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Sales of new homes fell by 14% in November, well below expectations, due to rising prices that analysts say are forcing many prospective buyers out of the picture.
The report from the U.S. Census Bureau said that while sales fell in November, the median price of newly built homes rose by 19% from the same period one year ago. Prices increased even as the supply of new homes rose, mainly because the inventory of existing homes for sale has hit a historic low with barely a two-month supply, experts said.
“A hefty correction appears to be due, but the rapid increases in existing home prices — inventory in that market is only one-third the level in the new home market, relative to sales — is putting extra upward pressure on new home prices,” wrote Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics in a note to investors.
The price of existing homes is also up, 13% year-over-year, according to data from the National Association of Realtors.
The implication is that new home prices have soared because there are so few homes on the resale market. At the same time, building material costs have soared, and those increases are also being passed on to buyers.
For example the price of lumber is rising steadily again after peaking in spring and falling dramatically in the summer. The current price of lumber is now double what it was at the start of November, CNBC reported. The sharp rise occurred due to the U.S. Commerce Department’s announcement that month it will double import duties on Canadian lumber in 2022.
Home builders have also slowed down sales due to supply chain issues, wary of selling homes they won’t be able to deliver on time. Due to this, Lennar, one of the biggest home builders in the U.S., reported disappointing fourth quarter results earlier this month, blaming “limited entitled land, labor and supply chain constraints.”
Despite the slowdown, and even with real estate experts forecasting slower home sales next year due to rising mortgage rates and higher prices, builders remain bullish. This week it was reported that builder sentiment rose to its highest level since February.
However, market watchers warn that if mortgage rates continue to rise as expected in 2022, buyers would have less purchasing power and be unable to afford what homes there are for sale. That could force builders to lower prices, or at least put limits on how much they raise them.


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- KNIA / KRLS - http://kniakrls.com -
Christmas Botany Is Big Business
Posted By News On December 14, 2011 @ 6:21 am In Today’s Local News | Comments Disabled
Christmas is coming and longstanding holiday botanical traditions such as hanging the mistletoe are right around the corner. Pat Wisse, General Manager at De Jong greenhouse in Pella tells KNIA/KRLS News that holiday plants are sold in large numbers every year, and said that they ship about 50,000 poinsettias over the holiday season. Wisse also said that proper care of holiday plants is important, and most should be watered every three days, or as needed.
Article printed from KNIA / KRLS: http://kniakrls.com
URL to article: http://kniakrls.com/2011/12/blood-drive-to-honor-pella-teenager/
Copyright © 2009 KNIA/KRLS. All rights reserved.

domain: news


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The global supply chain leader Deutsche Post DHL Group, announced to invest approximately $30 million in 2020 to expand and modernize its operation in the United States. The expansion will create opportunities for approximately 900 new distribution center workers to support its growth.
- The investment includes purchasing its first fully-owned move-in-ready distribution center in the United States and temporary distribution center space in Chicago, IL; Los Angeles, CA; and Avenel, NJ
- DHL eCommerce Solutions currently has 19 distribution centers and three corporate offices in the United States and Canada with approximately 3,000 employees.
The prominent recent expansions and investments by DHL are mentioned below:
July 2020: DHL Supply Chain, announced an additional investment of $70 million to strengthen its life sciences and healthcare capabilities in North America. The company will develop additional specialized warehousing infrastructure for its pharmaceutical and medical devices customers.
June 2020: The leading provider of global shipping services DHL Express, had announced the opening of a new retail shipping store in in the United States. The company owned retail store is located at the Palm Springs Mile Shopping Center at 407 W. 49th St., Hialeah, FL.
March 2020: DHL Supply Chain announced an expanded partnership with autonomous mobile robots (AMR) leader Locus Robotics. The new partnership includes 10 new, nationwide deployments of the Locus AMR solution in 2020. DHL Supply Chain is a part of Deutsche Post DHL Group.
February 2020: DHL Express had expressed its intentions to expand its operations and investments in Egypt. The Egyptian market is one of the largest, and most significant markets for DHL in the region and the expansion will also strengthens Egypts position as a logistics hub in the African continent.
The worlds largest logistics company DHL was formed in 1969 and headquartered in Bonn in Germany. DHL Express is a leading express service provider globally. The company has approximately 380,000 people in around 220 countries and territories work every day to help customers worldwide. DHL transports everything, from oversized by cargo plane to small but life-saving by Parcelcopter.


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Put tax brakes on bikes for kids, says Halfords
Halfords has appointed parliamentary lobbying firm Grayling to ask MPs to support its proposed VAT reduction to five per cent on children's bikes.
Virtuous cycle: The bike retailer wants tax break on bikes
Grayling is expected to contact MPs in earnest later this month, alongside other potential supporters such as London mayor Boris Johnson.
The bike retailer says health benefits from cheaper cycles would outweigh £13m of revenue the extra tax brings.
Chief executive David Wild said: 'The dream is this will all happen in January, but our experience so far suggests that is not likely to happen. So we are asking that all parties include this in their election manifestos.'
A website will be launched next month to support the campaign. The present 15% rate on VAT is due to to back to 17.5% on January 1. A cut to 5% would bring children's bikes closer to children's clothing and books, which are zero-rated. Such a rating requires the consent of the European Parliament.
Grayling has a list of key targets including Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe and Conservative health spokesman Stephen O'Brien. Cycle England and sustainable transport charity Sustrans are also likely to offer support.
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Apple Newsroom yesterday:
Today Apple announced updates to Final Cut Pro across Mac and
iPad, offering powerful new features that help streamline
workflows. Final Cut Pro now includes improvements in timeline
navigation and organization, as well as new ways to simplify
complex edits. The apps leverage the power-efficient performance
of Apple silicon along with an all-new machine learning model for
Object Tracker, and export speeds are turbocharged on Mac models
powered by multiple media engines. Final Cut Pro for iPad brings
new features to further enhance the portable Multi-Touch editing
experience, including support for voiceover recording, expanded
in-app content options, added color-grading presets, and workflow
improvements. These updates to Final Cut Pro will be available
later this month on the App Store.
I mentioned last week that video editors took notice that Apple’s behind-the-scenes look at their “Scary Fast” keynote showed the film being editing in Premiere Pro, not Final Cut Pro, and that it wasn’t helping allay the fears of Final Cut Pro devotees that Apple was losing interest in it, a la the still-lamented Aperture.
It occurred to me then that the best evidence that Apple remains keenly committed to Final Cut Pro is that they (finally?) ported it, along with Logic Pro, to the iPad earlier this year — and that the iPad versions are good.
Now, as if on cue, Apple has announced significant feature updates to Final Cut Pro (and Logic Pro) for both Mac and iPad.
★ Tuesday, 7 November 2023


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Blue Apron APRN, one of the newest stocks on Wall Street, simply can’t stand the heat. The meal kit delivery service company tanked again on Tuesday, slipping further below its IPO price after one of the first significant analyst price targets was announced.
Shares of Blue Apron fell 6.88% in morning trading Tuesday. Today’s downward movement comes after Chuck Cerankosky of Northcoast Research gave the fledgling public company a $2 price target. The low price point comes in $8 below its $10 opening price point, which was already far lower than the initial $15 to $17 per share price Blue Apron hoped to go public at.
In his note, Cerankosky wrote that Blue Apron’s sales growth is dependent on discounts, which he sees as a highly unstable, non-growth business model. He also mentioned that high labor and shipping costs might negatively impact the meal delivery company.
One of the first big Wall Street “sell” signals is the latest in a string of blows to Blue Apron in its early days on the stock market. The company is already one of the worst performing 2017 IPOs year-to-date.
"The trading on this has been just awful," Kathleen Smith, principal at Renaissance Capital, told CNBC last week. "Some of it is the Amazon fear but that's not the only thing. Some of it is the IPO market itself. Investors are jumpy around valuation."
Amazon’s AMZN planed acquisition of Whole Foods WFM, which was announced right before Blue Apron’s IPO, has contributed to the company’s early woes. The fear is that the size and scope of Amazon’s gigantic delivery service, which already includes food, will easily be able to outstretch Blue Apron’s reach with Whole Foods in its portfolio.
On top of the potential Amazon and Whole Foods impact, Blue Apron’s customer retention rate has proved worrisome. According to a recent Motley Fool report, 50% of Blue Apron customers placed a second order the week after their first order. However, after 24 months, the customer retention rate falls to just 10%.
More Stock News: 8 Companies Verge on Apple-Like Run
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The pharmaceutical and healthcare industry reported an increase in deal value in Q4 2015 with USD237.7 billion compared to USD201.3 billion in Q4 2014. However, the number of deals decreased in Q4 2015 with 1,013, as compared to 1,143 in Q4 2014. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the number of deals decreased and deal values increased in Q4 2015, when compared to 1,053 deals worth USD145.7 billion in Q3 2015. Licensing agreements recorded an increase in upfront payments and milestone payments in Q4 2015. A total of USD867.6m and USD10.4 billion were reported as upfront and milestone payments in Q4 2015, compared to USD729.3m and USD6.5 billion, respectively in Q4 2014.
GlobalData’s “Partnerships, Licensing, Investments and M&A Deals and Trends in Pharmaceuticals – Q4 2015” report is an essential source of data and trend analysis on partnerships, licensing, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and financing in the pharmaceutical and healthcare market. The report provides detailed information on partnerships, licensing agreements, M&As, equity/debt offerings, private equity and venture financing transactions registered in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry in Q4 2015.
Published: Feb’16 – Single user price: $1,500


