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Gallery Residences, the 27-story Buckhead condominium, has passed the 70 percent sold mark. Coldwell Banker Previews handles sales and marketing for the community. Homes start in the $290s and FHA financing is available. www.GalleryBuckhead.com
Christie’s Great Estates, the world’s leading luxury real estate network, presented the Large-Market Affiliate-of-the-Year Award Second runner-up this week to Harry Norman, Realtors. The real estate firm – a member of the Christie’s Great Estates network of more than 130 international affiliates – was honored at the network’s 2010 Global Annual Conference for Owners and Senior Management in Toronto. www.harrynorman.com
Conrad Lyles Realtors has created a new web site focused exclusively on Buckhead. The new site includes neighborhood profiles and monthly market reports, interactive mapping featuring local schools, recreation, places of worship, restaurants, shopping and more. There are also Google Street View maps and useful articles on home-buying and selling. www.conradlyles.com.
Luxe List Home has announced that12 luxury apartment communities in Atlanta have been selected for inclusion in the 2010 Luxe List. The communities include The GoodWynn at Town, Gables Midtown, 05 Buckhead, Westchester at Peachtree Valley, Gables Sheridan, The Residences at Vinings Mountain, Gables Century Center, Gables 820 West, Tremont, Berkeley Heights, The Manor at Buckhead and Pencil Factory Flats & Shops. www.luxelisthome.com
One River Place has enjoyed banner sales since May, when its homes were re-released by ST Residential resulting in the sale of 38 homes for $11 million in sales. www.oneriverplaceatlanta.com
The Atlanta City Council and Atlanta Development Authority has signed a letter of intent to sell City Hall East on Ponce de Leon Avenue to Jamestown Properties. Built in the 1920s, the building served as a warehouse facility as well as a retail store for Sears and Roebuck for decades. The city of Atlanta purchased the building in the early 1990s and opened government offices there including police, fire-rescue and parks, recreation and cultural affairs offices. The agreement calls for the purchaser to pay $27 million for the property, with $15.5 million to be paid to the city at closing. Jamestown Properties plans to invest $150 million to develop the building into about 20 percent small and mid-box retail space, with 40 percent residential and 40 percent office/commercial space.
Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty has opened its new and expanded offices at the Piazza at Paces in Buckhead. The offices are decorated with images of French Impressionist masterpieces from Sotheby’s and has a terrace overlooking the Buckhead and city skylines. Cutting the official grand opening ribbon are Atlanta Fine Homes Senior VP Nancy See, President David Boehmig, CEO Jenny Pruitt and Philip White, COO of Sotheby’s International Realty.
The Marketing Directors has announced a sellout of all 130 condominiums at The Reynolds at 565 Peachtree St. After an innovative marketing campaign, The Marketing Directors closed out the remaining 59 homes that were for sale. The Marketing Directors created the successful “Pick Your Price” marketing campaign allowing buyers to make the developer an offer on their terms.


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People can let us know what they're looking for through our comments section on the blog.
Gatineau, Quebec, Canada (PRWEB) July 15, 2009
There's nothing worse than chafing while sleeping. It can cause quite a bit of displeasure while trying to enjoy an evening's slumber. Flannel and cotton pajamas can contribute to a lack of sleep. For women looking for the pinnacle of comfort, there's now http://www.FeminineSilkSleepwear.com.
"Silk is the most versatile, durable and ecological product on the market," said Andre Luc Le Blanc, the site's founder.
Le Blanc started the website in May 2009 and it has since been gaining traction as one of the internet's premiere destinations of premium silk sleepwear.
Featuring a diverse selection of high quality silk nightgowns, nightdresses and a host of other types of sleep apparel, Feminine Silk Sleepwear has an impressive catalog in its infancy, with only more additions coming soon.
"Right now, I'm involved with designing and creating a new product that will mix silk with spandex for people who do yoga," said Le Blanc. "The comfort is that product moves beyond the intention of utilizing silk as a sleepwear fabric and into having an optimal fabric for exercise."
As Le Blanc puts the finishing touches on his upcoming product, he's also launched a new informational blog in http://www.WomansSilkSleepWear.com.
The blog features tips and educational bits about the products that are showcased on FeminineSilkSleepwear.com.
"It was important for us to start a blog as a communication tool for our customers," explained Le Blanc. "People can let us know what they're looking for through our comments section on the blog."
While people across the world battle a loss of sleep, Andre Luc Le Blanc and his FeminineSilkSleepwear.com e-store is able to contribute a sense of comfort to the collective resting of people everywhere.
About the Company:
FeminineSilkSleepwear.com is a part of ALB Online Goods and Services Inc, which is owned and operated by Andre Luc Le Blanc.
Andre Luc Le Blanc

domain: news


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Fiil Headphones, an audio equipment start-up founded by Chinese singer Wang Feng, has completed US$20 million series A funding led by Yuanjing Capital, according to an announcement.
Several other Chinese investors, whose identities are difficult to determine as there are very little public information about them, also participated in the round.
The round values the company at RMB1 billion (US$153 million).
Yuanjing Capital is founded by former Alibaba executive Wu Yongming. It manages RMB2 billion (US$302 million).
Fiil Headphones, operated by Fengfan (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., will use the latest proceeds on research and development, as well as building up its music ecosystem around its headphone products.
Fiil launched three headphone models in October 2015, priced from RBM599 to RMB1,599.


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You can view the current or previous issues of Diabetes Health online, in their entirety, anytime you want.
Click Here To View
Latest FDA Articles
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has delayed until July 15th making a decision on whether to allow the inhaled insulin Afrezza entry into the American market.
4 comments - Posted May 24, 2014
Two years ago a Wisconsin man hospitalized for pneumonia was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and prescribed 100 mg of Januvia, one of the common oral medications used for treatment. A month later, he was back in the hospital complaining about stomach pain and worried something else was wrong.
1 comment - Posted May 12, 2014
The inhaled insulin Afrezza has been recommended for approval by a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee.
0 comments - Posted Apr 12, 2014
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration reports that its review of various animal and human studies does not show a link between GLP-1 drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes and pancreatic maladies, including acute pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer.
0 comments - Posted Mar 4, 2014
A total of 182 new drugs to treat diabetes or diabetes-related conditions are currently in clinical trials or undergoing review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to a report just published by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2014
DV-100, a drug designed to halt the body's autoimmune attack on pancreatic beta cells that leads to type 1 disease, has won orphan drug status from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
0 comments - Posted Jan 16, 2014
Can Januvia Trigger Cancer Symptoms?
2 comments - Posted Jun 12, 2013
A significant majority-20 of 26 members attending a combined meeting of FDA advisory committees-has voted to modify or remove the current restrictive label and distribution regulations affecting the type 2 drug Avandia.
0 comments - Posted Jun 9, 2013
People with diabetes know the score. We've all seen "revolutionary" drugs and treatments introduced with fanfare, and we know that that much of the time they're evolutionary at best. But something has changed in the world of diabetes care.
2 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2013
In a 10-5 vote, an FDA panel has recommended that the agency approve the marketing of Johnson & Johnson's InvokanaTM (canagliflozin), an oral once-daily drug for treating type 2 diabetes in adults.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2013
The FDA has approved U.S. sales of Dexcom's G4TM PLATINUM continuous glucose monitor. The San Diego-based manufacturer said it is taking orders and plans to begin shipping the device to patients within the next few weeks.
2 comments - Posted Nov 16, 2012
Good news for Eli Lilly & Co., as well as for type 2s who appreciate the addition of new drugs to treat their condition: Lilly says its once-weekly injectible drug, dulaglutide, has outperformed three other widely taken diabetes drugs in three just-concluded Phase III studies.
0 comments - Posted Nov 5, 2012
As diabetes climbs to epidemic levels in the United States, and finding adequate resources to fund future U.S. healthcare remains in question, the need for an already existing "boots on the ground" group that can address the disease is greater than ever.
0 comments - Posted Aug 15, 2012
Medical devices aren't just any old pieces of technology. Lives depend upon them. For that reason, the government outlined a process decades ago by which manufacturers and importers were supposed to report malfunctions. But there was one problem: When malfunctions occurred, the manufacturers and importers did not admit it. According to the Food and Drug Administration, "A 1986 General Accounting Office (GAO) study showed that less than one percent of device problems occurring in hospitals are reported to FDA, and the more serious the problem with a device, the less likely it was to be reported."
0 comments - Posted Jun 22, 2012
SAN DIEGO - June 15, 2012 - Dexcom, the leader in continuous glucose monitoring, is proudly sponsoring the efforts of the Diabetes Formation Flight USA(DFFUSA.org) - three pilots with insulin-dependent diabetes using Dexcom's Seven Plus as part of their effort to set new transcontinental world speed records while raising funds for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).
0 comments - Posted Jun 20, 2012
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of Novo Nordisk's Levemir basal insulin for type 1 children aged two to five years. The FDA decision makes Levemir (insulin detemir [rDNA origin]) the only basal insulin approved for use in this age group.
Levemir, introduced to the US market in 2006, was previously approved for older children and adults with type 1 diabetes, as well as insulin-using type 2s.
0 comments - Posted Jun 7, 2012
The US Food and Drug Administration has okayed US sales of Bayer HealthCare's CONTOUR® Next EZ blood glucose monitoring system. The new BGM, currently available in other countries as the CONTOUR XT, will be available in the US market this summer.
1 comment - Posted Apr 25, 2012
NeuroMetrix, Inc., a Massachusetts-based medical device company, has filed a 510(k) form with the US Food and Drug Administration for the SENSUSTM, a pain therapy device for people who suffer diabetic neuropathy. A 510(k) is a "premarket notification" of a company's intent to market a medical product. The FDA then tests the product and provides feedback to the manufacturer. Once the FDA clears the product, its maker can introduce it to the US market.
1 comment - Posted Apr 24, 2012
The latest clinical guidelines for treating type 2 diabetes from the American College of Physicians (ACP) indicate that when diet, exercise, and weight loss fail to control blood sugar levels in early type 2 patients, physicians should prescribe metformin as the first drug therapy.
2 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2012
There are lots of articles about diabetes, as well as all kinds of information about anemia. But what if you have both? About 25 percent of people with diabetes have some level of anemia. This article explains how the two conditions interact.
4 comments - Posted Feb 16, 2012
Barley has more beta glucan fiber than any other grain, and it has repeatedly established positive clinical results with regard to diabetes control. It not only boosts immune function by supporting macrophages and neutrophils, lowers blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and helps control obesity, but also attenuates postprandial glucose levels, improves insulin sensitivity, and promotes a feeling of satiety.
6 comments - Posted Feb 5, 2012
After several years of delays and setbacks, Amylin Pharmaceuticals has received FDA approval to begin US marketing of BydureonTM. The first once-a-week type 2 therapy to be offered in the US market, Bydureon is expected to be available by February. Amylin says that its wholesale price will be about $4,200 a year.
2 comments - Posted Feb 3, 2012
The FDA has given Roche the go-ahead to market its Accu-Chek® Nano SmartView blood glucose monitoring system. The Nano, which uses Accu-Chek SmartView test strips, will be available to US consumers within the first half of this year. It is part of the same product line as the Accu-Chek Aviva Nano and Accu-Chek Performa Nano systems, which Roche has already launched in several overseas markets.
3 comments - Posted Jan 22, 2012
A dietary supplement, also known as a food supplement or nutritional supplement, contains a "dietary ingredient" intended to supplement the diet by providing an element that might not otherwise be consumed. "Dietary ingredients" include vitamins, minerals, herbs and other botanicals, amino acids, and substances such as enzymes, organ tissues, and metabolites. Dietary supplements, which may be extracts or concentrates, come in many forms, including tablets, capsules, soft gels, gelcaps, liquids, powders, and bars.
0 comments - Posted Jan 7, 2012
Spring Health Solutions, Inc., has released an instructional video describing its Spring Universal Infusion Set, recently approved by the FDA and Health Canada. The video, at www.SpringUniversal.com, is designed to help consumers properly use the product.
0 comments - Posted Jan 4, 2012
French drug maker Sanofi-aventis says that results from a Phase III trial of its experimental type 2 diabetes drug lixisenatide show that the drug successfully lowered patients' blood glucose levels and body weight, but did not increase the risk of hypoglycemia.
0 comments - Posted May 23, 2011


