the 2021 Ford Ranger comes with a revamped grille and a restyled bumper. Looking at it closely, the grille of the facelifted Ranger shares a bit of similarity to the one fitted in the Ranger FX4.
The taillights look similar to the outgoing Ranger
The rear of the Ranger looks to have the same design compared to the outgoing model. The taillights appear to be similar to the outgoing model, and the same goes for the Ranger’s tailgate.
The Ford Ranger will get a new face yet again
On the other hand, the teaser video also flashed a white-colored Ranger that looks quite different from the pack. Well, it has the same design updates seen on other Rangers, but it comes with a sporty design as well as red trims on the grille.
You can also see that it has Mustang-like racing stripes decals. Moreover, this Ranger could come with a single cab configuration based on the teaser video.
In terms of powertrain details, the facelifted 2021 Ford Ranger could have the same power unit options. With that, we can expect that it will still come available with either a 2.0-liter bi-turbo diesel engine that delivers 210 hp and 500 Nm of torque; or a 2.0-liter turbodiesel engine that puts out 178 hp and 420 Nm; or a 2.2-liter turbodiesel engine that generates 158 hp and 385 Nm.
Facelifted 2021 Ford Ranger
Interestingly, the debut of the facelifted Ford Ranger coincides with the global launch of the 2021 Nissan Navara. The Japanse automaker confirmed last October 27 that the 2021 Nissan Navara will be officially out tomorrow, November 5.
In addition, does the facelifted Ranger mean that Everest will also be getting a new front end? This idea is highly probable since the Ranger and the Everest have the same platform. Moreover, a design update for Everest is a good idea since Toyota have launched the new Fortuner.
Visit Philkotse.com to get the latest updates in the automotive industry.
Know more about Ford Ranger 2021

The Ford Ranger received numerous facets and practicality and is one of the long-running in the segment of pickup trucks. Still, it has changed a lot in recent years, and today, it is equipped with proper SUV features, truck muscularity, spacious cabin, car drivability, and the like.

The sport-themed oriented urban truck was intended for the buyer's active lifestyle. Hence, the Blue Oval Company's midsize pickup truck is also utilized as a lifestyle 'weekend' SUV aside from being just a pickup car. Its robust and multi-talented platform is common for both Ford Ranger and Everest, the latter is considered one of the leading SUVs in its respective segment.

Powering the Ford Ranger is either a 2.5-litre or 3.0-litre Dura TORQ TCDi diesel engines that supply high values of power and torque as well as better mileage. It also features enough room and additional space at the back for either business or personal purposes.

The double cabin pickup truck comes with on-road agility, together with its competent handling and reasonable off-roading capability with a 4x4 mechanism. Moreover, the midsize pickup truck features top-class safety features and competes with the types of Isuzu D-Max, Toyota Hilux, Chevrolet Colorado and, Mitsubishi Strada.


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On Wednesday, four of the most powerful people on the planet testified before Congress. The CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google — who together control companies worth nearly $5 trillion — called in individually via videoconference and fielded questions for nearly six hours. Some questions were tough. Some were just all over the place.
It was a scattered and, at times, awkward hearing. Members of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust received only five minutes at a time to ask all four executives questions. The event was also full of all the technical glitches you can expect in a standard video chat, as well as some anticipated but nevertheless distracting political drama.
Democrats focused on whether the companies are engaged in anti-competitive practices that crush competitors and harm consumers. Much to Democrats’ frustration, many Republicans diverted from antitrust issues to focus on unfounded claims of anti-conservative bias on social media platforms and Google.
While the marathon hearing won’t result in any immediate political or regulatory action, it could apply pressure to antitrust regulators at the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice and set the stage for broader government probes into these companies’ business practices and the laws that have failed to rein them in. The event also stands to influence the public’s opinion of tech at a time when nearly half the country thinks the industry needs government regulation. Naturally, some emerged from the debacle looking like winners. There were also some clear losers.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal
Pramila Jayapal, a Democratic Congress member from Washington, came prepared with sharp lines of questioning for the witnesses, particularly for Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who she grilled about the 2012 acquisition of his company’s then-competitor Instagram.
Jayapal directly quoted internal documents to press Zuckerberg when he repeatedly denied strong-arming Instagram founder Kevin Systrom into a deal. Instead of moving on to another question, Jayapal read back old emails and strategically reminded Zuckerberg that he was under oath to tell the truth. After a tense back-and-forth, the Facebook CEO told Jayapal he disagreed with her characterization of his messages to Systrom.
“I think it was clear that this was a space that we were going to compete in one way or another,” Zuckerberg said. “I don’t view those conversations as a threat in any way.”
.@RepJayapal asks Facebook CEOs Mark Zuckerberg about copying and threatening smaller competitors like Instagram and Snapchat in order to pressure them into selling to the company.— CSPAN (@cspan) July 29, 2020
Full video here: https://t.co/CNTNmIDxiY pic.twitter.com/Itwu0lRf77
But Jayapal, who had clearly done her homework, had more proof, citing messages in which Systrom shared his worries with an investor that Zuckerberg would go into “destroy mode,” copying and crushing his app if he rejected a deal.
“Facebook is a case study in monopoly power, because your company harvests and monetizes our data and then your company uses that data to spy on competitors and to copy, acquire, and kill rivals,” said Jayapal at the end of her round of questioning on the Instagram deal.
Jayapal’s questions produced some of the most damning evidence presented at the antitrust hearing. It demonstrated how Facebook’s market dominance can strike fear in its competitors, even if it’s still undecided whether that fits the legal threshold for anti-competitive behavior.
Even though his company has faced intensifying allegations of antitrust violations in recent weeks, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook only received about half of number of questions as his tech CEO rivals, according to an analysis by VentureBeat.
Cook did face some tough questions about whether Apple takes too big of a cut from the revenue of third-party developers that sell apps in its App Store. Spotify, for example, has very publicly complained about the issue, leading to European regulators launching a pair of antitrust investigations in June. Yet, on Wednesday, members of Congress didn’t focus their ire on Apple’s issues as they did on those of the other tech CEOs.
Overall, Cook won by laying low. To date, he has been masterful at staying quiet when he needs to in order to win at the hyperpartisan politics of the Trump era. And Wednesday’s hearing proved to be no exception.
The Facebook CEO, who’s testified at congressional hearings before, faced some of the toughest questions from lawmakers on both sides. Some argue that the young executive held up well to questioning, but the fact that Zuckerberg became the focus of so much ire undoubtedly directed negative attention to Facebook.
Democrats pressed Facebook about its inability to stop hate speech and misinformation from spreading on the platform. But where Zuckerberg struggled was in the line of questioning from members like Jayapal, who made strong cases for how Facebook has engaged in anti-competitive business practices over the years in what Jayapal called a “copy, acquire, and kill” strategy toward pushing competitors out of business.
Zuckerberg defended Facebook on this point in several ways. First, he argued that if Facebook hadn’t acquired smaller rivals like Instagram, those startups may never have succeeded at the scale they’re at today because they needed Facebook’s support and talent to grow. Second, Zuckerberg said that Facebook isn’t really a monopoly because it competes with companies like Google on ads, Amazon on commerce, and TikTok on social. Third, he claimed that if United States regulators break up tech giants like Facebook, other Chinese competitors (hint: TikTok) who are “less committed” to American values could take over.
But Zuckerberg’s grilling from Congress didn’t stop with acquisitions. Zuckerberg faced a slew of angry questions from Republicans who accused, with scant evidence, that Facebook is inherently biased against conservatives. Even if these claims are unfounded, they left Zuckerberg defending his company from all kinds of angles.
The famously soft-spoken, even-keeled Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, was forced into controversy at Wednesday’s hearing, where he faced a hammering over Google’s privacy practices and dominance in the ads market.
Like Zuckerberg, Pichai was also on the receiving end of a lot of hell about largely unfounded accusations of political bias on Google. But the partisan Republican attacks didn’t end there. Several Republicans, like Reps. Ken Buck and Matt Gaetz, also took issue with Google dropping a major contract with the Pentagon to develop AI to be used in drone warfare. The project, nicknamed Maven, was abandoned in part due to thousands of Google employees’ open dissent, arguing that they didn’t sign up to be in the business of war.
In his questioning, Pichai acknowledged that employees’ anger about Maven factored into the decision to drop the project, which is an obvious and understandable conclusion that Gaetz framed as some kind of bombshell revelation. Pichai also said the company is actively working with US government agencies.
“We are not working with the Chinese military.”— Bloomberg QuickTake (@QuickTake) July 29, 2020
Rep. Gaetz asks Google why an American company would aid the Chinese military pic.twitter.com/yG1r9oR8w7
This all puts Pichai in a tough spot, though. On the one hand, he has to keep his engineers — a narrow pool of talent who are notoriously difficult to recruit — happy. And many of those engineers are vehemently against developing technology that can cause physical harm. At the same time, as evidenced in the hearing, Pichai has to answer to angry lawmakers who see any refusal not to engage in military or police contracts as unpatriotic.
Google’s previous work to build a search engine in compliance with the Chinese Communist Party’s strict censorship was also a subject of questioning by Republicans, who accused Pichai of cozying up to the Chinese government.
For Google, all of this matters because it’s the company most likely to face potential antitrust action in the near future. The Republican-led DOJ is expected to file a lawsuit against Google this summer. So you might say there was no chance for Pichai to win on Wednesday.
Both winners and losers
The Amazon CEO and world’s richest man was calm, polite, and mostly direct in his answers during his first time testifying before Congress. He also survived more than an hour at the beginning of the hearing without being asked a single question thanks to a reported tech issue and didn’t face much in the way of “smoking gun” internal documents that would have put him in a tougher spot when the queries finally began.
But Bezos’s testimony did little to quash a variety of concerns about the power Amazon wields over its 1.7 million small and midsize sellers. These include suspicions over how the company uses data to develop competing products as well as its penchant for suspending or banning sellers with little notice or explanation. Bezos was also specifically called out for increasing the cut of sales that Amazon charges smaller sellers, a sum they must pay in order to have a shot at success on the giant shopping marketplace.
When confronted with anecdotes or accusations of Amazon abusing its power as the ruler of its marketplace, Bezos would express his disapproval, vow to look into it, and try to assure lawmakers that the problems weren’t systemic. Even if he’s right and the abuses are a series of one-offs, the pattern shows that Amazon has grown so powerful that it can massively disrupt or upend its own partner businesses — even it does so by neglect or by accident.
Rep. Jim Jordan
The Ohio Congress member was the most outspoken of his Republican colleagues in attacking the tech giants, claiming that they censor or otherwise suppress conservative viewpoints in various ways. “I will just cut to the chase. Big Tech is out to get conservatives,” he said in his opening. So if success for Republicans was based on airing as many unproven theories of bias as possible, Jordan was the star. And if you watched the hearing and didn’t know who he was before, you certainly do now.
"Put your mask on!"— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 29, 2020
Shouting breaks out among members of the House subcommittee during tech hearing, after Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon suggests Rep. Jim Jordan is pushing "fringe conspiracy theories" https://t.co/83sKht0bRx pic.twitter.com/E6fEZKT6tO
But Jordan wasted precious opportunities to ask hard questions of the tech titans on the actual task at hand: to document whether or how they abuse their power over partners and competitors. To a certain extent, these hearings are a form of theater and most politicians are looking for a catchy sound bite showing them speaking truth to power. If you give an amazing performance for a different show than the one the audience paid for, though, you deserve to be booed off the stage.