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Called the "number-one emerging business strategy" by The Wall Street Journal, revenue management will be the focus of a new conference held April 21 at Georgia Tech College of Management.
Co-hosted by the Georgia Tech Business Network, the Revenue Management and Price Optimization Conference will run from 8:30 a.m.-7 p.m. in rooms 314 and 316 of the Management building (800 West Peachtree St.), teaching business leaders innovative ways to maximize their profits by matching supply with demand.
Revenue management, which is catching on quickly with many industries, involves dynamic pricing strategies like those long employed by the airlines - for example, offering competitive rates to leisure travelers who book early while charging business travelers much more for last-minute reservations.
Robert Cross, dubbed the "guru of revenue" by The Wall Street Journal and author of a bestselling book on the topic, will kick off the conference at 9 a.m. with opening remarks. Lloyd Hansen, who recently retired from Ford Motor Co. as vice president and chief revenue officer, will deliver the conference's keynote address at 5 p.m., describing his experiences and successes overseeing revenue management for the automaker. Ford estimates savings of $800 million a year through pricing strategies that offer the right mix of features and incentives to maximize profit per vehicle.
The conference includes distinguished panelists from top companies already employing dynamic pricing strategies, including Continental Airlines, Dell, Dillard's, Marriott International, Wachovia Corporation, and J.P. Morgan Chase & Company. Workshops throughout the day will focus on the use of revenue management in retailing, health care, manufacturing and distribution, hospitality, software, transportation, and financial-services industries.
"Our goal is to provide a venue for industry practitioners and academics to share ideas and learn the latest developments in the area of dynamic pricing and revenue management," says conference organizer Mark Ferguson, assistant professor of operations management. "Advances in information technology are what have made effective pricing and revenue management possible today. New technologies are allowing companies to collect and analyze data to better understand price elasticity and demand while tools like Internet sales and electronic shelf labeling systems make it easy and affordable to change prices."
"This conference - the only one of its kind in the Southeast - is a huge step for the field of pricing and revenue management," says Jon Higbie, a conference panelist who is director of operations research at Manugistics, a global provider of revenue-management solutions that has been instrumental in the development of the College of Management's Pricing & Revenue Management Initiative.
"We're proud to be at the forefront of this field," says College of Management Dean Terry C. Blum. "We're conducting the research and building the ties between academia and industry that will help improve the effectiveness and understanding of revenue management. Our interdisciplinary approach has been highly successful."
Registration for the conference is available by downloading and completing the form linked above. Early registration (by April 14) costs $65 ($25 for students). After that time, the price is $85 ($30 for students). To pay by credit card online, visit the Georgia Tech Business Network Homepage. For more information, contact Mark Ferguson at 404-894-4330.


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South Korean shipbuilding orders drop 58.6 percent through September 2012. South Korean shipbuilding orders dropped 58.6 percent for the first nine months of this year due to the persistent recession in the global shipbuilding industry, a government report reveals. The drop was attributed to the recession in the global shipbuilding industry. Global shipbuilding orders declined 48 percent to 14.34 CGT over the cited period due to an oversupply of ships and the prolonged global eaconomic slowdown, the report adds that demand for container ships and bulk carriers contracted sharply, informs Xinhua. Despite the global slump, South Korea kept its position as the world's No.1 shipbuilding country with the market share of 36.3 percent. It was followed by China with a 4.98-million-CGT of orders, or 34.7 percent of the total, and Japan with a 1.66 CGT of contracts, or 11.6 percent of the total. The ministry noted that South Korea's shipbuilding orders were led by contracts for ships related to development and transportation of natural resources such as drill ships, tankers and ships that carry liquefied natural gas (LNG).
New foreign orders received by South Korean shipbuilders fell 15.7 percent in the first nine months of this year from a year ago, provisional figures from the Korea Shipbuilders' Association show. Orders in the nine-month period totaled 5.8 million gt for 110 ships, compared with 6.9 million gt for 121 ships in the same period a year earlier. New orders received in September alone totaled 1.2 million gt for 16 vessels. It did not give comparable 1998 figures
The market for commercial communications satellites is expected to be worth $25.4 billion over the next 10 years, according to Forecast International’s recently completed study "Commercial Communications Satellites: 2005-2014." Also anticipated within the next few years, is the long awaited rebound in the commercial communications market. Fueling this recovery will not only be the growing market for the application of key technologies and services to the commercial consumer but also
According to a report from Yonhap, orders won by Chinese shipbuilders dropped more than 6 percent in the first seven months of this year due mainly to prolonged uncertainties in the global economy, the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry said. Source: Yonhap
China's shipyards launched 60-million dwt in 2012 representing a drop of 21% from the previous year. According to Ministry of Industry and Information Technology government statistics reported by CNTV, new orders for shipbuilding also tumbled by about 44 percent. Industry experts consider that the shipbuilding industry would continue to be weak in 2013, and it’s unlikely the market will pick up in the short term.
The shipping industry is experiencing the biggest dry bulk market recession since the 1980s, as uncertain global economic outlook and increased imbalance between supply and demand have lead to historically low freight rates .It seems the downturn will continue until 2017 if a viable equilibrium is not achieved. The recent measures in 2013 which promoted the replacement of older tonnage with newer, in combination with the Chinese financial backing
SembCorp Marine posted a 6.4 percent drop in half-year net profit to S$39.2 million ($21.4 million) from S$41.9 million in the first six months of 2001. The Singapore-based group -- a subsidiary of the SembCorp Industries conglomerate which concentrates on ship repair, offshore conversion and shipbuilding -- said in a statement its performance in 2001 was expected to be comparable with the previous year. It valued its outstanding order book for 2001-2004 at S$1.72 billion.
Last week (ending 22, June 2012) oil bunker prices dropped in key ports across the world IFO380 has made double-digit drops in Singapore, Rotterdam, Fujairah, and Houston, and all four ports once again reached new lows for the month reports 'Ship & Bunker'. (IFO 380 is Intermediate fuel oil with a maximum viscosity of 380 Centistokes (<3.5% sulphur). In Asia, Singapore IF380 prices dropped by $11.00 bringing the price to $563
2014 Floater Orders – We thought it would be useful to provide a summary of floater orders placed last year. As listed below, 25 units were ordered during the year - 10 FPSOs, one Barge, four FLNGs, seven FSRUs and three FSOs. FPSOs (10) • Kaombo CLM • Kaombo GGC • Deep Producer 1 • Catcher • Armada Ali • Libra EWT • Madura BD • Front Puffin • Tartaruga MV 28 • Petrojarl 1 Production Barge (1)
With China’s COSCO confirming its $1.5-billion order of 11 new 19,000 TEU ships for delivery in 2018, the “arms race” for Ultra Large Container Vessels (ULCV) of over 18,000 TEU continues but carriers are having to be more creative when deciding where to deploy smaller deliveries, cautions maritime analyst, Drewry, in this week’s Container Insight report. The average price for each ship comes in at $137
Germany’s largest universal port reported the effects of weakened Chinese foreign trade plus the steep downturn in trade with Russia during the first nine months of the year. Totaling 104.6 million tons, seaborne cargo throughput in Hamburg was down 4
Shipping freight rates for transporting containers from ports in Asia to Northern Europe plunged by 27.9 percent to $295 per 20-foot container (TEU) in the week ending on Friday, one source with access to data from the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index told Reuters.
A slump in dry bulk shipping is set to worsen as the meltdown in global commodities and too many ships free for hire rock the sector used by investors to gauge the health of world trade. Slower coal and iron ore demand from China - the world's biggest industrial importer - have battered
Kuwait-headquartered United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) said that marked drop in Asian imports to Europe, made worse by a strong dollar, has heaped pain on container lines already struggling with massive over capacity, reports Reuters.
Norsafe, a developer of marine lifesaving equipment, will bring crew safety into focus at KORMARINE in Busan, Korea, on October 20-23, launching two new lifeboats for the shipping and offshore markets. The company, which specializes in the design, manufacture and servicing of lifeboats
Freight rates for shipping containers from Asia to northern Europe fell 10 percent to $233 per 20-foot container (TEU) in the week ended on Friday, one source with access to data from the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index told Reuters.
Greece and the US are likely to reveal a joint venture to develop a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal when US Secretary of State John Kerry makes an official visit to Athens in November. According to a local news report in eKathimerini
Freight rates for very large crude carriers (VLCCs) could face drop further next week on excess tonnage supply and lower cargo volumes, reports Reuters. A Singapore based VLCC broker said that there’s no upside. Rates will either be flat or on the downside
Maersk Line has laid-up one of its 18,000-teu Triple E containerships. It cannot rule out that it will have to anchor another of its massive Triple E ships in connection with the Chinese New Year. The Danish carrier will anchor Triple- E 18
GasLog Partners LP, an international owner and operator of liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers, increased quarterly cash distribution by 10% to $0.478 per unit for the third quarter of 2015, equivalent to $1.912 per unit on an annual basis.
The Singapore-listed and China-based shipbuilder Yangzijiang Shipbuilding has secured new orders worth $730m, including two very large gas carriers, between September and October. The two 84,000 cbm very large gas carriers (VLGCs) were ordered by Shanghai Zhenrong Energy.
Shipping freight rates for transporting containers from ports in Asia to Northern Europe fell 31.8 percent to $674 per 20-foot container (TEU) in the week ended on Friday, one source with access to data from the Shanghai Shipping Exchange told Reuters.
Freight forward agreement (FFAs) trade rises. The market for hedging oil tanker freight has revived sharply this year to a value of $4.5 billion after years of torpor, with ship owners looking to profit from a freight rally and more energy companies scramble to cover risk, industry sources say
South Korean shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME) has received orders from government officials to cease production on five of its ships presently under construction, following a series of deadly shipyard incidents, Yonhap reported.
The Port of Los Angeles handled a total of 704,588 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in October 2015. October volumes decreased 1.5 percent compared to the same period last year. “This October’s volumes were slightly less than last October


