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A recession has a way of wringing out the excess out of wasted space. The big box stores are no different.
The scrambling in recent years to find tenants for some of Greater Lafayette's most conspicuous and boxy vacancies - from the West Side Kmart site now being redeveloped to the former Circuit City store in Lafayette getting ready for a Salvation Army thrift store - hasn't been a big secret.
But it has been interesting to watch how property brokers and city development staff are working the angles to put those places back into play in different ways.
It was also an interesting bit of reporting by the J&C's Hayleigh Colombo as commercial property experts explained that smaller is the new big in big box retailing.
"In some of these spaces, we're going to see a creative, service-oriented use of space," said Richard Feinberg, Purdue University professor of retail and consumer sciences. Added Steve Shook, president of Coldwell Banker Commercial Shook: "This whole experience has been kind of cleansing for owners and tenants. ... Retailers have gotten more efficient with the way they use space. Owners have been more creative with curb appeal."
What a difference, then, from the land rush days of 10 and 15 years ago. Could this really be a new time leaner, meaner land use? That's something Greater Lafayette planners have been encouraging for years, often to no avail.
The recession has forced everyone to be smarter. We'll keep watching to see whether that's a silver lining that pays dividends in smarter, more attractive land use in years to come.


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Posted at: 12/10/2012 7:04 PM
By: Brianna Long
(ABC 6 NEWS) -- If you did any Cyber Monday shopping, you might want to check your mailbox for those packages.
The holiday shopping season is in full swing, and now so is the holiday shipping season.
"we love it. It's a busy time of year, but its actually a challenge every year. We look forward to it," said Tom Richard, with FedEx.
Monday was FedEx's busiest day of the year for deliveries. The company predicts 19 million packages will be sent around the world in just 24 hours. One reason for the increase is Cyber Monday.
"A lot of shoppers are shopping online this time of year, and its kind of our peak day for our whole corporation as a whole," said Richard.
Each day, packages that are being sent to Rochester, Mason City, and Lacrosse are delivered to the Rochester location via airplane. They are then sorted, put on trucks, and sent out to your home or business.
And while Monday may be the peak day, things won't be slowing down between now and Christmas.
"We don't allow vacation time of year. It's all hands on deck and we just know that we're gonna work longer days, do whatever it takes to get the job done," said Richard.
They are making sure your packages make it to your front door, just in time for the holidays.
The company expects to see more than 280 million shipments pass through its shipping networks during the holiday season.

domain: news


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On NSE, RIL stock rose by 1.24 per cent to close at Rs 952.55.
Market valuation of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) crossed the Rs 6 lakh crore-mark at the close of trade on Wednesday, becoming the first company to reach this milestone. Reliance Industries commanded a market capitalisation or M-Cap of Rs 6,03,097.82 crore or about $93 billion when the stock market closed. Shares of Reliance Industries ended 1.22 per cent higher at Rs 952.30 on the BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange). During the day, they had jumped 1.76 per cent to Rs 957.40.
On the NSE, the company's stock rose by 1.24 per cent to close at Rs 952.55. RIL's market valuation had on October 24 crossed the Rs 6 lakh crore mark for a brief period on the NSE.
In terms of equity volume, 4.56 lakh shares of the company were traded on the BSE and over 80 lakh shares changed hands at the NSE during the day.
RIL is the country's most valued firm, followed by TCS (Rs 4,98,193.35 crore), HDFC Bank (Rs 4,70,765.09 crore), ITC (Rs 3,28,592.95 crore) and HDFC (Rs 2,79,356.92 crore) in the top five list.


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The advertising boycott of the recently-launched media outlet GB News might have negatively affected brands’ customer perception, according to Stephan Shakespeare, the CEO of UK-based market research company YouGov.
Multiple advertisers, including top brands such as IKEA, Nivea, and Kopparberg, announced they would stop running ads on GB News, over the media startup’s challenge to the mainstream media.
GB News, a UK-based free-to-air TV news channel that’s also streamed online, launched on June 13 and has taken a “war on woke” stance.
During its launch, its Chairman, veteran journalist Andrew Neil, said GB News was not going to be “another echo chamber for the metropolitan mindset that already dominates so much of the media.”
Following the announcements of boycotts by multiple advertisers, Neil issued a warning that there would be consequences for brands that chose to go on the wrong side of its viewers. Shakespeare argues that Neil might have been right, providing Swedish brewery Kopparberg as an example.
After announcing that it would stop running ads on GB News, Kopparberg’s Impression Scores (which measure the public’s attitude towards a brand) fell from 18.1 to 11.3, between June 14 and June 19.
Satisfaction Scores (a measure of how satisfied a customer is by a specific brand) fell from 22 to 10.9, between June 14 and June 18. However, both scores have improved to 16.8.
Kopparberg’s reputation, recommendations, consideration, and value for money scores also took a hit; so did its brand health metrics.
The post Brands reportedly suffer consequences of GB News ad boycott appeared first on Reclaim The Net.
Reclaim The Net is a free speech and online privacy organization that defends our individual liberty by pushing back against big tech and media gatekeepers. Much of their work focuses on exposing digital tyrants and promoting free speech and privacy-friendly alternative online services. Visit reclaimthenet.org
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text: HomeBitcoinStablecoin metric hints Bitcoin price will rise as buyers snap up BTC Stablecoin metric hints Bitcoin price will rise as buyers snap up BTC By Crypto News Pipe August 27, 2020 Bitcoin 0 Comments Stablecoin supply ratio shows much more buying power among stablecoin holders currently, with Bitcoin trailing at $11,400. Source: Stablecoin metric hints Bitcoin price will rise as buyers snap up BTC Tags:Bitcoin Related Posts Bitcoin’s Break Below a Key Level has Opened the Gates for a Move to $5,900 Bitcoin price dip below $40K costs Tesla nearly 100% of its BTC profits Coinbase beats earnings estimates as analysts say regulation will ‘stifle’ innovation About Author Crypto News Pipe Crypto News Pipe is a cryptocurrency news aggregator service. It presents a continuous flow of articles organized from thousands of publishers and magazines. Add a Comment Cancel replyYour email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment:*Name:* Email Address:* Website: Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.


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Ubisoft confirms that a considerable amount of players can’t get their free digital copy of Watch Dogs Legion/Assassin’s Creed Valhalla on PS5.
With the new generation of consoles arriving, some publishers started offering a free upgrade to 9th-gen consoles for their cross-gen titles. Now, it seems people who have bought the physical version of cross-gen games from Ubisoft on PS4 can’t get their free copy on PS5 due to some unknown issues.
As we previously reported, some of the PS4 players who wanted to get their free digital copy of Watch Dogs Legion or Assassin’s Creed Valhalla on PS5 through the game’s disc were facing unknown issues that wouldn’t allow them to redeem the game. Now, it seems with the launch of Immortals: Fenyx Rising and Rainbow Six Siege on new consoles, more people are facing the same problem, especially in the UK.
We are aware players in the UK are experiencing issues upgrading physical versions of some Ubisoft games from PS4 to PS5. We’re working to resolve this, and can confirm anyone experiencing this issue will still be eligible for their free upgrade. Stay tuned for more information.
— Ubisoft Support (@UbisoftSupport) November 30, 2020
In a recent tweet from Ubisoft Support, the French publisher assured fans that their free PS5 copy of the games they have already bought on PS4 will be secured and they all will be able to redeem their games once the problem is resolved. Although it’s already late enough to address these problems over three weeks after PS5’s launch, at least it could keep you hopeful that the issue is going to be gone sooner rather than later.
It’s yet to be known whether the problem is on Sony’s end or there’s something wrong with Ubisoft’s software. As far as we know, people haven’t reported similar issues on Xbox Series X|S yet.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Watch Dogs Legion, Immortals Fenyx Rising, Rainbow Six Siege, and Ghost Recon Breakpoint are some of the big games that PS5 players can get access to them free if they already had them on a PS4 console. Later next year, Far Cry 6 will also join the list above as one of the most anticipated titles of 2021.