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After four years, it appears the U.S. construction market has bottomed out and is beginning the slow climb out of recession. For many large U.S. design firms, this development is cause for both relief and celebration. But for other design firms, particularly in the public infrastructure markets, uncertainty about the future remains a constant.The signs of the recession's end can be seen in ENR's Top 500 Design Firms list. The Top 500, taken as
Canada’s SNC-Lavalin has taken pains to repair its scandal-tainted brand as it pushes market growth and global expansion. In a cost-cutting move, the engineer-constructor giant soon will sell its much-photographed corporate headquarters property.


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BMW could build its electric Mini in the UK, if sources quoted by Reuters are correct.
Officially the firm has yet to make a decision, but sources close to the company have said that BMW bosses in Munich are leaning towards the firm’s Cowley plant as the best site for assembling the new electric vehicle.
The German manufacturer has put together a rival construction site in the Netherlands in anticipation of the impact that Brexit will have on the movement of components across borders.
The electric Mini will have a motor, battery and associated components made at various BMW plants in Bavaria, south-west Germany.
BMW could be angling for something similar to the alleged ‘sweetheart deal’ when the government announced a £390m investment in low-emission and driverless cars around the same time that Nissan decided to keep its UK manufacturing facilities in place.
The electric version of the Mini hatchback will go on sale in 2019, and an announcement on the construction site of the new car is expected at the Frankfurt motor show in September.


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Have you noticed how stores are pushing a lot more than just their usual merchandise this holiday season? I have, especially when I’ve tried to buy something with my Visa, MasterCard, Discover or American Express card instead of the store’s own card.
In almost every case, the sales associate has urged me to sign up for the retailer’s card, saying I could save 10% on my current transaction if I did. Several times, the clerks asked if I was sure I didn’t want a store card. Some upped the ante, saying I’d earn another 10 percent off on my next transaction for signing up.
Harder Sells for Store Cards
I’ve been solicited in the past, but this year the spiel has been particularly aggressive. (Some associates get $10 for every new account they sign up).
Gerri Detweiler director of consumer education for Credit.com, told me she’s experienced this hard sell, too. One clerk, she said, “wouldn’t stop pushing me to sign up for the store’s card. She must have asked me at least eight times.”
What should you do if this happens to you? (And it surely will.)
I’ll run through the pros and cons of store cards momentarily, but first a little context.
Why Stores are Pushing Credit Cards
Stores are definitely pushing customers to open new accounts, said Robert Hammer, head of the R.K. Hammer, a bank card advisory firm based in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Three reasons:
First and foremost, they’re profitable for the retailers because the cards’ often charge interest rates of 20% or more. Second, cardholders tend to be more loyal customers, an essential ingredient for success in a competitive shopping environment. And third, stores can more easily track buying habits if customers use the branded cards.
It’s no surprise, then, that a new report by the credit bureau Equifax found the total number of store-issued cards just hit a four-year high of 183 million, the most since September 2009. In the first eight months of this year, 24.6 million new store cards were distributed, up 11.6% over the same period last year.
Whether you should join that massive club depends on the terms, potential discounts and — most important — your credit needs in the near future. Let me spell things out for you.


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The US government is now looking for more insights regarding the utilization of blockchain technology in the commerce industry. Led by a group of congress representatives, the bill (H.R.8153) was brought forward to the government on September 1st, 2020.
The main objective the bill seeks to meet is to present a comprehensive overview of the status of the blockchain technology, how it secures its users, among other benefits.
The secretary of commerce in conjunction with the Federal Trade Commission are the bodies in charge of giving full insight into the report, as earlier directed by the US Congress.
A Brief Understanding of Blockchain Technology
Blockchain technology comprises a group of immutable data that is open to the public. Blocks are the names given for the data or records, while the chain is the public ledger database. Ideally, blocks contain various information including, the time, date, and the amount used for purchase.
The network also has miners who are responsible for forming new blocks via solving complex algorithms. After successfully mining the blocks, a miner automatically receives a reward.
Another interesting feature is the nodes which are present to store a copy of the blockchain. Additionally, nodes perform verification activities through the public ledger spread across a variety of nodes.
Opinions from the Congress Representatives
The US Representative Darren Soto, earlier this year persuaded the Treasury Department to make use of the Distributed Ledger Technology and Blockchain. It is due to the current crippling economy facing the world now in regards to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Two representatives, Brett Guthrie and Doris Matsui endorse the bill by Soto. In May 2020, Guthrie proposed a bill named the Advancing Blockchain Act that sought for a similar study on the Blockchain technology.
The authorities responsible for the research were the Federal Trade Commission and the Secretary of Commerce. Furthermore, the research aims to find out the industries that use blockchains, and utilize that information to make implementations on its usage on a national scale. However, the bill seemingly flopped and never made it through the committee
The Future of Blockchain Technology
Blockchains boast as one of the most innovative features in the crypto world. Its decentralized and transparent nature makes it stand out in various industries. Security is the main priority in the blockchains since users can trade valuable assets and tokens easily.
Besides, the emergence of Decentralized Finances built on blockchains is gaining popularity as they provide custody services. Blockchain innovation can handle a load of data on behalf of large companies.
It may not be certain about the future of blockchains, but they give remarkable benefits to everyone utilizing it portraying the next generation immutable network.


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Stanley Black & Decker, the world’s largest tool company, just launched the largest privately funded onsite solar farm in Kentucky.
Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE: SWK) worked with Castillo Engineering and renewable energy company RPG Energy Group to bring the 4.3-megawatt (MW) solar farm online. The solar farm sits on nearly 15 acres next to its 280,000-square-foot production factory in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
The solar project is producing enough clean energy to power Stanley Black & Decker’s Kentucky factory with 100% clean energy – and also provide excess energy back to the state. The company says the project is going to deliver an annual energy savings of $400,000.
Stanley Black & Decker has set a goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030.
The tools giant joins L’Oreal and General Motors in going solar in Kentucky – L’Oreal’s 1.5-MW array in Florence is one of the largest corporate projects in the state, according to the SEIA.
Read more: The largest solar farm in Kentucky will be built on a former coal mine
Photo: Stanley Black & Decker
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Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
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New images of what many are now calling the ‘iPhone Lite’ have been tweeted by Australian writer
Sonny Dickson this week. The images show outer shells for what could be a new, cheaper, plastic iPhone in white, red, yellow, green and blue. This is the first time a blue case has been shown and the colours are a lot less bright than in the photos released earlier this month.
Plenty of images of a plastic “budget” iPhone have emerged online recently. Accessory reseller, Techdy, claims to have one of the plastic iPhones and states that the device has 4-inch display like the iPhone 5. While a lower-cost model might appeal to many, Apple Insider has deemed the images, posted by Techdy on
its blog, as fake or incorrect.
What makes the legitimacy of these pictures
questionable is that there are no outer buttons on the plastic iPhone whereas the iPhone 5 has four. Only the back of the shell is shown in the new images, not the sides where buttons or ports would be located which would possibly make it easier to determine whether the new photos are fake or not.
The release of a cheaper iPhone has been rumored and predicted for
over a year, as the demand is high. The iPhone is a fantastic piece of kit, but it’s fairly expensive; a cheaper iPhone would be fantastically popular with people who want to buy into the iPhone experience, but don’t feel they can afford or justify a full iPhone.
Analysts said earlier in the year: “The low-end iPhone will have the same 4in form factor as the iPhone 5, but will have a plastic casing and a non-Retina display. With a lower price point, AAPL will be able to target a growing and important part of the smartphone market (sub-$400 price band).” If an ‘iPhone Lite’ is in the works, we could expect it as soon as September or October, to coincide with the expected release of the iPhone 5S/6 and iOS 7.
Questionable plastic ‘budget’ iPhone images emerge on accessory reseller blog
Should I buy an iPhone e5 or wait for iPhone 5S, iPhone 6?