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Warsaw, 16 June 2014 - Żabka Polska has leased nearly 4,500 m2 of office space in the Poznan Andersia Business Centre owned by the Von der Heyden Group. The tenant was represented by Colliers International.
Żabka Polska, owner of the country's largest convenience store chain Żabka and supermarkets under the brand name Freshmarket will move into the complex in December this year. The new office in Poznan will be the company’s headquarters. Żabka will be the largest tenant of the Andersia complex, which has 11,000 m2 GLA of office space.
“The lease transaction for Żabka Polska is one of the largest in the Poznan office market over the past few years. The company already has 3,500 stores in Poland and dynamic expansion is generating new needs. Placing its main office in Poznan is the natural choice as the first Żabka stores were based here,” comments Sebastian Bedekier, regional director of Colliers International in Poznan responsible for the transaction.
Andersia Business Centre is a modern A-class office building located in the very centre of the city, along the main thoroughfare Królowej Jadwigi, and near the city's most famous high street, Półwiejska. The building is an integral part of the emerging complex on Plac Andersa offering office, retail, hotel services and entertainment. The building was opened in 2012. The originator and main investor of the building is the Von der Heyden Group.


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McDonald's ruling ignites business-labor firestorm
Labor advocates are claiming a big victory after a federal agency said Tuesday that McDonald's central, corporate operations can be lumped in with its thousands of franchises for liability purposes.
The world's largest fast-food chain promises to fight a National Labor Relations Board decision that it says "changes the rules for thousands of small businesses."
"HUGE victory for labor & fast food workers!" tweeted the Service Employees International Union. The union was responding to news as relayed in a The New York Times report that McDonald's corporate apparatus must address workers' complaints that they were fired or disciplined for participating in protests calling for higher wages.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce spokesman Randy Johnson says in a news release the NLRB move "upends existing law and is part of a larger agenda at the NLRB to overturn the joint-employer standard."
Another Chamber exec, Glenn Spencer, calls it "a ploy that could threaten nearly 800,000 franchise businesses and the millions of people who work for them."
The key phrase in the NLRB decision is "joint employer" -- that's the term that the agency's general counsel, Richard Griffin Jr., says can apply to the corporate entity, thus linking it to the franchises. Griffin is a former NLRB board member and served on the board of directors for the AFL-CIO lawyers coordinating committee.
The NLRB has determined that 43 of 181 complaints filed since November 2012 have merit to proceed, the agency says on its website. Of those "43 cases where complaint has been authorized, McDonald's franchisees and/or McDonald's, USA, LLC" -- the central, corporate entity -- "will be named as a respondent if parties are unable to reach settlement."
It is not clear from the NRLB statement how many of the cases involve franchised locations. Sixty-eight cases were found to have no merit, while "64 cases are currently pending investigation," the NLRB says.
Protests over pay at McDonald's have gained traction in recent months. SEIU President Mary Kay Henry was among those arrested in a protest preceding McDonald's shareholders meeting in May. Several McDonald's workers -- among a crowd brought in by 32 buses, police said -- were arrested as well.
The Rev. Dr. William Barber II, head of the NAACP's North Carolina chapter, led the protest march onto McDonald's headquarters campus in Oak Brook, Ill., telling USA TODAY that a "living wage is a moral mandate, and it's time for McDonald's to pay fast-food workers their just due now."
McDonald's has about 3,000 franchises in the U.S., according to the company's website. The company has a total of about 14,000 restaurants in the U.S.
"Wrong" is McDonald's way of describing the decision.
"McDonald's also believes that this decision changes the rules for thousands of small businesses, and goes against decades of established law regarding the franchise model in the United States," says Heather Smedstad, speaking on behalf of the company.
Smedstad, senior vice president over human resources in the U.S., says in a release that the fast-food giant "as well as every other company involved in franchising, relies on these existing rules to run successful businesses as part of a system that every day creates significant employment, entrepreneurial and economic opportunities across the country."


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Stock markets in motion: Euronav down 20%, Games Workshop down 5%
Shares of Euronav plunged more than 20% in early trade after Norwegian rival First line pulled out of a potential $4.2 billion merger with the Belgian oil shipping company.
UK war game maker Games Workshop fell 5.6% after its half-year earnings report.
CNBC Pro: Platinum prices are skyrocketing. These buy-listed stocks with upside potential could be a way to cash in
Consumers see inflation, spending slide over next year, NY Fed survey finds
CNBC Pro: China’s reopening has Wall Street excited. Here’s how the pros play it
Beijing’s sudden and rapid dismantling of its strict Covid-19 controls after nearly three years has raised hopes that its struggling economy could pick up an equally rapid pace of recovery.
From hotels and airlines to “less obvious beneficiaries”, Wall Street analysts are naming their top Chinese and global stocks to play the reopening.
Pro subscribers can learn more here.
— Zavier Ong
European markets: here are the opening calls
European markets are heading for a lower open as investors brace for more inflation data later this week, with US consumer price data for December due on Thursday.
The United Kingdom FTSE100 the index is expected to open 49 points lower at 7,676, the German index DAX 95 points down at 14,698, France CAC down 52 points to 6,855 and Italy MIB FTSE down 204 points to 25,181, according to IG data.
Data released on Tuesday includes Dutch inflation figures for December and retail sales figures from the British Retail Consortium in the UK for December. Airbus will announce its annual commercial aircraft orders and deliveries.