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With inflation continuing to rankle consumers across the US, the Federal Reserve has already taken steps to reduce rising costs. Chief among these steps is an increase to interest rates.
Unfortunately, many Americans turn to credit card borrowing during times of an economic squeeze. This practice may lead to even greater trouble given credit card interest rates are rising in step with the Federal rate increase. With consumer debt on the rise and potential further interest rate hikes in the months to come, debt consolidation loans may play an important part in offering some consumers financial stability.
Credit Card Spending Rebounds
During 2020 and 2021 – arguably the two years of the pandemic with the most outsized impact on consumers – consumer credit card debt dropped dramatically from the years prior. We can chalk this debt reduction up to a consumer base choosing to spend far more carefully with their credit cards, as well as the financial assistance and allowances offered by card issuers.
Now the pendulum is mid-swing in the other direction: consumer credit card balances have reached an astounding $887 billion as of July. We can lay this figure at the feet of inflation as more consumers turn back to their credit cards to help cover costs.
Ideally, consumers shouldn’t use their credit card on any purchase they don’t plan on paying off that same month. But with essentials like food and gas up in price by as much as 13.1% and 44% from last year respectively, many US consumers have no other choice but to carry a balance.
Rising Debt, Rising Costs
Credit card debt isn’t the only type of debt on the rise. Total household debt overall also increased over last year by 1.7%, sitting at $15.84 trillion in total. There are a few notable causes of this increase, including mortgages, student loan debt and auto loans.
Mortgage debt makes up a significant percentage of the average household’s debt. While this has always been the case, the booming housing market has pushed that percentage even higher to 71%. And US consumers took out roughly $177 billion in auto loans during the first quarter of 2022, a significant number in part thanks to rising auto prices.
Thankfully, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York notes that the amount of debt transitioning into delinquency remains historically low, though nearly all types of debt did see a modest increase in delinquency from 2021.
Balance Transfers May Not Cut It
Considering the average family is now spending $5,000 at the gas pump compared to $2,800 from just a year ago, it’s not unreasonable for families to turn to credit cards to stretch their finances. But with the average family’s debt sitting at around $145,000, effectively managing to pay off this debt as soon as possible while minimizing interest is a little trickier than usual in today’s economy.
Under typical circumstances, balance transfer credit cards are an excellent opportunity to consolidate debts at a lower interest rate – usually an intro rate of 0% for 12 months or more. But after that intro period, balance transfer credit cards are subject to the rising federal interest rates we’ve seen and that may continue into late 2022. If a consumer can’t pay off their debt within the intro period, they could well end up with a rather high interest rate on their consolidated debt – and one that could rise further.
The other issue with balance transfer credit cards is consolidation limits. A balance transfer credit card can only transfer debt up to the limit of the credit card itself. While consumers might squeeze $10,000 onto a card if they have good credit, your average family will still have much more that can’t or won’t fit onto the card.
Debt Consolidation Loans May Offer Relief
Given US consumer debt levels and the limitations and interest rate changes of credit cards, debt consolidation loans may well receive a surge in late 2022 into 2023. Unlike a balance transfer credit card, a debt consolidation loan is meant to provide a longer-term debt relief solution for larger debt amounts than you could fit onto a credit card.
Debt consolidation generally allows loans between $2,000 and $50,000, or even as high as $100,000 depending on the lender and your finances. They come with an average APR of around 9%, though this can range, but crucially, these interest rates are often fixed. This is a major boon for families that need to relieve large amounts of debt over a long period of time as they’re shielded from factors like rising Federal interest rates.
The exact terms of a debt consolidation loan depend on a consumer’s creditworthiness, so not all consumers will get the longest terms of the lowest interest rates. But as we observed in 2020 and 2021, the average American’s credit score jumped several points on account of measured pandemic spending, leaving many more Americans in a position to take advantage of that score toward this sort of purpose. Of course, each consumer’s financial needs will vary.
Time will tell how long this inflation will last, but consumers will need to take steps to relieve their accrued debt and growing interest in the months and years to come.


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The rumor was true, Halo developer 343 Industries has been secretly working on a PC version of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and the anthology will be released on the Windows 10 Microsoft Store and Steam later this year. That’s pretty great news for PC gamers, as the last Halo game to be released on PC was Halo 2 back in 2007.
Fire up your rigs, Halo: The Master Chief Collection is coming to PC! #InsideXbox https://t.co/GU45COL8fH pic.twitter.com/oSHN8jqF8z
— Xbox (@Xbox) March 12, 2019
Halo: MCC on PC will include the same content as the Xbox One game, but 343 Industries’ Brian Jarrard said today that the games will actually roll out one by one. Another great news that Jarrard announced today is that Halo: Reach, Bungie’s latest Halo game released back in 2010 on the Xbox 360 will soon be added to Halo: MCC on Xbox One and PC. On Xbox One, the multiplayer content will be free for everyone who owns Halo: MCC, but the campaign and Firefight modes will be available as a paid DLCs (all content will be available for free for Xbox Game Pass subscribers). This will be different on PC as Halo Reach will actually be the first game to be released on this platform, and the PC version will include all game content.
The Master Chief’s arrival on PC will happen in stages with each title releasing one by one over time -– giving the development teams the ability to ensure each one is right, while giving players a chance to jump in right away, rather than having to wait for the entire suite of games to be completed. Our current plan is for this journey to begin with the launch of Halo: Reach – the fictional beginnings of Master Chief’s saga – with the rest of the titles following in chronological order thereafter. Halo: Reach, Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST (Campaign), and Halo 4 will each be available for individual purchase within MCC as they become available. And each game will evolve and grow over time with community input.
Jarrard said today that Halo: MCC will be released on PC later this year, but didn’t share an ETA. We also don’t know if the Microsoft Store version will support Xbox Play Anywhere and cross-platform multiplayer between Windows 10 and Xbox One, but 343 Industries will likely share more details in the coming months.