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Good Evening. Markets struggled to rebound from a dramatic sell-off that dropped all three main indexes to their lowest levels year-to-date to start the week, leaving US equities unsettled at the close of a bumpy session Tuesday.
After closing below 4,000 for the first time since March 2021 on Monday, the S&P 500 gained 0.25%. The Dow Jones dropped 0.26%, for the fourth day in a row, while the Nasdaq Composite surged 0.98%.
Peloton Interactive (PTON) saw its stock drop on Tuesday after the training equipment company cautioned investors that its growth was stalling.
In Peloton’s fiscal third quarter, which concluded on March 31, subscriber revenue increased by 55% year over year to $369.9 million. The company had 2.96 million connected fitness subscribers at the end of the quarter. These are people who have acquired a Peloton cycle or treadmill and pay a monthly fee to participate in virtual workouts.
Peloton’s sales from linked fitness goods, on the other hand, fell by 42% to $594.4 million. As the number of COVID-19 cases declines, more individuals are returning to gyms, while fewer people are purchasing the company’s in-home workout equipment. Peloton’s total sales fell by 24% to $964.3 million.
Peloton expects its membership growth to slow significantly as equipment sales slow. By the end of the fourth quarter, management expects connected fitness subscriptions to reach 2.98 million, representing a sequential growth rate of less than 1%. The company also predicted a 27% drop in total sales from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022.
At Closing, PTON fell by 8.70% to $12.90 per share.
Goldman Sachs has informed SPACs that it needs a break. Now that regulators are tightening down on the contentious financial mechanism, the investment bank, which was the second-largest underwriter of SPACs last year, is terminating its engagement with the majority of those companies.
SPACs gained a lot of traction early in the epidemic as a vehicle for private companies to go public.
- A SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) is essentially a shell company that goes public before acquiring a private company and bringing it public.
A company can escape the scrutiny necessary by the regular IPO process by opting for SPAC, and celebrities have discovered that generating awareness for a SPAC they partner with can be lucrative.
It was all quite shady, and the regulators weren’t going to let it go on indefinitely. The SEC issued a plan in March that outlined extra requirements for SPACs, robbing them of their allure for underwriters like Goldman Sachs, who would be exposed to more risk under the new criteria.


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Celebrate Mother’s Day today at the O’Keefe Ranch’s official opening for the 2011 season.
Kick start the day with the inaugural SunFM Little Wrangler Pancake Breakfast from 9 to 11 a.m., or book your Mother’s Day brunch or dinner at the Cattlemen’s Club Restaurant, and spend the entire day at the ranch.
“There will be lots to see and do for everyone,” said the ranch’s special events coordinator Alicia Kay.
Visitors can tour the O’Keefe Mansion, the Greenhow Museum, the North Okanagan Model Railway, or get some heritage candy from the General Store.
There will be kid’s crafts, colouring stations and mural painting, a kid’s bouncy castle and slide, tractor rides, model railway displays and much more, said Kay.
Kids can also pick out a gift at the Mother’s Day used book sale or at the O’Keefe Ranch Trading Post, where moms will get a 15 per cent discount for the day.
Families can top off the day with a visit to the animals to see the new baby lambs, or grab a pony ride for the kids.
An old fashioned photo booth will also be set up for the day.
“A day at the ranch would make for the perfect Mother’s Day outing. There is truly something for everyone,” said Kay.
Family rates for the day are $20 (two adults and two children) or $6 per person. (Not all activities are included in the general admission.) Call 250-542-7868 or visit okeeferanch.ca for more information.


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Recent data from illion and AlphaBeta showed that spending in Australia has skyrocketed to 17% above normal levels, driven by the massive cash flow impact of early withdrawal of up to AU$10,000 in superannuation money; and the impact of $750 Stimulus payments to 5 million Australians as part of the next round of Stimulus payments.
The new data (covering 6-12 July, which includes four days of the full Melbourne lockdown and NSW closing the border) revealed that almost all of the growth in spending above normal levels was due to Stimulus and Super. When those who were eligible for the Stimulus and received Super were removed from the sample, average spending was actually 2% below normal levels. This is a good sign because it means spending is almost at pre-COVID-19 levels from those who did not receive government support.
Panic-buying before the second lockdown in Victoria buoyed spending in that state, and helped arrest the steep falls likely to be seen the following week.
There has been a significant improvement across category spend in Australia from 9 weeks ago:
- Gyms and fitness moved up 70 points to 25% below pre-COVID-19 levels
- Public transport slowly improved, up 23 points to 57% below pre-COVID-19 levels
- Department store spending up 54% from pre-COVID-19 levels.
Spending in Victoria is around 15% below other states. Panic-buying in Victoria buoyed spending and helped arrest the plummet. NSW, Western Australia and Queensland are all back to pre-COVID-19 levels, which can be attributed to restrictions being removed (WA) and school holidays (NSW).
Consumer spending across all states except Victoria has skyrocketed and this is due to Stimulus and Super payments. The most interesting part of this data is that while Super and Stimulus payments have accelerated spending, we are now also seeing spending creep up to pre-COVID-19 levels from those who did not receive such support.
The signs of consumer spending in all states except Victoria is very encouraging. Once Victoria gets through this second wave – and assuming it is contained within the state – we will almost certainly see spending increase across all states.