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Junk Food Brands Encouraging TikTok Users To Market Their Products For Them
Junk food brands are encouraging TikTok users to market their products for them, according to a new report.
Health food experts say that, given the video hosting service’s popularity with children, policies are needed to protect them.
Researchers found that unhealthy food and drink brands are encouraging TikTok users to market their products for them – effectively turning them into ‘brand ambassadors’ -as well as using their own accounts for promotional activity.
They assessed video content posted on the social media platform. Their findings were published by BMJ Global Health.
The researchers said that children are exposed to a “vast amount” of unhealthy — high in salt, sugar, and fat— food marketing online.
And the evidence shows that such exposure ultimately influences food preferences, buying, requests and consumption.
TikTok users create, post, watch and engage with short videos. Since its global release, TikTok’s popularity has rapidly increased: its global monthly active users reportedly rose from 55 million in January 2018 to one billion in September 2021.
It is very popular with children: more than a third of its daily users in the USA are reportedly aged 14 or younger.
However, no study to date has looked at the impact of unhealthy food marketing on TikTok, despite calls for attention to be paid to the health implications of the platform.
The researchers assessed the content of all videos posted on the accounts of 16 leading food and non-alcoholic drink brands— based on global brand share.
The content and sentiment of a sample of relevant user-generated content, created in response to branded hashtag challenges instigated by these brands, was also assessed.
A total of 539 videos had been posted on the 16 included accounts, with three percent posted in 2019, 37 percent in 2020, and 60 percent in the first six months of 2021. Four accounts had not posted any videos.
The number of followers of the included accounts ranged from 14 to 1.6 million. Videos received an average of 63,400 views, 5,829 likes, 157 comments and 36 shares per video.
The most common marketing strategies were branding (87 percent of videos), product images (85 percent), engagement (31 percent), and celebrities/ influencers (25 percent).
Engagement included the instigation of branded hashtag challenges that encouraged creation of user-generated content featuring brands’ products, videos, and/or branded effects, such as stickers, filters, or special effects featuring branding.
The total collective views of user-generated content from single challenges ranged from 12.7 million to 107.9 billion.
Among a sample of 626 brand-relevant videos generated in response to these challenges, 96 percent featured branding, 68 percent product images, and 41 percent branded effects.
Most portrayed a positive (73 percent) or neutral/unclear (25 percent) sentiment, with only three per cent portraying a negative sentiment.
Study co-author Dr. Kathryn Backholer said: “Brand activity has rapidly increased – with most videos posted in the six months preceding data collection – and includes instigation of branded hashtag challenges that encourage user-generated content featuring brand products, brand-supplied videos or branded effects.
“Analysis of a sample of brand-relevant user-generated content created in response to these showed that branded hashtag challenges are effectively turning users into, in TikTok’s words, ‘unofficial brand ambassadors’.”
She said that while fewer videos were posted by users who seem to have been paid – such as influencers, these attracted nearly 10 times as many likes per video, on average, as those seemingly not paid for, and are therefore likely important in propagating branded hashtag challenges.
Dr. Backholer, of the Global Obesity Center at Deakin University in Australia, said: “The substantial reach of influencer marketing is concerning given that exposure to influencer marketing of unhealthy foods has been shown to increase energy intake – from unhealthy foods and overall.”
The research team highlight that proposed U.K. legislation will ban all ‘paid-for’ online marketing of ‘less healthy food and drink’ from January next year.
But it includes an exemption for brand-only advertising, and excludes marketing originating outside the U.K., despite the fact that social networking platforms frequently operate across international borders.
Backholer added: “Our study has shown that TikTok is an emerging source of unhealthy food marketing, including that created by users at the instigation of brands.
“Given TikTok’s popularity among children, our findings support the need for policies that protect children from the harmful impact of food marketing, including that on social networking platforms.
“TikTok’s rising popularity also calls for further research into its potential impact on public health and its role as a corporate political actor.”
Produced in association with SWNS.


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Bayer: 5 key drugs to have combined peak sales of 5.5 billion euro
LEVERKUSEN, Germany (Reuters) - Bayer said its five most promising new drugs have an annual peak sales potential of more than 5.5 billion euros ($7 billion).
The sales forecast comprises anti-clotting pill Xarelto, ophthalmic drug Eylea, also calle VEGF Trap-Eye, anti-cancer products Alpharadin and Stivarga, as well as lung treatment riociguat.
Last year, Bayer said four of the drugs, excluding riociguat, would have a peak sales potential of more than 5 billion euros.
(Reporting by Frank Siebelt; Writing by Ludwig Burger)
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- UPDATE 8-U.S. to funnel travelers from Ebola-hit region through 5 airports


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As Alibaba announced its fourth-quarter revenues May 4, analysts couldn’t resist comparing the company to Amazon, with descriptions such as “the Amazon of China.” The comparisons from a financial standpoint are understandable. But Alibaba draws from a number of Western business practices from businesses such as Google while departing radically from Amazon in its approach to online marketplaces. As we have asserted on our blog, the more relevant way to understand Alibaba is in context of its China-based competitors, Baidu and Tencent. Together, Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent are popularly known as BAT. And as Alibaba’s earnings announcement showed, BAT is a formidable force.
Alibaba’s quarterly earnings topped analysts’ expectations for both revenues and earnings per share in a familiar story for BAT. One of the crucial growth indicators consisted of revenue growth for Alibaba’s online marketplaces, Taobao and Tmall. As Eric Jhonsa of The Street noted, their gross merchandise volume now exceeds the GDP of all but 17 countries.
The growth of Taobao and Tmall demonstrate why it’s important to understand Alibaba in context of Baidu and Tencent. Taobao and Tmall are part of a self-contained ecosystem that includes Alipay, Alibaba’s mobile payments system. In effect, this ecosystem acts as a walled garden that locks shoppers into the Alibaba’s world using Alibaba’s payment app. By contrast, Tencent operates its own walled garden using Tencent’s popular WeChat app. Alibaba and Tencent have been building and fortifying their own walled gardens as they compete for their share of the Chinese consumers’ wallet.
Taobao and Tmall also demonstrate why it’s important to exercise caution when comparing Alibaba to a Western business. Amazon is a transactional site that emphasizes speed and efficiency. Taobao and Tmall creates experiences such as virtual reality and livestreams to engage customers differently. These approaches – emphasizing engagement over frictionless transactions – are paying off. As Alibaba noted in its announcement,
Fiscal year 2018 witnessed the success of Taobao App’s strategy to redefine the shopping experience through innovative content formats and intelligent personal recommendations. These initiatives drove strong growth in user engagement, purchase conversion and annual active consumers. A robust content ecosystem has developed around the Taobao App to propel it into one of the most popular mobile apps in China. As of March 31, 2018, approximately 1.5 million content creators were actively supporting the Taobao App and helping brands on our platform engage with consumers through curated posts, short-form videos and live-broadcast events.
Growing two wildly popular online marketplaces in the world’s largest retail market would be an ambitious goal for any business. But Alibaba, like Baidu and Tencent, aims to do more. Alibaba wants to be an international superpower, and its ambitions are coming at a cost as the company spends more money in endeavors outside China, such as the Lazada Southeast Asian online marketplace. As a result, the company reported sharp increases in operating expenses.
If we’re going to compare Alibaba to a Western company, we should also bear in mind similarities between Alibaba and other commerce giants such as eBay and Alphabet’s Google. Like eBay, Alibaba earns revenue from fees charged to larger sellers, and like Google, Alibaba earns a lot of money from digital advertising. Alibaba encourages that growth by providing ad-targeting tools as Google does via AdWords. As Alphabet showed with its latest earnings announcement, the advertising-focused model remains strong. In another way, Alibaba actually resembles Netflix, which is spending money in large amounts to make money via content, just as Alibaba is doing. Alibaba isn’t afraid to spend large, and its strategy seems to be working in one important way: its top-line growth is dependent less on Tmall and Taobao. Look for Alibaba to gradually increase its revenue share in areas such as cloud computing and Cainiao, its global parcel tracking platform.
In 2018, look for Alibaba to continue to invest into becoming a premier global brand – opening up more competition and opportunities. And if you want your business to succeed in China, it’s important that you align the company’s complex ecosystem against your own people, processes, and platforms. Moonshot recently created a framework to help you do just that – the BAT Framework, which we announced on May 3. Here is a quick overview of the BAT Framework. Contact us to discuss how to succeed in BAT’s world.


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Geely looks to combine automotive business with Volvo
11 February 2020
11 February 2020 Volvo and Geely are considering a merger to capitalise on shared experience in the automotive market. The Swedish carmaker is owned by Geely Holdings, and under the plans, the conglomerate’s automotive business would combine with Volvo to accelerate financial and technological synergies between the two companies. The combined business would have access to the global capital market through Hong Kong and with the intention to subsequently list in Stockholm as well, the two companies have said. Such a merger would bring together the brands, as well as Lynk & Co and Polestar. Geely’s new energy brand, Geometry, would also be included in the deal. Changing times Geely Holdings is trying to consolidate its automotive business as the global market adapts to new technologies, ownership patterns and governmental pressures. Last year, it announced plans to merge its engine-building business with Volvo, creating a company that would develop internal combustion units jointly. Volvo Cars and Geely will create a joint working group to prepare a proposal to their respective boards. â€²A combination of the two companies would result in a strong global group. We look forward to working with HÃ¥kan Samuelsson, president and CEO of Volvo Cars, to further investigate this opportunity with the goal to strengthen the synergies within the Group while maintaining the competitive advantage and the integrity of each brand,’ said Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holding Group. Mergers abound Geely bought Volvo from Ford in 2010, however, since then, Shufu has kept the carmaker as a separate entity, allowing it to make its own decisions without much interference from the Chinese group. However, with its owners recently investing more into the model range, and with the industry going through a period of compression as other carmakers look to forge new partnerships, the chairman has decided the time is right to bring its biggest non-domestic brand back under control. Alongside Volvo, Geely has been building up an extensive portfolio of non-Chinese carmakers. As well as full ownership of London black-cab maker LEVC, the company also owns 49% of Lotus Cars and has a stake in Malaysia’s Proton. Shufu also has a 9% stake in Daimler, making him the German carmaker’s biggest shareholder and allowing him to engineer a deal for the Chinese manufacturer to buy 50% of Smart. Geely was also in talks to acquire Aston Martin, although this deal was later called off. Geely sold 1.4 million cars globally last year, while Volvo managed around 700,000. Therefore, a merger between the two businesses would allow the combined carmaker to rival European giants such as BMW. Any deal would keep the identity of all carmakers included, the group added. The announcement comes 18 months after Volvo Cars abandoned an attempt to list independently.