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You can forgive top-level athletes for wanting to be left alone sometimes. A TV advert by Nike featuring Naomi Osaka currently airing has her asking the media to desist with their often inane questions.
The 21-year-old dropped out of the French Open on Saturday after losing to Katerina Siniakova, and attributed the disappointment partly to stress caused by being the top-seeded player.
But media focus often falls on things unrelated to sporting...
- Campaign Asia-Pacific online premium content* including in-depth monthly focus on key trends and industry issues
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Is that a bank in your pocket? Transactions via ASB’s mobile app overtake online banking
ASB, which won Canstar’s Best Online Bank award in 2012 and 2013 and is seen as one of the world’s most innovative banks, introduced the country’s first internet banking service in 1997 and released its mobile banking app in 2012. And in little over a year, more ASB customers were banking through a mobile device than through traditional internet banking.
“Today, that gap has widened further,” says Fiona Colgan, general manager, digital at ASB. “The number of active customers using ASB’s mobile app has increased by more than 40 percent over the past year. Financial transactions on the mobile app increased by two thirds during the same period. The ASB mobile app has grown at four times the rate that FastNet Classic internet banking did at the early stages of its lifecycle. Customer uptake and usage of our app is growing weekly and with 90% of New Zealanders estimated to be on smartphones by 2018, growth in this area shows no signs of abating.”
Google research suggests New Zealand is ranked 17th in the world for smartphone penetration, with 65% of Kiwis now thought to have a smartphone, up from 40% in 2012. And banking has been one of the industries most affected by the rapid uptake (since inception, the ASB mobile app has handled 25 million transactions).
“Our customers live life on-the-go and we know that mobile banking makes their life easier. They are using ASB Mobile to check their balances via our Quick Balance feature and keep up with their bill payments,” Colgan says. “Time has become a precious commodity in our modern day lives and it’s in this way that ASB’s mobile app is having its greatest impact. Our research shows that our customers are prioritising quality time to be with their family and mobile banking gives them more time to do that.”
There are 1.75 billion smartphones in use worldwide and Kiwis have become increasingly reliant on theirs, with 63% of us accessing the internet through our phone each day and most of us never leaving home without it. That has its drawbacks, of course, and, in a recent US study on nomophobia, the clinical description for the fear of being out of mobile contact, 63% of respondents said they checked their phone for messages or calls once an hour, 9% said they checked their phone every f5 minutes and 63% said they would be upset if they left home without their smartphone.
In New Zealand, 84% of us use our phones while performing other activities, like watching TV. On average, we have 27 applications on our phones, while over 33% of Kiwis have used their smartphone for purchasing.
When internet banking was first introduced, many customers were nervous about security and reluctant to share their credit card details online. That fear has all but disappeared as more and more of use purchase things online. But the ASB mobile app uses Netcode as an extra level of security and ASB encourages customers to only register three devices at one time.
With the mobile app, customers can pay via email, mobile phone number, or Facebook and they can also pay directly to Trade Me sellers through bill payments.
- This story originally appeared on Stop Press


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IBM has teamed up with semiconductor equipment suppliers and manufacturing bigwigs GlobalFoundries and Samsung to develop a new process for building silicon nanosheet transistors. The GAA nanosheet transistor architecture at 5nm would put 30bn transistors on a chip.
At the moment, the chip industry has the ability to produce 7nm processors, and 10nm chips are in common use today.
Meanwhile, IBM and its partners expect to begin commercializing their 7-nanometer chip technology in 2018.
IBM says these chips will be much faster than anything we have today, and that's a given. "This shows with the right investment one could continue to push semiconductor technology". Unlike the 7nm chip covering 20 billion transistors on a chip, the 5nm will let 30 billion transistors to be fitted on a single microprocessor. Now we come back two years later, with the first proof point of a new device structure. The news comes two years after the alliance announced the development of the world's first 7nm chips, which should enter production next year.
Rather than use current FinFET or "fin field-effect transistor" architecture, IBM has been exploring stacked nanosheet transistors, aided by a technique that allows it to adjust the chip's design for improved power and performance in ways that FinFET can't. As in earlier, planar designs, it is built on an SOI (silicon on insulator) substrate. "Geometrically, FinFETs can not scale anymore", Khare said.
For practical purposes, this is important because it helps enable a 40 percent performance improvement over current 10nm chip designs - but using the same amount of power.
The timing of the 5nm breakthrough couldn't be better, thanks to the huge number of new IoT devices in the transom.
Keep in mind that this initial work represents a feasibility demonstration only. IBM also says that power savings could lead to batteries in smartphones and other products that could last up to three times longer than today's devices. It was the flawless harmony for both consumer and producer, as computers twice as powerful as their predecessors would keep the consumer happy, while manufacturers enjoyed a built-in obsolescence. This makes them ideal for work with high-performance demands.


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As usage and advertising spending on Twitter’s smartphone apps begins to overtake activity on PCs, the company is refocusing on mobile, according to its chief executive.
Speaking to the FT earlier this week, Dick Costolo said that 55 to 57 per cent of Twitter’s users were on mobile, particularly as it expands outside the US, which now makes up around 25 per cent of its users, reaching as high as 80 per cent in the UK.
“That is great for us because our mobile users are more engaged,” he said. “When you are active on Twitter on mobile you use it more than if you were a desktop user.” Read more
Analysis & reviews
About this blog
Welcome. If you have yet to register on FT.com you will be asked to do so before you begin to read FT blogs. However, our posts remain free.
Richard Waters, Tim Bradshaw, Hannah Kuchler and Sarah Mishkin in the FT's San Francisco bureau share their views - plus tech insights from Robert Cookson and Chris Nuttall in London.
Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years. He reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby from 2004 to 2013, before returning to London.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
Robert Cookson is the FT's digital media correspondent in London. He
covers digital enterprise in media, from the music industry to local newspapers and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. A former Hong Kong markets correspondent, he is interested in the interplay
between old media and new technologies.
Hannah Kuchler writes about technology and Silicon Valley from the FT's San Francisco bureau. She covers social media including Facebook and Twitter and the dark and mysterious world of cybersecurity. Hannah has worked for the FT in London, Hong Kong and New York, reporting on everything from British politics to the Chinese internet.
Sarah Mishkin in a correspondent in San Francisco, where she covers payments, e-commerce, and political news on the West Coast. Prior to California, she has worked as an FT reporter in New York, London, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, and most recently in Taiwan, where she covered Chinese internet companies, semiconductors, and tech supply chains.


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This week’s snippets of automotive news includes what makes a Lamborghini a proper Lambo, why Jaguar’s design boss wants to change America’s mind with the XF Sportbrake and future car technology from Honda, Renault and LG.
Cooking up a Lambo
What makes a Lamborghini a Lamborghini? Consider these words from Federico Foschini, its commercial director, on what modern customers really want from the brand. “If we can deliver design, performance and emotion, then we will meet the expectations of our customers,” he said. “They are our real DNA – and anything we launch must deliver on them.”
Jag's American dream
The XF Sportbrake is more beautiful than its saloon sibling, reckons Jaguar design director Ian Callum. He added that it was a difficult business plan to justify the Sportbrake, but said that CEO Ralf Speth “wanted this car to happen”. Callum also admitted the Sportbrake was “a bit of an anomaly” in the US, Jaguar’s biggest market. “We hope to convince America this is a very cool car,” he said.
Honda cells won't stop
Fuel cells provide the cleanest solution for the future, according to Honda boss Takahiro Hachigo, because they generate their own power on-board. To that end, Honda will not slow down its development of the technology, even if the infrastructure lags.
Renault and LG team up
LG and Renault are working on an in-car infotainment system that can tell you if service station toilets are out of order. The pair worked together on a control system for Renault’s Symbioz concept car, which includes technology that offers information on upcoming rest stops. Data provided by service stations could also tell motorists how much parking is available and whether they can get their coffee fix there.