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PSA Peugeot Citroen's revenue continued to fall in the third quarter as shrinking European car markets and production disruptions by workers upset at a planned factory closure dented business.
The French maker of the Peugeot 208, Citroen C4 and other hatchbacks and sedans said on Wednesday its revenue for the July-September period fell 3.7 per cent to 12.1 billion euros ($A17.48 billion). The automobile division saw its sales fall by more, down 5.8 per cent to 8 billion euros ($A11.56 billion).
In a statement, the company blamed weak European markets as well as disruption to its C3 production line at a factory near Paris slated for closure. The company is in the midst of plans to shut factories and shed up to 8000 jobs.
Peugeot Citroen's automobile revenue fell 7 per cent in the nine months to end-September to 26.7 billion euros. For the full year, Peugeot Citroen expects the European market to decline 4 per cent.
Peugeot Citroen lost nearly half a billion euros in the first half of 2013, and had to get a 572 million euros lifeline from the French government. The company is also being forced to sell assets to help fund its restructuring program as it struggles to compete in Europe's morose car market.


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Precarious as the economy is, Gilles Mendel has proven there is money to be had — his designer label, J.Mendel, has lined up a significant investment by The Gores Group.
J.Mendel executives declined to disclose whether the Los Angeles-based equity firm has taken a majority stake in the company or any other terms of the deal. J.Mendel, which has four freestanding stores and permanent retail space in four other key outposts such as Harrods, is believed to be a $30 million wholesale and retail operation.
Fashion and the luxury sector is new territory for The Gores Group., which has acquired 50 companies — Stock Building Supply, Lineage Power and Autolog, among others — with worldwide revenues of more than $15 billion since Alec E. Gores started the company in 1987. The firm, which also has offices in Boulder, Colo., and London, has a current private equity fund with committed capital of $2.9 billion.
Mendel, who describes his new role as “a substantial shareholder,” will continue to serve as chief executive officer and chief designer. Having spoken with six potential investors over the past year, he said beyond being “an extremely savvy business person,” Gores runs a firm with a family atmosphere. That means something to Mendel, who has been the driving force in evolving his label from a notable fifth-generation French fur house to an international luxury fashion brand.
“I really liked the fact that, besides the interest they have in my company, they really have the muscle to make other acquisitions,” Mendel said. “I know if there is anything that will bring more synergy and growth to my business, they will be there with it. That was something none of the other investors were able to bring to the table.”
Ariel Ohana of Ohana & Co., a Paris-based investment banking firm, first connected the two parties.
The Gores Group plans to delve deeper into the fashion world, according to Mendel. “I like that I am their l’eclaireur into the luxury sector,” he said. “I am the first of hopefully what will be many great business transactions that The Gores Group will do in the future.”
The Gores Group also expects this deal to be the first of many in the luxury fashion sector, said managing director Jeffrey Schwartz. The company was eager to jump in due to the current limited investments in the fashion industry, the need for better management skill sets for designers and the anticipated return to more discretionary spending, he said. The firm specializes in improving the back office and cost side of businesses run by individuals “who are not true business people,” Schwartz said.
“There are many, probably hundreds, of fashion companies that are run by very talented creative people, but they are not as focused on running their businesses for profitability as they are for designing clothes,” he said.
Well aware that most financial institutions recently have been reluctant to invest in the underperforming fashion business, The Gores Group views that as an opportunity. In addition, executives there believe consumers eventually will want to indulge in high-ticket fashion items. That is especially true of those who have feigned restricted spending out of respect for those who have been blasted by the economy, the ailing housing market and tighter credit lines, Schwartz said.
The company is not a complete stranger to fashion. Gore’s daughter, Rochelle Gores Fredston, owns the Los Angeles boutique Arcade by Rochelle Gores.
By teaming up with The Gores Group, J.Mendel plans to build on the momentum it has gained in the past 18 months, said the label’s president and chief operating officer, Susan Sokol. In that time frame, wholesale distribution has expanded from 14 doors to 70, and from 12 countries to 21, she said. The company has extended its reach beyond the modern fur pieces, evening gowns and cocktail dresses that initially wooed socialites and Hollywood actresses to the label. (“Modern Family” actress Julie Bowen wore a strapless blue J.Mendel gown to Sunday’s Emmy Awards in Los Angeles.)
Now that J.Mendel has broadened its assortment, introduced late-day-into-evening dresses, bulked up wholesale distribution and tightened pricing, the company plans to continue to fine-tune those areas and is considering others, such as fur accessories, luxury outerwear, knitwear, suits, tops, daytime dresses, knitwear and sweaters. “Clearly, perfume is a number-one choice and opportunity,” said Sokol, adding that leather accessories, eyewear and possibly shoes may be opportunities down the road.
“Over the next year, we plan to stay very focused and steadily grow and support the strongest parts of our business,” Sokol said.
Asked if relinquishing some of the company’s ownership was bittersweet since, until now, it has been an independent, family-owned business for decades, Mendel said: “I think my dad would be very proud of me. I wish he were here to see the success we’re going to bring to this new venture,” he said. “I don’t feel at all that I am losing anything. I am gaining so much through these people and this opportunity. And I am living my dream.”
@chanel and @pharrell dropped what’s being dubbed as the world’s most exclusive sneakers yesterday. The Adidas Originals NMD Hu, which Williams designed in collaboration with Chanel and @adidasoriginals, has a waiting list of over 120K people who pre-registered online at chanelatcolette.fr –– and only 500 pairs are on sale. The singer predicted the resale value of the shoes could reach $40K. Read the full interview on WWD.com. Link in bio. #wwdfashion (📷: Dominique Maître)
@imanshumpert is diving deeper into his creative endeavors and relaunching his clothing line, Post 90s, and is helping to raise money for the hurricane victims in St. Maarten with a jersey he’s designed with his brother. The Cleveland Cavaliers player talked to WWD about kneeling during the national anthem, working with fashion brands and how he wants to be more than an @nba player. Read the interview on WWD.com #wwdfashion (📷: George Chinese)
Not only does #TheProfit return to CNBC tonight, but @marcuslemonis has launched @shopmarcus, a new shopping and lifestyle retail experience in Aspen and Chicago, with more locations to come. The retail stores offer in-store stylists and a variety of contemporary womenswear selections.
“It’s life, I’m going to face it,” @mingxi11 sighed. “I fell, but you know, I think the most important thing is that I get back up. I had the love, the help from my sister — the girl next to me Gizele [Oliveira] — she’s so nice. When I went backstage everybody was trying to comfort me like ‘Oh Ming, it’s OK.’ I’m really, really touched. I think it’s them who gave me the courage to go back on stage for the finale,” Xi told WWD of her fall at the @victoriassecret fashion show. (📷: David Fisher) #wwdfashion #vsfashionshow #victoriassecret
@louisvuitton tapped @therealpeterlindbergh for its latest city-centric photo book, which is part of a series called Fashion Eye. The primarily black and white book captures the spirit of Berlin in 57 images shot between 1989 and 2019. “Berlin is an inspiration for me, more than a city. I mean @millajovovich is simply Berlin!” said Lindbergh. #wwdfashion
“You know, I think audiences expect a certain performance so I have to deliver to them what they’re expecting to a certain degree. But I’m also a different actor and a different person, I have my own spin on the character,” says @noahegalvin of his takeover of the leading role in “Dear Evan Hansen” following the departure of @bensplatt, who originated the role. Read WWD’s interview with the 23-year-old actor on WWD.com #wwdeye (📷: @jilliansollazzo)
For pre-fall 2018, @etro created richly-colored wonderland, using tapestries, textiles and wallpapers from the Eastern world at large. The line featured floral and graphic prints and jacquard motifs, like this two-piece look featured here. #wwdfashion (📷: Giovanna Pavesi)
@kith is moving into children’s. The men’s and women’s streetwear brand has launched Kidset, a Kith kids line located in New York at 64 Bleecker Street. The line includes mini versions of staple Kith pieces like the Astor bomber jacket and the Kith box logo sweatshirts, along with a wall that can display up to 120 pairs of shoes from @adidas, @newbalance, @timberland and more. #wwdfashion
“I just wanted to create this fully rounded character, but I do think what excited me most was just the opportunity to give a group of people representation that I feel needs it. I like to do characters in projects that stand for something and Karolina definitely does, so that was really exciting to me,” @ginnygardner says of her new role in @hulu’s “The Runaways.” Gardner plays Karolina Dean, a queer superhero, which is a rarity for @marvel. Read more about Gardner’s character on WWD.com #wwdeye (📷: @dandoperalski)