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CEO Elissa Robertson stated in a bankruptcy petition filed earlier this month in Delaware that Sears Hometown Stores Inc. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and intends to liquidate the inventory at its 121 stores.
The company’s closure plans include the shutdown of one local location. Sears Hometown Stores has an Auburn location at 415 Grass Valley Highway. Craig George, a manager at the Auburn facility, confirmed the closure. George stated that no official closing date has been set, but that it will take place until all inventory has been sold in a liquidation sale.
The bankruptcy filing states assets worth no more than $50 million and liabilities of at least $50 million.
Sears Hometown Stores are locally owned and run businesses that sell home appliances, lawn and garden furniture equipment, and tools. According to Chain Store Age, the retailer filed due to financial disagreements with its parent firm TransformCo, as well as a shortage of inventory.
Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores Inc. split from Sears Holdings Corp., the parent company of Sears and Kmart, in October 2012, and was renamed Transform Holdco LLC in 2019 when Transform bought its assets in a bankruptcy action. According to the most recent report, TransformCo CEO Eddie Lampert owns 37.75% of Sears Hometown.
The chain lost $16.2 million in operating and net losses during the fiscal year that ended on January 29, 2022.


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Northern leaders write open letter to Government calling for lockdown financial support
Date published: 12 October 2020
Greater Manchester leaders Andy Burnham and Richard Leese
The Mayor of Greater Manchester and the Leader of Manchester City Council are among the leaders in the North who have penned a letter to the Government calling for more financial support for areas in local lockdown.
Andy Burnham and Richard Leese join the Mayors of Liverpool, Sheffield and North of Tyne say they have 'difficulties' with the Chancellor's financial package which they have been told is 'final and not up for negotiation'.
Ahead of today's scheduled top-level restrictions announcement by PM Boris Johnson, the letter says: "Despite many requests, it has taken a long time for the Government to recognise that a proper support package for people and businesses affected by local restrictions would be needed.
"When it finally appeared late Friday, it was not sufficient to protect our communities through the challenging period which lies ahead.
"Specifically, we cannot understand why people whose place of work is forced to close by Government imposed restrictions are only being offered two thirds of their wages."
They added that low-paid staff who work in hospitality 'do not have the luxury' of living off two thirds of their wages.
The letter added: "Earlier this year, the Government set its national furlough scheme at 80%.
"We can see no justifiable reason why the local furlough scheme should be set at 67%.
"To accept it would be to treat hospitality workers as second-class citizens and we think that is wrong. Many of these workers have already faced severe hardship this year."
The leaders also picked holes in when the scheme would come into play, adding: "On top of this, the timetable for the introduction of the scheme also presents a major problem.
"It will start in early November which means that payments will not be made until early December, six weeks after businesses have been forced to close.
"We also have serious concerns that the local furlough scheme will be limited to businesses forced to shut.
"There are many other businesses who supply the hospitality sector who will see their own trade collapse if their customers are to close.
"In fact, the effect of restrictions might be to choke off footfall in many of our towns and cities and many more businesses and venues such as theatres, arenas and cinemas are likely to be impacted by new restrictions.
"We believe that any local furlough scheme should be much more widely available to businesses in areas with the highest level of restrictions who can demonstrate a severe impact on trade arising from them.
"In addition, we believe that financial support should be extended to those areas in Tier 2.
"Many businesses and individuals will be impacted by the proposed measures included in Tier 2, and indeed by limiting financial support to Tier 3 only, it could create a perverse incentive for areas to move into Tier 3 to support local businesses.
"It is also regrettable that there is no additional support on offer for people who are self-employed.
"Closure of hospitality businesses will have a severe knock-on effect on people working in the taxi trade and security.
"Many of those people are self-employed. We believe that there needs to be a local self-employment support scheme to recognise this.
"Finally, we are also worried that the more general business support package is woefully inadequate.
"Whilst we acknowledge the Chancellor’s move in increasing the existing payment to businesses forced to close in lockdown areas, £3,000 per month - or less for many smaller businesses - may not be anything like enough to prevent businesses from collapsing after what has already been an extremely difficult year.
"Many are now on a knife-edge and this payment will not be enough to save them.
"Again, we fail to understand why a local lockdown does not attract a business support package equal to that provided during national lockdown given that the effect is the same.
"More broadly, tougher local restrictions will have an impact on businesses across the local economy and we believe that there is a strong case for a discretionary grant scheme under the control of local authorities to help them.
"And while the ‘surge funding’ for local authorities is welcome, only £80m is left in the pot to share between local authorities across the whole country.
"Councils across the North have already been hit by millions of pounds in extra costs and lost revenue, with only around a third of that being covered by central Government so far.
"For the reasons we have given above, to accept the Chancellor’s package at this point would be to surrender our residents, your constituents, to severe hardship in the run-up to Christmas.
"We are not prepared to do that."
The leaders added that there's a risk of 'significant redundancies' and 'multiple business failures' that would cause long-term damage to the economy in the North.
They're asking the Government for a vote on the financial package and implement improvements.
Do you have a story for us? Want to tell us about something going on in and around Oldham? Let us know by emailing email@example.com , calling our Oldham-based newsroom on 0161 633 2121 , tweeting us @oldhamchronicle or messaging us through our Facebook page. All contact will be treated in confidence.
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Microsoft licensed dozens of technology patents, most of which relate to the technological underpinnings of the original Palm smartphone operating system. The action is yet another indication of the complex patent-licensing web draped across many technology companies.
The software giant, which is poised to unveil its Windows Phone 7 platform at an event Monday in New York City, licensed 74 patents from Access as well as a unit of Acacia Research. The licenses cover a range of technologies patented by Palm, PalmSource, Bell Communications Research and Geoworks. Access acquired PalmSource, the firm behind the original Palm OS, in 2005 for $324 million. Terms of Microsoft's licensing deals were not disclosed.
There has been a great deal of legal wrangling among smartphone companies over patents in recent months, and the latest move by Microsoft may represent the company's attempt to inoculate itself against further litigation. Indeed, some of the patents Microsoft licensed are at issue in a lawsuit Acacia filed in March--covering technologies like email synchronization and providing phone capabilities from personal computer devices--against Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Motorola (NYSE:MOT), Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM), Samsung and others, according to the Wall Street Journal. That suit did not name Microsoft as a defendant.
Importantly, the patents Microsoft licensed do not cover Palm's webOS operating system, which is now owned by Hewlett-Packard.
Microsoft's licensing deals come less than a week after Microsoft sued Motorola, alleging Motorola's smartphones running Google's Android platform violate Microsoft patents. Since then, the two companies have expressed a willingness to work together on Windows Phone 7.
Microsoft stings Motorola with suit over Android phones
HP dumps Android ideas, keen on streaming music
HTC inks patent licensing deal with Microsoft for Android
HTC vows to fight Apple's patent suits


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Watches of Switzerland sets its sights on more US acquisitions
By Silke Kotrowitz - Mar 25th, 09:38
Watches of Switzerland expects to make further acquisitions in the US, which it first entered in 2017 with the purchase of jeweller Mayors, its CEO said.
Owned by US-based private equity firm Apollo Global Management, Watches of Switzerland has since opened several stores, including in Las Vegas and New York.
“Could we add other businesses? Very easily,” Brian Duffy said at this week’s Baselworld watch fair.
The Watches of Switzerland group, which sells brands such as Rolex, Richemont’s Cartier and Swatch Group’s Omega, as well as more than 130 showrooms, is the biggest watch retailer in Britain and a candidate for a stock market listing.
Luxury watch distribution is undergoing major changes, with many small, family-owned businesses unable to keep up with the challenges of e-commerce, while watch brands are shutting down shops which do not meet their standards.
“If it’s a quality business, the right location of stores and support from the brands, it would be obvious that we’d be open to it. Probably over a couple of years ahead, we’ll do some deals in the area,” Duffy said.
Watches of Switzerland, which spans its eponymous stores as well as Mappin & Webb, Goldsmiths, Mayors, Watchshop and Watch Lab competes with rivals such as Lucerne-based Bucherer, which in 2018 bought US jeweller Tourneau.
In 2018 the company, which has been under Apollo’s control for more than six years, flagged that its owners were working with advisers on strategic options, including a potential initial public offering (IPO).
Duffy said that an IPO if it happened, would most likely be on the London Stock Exchange.
“It would be good for our group with its size and scale to have public ownership, reduced leverage and great governance and accountability, sources of capital if that's ever necessary,” he said, without giving further detail.
Apollo declined to comment. The group’s revenue grew 21% to £685m in 2017/2018, and its operating profit rose by more than a third to £37m million pounds, about twice the levels when Apollo bought it in 2013.Business Live
Italtile plans to open more store despite weak trading conditions
23/08/2019 - 14:56
JSE-listed supplier of ceramic tiles Italtile said it planned to open more stores in South Africa and abroad, despite the subdued economy, which has constrained consumer spending.
Australian retailer Coles reports jump in online sales
23/08/2019 - 10:31
Australian retailer Coles Group reported a jump in online sales and a special dividend that cheered investors, sending its shares near their biggest one-day gain in two months.
Franchises reap the rewards of tech-enabled local marketing strategies
22/08/2019 - 11:26
One of the great challenges facing franchise businesses is to maintain their group brand identity while enabling Local Marketing Strategies at branch level. Those that do, grow at a rate of about three times than that of their competitors.
Shoprite earnings take knock on non-SA operations
20/08/2019 - 10:39
Shoprite’s shares fell to their worst level in more than three years after Africa’s largest food retailer reported a 20% drop in earnings and said it saw no immediate prospects of its troublesome non-SA operations returning to profitability.
Truworths reports steady performance
20/08/2019 - 10:04
Truworths International reported lower earnings for the year to June 2019 as Truworths posted a steady performance in the weak domestic retail market while the profitability of the Office chain was severely impacted by the depressed United Kingdom (UK) trading conditions.