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We’re receiving reports that the Tech Support Scam is hitting our area once again. This is when scammers, posing as computer technicians, call consumers or business owners saying they’ve noticed a computer in use has an operating flaw or that it’s running slowly. And this is a clever scam, because many older computers do run slow. However, what you need to know is that these calls are bogus. When you have a computer problem, you call the expert. It’s not the other way around. Learn more about the tech support scam!
We’ve also received reports that people are getting calls from individuals claiming to be with the IRS and demanding immediate payments. In some cases, people say they’ve been threatened with arrest. This is not how the IRS works. If you receive a phone call, fax or letter in the mail from an individual claiming to be from the IRS but you suspect they are not an IRS employee, contact the IRS at 1-800-829-1040. Also, the IRS won’t contact you by email, text or through social media; if they need information, they will contact you by mail. Here are some helpful tax tips from your BBB!


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Shoppers can get £5 off when they spend £65 online with Iceland.
The deal launches on Tuesday, 2 February and runs for ten days until 12 February, according to the online supermarket, reports the Manchester Evening News.
A second deal means orders will be delivered free because the supermarket is offering free delivery on every order over £35.
Iceland has not reported any issues with delivery slots amid higher demand for deliveries. It says thousands of slots are available each day and it is offering free delivery on any orders over £35.
You can find and book a slot here.
There is also a way to cut the price of the shop further by using a £15 new member deal at cashback website Topcashback. The deal brings the cost of a £65 shop down to just £45 - a saving of £20 - and includes free delivery.
The £15 deal is available through Topcashback, which is offering £15 in cashback to anybody who orders over £35 worth of items from Iceland. The deal is available to all new members and brings the price of a £35 shop down to £20.
You can get the deal here.
Other supermarkets' delivery slots are in high demand due to lockdown.
Asda is limiting the number of slots available due to demand. It says: "Understandably the demand for online shopping is really high, please check back regularly as we continue to work on increasing our capacity."
It has paused the sale of new delivery passes due to demand for deliveries.
Sainsbury's has increased the number of slots it is offering to 800,000.
It says: "We’ve increased the number of home delivery and Click and Collect slots available and are on track to offer 800,000 weekly slots. As a result, both our existing customers and new customers have access to more slots."
Sainsbury's has paused its delivery pass but slots are available and are being added each day.
Morrison's is still offering delivery on Amazon Fresh. The online retailer sells many of the same groceries you can find in Amazon stores and also offers a 'Subscribe and Save' service that offers discounts on regular deliveries.
Tesco has paused sales of its delivery passes so that it can concentrate on prioritising vulnerable customers.
The supermarket is still offering delivery slots but they are in high demand. The supermarket says: "There’s still high demand for our online service, so we’d encourage you to shop in-store if you’re able to do so, where we have a number of safety measures in place."
Tesco has also extended the opening hours in its stores and you can check your local Tesco on the website


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On the Beach TV ad hailed top festive campaign
09 Jan 2020by James Chapple
Ad voiced by Iggy Pop achieved ’highest uplift’ in ad awareness of any brand in the UK in December, according to YouGov
To continue reading...
Please log in below or join now for access.


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“Shark Tank” pitch style, impact competition webinar
Join Lion’s Den on 27 May to vote for your favorite African entrepreneur innovating against COVID-19. The session is part of Africa.com’s ongoing webinar series, Crisis Management for African Business Leaders, developed with faculty from Harvard Business School.
Brilliant African Innovations Against COVID-19 is a pitch competition to showcase and support African entrepreneurs who, in the last six weeks, have developed solutions to support Africa’s fight against the coronavirus. Entries are evaluated primarily on their impact against the virus and the viability of delivering the product or service.
Entrepreneurs will “pitch” their ideas, and will be questioned by a judging panel comprised of a seasoned group of African innovation experts. In addition, the audience will judge each entrepreneur’s presentation and register their views through live polling.
The winner will receive
- Cash prize of $500
- One-on-one mentorship session with a Harvard Business School professor
- Media package worth $5,000
The judges for the competition include:
- Juliet Ehimuan, Country Director, Google Nigeria
- Andile Ngcaba, Founding Partner and Chairman, Convergence Partners
- Eric Osiakwan, Managing Partner, Chanzo Capital
- Adrian Vermooten, Head of Digital Africa Regions, Standard Bank
If you have not yet registered to attend the webinar, or for more information on Lion’s Den, visit VirtualConferenceAfrica.com.


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- Barrons.com•13 hours ago
A collapse in iron ore prices is imminent as China produces a near-record amount of steel, according to Axiom Capital Research. Here's some of the argument from Gordon L. Johnson II, an energy, metals ...
- Market Realist•3 days ago
According to the data released by the World Steel Association, global steel production stood at 133.7 million metric tons in July 2016.
- Market Realist•6 days ago
The automotive industry is the second-largest steel consumer after the real estate sector. Let's look at the recent trend in the Chinese automotive industry.
United States Steel Corp. (X)
NYSE - NYSE Real Time Price. Currency in USD
|Bid||20.26 x 200|
|Ask||20.27 x 200|
|Day's Range||19.66 - 20.45|
|52wk Range||6.15 - 27.64|
|1y Target Est||N/A|
Trade prices are not sourced from all markets
|P/E Ratio (ttm)||-1.75|
|Avg Vol (3m)||15,166,647|
|Dividend & Yield||0.20 (1.01%)|