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In a significant decision to prevent the inhuman slaughtering of animals, the Karnataka state government has asked the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) to make it mandatory for meat shops and abattoirs to stun the animals before slaughtering them.
The Animal Husbandry department has asked Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to enforce compulsory stunning of animals at slaughterhouses and meat shops in Bengaluru. The department has also asked the BBMP authorities to make sure stunning facilities are in place before giving licences to meat shops.
“We have received complaints from people about the stunning procedure not being followed at slaughterhouses and chicken stalls,” the department said.
It also sought a report on the action being taken by the Bengaluru municipal body.
The order from the BBMP comes amidst the ongoing debate over the Islamic traditions of ‘Halal’, which intensified last week after the Hindu activist group Hindu Janajagruti Samiti gave a call to boycott halal meat while launching a nationwide campaign demanding a ban on Halal products.
The Halal certification labels food products permissible to consume in Islam excluding pork-related edibles, animal fats and other dairy generated products and all types of alcohol.
Is stunning of animals before slaughter halal
Stunning is a process where various methods of shock are used to ‘stun’ the animal so that it becomes unconscious before slaughter and has a relatively painless death. However, as per some Islamic scholars, stunning animals before slaughter is ‘against the principles of Islam’ and an ‘evil innovation’. Many Islamic scholars urge Muslims to avoid stunning when slaughtering animal.
Further, the animal needs to be alive at the time of slaughter. If the method of stunning is irreversible, the chances are high that the animal stunned will die before being slaughtered. A practicing Muslim of sane mind will chant ‘Bismillah’ (in the name of Allah) before slaughtering. However, if the animal is already dead by stunning before slaughter, it would not be able to hear the phrase, which could render the meat non-halal.
However, Mohammed Zubair, cofounder of website AltNews, which often works as islamic propaganda website, has said that stunning the animal before slaughtering might still be halal compliant.
‘Stunning’ process violates Halal compliance?— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) April 2, 2022
No It Doesn't.
Condition: Animal should be alive during Stunning procedure. If the animal is found dead due to the stunning procedure, it's non halal slaughter. https://t.co/q88Ei5geWI
He claimed that stunning does not violate halal compliance as long as animal does not die before being slaughtered.


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Consumer body slaps Rs 10 lakh penalty on Sensodyne for misleading ads
The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) imposed a Rs 10 lakh penalty and ordered discontinuation of advertisement of Sensodyne products which make the claims that it is 'world's No.1 Sensitivity toothpaste.
An official statement passed by authorities of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution stated that the Sensodyne ads which claim that it is "Recommended by dentists worldwide" and "World's No.1 sensitivity toothpaste" are misleading.
Also Read: Petrol, diesel prices up for second day in a row; check new rates
Therefore, the ad should be discontinued within seven days and directed payment of penalty of Rs 10,00,000.
"Also, advertisements which show endorsements by foreign dentists have been ordered to be discontinued as per the earlier order passed by CCPA," the statement further added.
CCPA also initiated suo-moto action against the advertisement of Sensodyne products on various platforms including Television, Youtube, Facebook and Twitter showing dentists practising outside India.
Such advertisements also show the use of Sensodyne products namely Sensodyne Rapid Relief and Sensodyne Fresh Gel for protection against teeth sensitivity and making claims that Sensodyne is "Recommended by dentists worldwide", "World's No. 1 sensitivity toothpaste" and "clinically proven relief, works in 60 seconds".
After examination of the response submitted by the company, CCPA observed that the two market surveys submitted by the brand in support of its claims "Recommended by dentists worldwide" and "World's No.1 sensitivity toothpaste" were made in the advertisements were conducted only with dentists in India.
Also Read: Covid-19 vaccine not mandatory: Centre tells SC
Earlier also Sensodyne was ordered to stop the ads that showed endorsement by foreign dentists.


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According to a JD Wetherspoon spokesman, “we are experiencing some supply problems with both Carling and Coors, which means that some pubs do not have the products available.”
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The spokesman linked this to last week’s strike by delivery drivers working for Heineken, the company’s largest supplier.
Molson Coors, the brewer behind the Carling and Coors brands, said Wednesday that “like many in our great British brewing and pub sector, we have been hit by the HGV (lorry) driver shortage,” which is affecting its supply to some UK pubs.
Major British corporations have connected lorry driver shortages to Brexit, claiming that stricter immigration laws have hampered recruiting in the logistics sector, while the epidemic has forced many foreign workers to flee.
Meanwhile, Nando’s, KFC, and McDonald’s have all reported temporary food and beverage shortages.
The Road Haulage Association has warned of a “serious shortage” of roughly 100,000 truck drivers and is lobbying for short-term visas for foreign truck drivers.
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Tim Martin who’s the founder and chairman of Wetherspoon has been a strong Brexit advocate, dismissing suggestions that Britain’s exit from the European Union would be terrible for business.


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What is the appropriate status of CBD in 2019? Am I able to travel along with it? CBD’s have grown to be commonly popular in recent years. Nonetheless, concerns nevertheless stay about their legality, inspite of the passage through of the Farm Bill in December 2018, that has made hemp-derived CBD’s legal federally, and so appropriate in every 50 states.
CBD had been as soon as considered unlawful since it is a byproduct associated with the cannabis plant that also creates THC a compound that is psychoactive present in cannabis. Unlike cannabis, which will be bred to own a top degree of thc, CBD that is produced by hemp has significantly less than .3% THC with it. Which makes it maybe perhaps not psychoactive. This is actually the major reason why the Farm Bill legalizing hemp CBD ended up being finally enacted with Congress and President Trump overwhelmingly realizing that hemp CBD provides great advantages, and with no side effects connected with THC. The brand new legislation is a milestone that makes it easier for individuals who count on CBD to make best use of the advantages it gives.
CBD and Traveling
Given that Hemp CBD was legalized in the usa, the effect is being thought in a lot of areas and it is particularly news that is welcome people. Just this previous Memorial Day week-end, the Transportation safety management (TSA) has reversed its laws regarding traveling with CBD’s. (more…)


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The optimal market situation in China
China is not only the world's leading producer of spectacles, but also the world's largest consumer of spectacles. Consumer groups in China include people of all ages, from children to elderly. According to Euromonitor estimates in 2015, China's optical market's retail sales increased by about 10%, reaching nearly 67.9 billion yuan, while its contact lens' market sales grew more than 10%, reaching 4.2 billion yuan.
The 2014 Ministry of Health and State Ministry of Education shows that China's myopic population exceeds 400 million, with a myopic rate of 33%, 1.5 times higher than the world's average myopic rate of 22%. The optical market in China shows much potential, with predicted myopic rates increasing by about 8% every year. Increased potential for various segmentations of China's optical markets, from customised glasses to titanium glasses, will be discussed below.
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In January 2003, BYD Auto was founded by BYD owner Wang Chuanfu, following the acquisition of Xi’an Qinchuan Automobile by BYD. BYD’s first automobile, the BYD F3, entered production in 2005. BYD produced the first plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, the BYD F3DM, in 2008, followed by the production of its first battery electric vehicle, the BYD e6, in 2009. In March 2022, BYD will cease production of purely internal combustion engines to focus on new energy vehicles. As well as the main BYD brand, the company also sells high-end vehicles under the Denza, Yangwang, and Fangchengbao brands. The company has been expanding sales of passenger cars into overseas markets in Europe, Southeast Asia, Oceania, and Latin America since 2021.
The Tesla Motors Corporation is one of the world’s most valuable companies and, as of 2023, is the most valuable automaker in the world. A share of 18% of the battery electric vehicle market was held by the company in 2022. Tesla Motors was formed in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. In honor of Nikola Tesla, the company was named after him. Upon investing $6.5 million in February 2004, Elon Musk became the company’s largest shareholder. In 2008, he was In its mission statement, Tesla stated that its goal is to create products that will contribute to “accelerating the transition to renewable energy around the world.”
Thus, BYD finally overtook Tesla in the last year, which means in 2023, Tesla delivered 484,507 vehicles with an increase of 11 compared to the previous quarter. However, this is not enough for the BYD Surge, as 526,409 Chinese EVs were delivered during the same period.
For the first time in a quarter, Byd has delivered more units than Tesla, and it also manufactures more EVs than Tesla. During 2023, Tesla delivered 18 lakh electric vehicles. With 16 lakh electric vehicles delivered in 2023, Byd is only marginally behind. Moreover, it delivered a hybrid model that cost 4 lakhs in addition. In contrast to BYD, Tesla does not manufacture hybrid vehicles, however, the surge of the Chinese brand is nothing short of remarkable.
A conducive government policy in China, robust demand here, and expansion into European markets have all contributed to the success of BYD. Compared to 2011, when Musk was asked about BYD, the Chinese company has come a long way. You have seen their car, he replied with a laugh. There is a consensus among most experts that BYD will overtake Tesla in terms of both production and deliveries in 2024.
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BY TYLER DURDEN WEDNESDAY, APR 27, 2022 – 03:30 AM
What we have witnessed so far is just the beginning of the story. The global response to the COVID pandemic during 2020 and 2021 created the most epic supply chain crisis in modern times, and now “black swan events” such as the war in Ukraine and the bird flu pandemic are making that supply chain crisis even worse. Unfortunately, more global difficulties are coming. There will be more war, there will be more pestilences, there will be more natural disasters, and even the United Nations is admitting that we are heading into the worst global food crisis since World War II. So if you think that global supply chain problems are severe now, just wait until you see what is coming next.
If you go into most major retailers today, you will notice that stock levels are lower than usual and there are some empty shelves.
But most items are still available most of the time, and that is good news.
Of course there are certain product categories that have been experiencing chronic shortages for an extended period of time. For example, supplies of canned pet food have been extremely tight for months on end…
The next time you go to the pet store don’t be surprised to see some empty shelves.
Many pet stores are facing a shortage on canned pet food.
Right now, there just aren’t enough cheap sources of chicken and turkey due to the bird flu pandemic, there is an ongoing shortage of aluminum, and there is a shortage of factory workers.
So the canned pet food shortage is not likely to be fixed any time soon.
Another shortage that is going to affect much of the country as we head into the summer months is the growing chlorine shortage.