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When it comes to chips, potato is almost passe, popped is popping, and kale is killing it. So while at Expo East 2015, we at Project NOSH couldn’t help but wonder: What’s next?
Enter Jica Chips, a new chip made from sweet, nutty jicama, a tuber that is popular in Asia and Mexico. Typically it’s simply eaten raw as part of a salad. What Jica Chips has done is bake the chip with a variety of seasonings (cinnamon sugar, white cheddar, soy ginger, sea salt or BBQ) to create a crunchy snack that has five times the fiber of a potato chip. Retail coverage is slight, but the brand is part of the Accel Foods incubation platform.
Jicama Chip founder Melissa Colella-Wang says that although the company has to educate consumers about what jicama is, it’s trying to capture both potato chip eaters as well as veggie (such as kale) chip fans. Additionally, because of jicama’s health benefits, the chip caters to more than just low fat snack seekers; giving the company a more diverse story to tell.
The #nextkale became a fairly popular hashtag for a while — here’s the story of a company trying to become the phenomenon.


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The Apocalypse in Retail is on-going. 10 years ago many brick-and-mortar retailers went online. From the outside it may look like they are catching up with the winners, the eCommerce players like Amazon.
But is it not enough, catching up ? Not everyone would have read about the Canadian Retail Apocalypse. Over the last two years major retailers and brands such as Target and Sears have pulled out or went bankrupt.
Despite millions spent on building their eCommerce play, their omni-channel model doesn’t seem to last. To understand the downfall one need to go behind the scenes
More Patch Work Ahead
At omni-channel retailers, on a technology level, there’s a patchwork of dated technology platforms, unreliable data, as well as a mishmash of systems with many gaps. The data is usually not clean. Their stock isn’t managed as intelligently as it could be. With new digital technology coming in and more data sitting in the cloud, more patchwork is ahead.
On a strategic level, they don’t build business platforms where interaction and communication drives the engagement. They build technology on top of an outdated business pipe model.
Many retailers who have an e-commerce platform would rather rip up their whole creaking digital offering and start again. However the risk to start again is perceived as too big.
It seems easier to make a decision to renovate a big (flagship) store of Target for $10 million dollars. Even if the business case turns out positive for the one store, there are plenty of other stores to renovate with depressing old lay-outs and many of them located in huge malls becoming dead zones.
Meanwhile dozens of blogs are still trying to demystify the $ 14 billion Amazon spent on Wholefoods. Going in reverse from a pure eCommerce player into brick-and-mortar is very surprising and for sure will provide opportunities but it may handcuff them and provide them with similar budget challenges. Amazon will need to spend considerable millions of dollars now in building an efficient omni-channel play.
Another retailer (quoted in my previous post) re-platformed their eCommerce technology platform, which took 3 years and $20 million.
These are decisions made in the comfort zone and at the expense of building a new digital model to win in eCommerce.
Let me quote a retail insider from a Fast Company article on what’s happening in retail:
“The retailers we meet, they don’t do anything all day! Their give-a-shit factor is way down; they’re not on the floor every day like we are. Now that they’re making less [money], what do they do? The same thing as before, over and over and over again.”
So where is the future of eCommerce ? Lets first get rid of the ‘e’ since eCommerce is too much associated with the web and web technology is a dated technology in the context of other, upcoming digital technologies, their cost and their customer engagement potential.
The better question: where is the future of Commerce ?
In this blog I will outline a future of Commerce in an integrated business model which facilitates a platform strategy integrated with new experiences enabled by an intersection of new key digital technologies like social, mobile and AI (bots). Add Blockchain and cryptocurrencies in the mix and the gold of future commerce is in the hands of a new set of tech players, some very small, one very big.
Having worked on digital transformations both in the banking and retail industry it’s so interesting how both industries have so many parallels in how they are being disrupted ! With in the core, power (and profits) shifting to the small techs, fintechs, (no name yet for small techs in retail…’rettechs’ ?).
The big one is not Amazon. Ofcourse Amazon is getting ready for the future, spending lots of money building new shopping experiences enabled by drones, voice (Alexa) sensors (IoT) and machine learning (Amazon Go). But Amazon is not the only one holding the poisoning arrow.
Look East, Not West
To understand the future of Commerce lets look East! Not (in the) West. In China, shopping is dictated by an App !
Chinese retail giant (already global) Alibaba has an appscentric platform model.
WeChat is another one and I find it the most interesting. Why its so interesting ? It shows how a single app can actually establish a whole new ecosystem, an economy, a new internet nation through the smartphone.
There is no such business model in the Western world. Despite cultural differences there are far more other reasons why those Chinese appscentric platform models will define the future of Commerce.
Let’s do the Math first
Amazon has now about 120.000 people employed. Alibaba ‘only’ 25.000. From a financial perspective the turnover of Ali commission is around 15 billion which boils down to 11 billion profit ! That is about $450,000 profit per employee.
Amazon recorded roughly $5 billion profit of which 50–60% is accounted for by AWS. Roughly this means Amazon yields around a $21,000 profit per employee (taking AWS profits out of these calculations to address Commerce earnings only).
It shows how an app can be a platform (essential for building a successful digital strategy) and the future business model makes billions of profit in a way, Amazon can only dream of. Sure Amazon has an app but the app is built as a channel, extrapolating the web, not as a platform.
For anyone understanding the tech KPIs, the ARPU (average revenue per user) is an important success indicator in Commerce. The WeChat model drives on the messaging platform. Comparing with the West’s most popular chat platform, Whatsapp, the current ARPU for the Wechat app is $7. Whatsapp is currently on a $1 ARPU.
So from another angle the future of Commerce is well connected when build on top of a messaging platform. Conversational Commerce. Lets deep dive on this one !
The WeChat model
A year ago, Wechat had over 700m users. It only exists in China and through the app, more Chinese reach the mobile internet than the US, Brazil and Indonesia combined! Half of all online/internet sales comes from mCommerce where in the US this is max a third of all online sales.
Similar to how underdeveloped countries leapt from traditional banking into mobile banking, lots of Asian nations, have now seen dramatic growth of similar models where mobile messaging apps define a new future of Commerce.
In Indonesia , ‘good old’ Blackberry Messenger rules in a similar way as WeChat in China. The potential for growth in different directions is therefore bright for Blackberry in the messaging space. It explains also that Blackberry even left their data-centers in Canada and built a new Cloud infrastructure in Asia.
The Wechat model indicates the potential of mobile commerce. No other Western (tech) company has yet been able to transform themselves towards such a model.
The Wechat model provides a clear business case to any retailer, even on a more macro-economic level towards a new economy and how to leapfrog over the web era, directly into the mobile internet.
A mobile lifestyle for a whole nation.
Its interesting to unravel the growth path of the Wechat app to above magical numbers. The app started simply as a social communication platform to send text, photos and voice to friends and family.
After the platform had a solid user base (end 2016 over half a billion MAU), it started expanding by adding more functionality and content and very importantly by adding more digital services. Now you can hail a taxi, make a doctor’s appointment, order food, send money, buy event tickets, pay utility bills, follow celebrities, get coupons, track your health and of course shop. The app addresses daily needs. It has become a lifestyle, a mobile lifestyle.
Commerce is driven by its own appstore. Within the app, every retailer, brands, manufacturers, startups, celebrities, can apply for an account. Once approved they get access to APIs (payments, location, messaging, userIDs) basically to open their own store.
Users don’t have to download apps for low frequency services as opposed to the West where apps are often single-categorized, full featured apps. Within WeChat millions of other apps live, usually a single webpage where brands can create their own UI. The model operates like a browser, an appstore and an operating system in one. A platform where everybody wins.
Last but not least, other hidden secrets are happening behind the scenes; An army of mCommerce product managers help brands through the Commerce processes and the available marketing options.
Alibaba is thriving on a similar model and calls it even a mall in an app.
Both companies created mCommerce ecosystems driving the Chinese economy, all from one App.
Although Alibaba has more a web presence than WeChat, the Alibaba app is central in its digital strategy. Their payment systems form an important pillar of Chinese retail payment infrastructure.
Traditionally, in the west you start Googling if you need something, you search and you click on a link and you order.
At WeChat and Alibaba search starts with their App. They also make shopping far more social. The experience is very interactive, a two way street whereas in the West it’s merely one direction following the pipemodel, a linear flow of value-creation.
In China shoppers have conversations with friends about e.g. health products or they follow a livestream from their favorite brand.
Shopping is a social experience, universally. The apps are discovery platforms and latest shopping discoveries gain network effects by letting your friends know you just discovered/bought. An impactful marketing tool for a brand, similar what once was mouth-to-mouth marketing. And the result: Alibaba is now worth over 250 billion. Eat that Amazon.
Facebook is known to monitor the WeChat model. WeChat inspires Facebook and more western companies, even startups should look east as well.
Along the WeChat model Facebook also aims to use their social platforms (Facebook, Messenger, Whatsapp) to communicate with businesses and let people buy things. Just a few weeks ago Facebook shipped Marketplaces. It looks horrible now but I am sure they will get it right and take-over from traditional digital players like eBay and shaping the future of Commerce.
Another interesting huge user benefit is the integrated payment system. Wechat has integrated a Wallet service which is simple and a cornerstone of the App’s success.
Obviously with all sorts of digital services available through the app, the wallet allows seamless transactions flows throughout the app to cater for transactions for the entire ecosystem. Users don’t have to leave the app.
Authentication is taken care of through the ID and sensor technology. The wallet is like a portal within the app where you can upload your credit card or banking card.
The most interesting is how the wallet provides new monetization opportunities for all the accounts and through the in China popular QR codes, allowing offline payments in stores and at events. For merchants and event organizers, WeChat delivers an end-to-end digital services, including transactions, processed through the app.
Mobile-first is still a major challenge for Western Companies
Another disadvantage of Apps in the Western world is that most of those apps are a replication of the web model (e.g. Amazon) and thus they are lacking mobile-first experiences. The Smartphone has the promise to personalize, be context aware and offer seamless interactive and sensor features. The camera has been mainly used as a photo-maker initially, just recently Western (Commerce) apps start expanding by using the camera to scan.
WeChat is using them all — the camera, the accelerometer, bluetooth, sensors, voice, to bring entertaining and interactive services to their mobile crowds including finding their friends in their vicinity. And to redefine advertising: their Moments ads are based on relevancy for people, e.g. a coupon for a Starbucks coffee at a Starbucks nearby based on a certain time in the day.
As a social network, Wechat is providing much more possibilities for brands to engage with users. At social networks where content is king, Wechat offers marketers a much larger array of options to interact with brands and drive commerce to new levels. In the West platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat offer static content, only to share comments and likes.
Within the accounts’ ecosystem of WeChat, data is floating around people’s daily lives and personal needs. It creates tremendous possibilities for personalization and interactivity for brands, influencers and artists. It increases conversation and as such conversion rates are much higher than any channel in the west.
Create mobile interactive content
Once agencies push themselves to think beyond the web and discover and understand mobile-only creativity, the app model of Wechat will finally transform also the digital marketing industry where advertising potentially takes a real-time, laser-fine, interactive journey. Instead of pushing information that has the risk to be user-irrelevant for a majority of displays, e.g. because its not clean enough or stems from other less dynamic media.
Think about an artist or sports franchise holding exclusive chat (meet and greet) sessions with players/artists and their fans, exclusive access to pre-recordings or concert tickets, discount coupons to music streams, in-game or post-game experiences, etc.
Run the enterprise on communication
Similar to Slack, the WeChat app also integrates with enterprise systems for document sharing, sales support, CRM and of course enterprise team and project communications.
As an example in the banking industry, BNP Paribas in France, uses AI to augment the sales support processes for account managers while chatting with certain customers. As a result more accurate sales pitches and relevant (personalized) product and services are offered.
Rethink the digital model
So does every company and brand need to replicate these platform apps or embrace Facebook as the potential WeChat of the West ?
Companies and brands, with their large, growing digital agenda, have the opportunity to rethink their digital models based on the WeChat model meaning — Provide Commerce within a communications platform.
Step away from information-push thinking and embrace the interactivity-pull model and take full advantage of using the smartphone and all of its capabilities.
For a couple of tech companies in the West , the Wechat model shows they have gold once they transform their communications platform into an Commerce ecosystem.
Not only to lead in mobile technology, rather start using new digital technologies like AI and Blockchain to create completely new digital ecosystems. As a matter of fact some have already taken such disruptive roadmaps to dictate the future of Commerce, stretching, even leapfrogging the WeChat model.
How does adding more digital tech look like ?
At a special stint for one of the below mentioned startups, I have designed a mockup how the various use cases of the future of Commerce may look like:
In the below paragraph I am painting more of this future and which apps may hold the gold !
The next big thing in Commerce — C2C (Chatbot to Consumer )
Those that believe WeChat is not something peculiar for China are among those re-thinkers and get the digital strategy right. It’s an opportunity especially for the outside-in thinking startups.
Startups owning a chat/messaging platform are in pole position to emulate the success of WeChat. Not only because they own a platform with millions of users. Startups hack growth not based on a great idea….
They solve problems of users and the WeChat model shows that there is a model to drive Commerce and (monetized) Content better in the mobile era. Combined with rethinking the Maslow model in the digital era brings to light a new array of digital services for which there is a high need whether it’s in Asia or in the Western world.
Another fact is that WeChat (and Alibaba) as a mobile app, is one of China’s largest mobile gaming platform. Not only in China, all over the world, the most time spend on mobile phones is on mobile games. One of the most popular features at chat apps are stickers. Stickers and games represent 50% of WeChat revenues !
Therefore it’s no wonder that Facebook launches a gaming platform at the Messenger app so less people leave the app !
If we extrapolate this to other apps in the Western world, Discord, Teamspeak, Mumble and Ventrilo, own already a platform of gaming users and a chat function and when they stretch the app to the ‘Golden Dragon’ business model, they could be the WeChat or Alibaba of the West.
The same for popular messaging apps like Stack, Kik, Viber and even Skype hold the potential, similar to BBM in Indonesia, to compete with Facebook.
As a matter of fact, Facebook is not the only one monitoring, inspired by and building along the WeChat model.
Kik is on a very interesting mission (with Wechat’s owner Tencent as strategic investor), even leapfrogging from mobile into AI. They reuse their chat platform and….
- replace the appstore for a Bot store, transcending from mobile into AI
- replace mCommerce to conversational commerce
- replace wechat Pay and Wallet with a blockchain-based wallet and cryptocurrency (kin)
It’s amazing how they envision a new ecosystem where digital services on their platform become available, transactions are being processed by the Kik Wallet and even their own cryptocurrency Kin will be circulated in a new ecosystem after a succesful CIO. It’s a great new business model where new digital technologies like AI, Blockchain and Mobile intersect to create the new Commerce model of the future.