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"I don't see how terminating the agreement will benefit anybody. Not the Mexican companies, nor the Floridian ones. And worst of all: not the consumer. In the end they will pay when the Tomato Suspension Agreement fails." Speaking is Oscar Woltman with AMHPAC, representing the Mexican greenhouse industry and his view on continuing the agreement is clear. However, various Florida growers respond otherwise. "This is long overdue," Mike McGee with Flavor-Pic Tomato says. "The suspension agreement would be a good thing if they were going to enforce it, which they haven't."
There have been mixed reactions to the US government's decision to cancel the Tomato Suspension Agreement. It follows last week's vote in Congress that will see the suspension agreement terminated effective May 7. Many companies in the US that ship and distribute tomatoes are on the sidelines, waiting to learn more and also to see what will happen after May 7.
Being a Mexican greenhouse grower and shipping mainly to the US / Canada, his view on the possible termination of the agreement is clear
One of them is Oscar Woltman with AMHPAC, the biggest organisation representing the Mexican horticultureal industry. He explains they have been trying to continue the agreement over the last 13 months, but hardly get a respond from the parties willing to terminate the agreement.
To Oscar, it's unclear why somebody would want to end the agreement. "In Mexico there's a clear desire to modernise and continue the agreement. There's no benefit in ending the agreement and we regret the current risks being taken of unnecessary price increases due to compensatory taxes. Especially since in the end the consumer will pay when the Tomato Suspension Agreement discontinues."
According to Woltman, the Mexican growers and exporters strictly followed the rules over the last 5 years. "I can't understand why people believe there's dumping going on - how can the Mexican industry continue to grow while doing this? Every industry would go bankrupt after years of being guilty of dumping. Currently production from both countries finds its way to the market. Many Mexican producers supply to Floridian importers. The relationship is far-reaching and production is complimentary."
For Woltman, the heart of the matter is unclear. "We notice that the consumer is increasingly opting for greenhouse grown products, providing a versatile assortment and year-round safe production. The production is complementary and many Mexican producers supply to Floridian importers. The relationships are often very good and both countries work together. As a whole, the market is growing, the Mexican industry is growing and even though the Floridian growers have a smaller piece of the pie, their total amount of sales has grown. I've always learned production will only grow in the long term as long as the demand grows. If the demand rises and still all product is being sold in the US or in local markets, there's no overproduction or dumping going on."
If the agreement ends and if the commission agrees there's dumping going on, an additional fee will be added on top of the tomato price. "In the end, the consumer will be paying for this. At the same time, it will mean that Florida growers will have to compete with a lower priced supply from Mexico - so they won't benefit from the termination either. And I currently don't see anybody building 8,000 or even 9,000 hectare greenhouses in the US." That's why he hopes AMHPAC, will succeed in their ongoing attempts to continue the agreement.
"Suspension agreement was not enforced anyway"
However, whilst this view from Mexico is clear, various US growers do welcome the move. These growers, especially from Florida, have long been campaigning against what they see as an unfair advantage for Mexican growers. Incidentally, it is Florida that competes most directly with Mexico during each of their respective peak seasons. For some, like Mike McGee the termination couldn't come soon enough. He's with Flavor-Pic Tomato, an open field farmer with farms in Florida, Georgia and Alabama. According to McGee, the suspension agreement was not being enforced the way it was designed.
"This is long overdue," he said. "The suspension agreement would be a good thing if they were going to enforce it, which they haven't. We are already at a disadvantage when it comes to competing with Mexico on cost. Now they are going to launch an investigation into reported dumping of Mexican tomatoes, however we don't think anything will be done about it anyway. We know there have been a few instances of them undercutting us so there is no way we can compete fairly."
He's supported by more growers from the region, who don't want to be named. One Florida grower who also sources tomatoes from Mexico at certain times of the year, mentioned they are yet to see what effect it will have, but also noted the issue is more complex than simply Mexican imports, and even tomatoes. "It's something that companies will have to read more about and then take action accordingly," a spokesperson said. "It's more than just Mexico because Canada also exports tomatoes to the United States and then there are Florida growers who also grow in Mexico. Additionally, it's not just about US tomato growers either. We are not protecting all our growers, whatever the commodity. There are even state-based issues that affect other states too so it's a very complex issue."
"The FTE is pleased that the Commerce Department has recognised the failure of the current suspension agreement. The US industry has significant disadvantages vis-à-vis Mexico when it comes to cost of labor and overall regulations", adds Michael Schadler, executive vice president with Florida Tomato Exchange. "If we allow Mexican dumping and subsidies to continue on top of those other disadvantages, the US industry will continue to shrink. Therefore, strong enforcement of trade law is important, and we think this recent decision to terminate the suspension agreement on May 7 is a move in the right direction."
Florida tomato growers calling bluff?
On the other side of the scale, there are those that believe no dumping has occurred at all. Instead, they say that Florida growers have not done enough to maintain their position in the market and are using the suspension agreement to try and alter the market in their favor.
"I never thought the suspension agreement was fair," said Paul Manfre of TopKatz, a New York produce brokerage. "Any time you intervene with the market through regulatory interference, it fails. The suspension agreement created a false bottom that propped up prices and was unsustainable. Before the suspension agreement was even in place, people used to want Roma tomatoes from Florida because they were better quality than what Mexico was able to produce at that time. However, over the years, Mexican growers improved their practices and quality along with it, to a point that was on par with or even better than product coming out of Florida, resulting in more demand for Mexican product."
Regarding the claims of dumping, Manfre said price drops are a function of a supply-and-demand market and producers should expect highs and lows. "There is no such thing as 'dumping' in produce," he explained. "Every commodity goes through its cycles of highs and lows in demand and volume, and prices react accordingly."
With May 7 being only a couple months away, the Mexican industry still puts their hopes up on renewing the agreement. Currently AMHPAC is putting all its efforts into this. "Where there's a will, there's a way and our Mexican will is very present. I'm hoping so is the Florida one - since a new agreement will benefit both sides", Woltman ends.


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Sony has released details about its role in the stereo 3D coverage of the FIFA World Cup, including a video looking inside Telegenic’s T18, the world’s first dedicated 3D OB truck.
With a total of seven pairs of Sony’s professional HDC-1500 cameras on rigs at every match, the action on the pitch will be captured in a stunning 3D quality enabled through its proprietary MPE-200 multi-image processor and 3D Outside Broadcast truck. Sony’s cutting-edge processor, the only one in the market to date, makes an end-to-end workflow possible in the production process and automatically adjusts the depth-of-field to ensure an unprecedented and optimal 3D viewing experience around the world. Starting from the FIFA Confederations Cup last year in South Africa, Sony has been working on enhancing the 3D capturing of fast-moving football action and has since conducted a number of 3D filming trials in Europe.
After hitting the tarmac earlier this year Sony Professional, Sky and Telegenic revolutionised the football viewing experience to bring live 3D to pubs around the UK for the very first time with the specially-designed T18. This video, Sony Professional – The World’s First 3D Outside Broadcast Truck in Action, looks at how they did it.
3D filming will be realised at five out of the 10 FIFA World Cup stadiums: Soccer City and Ellis Park in Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, using trucks rupplied by a range of companies including Telegenic and AMP (pictured above being loaded into a transporter for its journey to Joburg). 25 matches in total will be filmed and broadcast in 3D, which will include a carefully chosen selection of those games expected to attract most public attention, including the opening game on June 11 at Soccer City (South Africa vs Mexico) and the crowning final game on July 11 also in Johannesburg. Details on exactly which ones will be captured in 3D are in the main press release here.
“The 3D feed from these 25 matches will be made available for broadcast on 3D channels, which can be enjoyed by consumers on their 3D-compatible TV sets in the comfort of their home, almost as if they were in the football stadium themselves,” said Niclas Ericson, Director of FIFA TV. “Whilst discussions with major broadcasters are ongoing, I am very pleased to announce the first confirmed partners for the 3D live broadcast, who are ESPN in the US and Sogecable in Spain. We expect further announcements to be made shortly,” he added.
Complementing the 3D live broadcast and public viewing activities, the general public will also be able to exclusively enjoy the 3D promotional trailers shown on Sony 3D Bravia TVs in around 4000 Sony-affiliated retail stores worldwide, including 200 Sony flagship stores. Furthermore, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has also unveiled plans to produce and distribute the official FIFA film in 3D on Blu-ray later this year.