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Food & drink
Our article, The unbearable weight of obesity, makes it very clear that people are getting fatter and the upshot of that is more diabetes, heart disease and money spent on healthcare. A US endocrinologist, Robert Lustig, claims we are not getting fatter because of fat. We are getting fatter because of sugar. Sugar is the new evil, in the form of high-fructose corn syrup and sucrose that are added to just about everything – even sausages.
Thanks to a rethink on fat 35 years ago, manufacturers started taking out the fat from just about everything and adding sugar to maintain the taste. Since 1990, people in Britain eat 31% more sugar than they did then – even fruit is bred to contain more sugar. Curiously, we are eating less ‘visible sugar’, literally, fewer bags of sugar. Instead we consume ‘invisible sugar’, found in, for example, organic yoghurt, beer, so-called healthy bread, steak pie, smoked salmon, cheese.
The argument is if you add sugar to one set of things, you have to add it to another set so they won’t taste sour. But another process is set in motion: if we eat too much fructose, the satiety hormone, leptin, is switched off. It fails to tell us when we’re full. When people continue to eat, even though they are full, they can develop insulin resistance too, and that leads to diabetes.
Non-communicable diseases, like diabetes, heart disease, obesity, cancer and Alzheimer’s, kill 35 million people each year.* While we continually hear about poverty and starvation, there are 30% more obese than undernourished people in the world. In 2011, there were 366 million diabetics (5%), and more than twice the number in 1980. In 2030, America is forecast to be 33% diabetic.
Big Sugar has learned many of its public relations tricks from tobacco companies. It tries to confuse the public, lines up experts who disagree, and sugar coats the message. A recent ABC program in Australia claiming statins could be useless and cholesterol was not necessarily implicated in heart disease set up a flood of attacks from doctors and representative bodies. To argue with the status quo, as far as Big Sugar is concerned, is a massive uphill battle. Anyone who claims sugar is a gigantic health problem is called a moron.
Ref: The Week (UK), 7 April 2012, The “poison” lurking in pies, bread, sausages and cereal. W Leith. www.theweek.com
Source integrity: ****
Search words: sugar, tobacco, Robert Lustig, endocrinology, fructose, non-communicable disease, obesity, diabetes, fat, low-fat, corn syrup, sucrose, ‘visible sugar’, fruit, causation, leptin resistance, satiety, addictive, toxic, harvest, food industry, Big Sugar, Starr Report, sugar tax.
* Seems low to me too!
There’s money in maggots
Many articles talk about the looming food shortage in the world but don’t mention the fact there’s a shortage of feed for animals too. European farmers currently have to import 80% of their animal feed, mainly soy, from South America. In the US, thanks to the mass conversion of maize to biofuel, the price of maize fed to pigs has trebled since 2007. This means farmers need a cheaper source of feed for their stock.
One idea is ‘maggot cake’, which is made by growing maggots on manure, food and brewery waste. It’s a kind of extreme recycling, and provides a high 50% protein source that is also free of bacteria like E-coli and salmonella, because the maggots eat it. Most of the research has been done in the US, Spain and South Africa and the first commercial plant may well be at AgriProtein in South Africa. At the moment, a tonne of manure yields 1,000 kilos of maggot larvae, which in turn makes 12.5-35 kilos of feed. It is just as rich as soy and fishmeal.
With such a high protein content, maggot cake could conceivably sell for the same price as other feed, about 800-900 UK pounds per tonne. The cake could also be used for other purposes, such as using its chitin for stabiliser in many pharma products and a binder in adhesives.
The economics of maggot farming are still not sorted out. OVRSol (US) claims manure from 280 million chickens could be converted to protein, fat and chitin worth about US660 million. But the US National Pork Producers Council looked at this idea years ago and said it was uneconomical. While a US government panel gives it broad support, it wants to know that animals will actually eat the stuff. We’re glad it’s not us. We don’t know how people will feel knowing their steak has been fed on maggots – Maggot-Fed Angus anyone? But given past history, we probably won’t know.
Ref: New Scientist (UK), 24 November 2012, A food source for the modern world? www.newscientist.com
Source integrity: *****
Search words: recycling, ‘maggot cake’, farm animals, nutrients, waste, food demand, import, animal feed, soy, biofuel, US, South Africa, Spain, OVRSol, protein, larvae, E-coli, salmonella, sterilized, stabilizer, chitin, safety, US Department of Agriculture.
The ‘Fight Club Fridge’
The ‘Fight Club Fridge’ may be the fridge of the future, if the number of single person households continues to rocket all over the Western world. In Sweden, 47% are solo households, in Norway, 40%, in Japan, 30%, in Australia, nearly 25% are single inhabitant. One question is how and what these singles eat.
What is the Fight Club Fridge anyway? For a start, it’s mainly empty. It may contain an old takeaway pizza, a jar of tomato sauce, and a few cans of beer. If it has vegetables in it, they are probably quite old and grizzled. Nutritionists say that singles are notorious for not feeding themselves properly. Given that there are 3 million singles in Australia who may not be eating wisely, that could be quite a public health problem. Poor nutrition already costs the country $A5 billion a year.
About a third of elderly Australians, also likely to be living alone, are undernourished. They may also lack the joys of eating with somebody else, the communal aspect of eating. Epicurus said sharing food and wine with friends was one of the keys to happiness. While it can be irksome to hear someone ask day after day, “What’s for dinner?”, when there is nobody to ask, dinner takes on a different, perhaps lonely meaning.
One idea is to have public dining rooms where singles can go and sit at communal tables. (There is a restaurant called the Public Dining Room in a suburb of Sydney, Australia, but there is not much evidence of solos.) Another is to go and spend time in communal gardens, actually growing the food with others and sharing the food afterwards.
Certainly there is room for a better class of takeaway, because most of the regular options are laden with fat, salt and sugar. Most healthy takeaway in Australia comes from entrepreneurial vegetarians (probably out of necessity). And as usual, healthy food costs so much more. Not all singles are on good incomes and, in fact, lose the economies of scale available to couples and families. It’s not really worth maintaining one fridge.
Ref: Sydney Morning Herald (Aus), 6 April 2013, Table for one. S Wood. www.smh.com.au/good-weekend
Source integrity: *****
Search words: Fight Club, fridge, single person household, solo, nutrition, vegetables, takeaway, fat, elderly, communal eating, public dining rooms, solo diners, herds, community garden, Iku Wholefoods, corn syrup, home delivery, cooking, gardener, intimacy.
A lovely bunch of coconut consumers
In case you’ve been living under a palm tree, coconut is cool. Sales of coconut water – that slightly weedy tasting stuff left over after you’ve eaten the coconut – have quintupled between 2008 and 2012. In fact, before 2010, you probably couldn’t even buy it in Britain though you could buy a humble, hairy coconut. In 2013, Waitrose reported a rise of 183% in its sales of coconut water and oil.
This year saw many product launches all over the world, each one designed to cash in on the new craze for coconut. New brands, such as Vita Coco, Zico, Harmless Harvest, O.N.E., and Pret a Manger’s home brand, are selling like hot – coconuts. Harmless Harvest is one of the fastest growing coconut brands in the US food and beverage sector.
Why is coconut so popular? Partly because it contains more potassium than a banana, has natural electrolytes that replace those lost in sweat, and it has no cholesterol (it’s a plant). It is popular in America, where they particularly like sports drinks and vitamin enhanced drinks. Marketing by celebrities (Rihanna for Vita Coco) also helps. Just as they used to carry bottled water – remember Fiji Water? - now the faces-that-be carry coconut water.
Coconut oil is also on the ascendant. Over a quarter of food and drink new products in 2012 contained coconut oil, up from 15% in 2008. Sales of coconut oil itself have lifted a whopping 780% in that time, according to Mintel. Its appeal, to both consumers and companies, is that it is vegetarian, premium, may be organic and is always cholesterol free, though it is still a saturated fat. Sales of coconut palm sugar are also growing on the back of the oil and water, so to speak.
Coconuts come from Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines, which begs the question whether farmers are receiving the fruits of the coconut craze. Harmless Harvest (US) claims they invest in farming communities in Thailand, and is all for ‘constructive capitalism’ (we wish it were the only kind). It makes us wonder what the next coconut will be. How about something really passe like brussel sprouts? The cooking water smells the same.
Ref: The Independent (UK), 10 September 2013, Living la vida coco. CD Hogg. www.independent.co.uk
Australian Food News (Aus), 5 June 2013, New coconut water products quintuple globally over past five years. S Langley. www.ausfoodnews.com.au
Source integrity: *****
Search words: coconut water, Pret A Manger, Waitrose, Brazil, potassium, electrolytes, Vita Coco, Mintel, aspiration, Huffington Post, non-alcoholic, PepsiCo, Zico, ‘constructive capitalism’, Harmless Harvest, low fat, coconut oil, coconut palm sugar.
Making money from heavy drinkers
Did you know the heaviest drinkers are in Moldova (near Romania), followed by Russia, South Korea and Portugal? The UK is not that far behind, ranked 17, Australia is ranked 44 and the US, trailing at 56. Judging by the levels of alcoholism and violence in both the UK and Australia, the ranking itself does not tell us much.
The WHO came up with a strategy in 2010 for reducing the toll of harmful drinking on the world. It kills 2.5 million people each year, accounts for 5.5% of disease and premature death, and is the third biggest cause of ill health after high blood pressure and tobacco. But don’t worry, the alcohol industry wants us to ‘drink responsibly’. It advocates designated drivers, voluntary codes and personal restraint. Considerable evidence suggests government-imposed strategies work the best, such as increasing price, restricting availability and no advertising. These are not popular with alcohol companies.
They can get around any advertising restrictions. In 2011, Diageo increased its US sales of five main brands by 20%, to which it credits its multimillion-dollar strategic partnership with Facebook. Young people tend to see targeted alcohol marketing in social media as ''useful and informative'' instead of recognising it as advertising, research found. Nothing like selling to your mates. Social media is rapidly becoming the medium of choice, and so cheap too.
Studies show that increasing the price does hit consumption, but the industry argues this will not affect hazardous or underage drinking. The heaviest drinkers in Britain, about 10%, consume about 45% of the alcohol, too lucrative a market to lose. Meanwhile, underage drinkers cannot afford to buy expensive alcohol, so it is hard to see how a price rise would not affect them.
In emerging markets, the possibilities for selling alcohol are almost endless. Draft alcohol policies for Botswana, Lesotho, Uganda and Malawi are, surprise, authored by the policies and issues manager at SABMiller, one of the alcohol industry funders of, surprise, the International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP). So it does not look like self-regulation is going to get us far.
In Scotland, consumption has doubled in the past 50 years as the price of alcohol has fallen. It now has one of the highest rates of liver cirrhosis in western Europe. The British government dropped a 45 pence minimum unit price for England and Wales, following “powerful arguments from both sides”.
In late 2013, the NSW Premier and Police Commissioner of Australia met after a weekend of alcohol-fuelled violence that saw 540 arrests. Police say messages about sensible drinking “are not getting through”, and having more police will not fix it. This is happening all over the world.
Ref: New Scientist (UK), 12 January 2013, The battle of the bottle. P Aldhous. www.newscientist.com
Source integrity: *****
Search words: vodka, alcohol, public health, WHO, road accidents, ‘drink responsibly’, government policy, International Center for Alcohol Policies, minimum price, underage drinking, tobacco, Diageo, Facebook, public image, taxation, advertising, heavy drinkers, Asia, Africa, SABMiller, self-regulation, Scotland, health risks.