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Android 12 is the latest Android update which is already in the last phase of testing. Yes earlier this month, Google released the final beta aka release candidate. It means maybe in the first or second week Google can release the Android 12 to the public. And other OEMs have also started testing the Android 12. Xiaomi is also recruiting Global Mi 11 series users for the Android 12 developer preview.
As you know the MIUI 13 has been delayed and is expected to arrive in December or next year. This Android 12 will be based on MIUI 12.5. And later the MIUI 13 will roll out to eligible phones. Now coming back to Android 12, it is one of the biggest UI updates in years. The Android 12 looks promising. And Xiaomi will be one of the first few OEMs to adopt it early.
Xiaomi also partnered with Google and released an Android 12 developer preview just after the Android 12 announcement at the I/O event. But that was only with Android 12 skin, not the MIUI. And later Xiaomi also released the Android 12 developer preview with MIUI but limited to China. Now they are starting to test the MIUI Global Stable ROM based on Android 12 for Mi 11, Mi 11i, and Mi 11 Ultra.
Xiaomi officials shared about the recruitment on their official Mi Community page. And it tells that soon after the release of Android 12, Xiaomi will also release stable Android 12 in a few weeks. Obviously, first Xiaomi’s premium flagship phone will get it. In this case Mi 11 series.
This testing is only for the Global ROM, so if you have a Mi 11 with Global ROM then you are eligible for this testing. But if you are using an IN or EU stable ROM then you will not be able to participate.
To check the ROM version on your phone:
- Open Settings and go to the About Phone section.
- Look for the MIUI version. There you will find firmware versions like RJUMIXM.
- The last 3rd and 4th words are MI which refers to Global and if it is IN or EU it is an India or Europe version respectively.
If you want to participate in the Android 12 Global Stable program, you can apply here.
Once you apply for the Android 12 global stable, they will review the application and they will roll out the update to limited participants based on first come first serve. And as always, take a full backup of your phone before updating. You can check more information on the Mi Community.


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Jaguar Land Rover creates 1,100 new jobs in the UK
Luxury car company Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is to create 1,100 new jobs in the West Midlands.
The new workers will build the new Jaguar XF Sportbrake estate car and other models at its Castle Bromwich plant.
JLR has already hired 8,000 new workers in the last two years.
The government welcomed JLR's decision, which is also expected to support thousands of jobs with suppliers in the UK.
"This expansion is a clear demonstration of Jaguar Land Rover's continuing commitment and investment in the UK," said Business Secretary Vince Cable.New models
JLR reiterated its plan to bring some "40 significant product actions" to the market over a five-year period, with much of the innovation work in design, engineering and technology set to be done in the UK.
JLR has created thousands of jobs in the UK in the last four years on the back of buoyant sales growth around the world.
In addition to hiring staff directly, the luxury car company has awarded some £3bn worth of contracts to UK suppliers during the last 16 months.
New models, in particular the Range Rover Evoque, have been central to JLR's recent success, and the Jaguar XF Sportbrake estate is just the latest in a string of product launches to come in the years ahead.
JLR is busy reinventing itself as a technology company with a great heritage, rather than a carmaker that merely carries forward old traditions.
But it is not there yet. In the past, some independent reliability surveys have found that its vehicles fall far short of those made by Japanese and Korean car companies.
"We will continue to invest in new products, develop new technologies and enhance the skills of our employees," said chief executive Ralf Speth.
JLR is enjoying dramatic growth across the world, having recorded a 19% rise in sales during the first half of this year when compared with the same period in 2011.
Mr Speth said he was confident growth would be further boosted by the growth in the carmaker's model range.
"These new models will attract new customers to the brand as we look to expand our global reach and further enhance our position in the market."UK suppliers
The latest jobs announcement from JLR comes just weeks after the company announced plans to spend an additional £1m with UK suppliers of components for its popular Range Rover Evoque model.
A year earlier, the company awarded contracts worth £2bn to some 40 UK suppliers.
"The UK's North West region is fast becoming a major supply chain hub for the automotive industry," said Paul Dyer, managing director of DHL Supply Chain's automotive services in the UK and Ireland.