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Marketers continue to pursue opaque digital data collection. Retargeting campaigns continue to dominate online and mobile marketing. The most recent Chango Retargeting Barometer report, for example, revealed that 80% of marketers surveyed agree that retargeting is a standard marketing practice. What if technology and the market itself, however, drives the marketing industry away from surreptitious data collection?
That�s the theory espoused by Harvard Law School professor and recent U.S. Democratic Party Presidential nomination campaigner Lawrence Lessig in an interview published on the Wall Street Journal�s CIO blog. Marketing. Lessig foresees a future when the cost of data breaches and the impact of privacy regulations make it uneconomical for companies to retain customer data. Money quote:
�The average cost per user of a data breach is now $240 � think of businesses looking at that cost and saying �What if I can find a way to not hold that data, but the value of that data?� When we do that, our concept of privacy will be different. Our concept so far is that we should give people control over copies of data. In the future, we will not worry about copies of data, but using data.�
Lessig envisions a future driven by technology such as Enigma, a blockchain-based cloud platform in which �Private data is stored, shared and analysed without ever being fully revealed to any party,� according to the Enigma web site.
While Lessig�s theory on the evolution of data privacy is technology-centric, another way that consumer privacy may evolve is toward a more permission-based model in which companies only retain data that consumers have explicitly authorized them to collect with the expectation of value returned in the form of recognition and reward.
One of the primary benefits of the traditional membership-based loyalty programme, after all, is that the customer data collection is permission-based. Unlike online behavioral targeting and programmatic ad-buying, marketing methods that collect and act on consumer behavior without (in most cases) their knowledge or consent, the data collection within the loyalty programme framework is explicit, transparent, and conducted within an environment of permission and trust. That�s the central theory behind the loyalty programme model�and it�s one of the main reasons why the model will remain durable in the face of technological and regulatory change.
The whole Lessig interview is worth reading; you can find it here (behind the WSJ paywall).
By Rick Ferguson


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Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft today announced that they are joining hands for an initiative called the Data Transfer Project which is designed as a new way to move data between platforms. This open source initiative will enable consumers to transfer their data directly from one service to another, without needing to download and re-upload it.
Download Data feature is already available to users and they can transfer their information directly to their Dropbox, Box, MS OneDrive, and Google Drive accounts starting today. Thanks to this project, the companies involved in this project are developing tools that can convert any service’s proprietary APIs to and from a small set of standardized data formats that can be used by anyone. This makes it possible to transfer data between any two providers using existing industry-standard infrastructure and authorization mechanisms, such as OAuth.
The existing code for the project is available as open-source on GitHub, along with a white paper describing its scope. Google says that data privacy and protection is important, so, services must first agree to allow data transfer between them, and then they will require that individuals authenticate each account independently. All the credentials and user data will be encrypted both in transit and at rest.
Google says that the prototype already supports data transfer for several product verticals including photos, mail, contacts, calendar, and tasks. These are enabled by existing, publicly available APIs from Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Flickr, Instagram, Remember the Milk, and Smugmug.
Brian Willard, Software Engineer, and Greg Fair, Product Manager Google said:
Data portability makes it easy for consumers to try new services and use the ones that they like best. We’re thrilled to help drive an initiative that incentivizes companies large and small to continue innovating across the internet. We’re just getting started and we’re looking forward to what comes next.


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Wendy’s is offering free Frostys starting next year. For a one-time payment of $2, Frosty lovers can get a key tag that will guarantee a Frosty with every purchase. $0.99 on the dollar will also go to the Dave Thomas Foundation which helps find permanent homes for children in foster care. The key tags will be available at most Wendy’s locations.
(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)


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Digital advertising continues its takeover with a new report from media network GroupM saying it eclipses a third of the media budget. It’s up to 31 per cent of measured ad investment from 28 per cent in 2015. And is set to surpass $US160 billion this year.
And programmatic trading of the ads constitute of third of that segment.
The report, Interaction 2016, looks at the continual influx of digital advertising, the issues surrounding it, user behaviour and technology.
Ad-blocking inevitably gets a fair chunk of the examination, given many countries have double digit percentages of users with ad-blocking software installed.
“The rise in consumer adoption of ad-blocking technology violates the inferred consumer contract with content owners which enables advertising investment to support content development,” said Adam Smith, futures director at GroupM and one half of the team behind the analysis.
“For this reason, and its potential to inhibit brands’ ability to reach their audiences, it merits close study and preventative measures.
“We have much farther to go in understanding the true impact of ad-blocking as estimates of lost inventory are scarce. We will be tracking closely the progress of initiatives like the IAB’s LEAN program in the U.S. which encourages publishers to develop light, encrypted, ad choices-supported, and non-invasive advertising strategies to reduce page latency and other nuisances that may encourage the adoption of blockers.”
Rob Nolan, the other half in the analysis duo and GroupM’s chief digital officer, added: “We are not now, nor have we ever been, in ‘steady state’ with digital advertising. The velocity of change makes for a dizzying environment for marketers, but we’ve identified what we believe to be enduring truths.
“Data and technology have changed advertising for the better, even in video. But ads stop working when they’re avoided and when the ecosystem allows fraud, or when strategies don’t follow the consumer to apps and commerce anywhere.
“Though there is more still to understand about ad avoidance trends, data does suggest the time is now to share in a profound sense of responsibility, transparency and vigilance to ensure the ongoing engagement of consumers with brand communications.”
The main points covered in the report are:
Integrity of Digital Supply: Impression and non-impression-based ad fraud remain concerns and risk varies by market. GroupM recommends working with trusted partners, use of pre-bid controls in unknown markets, development of specific contracts and reliance on verification tools and vendors.
Use of Apps: A majority of smartphone users have between 30 to 50 apps installed, and this rise of app usage is a challenge for advertisers. Emerging, more interactive, app-native ad formats hold promise.
E-commerce: Globally, e-commerce is expected to reach 1.81 trillion USD this year (eight percent of global retail), up from 1.57 trillion in 2015. E-commerce strategies enabling transactions anywhere and anytime are on the rise and will become the norm.
OTT TV: TV consumption is increasingly non-linear, particularly with younger audiences. However, correspondents reported comparatively minor shifts in investment due to a prevalent lack of understanding about non-traditional formats and lack of standardized audience measurement around digital video. Next year, we expect that live streaming of video on Facebook and other platforms will be a significant topic in Interaction.
Applying Data: Correspondents reported that the accessibility, the collection and the application of data from owned and third-party sources remains an imperative and a challenge for many clients.
A Danish kids’ TV show has raised eyebrows after it asked adults to pose naked in front of children with the aim of promoting body positivity. The show, Ultra Strips Down, was filmed in front of a live studio audience consisting of kids aged 11-13 who then watched five adults undress. The children were then encouraged […]
Eyewear retailer Oscar Wylee has been ordered by the Federal Court to pay $3.5 million in penalties for misleading or deceptive conduct and making false or misleading representations about its charitable donations and affiliations, in breach of Australian Consumer Law. Oscar Wylee admitted that between January 2014 and December 2018 it made statements in its […]
Aussie shipping company Sendle has appointed 72andSunny Sydney as creative partner. Sendle, Australia’s first 100 per cent carbon neutral shipping service and a certified B Corporation, has tasked the creative company with developing a campaign talking to its community of SMBs in Australia and the USA. “We’re huge admirers of 72andSunny, for the bravery of […]
Mumbrella has made the bold call to turn off comments on its articles, a move that will undoubtedly have a big impact for the publishing site. Mumbrella head of content Damian Francis made the announcement Friday afternoon, penning an opinion piece which will be the last article on Mumbrella to have comments. Francis wrote: “From […]
A YouGov survey has revealed that adult mobile game players prefer audio ads over other monetisation models in mobile games. The survey, which asked 1,249 players about their preferences in mobile games, revealed that consumers have a preference for audio advertising, surpassing other popular monetisation models such as rewarded video and in-app purchases. The new […]
IVE has today announced the launch of ivolve, it’s expanded hygiene and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) offering designed to help businesses return to the workplace safely. Led by hygiene and health consultant, Shylie Smith, the offering already provides products such as face masks, hand sanitisers and anti-bacterial wipes to many of Australia’s largest businesses including […]
Nine Virgin Australia Supercars Championship teams have confirmed their place in an expanded 2020 Repco Supercars Pro Eseries field. Repco recently announced it will take naming rights sponsorship of the Supercars Championship and the Bathurst 1000 from 2021-2025 and is the new naming rights partner of the popular eseries that will again feature a number […]
It's all the winners & runners up from the Snapchat Young Lions. And, if you're not on it, technically the losers, too.
Suzuki Australia have announced that they are so confident in the experience of their own vehicles that they are allowing customers to test drive them to other test drives, at other dealers. This latest tongue-in-cheek campaign from the For Fun’s Sake platform, has launched with a TVC showing a Suzuki dealer assisting potential car-buyers to […]