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Space travel in the future is expected to last from several months to years, and astronauts will need to maintain healthy diets during those extended voyages.
Scientists with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are working with NASA to develop sustainable farming techniques and technologies to grow fresh produce while in spaceflight. According to Chris Dardick, lead scientist and plant molecular biologist at the ARS Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville, WV, there has been promising research on vegetable farming in space because they grow relatively quickly, but fruit?
According to Dardick, most fruits that are key components of our diet, such as apples, pears, peaches, cherries, grapes, plums, raspberries, oranges, and bananas, grow on trees or vines that take years to grow. Many of these fruit trees also require long periods of cold annually to flower and renew their growth.
To get from space farm to fork more quickly, Dardick’s team borrowed an idea from a common backyard garden staple, the tomato.
“We genetically engineered plum trees to continually flower and produce fruit, much like a tomato plant,” he said. “The trees were created by over-expressing a key flowering regulator gene that causes them to flower all of the time and eliminates the need for cold dormancy.”
Not only does this technology offer the potential to grow fruit on long-duration space missions, but it could also be used on Earth in indoor or urban farms to help feed residents of food deserts – areas where people have limited access to a variety of healthful foods.


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New "M1 Pro" and "M1 Max" chips have appeared in developer logs ahead of Apple's next generation MacBook Pro, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman in his Power On newsletter. Until now, rumors have suggested that Apple's new MacBook Pro would feature a faster "M1X" processor.
The aforementioned developer tells me that new MacBook Pro chips have appeared in logs under the names “M1 Pro” and “M1 Max.” I’m not saying Apple will take that direction with its actual marketing names, but that’s another—albeit more confusing—possibility. We'll know for sure in just about 24 hours.
We'll find out which rumor is correct very soon. Apple is holding an 'Unleashed' event at 10am PDT on Monday, October 18 at which the company will likely unveil the new MacBook Pro. Other last minute rumors suggest the notebook could feature a notch similar to the iPhone. More details here.
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Tentatively titled "Friday Night Brew Haha," the partnership will integrate A-B's brands into a two-hour programming block for "Indecision 2008 Friday Night Stand-Up." The politically themed episodes will feature customized promos, billboards and commercial adjacencies for the marketer on TV and on comedycentral.com, including animated spots to be integrated into the show.
Crafted specifically for A-B
Jeff Lucas, exec VP-ad sales for the MTV Entertainment Group, said the calendar-year deal was crafted specifically for A-B. "We wanted to make sure it sets them apart, and being a part of 'Indecision' sets you apart right away," he said. The first "Friday Night Stand-Up" will air at the end of March and feature the Bud Light brand, while the second could coincide with the national rollout of the new Bud Light Lime brand in May.
Each of the series' advertisers is category-exclusive, so they don't compete with one another, which is "key to what Comedy Central stands for, in terms of political humor, and we're associating a number of brands with that," Mr. Lucas added.
The "Indecision" deal does not include Comedy Central's flagship late-night series, "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," or "The Colbert Report." Mr. Lucas said the network tries to maintain the credibility of the shows and their hosts by "honor[ing] basically the same rules, in many ways, as you would with a conventional news show. They take it very seriously, that viewpoint they deliver on the news to the viewers, so we walk a very fine line." But occasionally brands can get in on the action via a prewritten jokes from one of the show's writers or, in the case of "The Colbert Report," a fake presidential campaign.
The A-B deal, executed with the company's in-house Busch Media Group, also signifies Mr. Lucas' approach to branded entertainment, which is to partner as early as possible. "Branded integration is very interesting. Many clients will talk it; not many can do it," he said. "It has to be planned out from the early phases of what you want to accomplish, whether it's from the script phase, non-script or marketing, so you come off the right way to the viewer. If they see it's commercial, they smell it's too commercial, and it turns the client off."
Partnering with an established comedy brand both on TV and online could also bring some audience back to Bud.TV, which notably struggled to meet the 3 million page views A-B hoped it would rake in by 2007. In its first official month of launch last February, the site attracted 253,000 visitors, a number that sank to below 100,000 in May. The site did see an unexpected boom in activity last June after posting "Swear Jar," a shelved Super Bowl spot that drew nearly 1 million views on YouTube in its first two weeks alone.