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South Korea-Japan Trade Row: Seoul braces for impact after Tokyo tightens export rules
Tensions rising between the Republic of Korea and Japan -- Industries in both countries are preparing for a long, drawn-out battle over Tokyo's export curbs on Seoul. Shane Hahm reports.
South Korean industries are on alert. They're prepared to take on Japan, after Tokyo's decision to remove South Korea from its trade white list meaning more scrutiny on all exports to South Korea, including materials used in high-tech machinery and products. And the government is willing to do all it can to support local industries.
MOON JAE-IN SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT "Companies that depended heavily on Japanese parts and materials may experience difficulties immediately. But I urge them to look forward and use this as a chance to change our industrial ecosystem. I promise you the government will aggressively support."
No industry looks to be hit harder than South Korea's semiconductor and display panel industry. In early July, Japan restricted the export of three key materials used to make memory chips and display. Semiconductors make up about a fifth of the country's total exports and more than 90 percent of export growth. That's why local suppliers are putting their heads together to overcome the awaiting challenge.
SHANE HAHM SEOUL "Experts here suggest global protectionist trade measures will likely worsen, and now is the time to nurture and develop local small- and medium-sized manufacturers to produce higher-quality parts and materials. That's because up until now, local suppliers lagged behind Japanese competitors in terms of quality, forcing manufacturers to look to and depend on companies abroad."
PARK JEA-GUN, HEAD KOREAN SOCIETY OF SEMICONDUCTOR AND DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY "There's a notion that domestic products are inferior, that semiconductor and display parts need to be number one and cutting edge. That's why we need to raise Korean semiconductor parts, materials, and equipment to global levels."
President Moon is promising to allocate more funding for small businesses. He's confident firms can turn crisis into opportunity and many business owners agree.
RYU JAE-WAN CEO, SBB TECH "So far, we've been chasing Japanese products, but I think we can make products that surpass Japanese products."
Companies like Samsung Electronics say they've stockpiled enough resources to manage production for several months. Localizing the production of materials will take time and know-how. And under the current circumstances, that seems to be the only option. Shane Hahm, CGTN, Seoul.


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The New Orleans Saints’ Super Bowl-winning season has led to a trademark dispute involving the team’s unofficial 2009 motto and two manufacturers of athletic wear.
In a suit filed in Chicago federal court, Finish Strong LLC claims trademark infringement by Reebok International LLC, which manufactured and marketed a T-shirt using the “Finish Strong” mantra that Saints quarterback Drew Brees adopted during the 2009 NFL season.
Finish Strong claims it has had a registered trademark on the phrase since 1998 and uses it in a branded line of apparel including T-shirts, pants, skirts and shirts.
The Reebok T-shirt carries the slogan: “We Finish Strong! We Are Saints.”
The suit, filed Thursday, asks for Reebok to turn over all profits from the shirt to Naperville, Ill.-based Finish Strong, plus unspecified damages.
In a statement, Canton, Mass.-based Reebok said it did not believe it was infringing on Finish Strong’s rights. The company said it was not aware of Finish Strong until December, when it received an attorney’s letter, and the words “Finish Strong” had been adopted to describe the Saints’ style of play “and widely adopted and reported in the media at that time.
“We clearly used the words in a purely descriptive manner, which is obvious from the T-shirt presentation, and not in any way likely to be taken as an indication of origin, which could be confused with Finish Strong LLC,” said Reebok, which is owned by Frankfurt, Germany-based Adidas AG.
The suit said Brees adopted the “Finish Strong” mantra after reading a book by the same title by company founder and owner Dan Green. Neither the Saints nor Brees were named as defendants.
On the Finish Strong Web site, Green’s book was being advertised, along with a YouTube video of the Saints’ Super Bowl win.
In the days leading to the Saints’ first-ever Super Bowl appearance, a separate trademark dispute erupted between the National Football League and New Orleans T-shirt makers who were selling shirts with the phrase “Who Dat.”
After some T-shirt makers were hit by cease-and-desist letters by the league, Louisiana’s attorney general conferred with NFL counsel and said the league was only targeting shirts that were marketed or presented as official Saints gear. The dispute, a big topic before the big game on radio talk shows, died down after that and no suits were filed.
The chant — “Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints” — is often shortened to “Who Dat” on shirts and signs and has been a mainstay at the Superdome since the 1980s.•
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Sales of the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book led to a 29 percent increase in overall Surface family revenue ($1.35 billion compared to $1.1 billion), Microsoft announced in its Q2 2016 earnings report. Its overall phone revenue, however, fell 49 percent. Given our disappointment with the Lumia 950 and 950 XL, Microsoft's mobile performance wasn't too surprising. Its new devices weren't really flagship models meant to compete with the iPhone 6S and the best of Android. Microsoft's overall revenue for its More Personal Computing division (which includes Surface and phone sales) fell 5 percent.
Sorry, Windows Phone. 110m lifetime sales - 4.5bn iOS & Android phones sold in the same period pic.twitter.com/CO03XWhYJg— Benedict Evans (@BenedictEvans) January 28, 2016
On the whole, it wasn't a great holiday quarter for Microsoft. Its revenues fell around 10 percent from last year (from $26.5 billion to $23.8 billion), while its net income fell around 15 percent (from $5.8 billion to $5 billion). Still, the company saw strong cloud growth, with Azure revenue up by 140 percent. Its overall Intelligent Cloud division revenue was up five percent.
There were some pretty big gains in other categories, as well. Office 365 revenue jumped 70 percent compared to last year, for example, and it also reached 20.6 million customers. On the gaming front, Microsoft says it now has 48 million monthly active users (people who sign on at least once a month), an increase of 30 percent.
While its mobile hardware outlook isn't that great, Microsoft is seeing some success when it comes to mobile software. Skype, for example, has been downloaded more than 900 million times on iOS and Android devices, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during the earnings call today. Additionally, Office mobile apps have been downloaded over 340 million times.


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PORTLAND, Ore. -- LG is first out of the gate with a completely flexible large-scale (18-inch) display that can be rolled up for transport into a three-centimeter (1.2-inch) scroll. The transparent display could be unfurled and hung on the wall, laid on a tabletop, or mounted in a conventional frame. Though it is only a demonstration prototype, LG predicted that it will have a 60-inch version with even higher transmittance on the market by 2017.
The 18-inch flexible OLED display can be rolled up for storage or transport.
"LG has demonstrated the ability to produce displays on flexible substrates for some time, working on getting that to commercialization is quite a project," Paul Semenza, president of NPD DisplaySearch, told EE Times. "We will start seeing smaller flexible displays over the next couple of years, such as those in a smart watch, but they will just be flexible one time when put behind a curved glass cover, but to have them flexible in any shape at any time is some time off."
The organic light emitting diode (OLED) display needs no backlight and, being deposited on a transparent substrate, could display schematics and other graphics in mid-air. LG demonstrated its mid-air display in order to prove that it had mastered the basic technologies needed for rollable transparent displays of any size, but there are still significant hurdles to commercialization -- mainly the inability to protect the OLED from moisture and oxygen, both of which destroy the display.
A working 18-inch flexible OLED display can be flexed into
a three-centimeter (1.2-inch) scroll.
"We believe that, by 2020, active OLED revenue could be just over $23 billion, most of which will come from smartwatches and mobile phones that are flexed and fixed," Semenza told us. "And the reason for that is the production challenge. You can encapsulate a curved and fixed display in glass and metal to protect it from the environment, but no backplanes yet exist that are flexible yet reliably prevent damage to OLEDs."