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Back in the day, only people in the sales department worked with potential customers. Most big companies still do it this way. However, with the popularity of instant engagement via social networking, we’re all in sales now.
Yesterday Facebook suffered a massive outage across platforms including the Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp applications. Into the void came a bunch of people and organizations newsjacking the story.
I’ve noticed that salespeople are abusing LinkedIn more and more. They connect and then immediately go into selling mode. Social selling on LinkedIn does not simply mean transferring inane interruption selling techniques onto social media!
The new book An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination, released yesterday, is a fascinating account of what led Facebook to be so destructive, including the power of the stock market and the single-minded personalities at the top - The Zuckster and Sheryl.
At a press conference ahead of Portugal's UEFA Euro 2020 game with Hungary a week ago, football (soccer) star Cristiano Ronaldo removed Coke bottles from in front of him, telling people to drink agua instead.
Less than five minutes into a demo by CEO Kate Chernis Bradley of the Lately artificial intelligence platform for creating social media posts, I knew I wanted to use it in my work. And by the end of our short Zoom call, I knew I also wanted to invest in the company and serve...
Audio social media is booming. New podcasts are started every day and established show hosts tell me their listener numbers are rising. At the same time, the Clubhouse app is one of the fastest growing social networks ever. Perhaps it’s the pandemic and people with time to e...


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Small businesses court holiday shoppers
A day after Black Friday, Milwaukee's Third Ward was bustling for Small Business Saturday.
The team at the Kasana Gourmet, on the ground level of 241 North Broadway, welcomed new customers.
"I would love to see a bunch of people walking through and coming to visit with us and enjoying our goods," Ana Docta of Kasana Gourmet said.
The hope of many businesses during the shopping event is to attract new customers.
"I think it's a great opportunity to get people into the store who have not come here before," Lydia Hamilton-Monnie said.
Hamilton-Monnie is the owner at Boutique Larrieux. She said for customers, Small Business Saturday offers a change of pace from the mall.
"You have the experience of seeing sights and sounds and tastes that you don't normally get when you're in the mall," Hamilton-Monnie said.
Back at Kasana, one new customer said he's glad there is an alternative to the big chains.
"What you can get down here, you're not going to get this in a mall. You're not going to get this at the big stores. And that's the benefit of spending the day down here," customer Larry Bernetich said.


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Sales is at the heart of publishing. But that role is changing with the rise of automated ad-buying systems. Don’t be fooled, people are still needed, but now publishers are in need of a different sort of specialist.
While some organizations, like The Weather Company and Forbes are building out a dedicated separate programmatic team, others like Federated Media are primarily using national dedicated sales team for non-programmatic opportunities like conversational marketing. Federated sits at an interesting intersection of publisher and ad network, which means they look at the picture through a different lens.
“It’s a much more complex, sophisticated job than it used to be — even in the early days of selling banners,” said Meredith Levien, chief revenue officer at Forbes, which has a team of six on the programmatic side. “Selling multimillion dollar content-rich programs, salespeople have to understand the client’s business, thought leadership, the tech underpinnings how display or sponsorships work — the people we hire have to have so much more depth in all of those areas and be more consultative in solving marketers’ problems.”
That means broadening the sales brief. Todd Sawicki, former CRO at Cheezburger, believes ad sales will soon look like enterprise technology sales. There’s a need for a little less glad-handing and a little more quantitative skills.
“Hires tend to be people that are very data-services oriented, who understand that the value of a zone on a publisher site has many different values to many different people,” said Walter Knapp, evp at Federated Media. “We spend a lot of time to optimize for that publisher and get a return of investment for the marketer. That system is different than having tags from, say, Milky Way and putting it on the food site and run as many times. It’s a different way of thinking.”
Jeremy Steinberg, svp of digital ad sales at TWC, said that he looks for five things in a hire, no matter the job: teamwork-focused, communication, excellence, integrity and attitude. For his programmatic team, he looks for someone who’s analytic, someone who has a mathematical bend, but also thinks there’s a wide variety of skillsets that can be successful in this area. “They just have to spend time and get used to the machine component to this,” he said.
As a relatively young company, Business Insider has had the luxury of building a team from scratch with programmatic at its core. But like Forbes, only two, out of its 30-person sales team, are programmatic specialists.
“A programmatic expert needs to understand digital ad sales inside and out and be comfortable with math/strategy concepts like auctions and waterfalls,” said Julie Hansen, president of BI. “Diplomatic skills are equally important, as is technical fluency.”
“Programmatic requires an understanding of auction theory, yield management, ad-serving technology (as there still seems to be plenty of plumbing to work out),” Hansen said. She added programmatic practitioners need to be handy with Excel and have some understanding of game theory.
Of course, not everyone is building out a team for the programmatic era. Some like Conde Nast and The Guardian are talking the slow approach, trying to figure out what works. Then there are those that still won’t jump into the pool. Take The Atlantic Media Company, for example.
Group publisher Jay Lauf said that while the company (which publishes The Atlantic, Quartz, National Journal) is “ready and willing to adapt quickly when conditions dictate,” now’s not the time. He believes that “at the moment, in the pursuit of maintaining the premium nature of our inventory and protecting our brand, our readers and our advertising partners from the kinds of ads that can slip through in the programmatic system, we remain focused on our direct to publisher model.”
Image via Shutterstock
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Frank Underwood is back in the Netflix original series House of Cards, which has been confirmed for its third season and will be released in late February of 2015.
Apple claimed that just nine of its customers had complained that their iPhone 6 and 6 Plus handsets were 'bending' - but a new video from a consumer action group shows over 300 bent iPhones.
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"An FBI Denver Joint Terrorism Task Force handout being distributed to
Colorado military surplus store owners lists the purchase of popular
preparedness items and firearms accessories as ‘suspicious’ and
‘potential indicators of terrorist activities,’”
nmmi9100 [Team Member]
9/1/2011 5:47:11 PM
Yeah, I saw that too earlier this week.
On the one hand of gov't, you have FEMA and CDC telling folks to be prepared.
On the other hand, you've got the FBI telling sporting goods store to watch out for folks trying to prepare and pay cash.
Apparently, one hand doesn't know what the other is doing.


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Apple, the tech giant known for its sleek and innovative devices, has been granted a patent for a foldable device that could potentially blow our minds. According to reports, the foldable iPad could be unveiled as early as next year, sending Apple fans into a frenzy.
Although Apple has yet to unveil any foldable devices, its competitor Samsung has already launched a foldable smartphone for a few generations now, the latest Galaxy Z Fold4 is a real beauty with a productivity boost. Other companies have also launched foldable tablets. But with Apple’s patent filing date of April 7, 2021, and several employees listed as inventors, the foldable iPad seems closer than ever to becoming a reality.
The patent highlights the device’s unique ability to be controlled by touching multiple parts of the screen, allowing for a truly interactive experience. And with curved side panels made of glass or other transparent materials, this foldable iPad is sure to be a feast for the eyes. But that’s not all. The patent also reveals that the device’s camera can be controlled by simply touching the side of the electronic device, making it easier than ever to capture those perfect selfies.
TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has expressed optimism, stating that a foldable iPad could be mass-produced in the first quarter of 2024. So prepare to fold and flip to your heart’s content, because the future of tablets looks more exciting than ever.