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James Duddridge, Member of Parliament for Rochford and Southend East,
attended the reading of the 10 minute Rule Motion of the Pet (Theft) Bill which
follows from the debate on the 2nd July which aims to reclassify pet theft a a
specific crime. The intent is to amend the Animal Welfare Act (2006) to make
the theft of pets an offence.
As it stands theft of pets are treated the same as inanimate objects, this bill would
provide legislation which would make pet theft a crime in its own right.
On the 2nd July pet theft was debated in Westminster Hall following the e-petition
which called to reclassify the theft of a pet to a specific crime in its own right.
Rolo and James Duddridge MP
Ross Thomson MP introduced the bill to the House on Tuesday 3rd July. James
Duddridge MP was more than delighted to support this bill, sitting next to Ross
Thomson MP. James understands the importance of pets and agrees that animals
should be treated as more than inanimate objects by law.
Over the past week in lead up to this bill James Duddridge MP has seen several
constituents regarding animal welfare issues including pet theft.
Claire Dean, proud owner of Rolo, a rescue therapy dog discussed with James the
issue of puppy farming, which is of great importance to them as Rolo was rescued
from a puppy farm and survived illness caused due to it.
Barbara Beer was another constituent who has been campaigning for tougher pet
theft laws, particularly when involving dog theft. Barbara is a campaigner for ‘Justice
for Ivy UK’
Ross Thomson MP said in parliament:
“Our pets are much more than possessions. It is not difficult to appreciate how truly
awful, heartbreaking and simply devastating a crime pet theft can be.”
“As the law stands, our pets are not inherently considered any different from
inanimate objects. Sentencing is based predominantly on the financial loss to the
“For too long, too many pet owners have gone through the absolute hell and misery
that pet theft can cause, and too many pet thieves have got away with a mere slap
on the wrist. That is unacceptable, and it is time for change.”
James Duddridge MP said:
“A pet is a part of the family, and the family along with the pet deserve the
punishment to fit the crime. A pet is worth so much more than their material value”
“Having spoken with several constituents in the week leading up to this bill reading it
became even more important to me to support this bill”
The Pet (Theft) Bill will now proceed to its second reading in the House of
Commons, scheduled for the 26th October.


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This a landmark deal for trade in our region. Australian businesses and farmers will now have more opportunities to export their food, fibre and services to more customers, more easily.
More trade means more export opportunities for local businesses, and more Australian jobs.
Overnight, 11 countries - Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam - reached agreement on the final Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) at an officials-level meeting in Tokyo, Japan.
It is expected the agreement will be signed in March in Chile.
This is a multi-billion-dollar win for Australian jobs. Australian workers, businesses, farmers and consumers will benefit.
The Government took a leadership role and worked hard to deliver the TPP because it will generate more Australian exports and create new Australian jobs.
The TPP will eliminate more than 98 per cent of tariffs in a trade zone with a combined GDP of $13.7 trillion. The agreement will deliver 18 new free trade agreements between the TPP parties. For Australia that means new trade agreements with Canada and Mexico and greater market access to Japan, Chile, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei.
In 2016-17, nearly one quarter of Australia’s total exports, worth nearly $88 billion, went to TPP countries. This will continue to grow thanks to the significant increase in market access the TPP gives Australian exporters.
Significant wins for Australian exporters under the TPP include:
- Accelerated reductions in Japan’s import tariffs on beef, where Australian exports were worth $2 billion in 2015-16 - under TPP-11 even better access.
- Elimination of a range of cheese tariffs into Japan covering more than $100 million of trade that was not covered by the Japan-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement.
- New quotas for wheat and rice to Japan, and for sugar into Japan, Canada and Mexico.
- Elimination of all tariffs on sheep meat, cotton, wool, seafood, horticulture, wine and industrial products (manufactured goods).
- Eleven separate deals - legally enforceable market access to all these countries.
- Investment sets up strong legally enforceable commitments on the way countries regulate foreign investment.
Labor and Bill Shorten declared this trade agreement dead - they urged the Government to walk away. If Labor got their way, Bill Shorten would have shut Australia out of this historic agreement and denied our farmers, manufacturers, services providers and consumers the big wins the TPP delivers.
Unlike Labor, the Government will never give up on measures that create jobs for Australians.
The text of the agreement is now undergoing a legal review and translation and will be made public on a date to be agreed by all parties.


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To the owner of Hyundai of New Port Richey, the gas voucher incentive gift program he offered to customers continues to be the gift that keeps picking his pocket.
The car dealership landed in small claims court this week after customer Mark Preston of Spring Hill sued over the failed program.
Preston claimed that the Hyundai dealership owed him $1,000 for unfulfilled gas vouchers - the result of the company that provided the incentive, Tidewater Marketing Global Consultants of Largo, going out of business.
"The money wasn't the object," said Preston, who received $1,000 worth of gas certificates after he bought a 2008 Hyundai Elantra. "I wanted to hold their feet to the fire."
Hyundai of New Port Richey, just like countless other retailers, bought gas vouchers from Tidewater Marketing Global Consultants of Largo, and later from BBZ Resource Management of Arizona, as incentives for their customers.
Scott Fink, owner of the Hyundai dealership, said he was not aware of Preston's situation until it arose through the courts. But he said he is working to ensure that his customers get what they are due.
"I'm paying it out of my pocket," Fink said. "We are stepping up for our customers."
Consumers received the gas vouchers in denominations as high as $500 for purchases of such products as cars, electronics and furniture as well as door prizes at events or to take a promotional tour.
To redeem the certificate, consumers were required to purchase $100 worth of gas each month, send in the receipts to Tidewater Marketing or BBZ. In exchange, the marketing companies promised to send $25 gift cards each month until the full value of the voucher was reached.
Although some customers received at least an initial gift card, thousands of others received nothing. Both of the marketing companies are out of business.
Some have filed class-action lawsuits against retailers.
The Hyundai dealership agreed to pay after Preston took it to small claims court.
The company hand-delivered him an initial check for $547.75 to his house Thursday night. Additional payments of $25 a month will follow as Preston sends the dealership his gas receipts each month.
Ivan Penn can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org or (727) 892-2332.


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Based on the most recent statistics, bankruptcy filings are down among consumers. The number of filings is down approximately 13% and experts expect this trend to continue through the rest of the year. Bankruptcy filings had been up, according to a St. Louis Chapter 7 bankruptcy lawyer, due to the Great Recession of 2008. While the economy is still trying to gain traction to get the country back to pre-recession levels, this decrease in filings shows that people are doing better at avoiding the crippling debt that affected both consumers and businesses alike.
St. Louis Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Lawyer Explains the Decline
The number of bankruptcy filings peaked in 2010 at 1.5 million. This was caused by continued problems in the economy, including:
- Underwater mortgages
- Lost jobs
- Decreased savings
- Tightening credit
Because of this confluence of problems, St. Louis Chapter 7 bankruptcy lawyers saw a major increase in filings as people sought to discharge debt. Chapter 7 allows people to discharge unsecured debt like credit card bills, allowing a person to get a fresh start with no debt. As the government has stepping in to help struggling consumers, however, many people have tried to get through their financial problems without filing for Chapter 7 protection.
It is unclear if this reduction in filings with continue. This is because many government programs will soon be winding down, leaving consumers in the cold when it comes to debt. It also may mean that businesses will take a hit, causing people to lose their jobs and putting them in financial jeopardy. Hopefully, the reduction in filings will continue as the economy gets better.
If you need a new beginning, contact the St. Louis Chapter 7 bankruptcy lawyers at The Westbrook Law Group, LLC. If the debt is becoming too much, the phone calls from creditors becoming too numerous, and it seems like there is nowhere else to turn, we are here to help.


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The transport and logistics industry celebrates two decades of Transaid’s life-saving programmes
Last week, we celebrated our 20th anniversary celebrations with a special showcase event in London, attended by more than 150 industry supporters, partners and development organisations, together with our Patron HRH The Princess Royal and the entire Transaid team.
The event highlighted Transaid’s activiit in sub-Saharan Africa, which have been made possible thanks to the extensive support of the transport and logistics industry and key funding partners.
Addressing assembled guests, The Princess Royal said: “Thank you for being part of the first 20 years of Transaid. I hope you can all see what has been achieved and what is yet to come. Your industry expertise and knowledge has driven this success, which is making a real difference in places where people are looking for change.”
Commenting on the importance of one of Transaid’s major initiatives, she added: “Evidence suggests that increasing driver training across sub-Saharan Africa has improved lives across the board – Transaid’s programmes have been proven to work and I hope the industry recognises the value they add.”
Our CEO, Caroline Barber, took the opportunity to announce the imminent scale up of the MAMaZ against Malaria programme, in which Transaid has demonstrated how a functioning supply chain can save children’s lives.
Speaking about Transaid’s first 20 years, Caroline said: “It’s been an incredible journey for us and we have made real progress in transforming people’s lives in Africa. We’re stronger than ever and we have a clear vision to guide us, with 32 faithful corporate partners by our side. Together we can make the world a better and safer place.”
“Transaid’s programmes have been proven to work and I hope the industry recognises the value they add.”
-HRH The Princess Royal
Ismaila Balogun, National Project Manager for the Emergency Transport Scheme (ETS) in Nigeria and a member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, shared insight into his own experience of working alongside Transaid to implement the ETS in Adamawa State, Nigeria.
He told guests: “I have worked with Transaid since the beginning of the ETS scheme, sharing local transport solutions which improve access to basic services and economic opportunity for rural communities. These experiences have been profound and rewarding for me, and also for the lives of vulnerable women in sub-Saharan Africa who have been touched by the exceedingly great work and commitment that has been put in by Transaid.”
The 20th anniversary showcase event was held at Mail Rail – The Postal Museum, which was once the hub of logistics activity for the Royal Mail in London.


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Airbnb takes a more accommodating approach to communities
Airbnb announces earnings later Thursday. The short-term rental platform announced this week that it will extend what he calls a “ban” on house parties — basically, if you don’t have a good grade, you can’t book an entire house for just one night.
It’s the company’s latest effort to do good for the neighbors. And regulators.
Nearby keggers weren’t the big deal in Truckee, a small mountain town on the California side of Lake Tahoe. Instead, it was “things like weddings or receptions,” said David Polivymember of the Truckee City Council.
The pandemic — and all the Airbnb tourists it has produced — has helped accelerate new noise and waste regulations, according to Polivy.
“The extreme tourist pressures that cities like us have really seen have provided political cover for us to kind of do what we wanted to do anyway,” he said.
While in the past Airbnb might have fought these regulations in court, it has taken a softer approach in recent years.
“Their feelings towards the government have changed from confrontation to collaboration,” said Karen Xiewho researches short-term rentals at the University of Denver.
An example: Airbnb shares its data more with cities that may be looking to boost the local tourism industry.
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Silicon Alley Web tracking firm, Jupiter Media Metrix
has filed a lawsuit against rival PC Data, alleging patent infringement.
Both companies’ traffic analytics are heavily cited by Web publishers in selling ad inventory.
Jupiter Media Metrix claims it was awarded a patent last month for a system to analyze computer-use to spot trends and user histories.
In a suit filed in Delaware Federal Court, JMXI said the Reston, Va.-based PC Data’s tracking software presented a patent infringement. The software can track a user’s patterns on the Internet, including visits, length of visits and pages viewed.
PC Data officials could not be reached for comment.
Jupiter Media Metrix has requested an injunction against PC Data’s use of the software. The company has also asked for financial restitution “in an amount to be proven at trial,” according to court papers.