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After the blockbuster HP-3PAR buyout, the storage industry capped a crazy year of M&A activity with the EMC-Isilon and (not yet completed) Dell-Compellent acquisitions. Although any Top 10 list is somewhat arbitrary, here’s our list of the biggest and/or most influential storage acquisitions of 2010.
#10: PMC-SIERRA – ADAPTEC
Throughout the 1990s, Adaptec was synonymous with SCSI, and had a lock on the SCSI controller/adapter market. The company reached its heyday when it racked up revenues of about $800 million in fiscal 2000. But Adaptec didn’t see the winds of change blowing. PMC-Sierra acquired Adaptec in mid-2010 for a mere $34 million.
In addition to Adaptec’s technology and products, PMC gained access to Adaptec’s extensive channel partners.
PMC-Sierra’s acquisition of Adaptec puts the company in even more intense competition with arch rival LSI. Now PMC competes in the channel with LSI at the board level, whereas previously the battle was fought primarily on the semiconductor front.
PMC-Sierra to buy Adaptec’s channel storage business(on partner site InfoStor)
PMC-Sierra ships 6Gbps SAS controllers(InfoStor)
#9: NETAPP – BYCAST
The financial terms of the NetApp-Bycast deal were not disclosed. According to InfoStor’s original article on the acquisition: “NetApp is advancing its efforts in the cloud storage market with the acquisition of Bycast, a developer of object-based storage virtualization software that turns multiple storage devices across geographically-dispersed locations into a single pool for storing fixed content data.”
NetApp plans to leverage Bycast technology, including its StorageGRID virtualization software, in markets such as digital media, Web 2.0, healthcare, and cloud services.
Related article: “NetApp to acquire Bycast for cloud storage software”(InfoStor)
#8: EMULEX – SERVERENGINES
Prior to acquiring the company, Emulex was licensing critical technology -- including 10GbE ASICs -- from ServerEngines. Acquiring its supplier was key to Emulex’s 10GbE strategy, and the company paid a high price (which could exceed $200 million, depending on a number of factors).
Emulex is now going head-to-head with Ethernet giants Broadcom and Intel, as well as long-time rival QLogic and others.
The acquisition seems to have paid off. Emulex has racked up a number of OEM design wins with Tier-1 vendors for its 10GbE/FCoE/iSCSI adapters, including Dell, EMC, HDS, HP, IBM and NetApp.
ServerEngines was founded in 2004 by former Broadcom engineers who were previously with ServerWorks, which was acquired by Broadcom in 2001. In early 2009, Broadcom launched an unsuccessful hostile takeover of Emulex.
See “Emulex to acquire ServerEngines”(InfoStor)
#7: DELL – OCARINA
Dell’s acquisition of Ocarina, rumored to be in the $150 million ballpark, came as a surprise and (along with #6, see below) confirmed that capacity optimization (data deduplication and/or compression) of primary storage could be one of the top storage technologies in 2011.
Dell now has its own capacity optimization technology, as well as existing reseller deals with CommVault, EMC (Data Domain) and Symantec.
Related blog post: “Dell to acquire Ocarina for data deduplication”(InfoStor)
And in a related Top 10 acquisition . . .
#6: IBM – STORWIZE
IBM’s acquisition of Storwize had been rumored for weeks before IBM made it official, so it ranks low on the surprise factor but high on the industry influence scale. Even more than the Dell-Ocarina deal, and even more than NetApp’s evangelizing, IBM’s acquisition of data compression specialist Storwize put data reduction for primary storage in a top spot among hot storage technologies.
Rumors put IBM-Storwize deal in the range of $140 million.
Storwize’s data reduction technology differs from some of its competitors in that it is in-line, real-time compression, as opposed to data deduplication.
The Storwize product line is now part of the IBM Real-time Compression business unit.
See “IBM to Buy Storwize for Real-Time Data Compression”(Enterprise Storage Forum)
#5: VISION SOLUTIONS – DOUBLE-TAKE
This one ranked high on the surprise factor and it also ranked high in dollars, being valued at $242 million, or about $10.55 per Double-Take share. (Double-Take went public in 2006 at about $11 a share.)
Prior to the Vision Solutions announcement, it was well known that Double-Take was on the block, with vendors such as Dell and HP considered potential acquirers.
Vision Solutions specializes in data protection software for IBM systems, while Double-Take’s strengths are in backup, replication, disaster recovery and high availability software, primarily for Microsoft platforms.
See “Vision Solutions to acquire Double-Take”(InfoStor)
#4: EMC – GREENPLUM
The financial terms of EMC’s acquisition of Greenplum were not disclosed. Greenplum specializes in data warehouses and analytics, and claims more than 100 customers, including NASDAQ OMX, NYSE Euronext, Skype, Equifax and T-Mobile.
In addition to its massively parallel processing (MPP) Greenplum Database, the company has Greenplum Chorus, a cloud platform for collaboration and data sharing.
Greenplum became the foundation of a new division within EMC’s Information Infrastructure business.
See “EMC acquires data warehousing vendor Greenplum”(InfoStor)
#3: DELL – COMPELLENT
Dell’s acquisition of Compellent has not been officially finalized yet. The latest offer is $27.75 per share, which translates into about $960 million, or $820 million net of Compellent’s cash.
It will be interesting to see how Dell positions Compellent’s disk arrays relative to its EqualLogic product line (which grew 66% in revenues over the last year), but it will be even more interesting to see what happens to Dell’s EMC reseller agreement.
#2: EMC – ISILON
EMC shelled out around $2.25 billion for scale-out NAS vendor Isilon Systems, net of Isilon’s existing cash balance. That’s an eye-popping amount of cash, particularly considering that Isilon was barely profitable. However, market researcher IDC predicts that the scale-out NAS market will grow on average about 36% annually over the next four years, reaching an estimated $6 billion in 2014.
According to EMC’s press release on the announcement: “EMC’s Atmos and Isilon’s solutions will offer customers a highly scalable, low-cost storage infrastructure for managing ‘Big Data’ . . . EMC Atmos object storage provides the perfect complement to Isilon for massive globally distributed environments and object access to data for usages like Web 2.0 applications.”
EMC officials estimated that the combined revenue from the Isilon and Atmos platforms will hit a $1 billion run rate during the second half of 2012. EMC also emphasized synergies between Isilon’s clustered scale-out NAS platforms and systems/software from Greenplum.
Isilon wasn’t EMC’s only acquisition this year. The company bought Bus-Tech about a week prior to the Isilon announcement. Bus-Tech specializes in VTL technology for mainframe environments. The financial terms of the Bus-Tech acquisition were not disclosed.
#1: HP – 3PAR
By virtue of its price ($2.4 billion) and the drama of the bidding war with Dell (which started at $1.15 billion), HP’s acquisition of 3PAR was clearly the #1 storage acquisition of 2010.
The acquisition of 3PAR puts HP in a much better competitive position, but it will be interesting to see what happens to the rest of HP’s disk array lineup, particularly the venerable EVA line. Months after the acquisition was announced, we still have more questions than answers on this acquisition.
2010 wasn’t a record-setting year in terms of the number of storage acquisitions, but it certainly was a record setter in terms of the amount of money that was shelled out.
As we enter 2011, the big question is: Who will be acquired next? According to the financial analyst community, CommVault is the most likely storage vendor to be acquired, but other possibilities cited by analysts include Brocade, BlueArc, FalconStor, NetApp and Xiotech.
Follow Enterprise Storage Forum on Twitter.