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Volkswagen has roll-out of the 1 lakhth car from its manufacturing plant in Chakan, Pune. The production of the 100,000th car has taken the German automaker 2 years to achieve. The 1 lakhth car to roll out was a Volkswagen Vento from the final check point at the plant. Just five months ago, Volkswagen rolled out the 50,000th car from their Chakan faclity, which produces the Polo, Vento and the Skoda Fabia. Volkswagen’s plant in Aurangabad assemble the Jetta, Passat, Laura and Superb. The Volkswagen facility is the largest investment (Rs. 3800 crore) by a German country in India.
“We inaugurated the plant in March 2009 and our India journey since then has been exciting and enriching. I would like to thank our strong team of committed and experienced employees for their relentless efforts in achieving the completion of 100,000 cars in such a short time period. With this remarkable figure, we have proved that the cars built at the Pune plant demonstrates the excellence created when German engineering prowess interacts perfectly with Indian skills,” Mr. Holger Nestler, Executive Director, Technical, Volkswagen India, said.


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Investment strategy aims to keep Unthink rooted
TAMPA — Unthink’s late October launch came nearly four years after founder and CEO Natasha Dedis began researching Facebook Inc. to determine if she would allow her young son to join. Dedis, who lived in Greece when that country was ruled by a military junta, is sensitive to control issues and didn’t like what she found.
Facebook and other social networking sites acquire as much information as they can on users, then sell the data to marketing firms and advertisers, Co-founder Spiro Verras said. Facebook says it only provides aggregated information about a company’s fans, such as the average age, gender, location and interest, according to an Oct. 3 report in the Wall Street Journal.
Unthink raised $500,000 from its founders and received over the summer a $2.5 million investment from DouglasBay Capital, a British firm in the Isle of Man. DouglasBay got a minority stake in Unthink, said Richard Hadlow, a partner at Holland & Knight in Tampa who helped raise the initial venture capital. In the future, Unthink is exploring “crowd funding,” a concept that would allow very small investments in private companies by individuals.
Dedis and other founders want to maintain control, and that’s partly why they didn’t seek investors in technology hotbeds such as Silicon Valley.
The company has 10 employees at its corporate headquarters in Tampa and 68 workers at its development center outside of New Delhi.
“We’re here to stay,” Verras said. “We would love to partner with other businesses. Although we are talking to media shops we also want relationships with individual businesses. We try to make everything about the site accessible and empowering to small business and to Main Street.”
Margie Manning is Print Editor of the Tampa Bay Business Journal. She also covers the Money beat.
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New environmental laws are being created and enforced globally. Affecting everyday life for people across the planet is a sure way to raise awareness about the climate crisis.
Companies need to be ready to take steps that aren't so small.
Stop Using Plastic Bags
This simple initiative in Thailand has been adopted by 43 retailers. They are no longer giving away free plastic bags to hold consumer purchases. Although this has not caught on throughout the US, New Mexico, Oregon, and New York are making strides to prevent the distribution of plastic bags at check-out.
Forget the Single-Use Plastic
Time to stop using plastic plates, cups, and water bottles especially in France. As of January 1, 2020, they have banned the use of these items, and have their sights set on plastic utensils and straws by January 1, 2021!


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xPressTap Wants to Eliminate Payment Card Readers, Reduce Fees
With the Aug. 1 launch of its Tap2App merchant payment solution and pilot program, xPressTap Inc. is enabling micro-retailers and small business owners to use their smartphones to accept card payments without a dongle or a portable card reader.
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based startup says its patented technology turns any NFC-enabled smartphone or tablet into a virtual card reader and can reduce merchant fees by as much as 25 percent.
Charges vary by market, but xPressTap has no sign-up or monthly fees and typically charges 2.25 percent + 15 cents per card tap and 2.75 percent + 15 cents per key-in card, according to its website.
The Tap2App technology has proprietary payment terminal functionality and EMV chip-reading capability that resides in the app, which eliminates the need for separate card readers or mobile point-of-sale devices.
Consumers don’t have to download an app to pay using Tap2App. The transaction is completed with a tap of a contactless payment card. Mobile wallet support is “coming soon.”
Mobile point-of-sale transactions are expected to account for roughly 20 percent of all global retail transactions made in 2021, and the total value of goods transacted through m-POS devices will exceed $2.3 trillion, according to Juniper Research.
Tap2App is launching initial pilots in Australia and New Zealand with merchants, as well as alliance and distribution partners. Contactless payments are well-established in Australia, where 82 percent of consumers are making contactless payments at least once week, according to Mastercard.
- Wirecard with CIMB Bank Singapore to Provide M-POS Card Acceptance, Banking for Eleos Clients
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Flooring group James Halstead PLC expects half year pre-tax profits to decline due to challenges with energy and raw material costs.
According to its latest trading update ahead of its interim results for the half-year to 31 December 2022, the company said that revenues for the period are expected to be around 8-9% ahead of the comparative period in the prior year.
“Over the six months, trading of UK manufactured goods has been adversely affected by the lack of availability of international shipping to several overseas territories most notably Australia, North and South America,” James Halstead said.
“However, in December the Company saw signs of reduced international freight costs and raw material costs. Energy costs remain at historically high levels but have not escalated, nor have our key European raw material suppliers faced production interruption as a result of the energy shortage. The Company has also been able to significantly reduce stock levels since the end of the last financial year. This has had a positive effect on our balance sheet strength which continues to underpin our business.
“As a consequence of the challenges highlighted above, profit before tax for the half year will be short of the comparative period but not significantly so. However, the Board’s expectations for the full year remain positive and unchanged.”


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Eminem tweeted out his phone number to his fans saying "Text me, I'll hit you back"
This is part of a new initiative to answer any questions they have about him. He even linked a website which featured his contact information and opened up a text bubble allowing fans to text him.
Eminem even linked a newly launched phone-based social media service that generates a phone number fans can use to ask questions about their favorite artists.
He also announced that he will be hosting an online listening party for his third studio album.
Are you excited about this?


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The new label press allows Megalabel to produce high-quality labels at an affordable cost using digital technology
Brazilian label converter Megalabel has acquired Tau 330 RSC E single-pass digital inkjet label press from Durst, a manufacturer of advanced digital printing and production technology.
The new label press has been installed at Megalabel’s facility in Sao Paulo and allows the Brazilian label firm to produce high-quality labels at an affordable cost using digital technology.
Megalabel owner Marcio Romano said: “cost-effective, industrial-scale production at very high-quality and speed will fill the gap between flexo and short-run digital production.
“We closed a deal in practically three days. Knowing that we can count on a service structure, parts and support here in Brazil is an important differential.”
The new inkjet label press has a production capacity of 1,485 square metres per hour
The new Tau 330 RSC E digital press supports print widths up to 330mm and prints at 52 linear meters and with the optional speed upgrade up to 80 linear meters per min.
This enables a production capacity of 1,485 square metres per hour at a print resolution of 1200×1200 dpi.
The new press is designed to produce labels in approximately eight colours that include CMYK, plus White, Violet, Orange and Green and will also be able to covert about 95% of Pantone colours at a lower cost.
Durst GroupLabel & Flexible Packaging Segment manager Helmuth Munter said: “The Durst Tau RSC E brings affordable, industrial-scale digital production to increasing numbers of forward-thinking companies such as Megalabel.
“The fact that we have dedicated teams in Brazil offering direct service, parts and support locally is clearly going to be an increasingly important factor in decision-making going forward as we continue to build our business in South America and further afield.”
In April this year, Belgium converter Label Products has acquired Durst’s Tau 330 RSC E press to continue its organic expansion.


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Millennials and hipsters beware: big government wants to come for your e-cigarettes if teenagers do not stop using them.
On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration threatened to remove from the market some of the popular vaping products of five top-selling national brands unless they submit plans to prevent minors from using their products.
“The agency is asking each company to submit to FDA within 60 days plans describing how they will address the widespread youth access and use of their products,” the FDA said in a statement. “If they fail to do so, or if the plans do not appropriately address this issue, the FDA will consider whether it would be appropriate to revisit the current policy that results in these products remaining on the market without a marketing order from the agency. This could mean requiring these brands to remove some or all of their flavored products that may be contributing to the rise in youth use from the market until they receive premarket authorization and otherwise meet all of their obligations under the law.”
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb says he recognizes the benefits of e-cigarettes for adults trying to quit smoking combustible cigarettes, but “that work can’t come at the expense of kids.”
“We cannot allow a whole new generation to become addicted to nicotine,” he said. Gottlieb said he believes youth are attracted to the e-cigarettes because of “certain flavors.”
Reason explains that Gottlieb is considering “reneging on the FDA’s four-year extension of the deadline for seeking regulatory approval to continue selling e-cigarettes, which would wreak havoc with a market that he concedes has great potential for reducing smoking-related disease and death.”
“The FDA now believes that youth use of e-cigarettes is reaching epidemic proportions,” the statement reads. “This belief is based on not just the results of the agency’s enforcement actions, but also recent sales trends, news coverage, increased concerns among kids, parents and educators, as well as preliminary data that will be finalized and released in the coming months.”
The FDA claims that “more than 2 million middle and high school students were current users of e-cigarettes in 2017,” but Reason disputes this number, noting that it includes respondents who vaped even once during the previous month.
The statement also states that the agency issued 1,300 warning letters and fines to retailers who were caught illegally selling products to minors in “an undercover blitz of brick-and-mortar and online stores this summer.”
Smoking of conventional cigarettes last year hit a record low of 9.7% in comparison to 36.5% in 1997, according to the Monitoring the Future Study.