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(AhlulBayt News Agency) - A 36-person group from Pakistan visited cultivation and industry institute of Nemouneh farm and Razavi dairy products company.
This group included active Pakistani merchants in the area of exports and imports such as fruit, rice, and herbals. This group of merchants has good interactions with Iran.
Referring to the production of 30 million tomato seedlings in greenhouses of this institute, Ali Oreei Zare, supervisor of cultivation and industry institute of Nemouneh, stated, "Some other crops like tomato and vegetable are produced in these greenhouses".
He continued, "All equipment and measures related to the construction of these greenhouses has been carried out by Iranian experts".
Referring to the advantages of dense gardens of Nemouneh farm, Oreei Zare said, "In 1393/ 2014, these gardens were formed on growth bases containing seeds and the density of which is 3900 seedlings per unit area".
Noting that over 48 types of products are produced by Razavi dairy products company, Seyyed Mahdi Talebian, company's manager, added, "This Company has got more than 52 sale representative".
He continued, "These products are exported to Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Iraq and also central Asian countries".
Production of Milk enriched with Vitamin D3 for elderly and children and producing different probiotic health products … were introduced by Talebian as some activities of the company to complete its basket and to increase customers' satisfaction.
Introducing this visit as one containing lots of good achievement, Wali Mohammd, head of the Pakistani group, added, "Our goal is to transfer technology and imports to Pakistan".
The head of Iran-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce continued, "To reach this goal, we are going to return to Iran in the next few months, along with another group for further investigation".


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Since last year, tech giant has been rumored to be working on a smartphone device that could connect with the iPhone, and this week those rumors were further fueled by the application for a trademark in Japan for “iWatch
According to Engadget, other companies have filed for the same trademark in the past, although this particular one was specifically applied for by Apple Inc. of Cupertino.
A document obtained Monday from the Japan Patent Office’s website says the application was made June 3 and made public June 27.
The trademark application follows a recent Apple patent for a flexible AMOLED display intended to be worn around the wrist, in addition to reports that the so-called iWatch will run a full version of iOS and could be available as early as later this year.
It was not immediately clear when the application might be approved. Patent office and Apple officials in Japan were not available for comment late Monday.
The so-called iWatch would allow users to see new information, such as text messages and other notifications, without having to dig for their smartphones in their pockets.


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Welcome to Friday, futurists.
What a year it’s been. We’ll do a full recap on 2023 in the coming weeks, but as a full-time founder and content creator, I can say without a doubt that it’s been the most rewarding and fulfilling year of my life.
It’s fitting that this will be my last full essay of the year because it puts a big bow on our content arc throughout 2023: Multiplayer Brand dynamics and the future of co-creation and entertainment in the metaverse.
The Stans may be the key to unlocking our Multiplayer Brand future.
Last week, in anticipation of the release of her sixth studio album, Pink Friday 2, Nicki Minaj announced a virtual metaverse world launch in Roblox entitled GAG CITY.
Originally intended to be a week-long promotional vehicle for Minaj to virtually meet-and-greet fans and distribute virtual merch like digital fashion collectibles, the pink-clad Roblox activation has quickly transformed into something else entirely.
Minaj’s fans, dubbed ‘Barbz’ (a colloquialism of the otherwise IP-infringing term ‘Barbies’), have turned Gag City into a virtual co-creation space both within the metaverse and spilling out onto social media, as well as a ground zero for a turf war for beef with fans of rival female artists Rhianna, Ariana Grande, and Taylor Swift.
As we predicted in our book, The Multiplayer Brand, published in June of 2023, metaverses like Roblox provide an open world for experimentation and role play that directly translates into participatory commerce. Part of that participation is creating new imagery with GenAI tools like Midjourney and DALL-E. Tools like Midjourney catalyze co-creative explosion, allowing fans like Barbz to transform their adoration into visualizations.
In one week, the Barbz had built a robust lore around the city (apparently ‘discovered’ by Minaj on December 3rd, when she appointed herself mayor).
They’ve built on top of this lore, outlining districts and slums, entertainment events, celebrity sightings, rumors of battles and wars with Swifties, and establishing public services like shopping, banks, and currencies. “Gag City is now only allowing Face Card as currency,” wrote X user Onikadrip.
Gag City symbolizes the evolving relationship between entertainment and commerce. Here, brand interactions are integral to the experience, creating a new form of marketing where engagement is intrinsic to the narrative, and ‘stan accounts’ — fan accounts dedicated to boosterism — create the organic lift and virality that a release like Pink Friday 2 needs.
Various brands, seizing the opportunity, have joined the Gag City bandwagon. Chili’s announced a temporary name change to “Chili’s Barbz and Grill” in celebration of the release, replete with a midjourney image of pink smoke coming out of what we can only assume is as Chili’s within the Gag City limits. One user envisioned an anthropomorphized Starbucks lemon loaf as a citizen of Gag City.
Brand involvement in the multiplayer trend creates a cycle that may manifest as a trend too watch in 2024. By jumping into cultural commentary, brands signal a significant shift in marketing strategies — they have to be more nimble, and tapped into the speed of culture; while balancing these new fan-generated worlds for their own commercial gain.
P.S. This week on the podcast we’re joined by Bobby Huang, the former retail strategy lead at REI, and newly-minted CCO at James Baroud, a Portuguese outdoor brand with big aspirations. Listen wherever podcasts are found, or right over here.
The NRF’s Big Fib. For more than a year, retail analysts have been calling ‘retail organized crime’ statistics and claims by the National Retail Federation (NRF) into question. The NRF had claimed that such crime accounted for nearly half of the $94.5 billion in retail "shrink" in 2021, amounting to over $45 billion a year. In an investigation by Michael Hiltzig for the LA Times, Hiltzig found that the NRF has walked back as much as 50% of that figure.
Our Take: The article criticizes the media and politicians for readily accepting and promoting the NRF's false claims without sufficient skepticism. It also points out that the retail industry often conflates "shrink" (which includes employee theft, paperwork errors, and shoplifting) with organized retail crime to push a narrative of rampant crime in stores.
We could all use a healthy dose of skepticism when reviewing figures from trade organizations like the NRF, which acts as a lobby for retailers to the US Congress. This lobbying effort has had tremendous effect. Senator Chuck Grassley staged a “Fight Retail Crime Day” event in D.C. in October, according to the article, where “he stood next to NRF executives to push bipartisan legislation to create a Center to Combat Organized Retail Crime in the Department of Homeland Security.”
Big retail chains use the fear of crime to justify store closures and deflect from poor executive decisions. Shrink statistics presented by retailers from 2021-2023 have been distorted to suggest a crisis; those numbers are being manipulated to advance a particular narrative.
Nike’s In Need of Its Own Refurbishment. A mere thirteen months after its announcement, the online Nike Refurbished store is being closed for good. The store previously sold like-new merchandise that primarily came from online returns. This is the latest in a series of reversals for The Swoosh, which recently announced it would rekindle relationships with multibrand retailers and scale back its DTC investments.
Google SafeSearch May Prevent Brands From Scaling. Modern Retail’s Gabriela Barkho filed a story this week on the challenges that brands like Nude Barre have when reaching new customers through advertising. The black-founded, size- and skin-tone-inclusive brand has been repeatedly delisted from Google Search due to an ‘overzealous’ Google Images algorithm — SafeSearch — which detects whether an image contains nudity. SafeSearch repeatedly flags the brand’s skin tone-matching nature of the shapewear and underwear product imagery as containing nudity.
The One ‘Sip’ Challenge? A cursed matchup if we’ve ever seen it, Doritos has partnered with Empirical for an ‘afternoon snack in a glass.’ The abomination of nachoization declares on its marketing site that ‘flavor knows no boundaries’ — we vehemently disagree.
Chobani Buys La Colombe. The coffee company with culture now gets it, literally. La Colombe announced today that it would be acquired by the company that made yogurt unhealthy, the CPG giant Chobani, for some $900M; $44M in cash and $550M in debt. This follows a $300M investment into the coffee brand by Keurig/Dr. Pepper (KDP) this past July, making KDP a minority investor in Chobani.
The ‘Blue Carpet Treatment’. Walmart pulled out all the stops for its premier of the “romcommerce” video series, Add to Heart. The ‘blue carpet’ premier took place earlier this month in Chelsea, NYC, where couples who found IRL love at Walmart gathered for a world premier of the shoppable video series.
🎉Listen to our recap and analysis of the first six episodes of Add To Heart on a very special edition of the Future Commerce podcast with special guests Rhian Beutler and Jaci Jackson!