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Malware called Kaiji has been abusing systems to launch DDoS attacks and is very different from other IoT malware strains, found researchers at Intezer Labs.
Kaiji is written in the Go programming language, rather than C or C++, which are the two languages in which most IoT malware has been coded most recently.
Boris Cipot, senior security engineer at Synopsys, said that Kaiji spreads by first finding exposed SSH ports on IoT devices and Linux Servers on the internet, before it then tries to gain root access to those devices with Brute Force.
“Once Kaiji has root access on the device, it will start spreading to other devices,” Cipot said.
“It will also collect all SSH keys of other devices that are managed, or were managed, by this root user and infect them as well. Kaiji is then manipulated to perform DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks on the issuer’s targets.
"While Kaiji is already a highly developed malware, it continues to evolve. Therefore, there is no saying what this malware could do next.”
Kaiji and similar types of malware, thrive off the recklessness and lack of security knowledge among some IoT manufacturers, Cipot said.
Many devices that are commonly available on the market have “misconfigured security settings, exposed communication ports” with even hardcoded or preset usernames and passwords, while many backend servers are hackable, he added.
“All this then puts the IoT users at risk. The users trust the manufacturer to ensure that devices are secure and safe to use.
“They trust that their devices are protecting their privacy. However, many users often do not understand what the threat is. Therefore, they unknowingly leave settings on that expose them to a cyber-attack.”
Adam Palmer, chief cybersecurity strategist at Tenable said the malware could potentially spawn an ‘army’ of IoT devices.
Palmer said: "Attackers are looking to harness cheap computational power, whether it’s to launch DDoS attacks or mine for Bitcoin as is often the case. With IoT devices firmly in the crosshairs of criminals, it is imperative that the flaws exploited by criminals are identified by the device manufacturers.
“Where possible, updates should be pushed to patch flaws and prevent this unwilling army of IoT rising up and doing their attackers bidding."
He said there were instances of IoT devices recruited into botnets and then used to launch DDoS attacks, and pointed to the Mirai botnet in 2016 that saw huge swathes of the internet knocked offline.
"One concern in these cases is that it may be especially difficult to determine if a device has been affected,” he said.
A member of the public might not monitor device activity to identify increased traffic, recognise an impact in the device’s performance, or experience reduced battery life, Palmer added.


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The investment round includes Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures, Kiplin Capital and direct investments by handful of leading entrepreneurs
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.- REIN, an insurtech company offering a flexible, data-driven platform designed to create usage-based insurance products, announces $7.3M in venture funding. The capital was secured from investors including Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures and Kiplin Capital; individual and family office investors, Jason Griswold (Founder, Brown Aviation Lease), Christopher Ellis (Managing Director at AvPro, Inc), Bert Roberts (former CEO of MCI), Steve Rabbitt (Formerly Founder/CEO at The Registry), and Anderson Bell (Senior Executive, AvPro, Inc.).
The REIN platform is built to use unstructured business data to better understand risk, specifically the emerging risks linked to continued technological advancement within mobility, robotics and online ecosystems. With REIN, companies can better adapt to changing customer behavior, and the unprecedented demand for speed and simplicity in insurance products, while bringing those products to market faster.
“REIN was constructed to unlock new, next-generation insurance product opportunities,” REIN CEO Christopher Dean said. “Our platform fills a gap by providing a toolset needed to better understand and deliver insurance solutions to our increasingly connected world. Those tools will then help deliver insurance products into large online ecosystems, turn a profit on usage-based products, and support insurtech products in IoT-related verticals.”
The company recently launched its first digital product, DroneInsurance.com. Built on the REIN platform, DroneInsurance.com offers commercial drone pilots tailored drone insurance coverage solutions. The intuitive web and mobile-ready dashboard replaces paperwork and complexity with data-driven automation and user control.
Today, REIN is leveraging the exponential growth of unstructured business data through active projects in robotics, online ecosystems, and across the automotive industry—all aimed at solving modern distribution issues, operational efficiency challenges and new risks.
“We are excited to support REIN as they reinvent traditional business models,” said Brendan Smyth, Senior Vice President, Global Risk Solutions at Liberty Mutual. “Understanding emerging technologies and seamlessly delivering innovative and comprehensive risk solutions to our customers is at the core of Liberty Mutual’s mission.”


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Richard Burr has an excellent commentary in the Weekly Standard on the growing — and for some reasons puzzling — popularity of hybrid vehicles. Puzzling because these things don’t get the promised gains in fuel economy and don’t seem to work very well.
Imagine buying a Chevy Impala or a Toyota Camry and being told that you can’t run the air conditioner on high. Or you need lessons from the dealer on how to brake the vehicle in order to recharge the battery more efficiently. No, you couldn’t imagine that.
Burr, who is associate editor of the Detroit News editorial page, points out that the hybrid owner is really making a statement about his or her environmental sensitivity. What’s more, the government is subsidizing these manifestoes on wheels.
Hybrids have become the environmental equivalent of driving an Escalade or Mustang. Who cares if they deliver on their promises as long as they make a social statement? Taxpayers should. The federal government subsidizes hybrid fashion statements with tax breaks that benefit the rich. The average household income of a Civic hybrid owner ranges between $65,000 to $85,000 a year; it’s more than $100,000 for the owner of an Accord. The median income of a Toyota Prius owner is $92,000; for a Highlander SUV owner $121,000; and for a luxury Lexus SUV owner it’s over $200,000.
If the government wants to subsidize automobile purchases, may I suggest it add the 2006 Camaro Concept just introduced at the Detroit Auto Show to its list of favored vehicles? It has a 400 horsepower engine with cylinder deactivation technology that, General Motors says, gets 30 mph on the highway. A nice little government subsidy might persuade GM to put this gorgeous car into mass production all the sooner.


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Vladimir Putin suggested that the measures in respect of milk producers, using vegetable fat, should be toughened
The Chairman of the Russian Government Vladimir Putin says it is necessary to toughen the measures in respect of those food producers, which use vegetable fat in milk production. The Chairman has said about it at the all-Russian agrarian forum in Ufa.
Technical regulations for the use of vegetable fat have been recently toughened.
The Chairman of the Russian Government has mentioned that this problem seriously hampers development of cheese making in Russia. Vladimir Putin already discussed this problem with some regional leaders and, as he said, they are seriously anxious concerning development of such situation.
This problem becomes especially urgent in the light of the recent veto, imposed by the Russian Agency for Health and Consumer Rights on import of 129 tons of Ukrainian cheese, manufactured with coconut and palm oil, to Russia.


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It's not out yet but it will be soon, as early as June 7th some people are saying. The Apple iPhone could 4G be the most anticipated product in Apples history. When the iPhone was first released a few years back it created major waves in the cell phone industry and companies were panicking to keep pace. The new iPhone 4G looks to do the same thing. It will be very hard to get when it's first released as most Apple products are, case in point the iPad. But that's okay, you're going to get a chance to enter and win an iPhone when 4G they're released to the public. Not much is known right now about it but here are some rumors that seem to make the most sense.
First off is that there could be an increase in storage space. The iPhones up until this point have maxed out at 32GB. But the iPhone 4G could come with a maximum storage capacity of 64GB, which would most certainly ruin the iPod market but something tells me Apple's okay with that.
When you cruise the net on an iPhone Google has always been the default browser. However Google and Apple have had a rocky relationship as of late and it's expected that Apple will switch to Bing as the new default search engine. That could be a decent blow to Google, considering the troubles they seem to be having right now.
Here's one that would make a lot of people very happy, the new iPhone 4G could have a removable battery. This is great news and if you've ever owned an iPod or iPhone I'm almost certain you'd agree with me. Before if you've ever had a problem with the battery you have to send away the whole iPhone or iPod. But with a removable battery this would eliminate that potential annoyance. I for one think it is one of the best decisions they could make.
One more little nugget is that there's potential that there could be a front facing camera. This may not seem like a big deal to some. But for people who make conference calls it could be a great feature. There's also a rumor that the camera will be upgraded as well. The camera on the iPhone now is C grade at best.
Now these are just speculations but they seem to be pretty reasonable ones. You can see now why there's the potential for these things to be flying off the shelves when they're released. You do not but have to worry about That Because you can the enter to win an the Apple iPhone 4G color : as soon color : as they 're hit the shelves.