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After seven years of filing applications for the grant of geographical indication (GI) recognition for basmati rice, the Chennai-based GI registry on Tuesday granted the coveted tag to the commerce ministry’s wing Agricultural and Processed Foods Export Development Authority (Apeda).
Apeda has been given the GI tag as the sole custodian of basmati rice grown in the Indo-Gangetic plains. Last month, the Chennai-based Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) had asked the GI registry to grant GI certification to Apeda while allowing stakeholders from Madhya Pradesh to submit fresh documents for inclusion in the basmati grown areas.
Sources told FE that GI protection in India would lead to similar recognition in other countries, including the European Union (EU) and the US, which implies that India’s competitors would be barred from using the ‘basmati’ tag. In the absence of GI for basmati rice, many private companies had been trying to register their products under the title, which commands a premium in the global market.
Basmati rice from the Indo-Gangetic plain, which includes the Punjab province of Pakistan, has a special aroma attributable to it. India commands an 85% share in global basmati trade at present. Following the GI notification, farmers in 77 districts of seven states — Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir — would now get the benefit.
In 2008, Apeda had applied to the GI registry asking for exclusive (commercial) use of the ‘basmati’ tag for grain varieties grown within the boundaries of the Indo-Gangetic plain. Subsequently, India and Pakistan had initiated steps to register basmati under GI as ‘joint heritage’ for protecting its premium market abroad. But that bid did not fructify due to opposition within Pakistan.
Last month, the IPAB bench has also dismissed a plea by the Basmati Growers Association (BGA), Pakistan, which was joined as a party in the case. “It is for the BGA to agitate their rights and establish their claims before the High Court of Sindh at Karachi. The appellant, without taking steps to substantiate their claim in respect of Basmati rice in their country, namely Pakistan, there is no justification for them to intervene and interfere in the proceedings initiated by Apeda in respect of getting GI tag for basmati rice covering the areas within the territory of India as specified in the maps filed along with the GI application”, the IPAB had noted.
India’s basmati rice exports, which had touched a record R29,000 crore in 2013-14, fell to R27,600 crore in 2014-15, due to a decline in shipments to Iran. In the first three quarters of the current fiscal, the country has exported R17,588 crore of basmati rice against R20,455 crore worth of shipment during the same period in the previous fiscal.
According to official data, more than 237 products have got GI certification for preserving their uniqueness.


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Many dealers’ lots are brimming with an ever-growing number of electric vehicles. A stumbling block to sales: Consumer dissatisfaction with public charging infrastructure has increased over the last year, according to the J.D. Power’s 2023 US Electric Vehicle Experience Public Charging Study.
“Since consumer skepticism regarding public charging availability is the primary reason vehicle shoppers reject EVs, this performance could prove to be a further hindrance to EV acceptance,” J.D. Power says in a press release.
Focusing on educating potential EV buyers is one way for dealers to overcome the skepticism around public charging and to sell more EVs, says Brent Gruber, executive director of the EV practice at J.D. Power.
“In order for someone to adopt an electric vehicle they have to feel comfortable and confident they can charge their EV,” Gruber tells Wards. “Right now, they don’t’ feel confident. Dealers can educate consumers about public charging.”
The J.D. Power study found that despite an increase in the number of public charging stations across the U.S., customer satisfaction with Level 2 charging declined by 16 points on a 1,000-point scale to 617, the lowest level since the study began in 2021. Satisfaction with DC fast charging plunged 20 points to 654.
The study, conducted with PlugShare, an EV driver app maker, was fielded from January through June 2023 and included responses from 15,079 owners of battery-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
To be sure, one cause of the growing dissatisfaction is the spread of EV ownership to more than just early adopters, Gruber says.
The J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Electric Vehicle Ownership Study found first-time owners rose to 85% of EV buyers this year, up from 74% in 2022. The mass market share of sales jumped to 89% from 67%.
The study, also conducted with PlugShare, was fielded from August to December 2022 and included 7,073 owners of ʼ22- and ʼ23-model BEVs and PHEVs.
Many of the early EV buyers were Tesla owners, and they were (and still are) very satisfied with the Tesla supercharger experience. That is not the case with other nameplates.
“Now you have mainstream consumers coming into the mix,” says Gruber, “and they are using a bunch of different networks (so charging is) not a consistent process.”
Indeed, many of those non-Tesla chargers don’t work. The Public Charging Experience study found 20% of all EV owners who visited a charging station didn’t charge and the main reason was inoperability.
It’s Not Just Broken Public Chargers
But consumer concerns about charging starts long before they try to plug their EVs into public chargers, says Gruber. Dealers need to address those issues.
For example, dealers should let consumers know they need different types of credit cards for different brands of charging stations, he says.
As electricity rates have increased, so has the cost of charging, and consumer satisfaction with the cost of charging “plummeted” in the most recent study, says Gruber.
Dealers could let consumers know how to take advantage of any discount programs charging networks or local utilities have, he says.
Consumer dissatisfaction also grew due to the increasing disparity between the EV adoption rate and the charger installation rate, says Gruber. “There is a pretty big imbalance,” he says.
Adding more charging stations at dealerships isn’t a solution, however, Gruber says. Dealers can and should have charging stations at their stores, but “you have to look at it practically,” he adds.
The more affordable Level 2 chargers provide what amounts to a convenience charge. A DC fast charger is needed for a faster complete charging experience, and that requires a substantial investment on the dealer’s part, Gruber says.
Plus, “people want charging where there are things to do” while they wait, he says.
Changing public perceptions often comes down to education. The No.1 reason for not buying an EV is the perceived lack of public charging, Gruber says.
Dealers can let consumers know not just about charging locations but also other details, such as how to use different chargers and how to get charging discounts.
That will be crucial to more EV sales in the future, the J.D. Power official says.
“Dealers are the frontline educator for EVs,” Gruber says. “As more mainstream consumers do come into the fold, the dealer role is going to be even more critical to educating consumers about EVs.”


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Since the birth of her sister Kourtney's first child, Mason Dash Disick on Monday, auntie Kim Kardashian has been spending big on baby clothes. Kim hit Intuition, one of LA's trendiest shops, for Baby Eggi clothing before taking time out for a pedicure at Beverly Hills Nail Design on Tuesday. Decepticon/Splash News - December 15, 2009
Week in Photos: December 13-19, 2009
Miss any of the hot celebrity stories from last week? Get caught up with the Week in Photos.


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Canadian Solar sees lower shipments as European sales slump
(Reuters) - Canadian Solar Inc (CSIQ.O: Quote) forecast lower shipments and margins for the current quarter as its market share shrinks in the European Union, the biggest solar market where the EU plans to cap imports of cheap solar panels made in China.
Shares of the company, most of whose manufacturing operations are in China, were down 7 percent at $13.26 on the Nasdaq on Wednesday.
Canadian Solar said it expects to ship between 410 megawatts (MW) and 430 MW of solar panels in the third quarter, lower than the 455 MW it shipped in the second.
The company forecast gross margin of 10-12 percent for the third quarter, lower than nearly 13 percent in second quarter.
Canadian Solar's sales to Europe slumped by about 83 percent in the quarter ended June, accounting for less than 11 percent of its second-quarter revenue of $380.4 million. Europe accounted for nearly 70 percent of the company's revenue a year ago.
The company said it was adopting a "conservative approach" in Europe. It does not expect any growth in shipments to Europe in the third quarter.
"It does not surprise me in the least that they would guide to a slower third quarter as compared to second quarter," said Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov.
"Second quarter had considerable 'pre-buying' in Europe ahead of the feared European tariff that could have pushed Chinese module prices in Europe up almost 50 percent," he said.
Canadian Solar's rivals Trina Solar Ltd TSL.N and Yingli Green Energy Holding (YGE.N: Quote) on Thursday said they expect second-quarter shipments and gross margins to be higher than their forecasts on the jump in sales in Europe. Continued...