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Mark Cuban not a fan of the sleeved uniforms
Mavericks owner blasts Christmas Day uniforms for being skin-tight, and that they shouldn't have been used in-game.
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is not a fan of the Christmas Day sleeved uniforms.
"Hated them," Cuban said before the Mavs hosted the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night. "I just thought it made our guys look more like a high school wrestling team or a college wrestling team."
Cuban, whose Mavs had Christmas off, understands the NBA is attempting to market the short-sleeved jerseys to fans who might not want to wear tank tops. He just doesn't believe it's necessary for superstars such as LeBron James and Kevin Durant to wear the T-shirt-style jerseys in games to get them to sell.
"I could have thought of better ways to sell [the short-sleeved jerseys] and a lot of different ways by having them in a casual-wear situation," Cuban said. "We would have been better off, if we want people to wear them casually, to get the trainers and everybody else to wear them to show them in a realistic setting. So I would have done it a little differently, but we'll see what happens."
Most everyone had the same opinions on the sleeves, and LeBron James complained that the sleeves limited his ability to shoot. Cuban also likened the outfits to wrestling uniforms and said that high schools wouldn't want their students wearing the skin-tight uniforms to class. He's got a point.
Hopefully, the NBA and adidas have gotten this fad out of their system to experiment. It was worth a shot, it wasn't good, let's all move on. Let's jut hope no one bought the awful things.
The bucket pushed the Spurs' lead to seven, and the Grizzlies never got that close again
The series shifts back to Washington for a pivotal Game 5
Trade Kanter? Re-sign Roberson? What about Westbrook?
The Celtics and Bulls meet in Boston for a pivotal Game 5
Here is how to watch the Celtics-Bulls series
The Bulls point guard's thumb is still broken, with significant swelling


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Jeremy C. Fox for Boston.com
Local entrepreneurs are filling retail spaces and offices at a newly opened East Boston business incubator, launching new ventures and fulfilling dreams of becoming their own bosses.
The transformation of the former Public Welfare building at 154 Maverick St. is the culmination of eight years of work and 18 months of renovation for John and Melissa Tyler, themselves entrepreneurs who wanted to provide an affordable space and access to resources to help community members become business owners.
“Oh my God, I can’t believe we’re here,” Melissa Tyler, 47, said Friday, just a few days after the opening of the new space, tentatively named Maverick Market Place. She said the project had been a “pipe dream for a long time,” something she first conceived of when she was 19.
Her inspiration was Affleck’s Palace, an eclectic indoor market in Manchester, England, that got its start when the owners of an old department store building began renting small sections to young people selling clothing, records, books, and vintage items, she said.
“Over the years it just developed into a hip, fun, trendy place to go for all ages,” she said.
Melissa Tyler is the founder of several small businesses, the most recent being an online venture called TummyToys, which sells jewelry for people with pierced bellybuttons.
When she started the business, she said, she knew nothing about e-commerce, so she started looking for resources to help her.
“I said, ‘I can’t be the first person to do this. There’s got to be help,’” she recalled.
But there was no one place to find the guidance and resources she needed, so she spent about four years putting together information and contacts acquired through the federal Small Business Administration and private organizations set up to help entrepreneurs.
She wants to put what she has learned to use for others, to make it easier for them to succeed. To fill the building, she said, she sought people who were struggling to start businesses at their kitchen tables and needed an affordable space to set up shop.
“A lot of people, when they start a business, they’re not given any help,” she said, and often small business owners can’t afford to step away from their businesses to seek the help they need.
She said that once an entrepreneur outgrows the space, the Tylers will help secure financing to buy or rent a bigger space in the community, which they hope will help redevelop more properties in need of improvement.
The Tylers looked for an appropriate space for a business incubator for years before they found the Public Welfare building and got permission to take a look inside. They immediately shared a single vision for its redevelopment, and in October 2005 they submitted their request to purchase the building from the City of Boston.
They finally got their wish about a year and a half ago. Since then they have spent about $850,000 on renovations and expect to spend another $400,000 to $500,000.
John Tyler said 14 of the 17 available retail and office spaces are already rented. The Tylers are glad to see that the mix of business owners reflects the diversity of the community, and that most are women.
The first-floor retail spaces rent for $450 to $1,200 per month and include a shoe store, two women’s boutiques, a shop selling toys and trading cards, an electronics store, and Salamander’s Coffee Place, run by Quincy resident Mercedes Pica, 42.
Pica, who came to the Boston area from Bogota, Colombia, seven years ago, said she decided to start a business after she was laid off from a marketing job at a big downtown firm.
“I was a little bit tired of being an employee, so I decided to be my own boss,” she said.
On the second floor are an acupuncturist, shipping company, speech therapist, couples counselor, digital marketer, and three offices that are still available for $500 per month, including utilities and internet access.
On the top floor are two apartments, one affordable unit and another where the Tylers are living.
The re-opening of the long-derelict building has excited neighborhood residents. John Tyler said throughout the renovation process, passersby stopped to poke their heads inside and ask, “What’s going on?”
On Friday afternoon, a woman saw the front doors open and walked in from Maverick Street.
“It’s good to see something happening in here,” she said.
Many in the neighborhood may be glad to see the building put to use, but it is unlikely that anyone is happier than the Tylers.
“What’s really exciting for us right now is to see the building come alive,” John Tyler said. “It’s been our dream for so long.”
For a gallery of photos from the business incubator, click here.


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2010 October 29
View From the Top
BEN GABBE/PatrickMcMullan.com View Gallery
(NEW YORK) “There are so many lovely women in the room here today that I think we’d give even Don Draper an aneurysm,” declared Joanna Coles during the Marie Claire Women On Top Awards Thursday afternoon. The Gansevoort Park Avenue Penthouse was filled with plenty of girl talk, as guests gathered to celebrate 18 working women selected by Marie Claire for their admirable contributions to society. Host Laura Linney explained, “Working on The Big C, I spend countless hours thinking about time and how we choose to spend it. These women have achieved so much all before they turned 40. So really, they have only just begun.”
The women’s accomplishments were humbling as Linney listed them, which included designing cars, arresting an international terrorist, and cutting carbon emissions in India by 20 percent. Coles explained the goal was to celebrate women making change in traditionally male-dominated industries. She noted, “What we discovered was that regardless of what these women were doing, they were doing it with an incredible amount of passion, and they all share the ability to embrace risk.” As the roast chicken was served Coles added, “All these women have the potential to be a future president, so as you’re eating your lunch, start sucking up now!”
Luxury fragrance brand Kilian just opened its first U.S. brick and mortar retail store in the Meatpacking neighborhood this month. Before the store's big bash to fête its fashionable...
Jeffrey Kalinsky is shifting his role at Nordstrom in order to focus on his side projects. He'll no longer hold the title of executive vice president of designer merchandising for ...
Karl Lagerfeld took the Chanel Pre-Fall show back to its retail roots by staging its runway show in Dallas this season. The iconic Parisian brand has a storied history with the city...


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Two major fast food chains in Canada – KFC and Mary Brown’s, which both specialize in chicken – are growing their meat-free range. It’s part of a collaboration between each company and Lightlife, a vegan and vegetarian meat producer.
KFC Canada is adding Lightlife’s meatless popcorn chicken to its menu – but for a limited time only. The product contains no animal ingredients and is cooked in designated fryers, but KFC notes that it “may” be cooked in the same oil as its animal-based meat.
“We’ll let our customers decide if they feel it’s suitable for them,” the fast food giant writes on its website.
Canadian KFC outlets began selling Lightlife Plant-Based Chicken sandwiches in 2020, following an “incredibly” successful trial the year prior.
During the pilot period, KFC sold more than a month’s worth of meat-free chicken sandwiches in just six hours, according to Samantha Redman, chief marketing officer at KFC Canada.
“Seeing the extraordinary demand for Plant-Based KFC, we worked quickly to bring these menu items to our restaurants across Canada,” Redman said in a statement in 2020.
Now, KFC is making the option more widely available, with the burger now being offered at nearly 600 outlets across the country.
It’s hot on the heels of an announcement made by KFC US. On January 5, it was reported that the chain was bringing Beyond Fried Chicken to all of its roughly 4,000 US stores.
Meanwhile, Mary Brown’s is debuting its first-ever meatless chicken option.
The chain, which has around 200 stores in Canada, will offer Lightlife’s Plant-Based Tenders as well as Lightlife Sidekick Snack Sandwiches as part of its permanent menu.
“We’re listening to what Canadians are saying and how their food tastes are changing. So while chicken is at the heart of our menu, we also want to satisfy the cravings of guests who are looking for delicious plant-based choices,” said Hadi Chahin, Mary Brown’s president and COO.
The Sidekick Sandwiches are available in Original or Sweet Heat, however both sauces contain egg. Moreover, the vegan chicken is cooked in the same oil as the animal-based version, Mary Brown’s confirmed to Plant Based News.
This article was updated on January 7, 2022, to rectify misinformation retrieved from a press release.


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Swedish House Mafia to headline Ultra Music Festival 2023
As if Ultra Music Festival couldn’t continue to top itself year after year, they still find a way. In one of the surprising announcements of the entire festival, Ultra announced that Swedish House Mafia will indeed be headlining next year’s event.
The announcement came moments before Hardwell took the stage. The group’s iconic three dots appeared on the screen, and then their name was eventually revealed. At the same time, a group of drones next to the stage spelled out “See U Next Year.” There was confusion in the crowd as to what this meant. Was it just promoting the Swede’s new album, ‘Paradise Again,’ or was it just an announcement for the Ultra dates next year. However, after the show had ended, Damian Pinto took the stage to say, “Are you ready for Swedish House Mafia at Ultra next year,” and the crowd went wild.
The last time the legendary trio graced the Ultra stage was back in 2018 for the festival’s 20th anniversary. It was a reunion set after the three friends had split for nearly five years. Still regarded as one of the greatest moments in Ultra history, there is no telling what the Swedish House Mafia have in store for 2023 with a brand new sound and production.
Don’t miss your chance to see this amazing act as Ultra has confirmed its dates for next year. Scheduled to take place on March 24th-26th back at Bayfront Park, the 23rd edition of the festival could surely be the best one yet.
Image Credit: Rukes.com


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The world’s largest retailer said it will not place “any new orders beyond what’s already committed.”
The discounter says it will work with suppliers on existing inventories.
Wal-Mart has been carrying Paula Deen-branded products in all of its U.S. stores since 2011.
On Monday, the country’s largest pork producer Smithfield Foods, who sold a line of Deen-branded hams, dropped her as a spokeswoman.
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