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What Children Teach Their Parents
Networks targeting kids and teens have been whacked in recent years by a slowdown in advertising from core categories such as toys and certain types of food. That’s now prompting many of those cable outlets to aggressively chase after brands not typically associated with the prepubescent crowd.
Commercials for cars, full-service restaurants and travel destinations are popping up on Cartoon Network, Toon Disney and other kids networks. Nickelodeon, for example, signed Chevrolet to a multimillion-dollar deal last spring. The network has also lined up sponsors like automaker Kia alongside more-traditional advertisers—such as General Mills, Hasbro and Burger King—for its 19th Annual Kids’ Choice Awards April 1.
Media buyers expect to see more such adult-targeted advertisers in this year’s kids upfront, the annual ad market soon to get under way. Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen last year estimated that the kids upfront generates about $970 million in ad revenue; other media buyers say the actual amount is closer to $800 million.
“Kids are having much more influence on higher-priced items that the family decides on, whether it’s where to go on vacation, buying cars or where to go eat,” explains Dan Kopec, media director at Starcom USA. “The influence of kids on family purchases is what the vendors see as a stopgap measure for losing revenue.”
Hassles over ads aimed at kids could make children’s TV a tough business. Ad spending on kids programming on broadcast and cable networks amounted to just under $2.1 billion in 2005, up 7% from the year before. But in the the important fourth quarter of 2004, kids advertising was off 1.3%, according to Nielsen Monitor Plus.
The key for networks to attract previously adult-only advertisers is twofold: the influence kids have but also “co-viewing,” a term the cable industry uses to refer to children’s watching TV the old-fashioned way: with their parents. Advertisers sell to both.
Several recent research reports have highlighted the influence of children, including an upcoming study from Disney ABC Kids Networks Group.
In the study, conducted by Strottman International with mothers and their children age 6-14, Disney found that 92% of kids are influential in purchases made at discount stores, while more than 80% influence purchases at specialty stores, malls, and grocery and drug stores.
Disney also found that 38% of mothers say their children are influential in deciding on vacations; 33% say the same about computers; 32%, cellphones; 30%, large electronics; and 28% say kids are influential in purchasing automobiles.
Nickelodeon has conducted similar studies and found in 2004, for instance, that nearly 90% of parents ask for their children’s opinions when purchasing products for the kids. But two-thirds also ask for input on family purchases, and one-third ask for their kids’ opinions when buying products for themselves.
Jim Perry, senior VP of Nickelodeon Integrated Advertising Sales, says the influence of kids on family purchases has led to new ad categories on the network.
“It’s more than a kids’ market to us, it’s a family market, and it’s a parents’ market as well,” says Perry, noting that Nickelodeon has had seven auto advertisers on the air; travel advertisers, such as Holiday Inn, Embassy Suites and Best Western; the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas; and a growing number of technology brands, including Microsoft, Dell, Epson and HP. “We are doing business with these categories because of family co-viewing and the kids’ influence,” Perry says.
Kim McQuilken, executive VP of Cartoon Network ad sales and marketing, agrees that these unexpected advertisers are coming into the market because of kids’ influence on purchases.
“Children have their own discretionary income, but they also have a significant impact on parental spending and grandparent spending,” he says. “We have had automotive migrate to us over the past three years. We also now have a broader base of restaurants because of kids’ influence. And kids also influence their parents on the type of computer to buy.”
Still, the influence of kids alone probably wouldn’t be enough to prompt many of these advertisers to buy time on young-skewing networks if it weren’t also for co-viewing, says Tricia Wilber, senior VP of advertising sales and promotions at Disney ABC Cable Networks Group.
“We have always heard and known that kids influence parents in terms of purchases, particularly for products you would expect kids to have an influence over,” she says. “But when moms watch TV with their kids, they have a conversation about it. That means that advertising is resonating not only with the child but also with the mom.”
Wilber notes that 28% of kids 2-11 who watch Toon Disney do so alongside an adult 18-49 years old. The co-viewing is higher—34%—on Jetix, Toon Disney’s prime time block. And on Disney Channel, which does not accept advertising but does accept sponsors with a positive social message, there are more women 18-49 with kids 6-11 watching movies in prime time than women watching such networks as Lifetime, says Wilber.
Family-focused networks are touting co-viewing and the influence that kids have on purchases just as advertising growth has slowed.
Toy subcategories like cars and dolls posted declines as toy makers struggle to rebound from years of slumping sales. Moreover, movie advertising was down 1.3%, perhaps because the number of G- and PG-rated movies has been trending down. Only about 3% of movies released in 2003, for example, were rated G, compared with an average 7% from 1968 through 2002, according to the International Motion Picture Almanac.
And some food subcategories, including cookies and candy bars, posted dramatic declines, as food companies altered creative messages to focus on healthier products in light of increased awareness of childhood obesity and more-strident calls for tougher regulations.
As a result, the need for new ad categories has become more pronounced.
The networks and media buyers are now gearing up for the kids upfront, and the outlook is for a modest increase in demand from core ad categories, according to media buyers.
“Last year, it was much softer than the year before,” says Starcom’s Kopec. “This year, we’re still collecting our intelligence, but we don’t have any indication that it won’t be soft again.”
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JSE-listed aluminium supplier and exporter Hulamin’s rolled products division reported a “superb” manufacturing performance for the year ended December 31, 2018, increasing its sales by 6% to 228 000 t.
This third consecutive year of record sales volumes from rolled products helped to offset the poorer performance of the company’s extrusions division. This contributed to Hulamin posting headline earnings per share (HEPS) of 91c.
While lower than the HEPS of 95c reported for 2017, HEPS for 2018 would have been lower if not for the rolled products division’s good performance.
Hulamin declared an 18c a share dividend for the period, compared with the 15c a share dividend in 2017.
CEO Richard Jacob on Tuesday told Engineering News Online that the rolled products division is able to sell as much product as it produces.
“We have customers around the world who want more of our products, meaning our sales are driven by how much we can supply. We have had record production from our plant in Pietermaritzburg, which was mostly taken up by the strong beverage can market in South Africa, as well as the US.”
Hulamin’s extrusions division experienced a challenging year, with lower sales and recorded a net loss for the year. Jacob told Engineering News Online that the company had started a strategic review of its investment portfolio, which includes its interests in extrusions.
Jacob said the local market has been weak for some time and that the company will not wait for the market to improve.
Further, the company’s export markets remained volatile, with US trade policy uncertainty and tentative European reaction to the changes in the US. “US domestic aluminium markets began to soften in line with waning domestic confidence. The US aerospace market played a leading role in this decline.
“Hulamin was experiencing the symptoms of a cyclical slowdown in the US for flat rolled aluminium, in particular. Nonetheless, the US remained one of Hulamin’s most prominent market for exports, with healthy demand.”
As part of diversifying its income base and catering to increased demand from customers, especially for beverage cans, Hulamin has started operating an agency and technical service trading business, reselling a major aluminium rolling mill in Asia’s can stock products to Hulamin customers.
“We will manage the supply chain to our customers, because we have limited capacity in our own factory in Pietermaritzburg. We will be able to grow our sales by selling beverage can material that is produced in another mill,” said Jacob, expecting that this new operation will have a positive impact on profitability and cash flows, as well as increasing product offering and sales revenues.
Mounting uncertainty in the macroenvironment and the associated rise of risk indicators, has supported an increase in the company's weighted average cost of capital (WACC) to more accurately value the company's internal forecasts of future cash flows.
“This WACC increase results in material changes to the valuation of assets and, as a consequence, an impairment charge of R1.37-billion has been applied to the rolled products division and R74-million to the extrusions division.
“Earnings before interest and taxes (Ebit) thus declined by 291% to negative R950-million, owing to the recognition of these impairment charges,” explained Jacob, adding that Ebit will be mainly driven by the currency this year.
“If the currency strengthens from where it is today, our profits might be weaker. If the currency weakens to, for example, more than R15 a dollar, then our profits will increase.”
Normalised operating profit, before the impact of the impairment, restatements and metal price lag, increased by 20%. In constant currency terms, this represented an increase of 24%.
Attributable earnings were consequently 354% lower at negative R773-million for the year. However, normalised earnings a share were up 20% on the prior year to 77c apiece.
Meanwhile, the company this month launched a share buyback programme of R60-million, to repurchase 5% of shares, which Jacob said was as a result of good cash flow generated by the company and its intention to find ways of returning cash to shareholders.
The local and international long-term outlook for aluminium beverage packaging demand has improved significantly since 2017. This follows the steps being taken by more than 16 major countries and cities to ban single-use plastics in packaging, including the UK, France, Germany and Canada.
As a result, a number of Hulamin’s customers are seeking larger volumes and longer-term can stock contracts on firmer prices.
Hulamin will continue its efforts in other markets, to mitigate the effects of the US/China trade uncertainty and slow economic growth in South Africa.