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Here at 3D Rapid Print, we like to keep abreast of the latest innovations in 3D printing.
On November 30th 2019, “men’s magazine” GQ spoke of entrepreneur Nina Flohr’s plans to build a luxury resort that will be partially 3D printed with sand. (Nina Flohr is the daughter of Thomas Flohr, who is best known as the founder and chairman of global business aviation company VistaJet of Luqa, Malta.) Flohr responded by posting a photo on her Instagram feed of her watching her first 3D printing run, stating that it had been taken 2 and a half years ago. Named the Kisawa Sanctuary, its website describes it as “a combination of 12 one, two and three bedroom bungalows set across 300-hectares of private sanctuary beach, forest and sand dunes on Benguerra Island, Mozambique.” It is set to open in summer 2020.
However, details on how the resort will use 3D printing are scarce; its website only proclaims that the company has combined the work of Benguerra Island’s artisans with patented 3D printing technology. In October 2019, Condé Nast Traveler magazine ran a story going “Inside The World’s First 3D-Printed Retreat,” which stated that Kisawa would use what was referred to as “sand-and-seawater mortar.” (Condé Nast is not at all coincidentally the publisher of GQ magazine(!).) Despite the story on their website being dated November 25th, the oldest version in the Wayback Machine traces back to October 9th, with a version on the website MSN dated October 10th. On October 8th, Flohr posted a picture depicting what is almost certainly the CN Traveler story to her Instagram feed, proclaiming that the resort had been 5 years in the making. However, for reasons unknown the pictured story was headlined “This 3D-Printed Retreat Could Trigger A Rethink Of The Entire Industry.”
Examples of other 3D printed buildings include the DFAB House in Dübendorf, Switzerland. Opening in late February 2019, its website described it as “the world’s first inhabited “house” that was not only digitally planned, but also – with the help of robots and 3D printers – built largely digitally.” As another example, the world’s first 3D printed office building was unveiled in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in May 2016. It was built by 17 people in just 17 days, with Dubai’s media office estimating that its labour costs were half that of similar size buildings built via conventional means.
Flohr also intends to use Kisawa’s 3D printing technology at their non-profit arm the Bazaruto Center For Scientific Studies, with the aim of growing the local ecosystem’s coral reefs and marine habitats. (Bazaruto is an island located circa 50 miles (80km) southeast of the mouth of Mozambique’s Save River.)
Disclaimer: Featured image of “Heywood Hardy Holiday time” is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 70 years or less.
3D printing is an amazing tool. It can grow your small business or start a mini revolution in an industry. Explore what it can do for you when you contact us today.


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Health fair Jan. 5 opens up new First Thursdays monthly campaign in Blissfield
BLISSFIELD — The village of Blissfield is planning to kick off 2023 with monthly, seasonally appropriate events at various businesses designed to increase foot traffic downtown.
Blissfield will introduce its new First Thursdays event campaign Thursday, Jan. 5, with a health fair titled “Healthy Families, Healthy Community” hosted at That One Place in Blissfield from 4 to 7 p.m., according to a communication from the village of Blissfield and Downtown Blissfield. That One Place in Blissfield is an event venue at 121 S. Lane St.
“Recharge and refresh,” a social media post from Downtown Blissfield said. “Kick off our first First Thursday night with a health fair. There is something for everyone.”
Several demonstrations will be a part of next week’s health fair, including from Blissfield businesses such as Lavender & Honey Herbal Apothecary, Transcend Physical Therapy, Bailey Family Chiropractic, Royal Yoga Studio, Nourish Juicery and Kitchen, and the Blissfield Fire Department.
There will be food, tea and juice samples; signup forms for youth recreation soccer; massage therapy sessions; a vegetable planting activity; and blood pressure screenings, all designed to improve one’s health heading into the new year.
“We will have all kinds of things ready for you to experience and for people to talk to you about your health coming into the new year for 2023,” Blissfield Downtown Development Authority and Main Street Managing Director Laura Nichols said in her most recent Main Street Minute online video update. “We’re really excited about these events. Mark your calendars.”
There also will be giveaways during next week’s event, with people able to register in a drawing for a bicycle, a Ninja food blender and an air fryer.
The entire 2023 schedule of First Thursdays events can be found on the Downtown Blissfield Facebook page. The month-by-month themes of each event are:
- February: Whiskey and chocolate hosted by the Schultz-Holmes Memorial Library. Registration for this event will be at the library, 407 S. Lane St. Various shops downtown will offer a chocolate crawl where people can taste chocolates and whiskeys, as long as they are of legal drinking age.
- March: “Everyone is Irish Scavenger Hunt.” People will be able browse through businesses for a winning pot-o-gold.
- April: Wine stroll. Tickets will be available for this event at the village office. Participants must be of legal drinking age. People will be able to sip and stroll through Blissfield’s business district with 12 samples of red or white wines.
- May: Mother’s Day: A percentage of sales from this day’s event will benefit Tiny Purpose in Blissfield, a nonprofit that seeks to assist grieving mothers understand their baby’s too-short life had a purpose. There will be a mother/daughter tea event along with store prizes, vendors and shopping discounts.
- June: “Touch a Truck.” Designed for people of all ages, guests downtown will be able to experience and sit in different vehicles. Vendors, food trucks and prizes are also scheduled.
- July: Firecracker 5K run. Along with the Independence Day-themed run through Blissfield there also will be vendors, downtown shopping deals and prizes.
- August: Tractor Cruise-In. Blissfield’s popular summer event when tractors of all makes and models line the downtown streets will headline August’s First Thursdays.
- September: Farm-to-Table farmer's market. Tickets for this event will be available at the village office. Local cuisine will be included as part of the market.
- October: Harvest Fest, featuring skeletons, pumpkin painting, games, and fall and Halloween fun.
- November: No First Thursdays event this month due to Blissfield’s annual Yuletide weekend, scheduled for Nov. 10-12.
- December: No First Thursdays event this month due to Wassail Fest on Dec. 8 and the parade of lights on Dec. 9.
Updates and other information about First Thursdays in Blissfield can be found on social media or by visiting www.blissfieldmainstreet.com.
The Blissfield DDA/Main Street organization was founded in 2010 with the aim of preserving the village’s business district and establishing and maintaining a prosperous and welcoming community. Main Street activities are intended to support the expansion of food, arts, and heritage experiences, and to create a business environment that supports and sustains full-time businesses that serves both residents and visitors.


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Brazil revises up 2008 export forecast to $190 bln
Brazil has revised up its export anticipation for 2008 by $10 billion to $190 billion, local media reported Monday.
According to official statistics, Brazil’s exports for the first half of the year totaled $90.6 billion, a jump of 23.8% year-on-year. Brazil is the biggest exporter of iron ore, coffee, sugar and soybean, whose prices have soared, boosting the country’s export revenues since the beginning of this year. Meanwhile, Brazil’s imports in the first six months of 2008 reached $79.8 billion, marking a 13-year record hike of 52% year-on-year.
The exchange rate of the Brazilian real to the US dollar also rose nearly 20% in the last 12 months, greatly boosting imports. (people.com.cn)
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Nepal Tourism industry has been hit hard by COVID -19. The coronavirus pandemic has caused a loss of an estimated 60 billion. More than 1 million people in the tourism sector are affected by this crisis. The tourism industry never anticipated such a catastrophe and was not prepared for it.
The country stayed in shutdown for more than 6 months and finally the government has decided to allow foreign tourists to come to Nepal only for trekking and mountaineering from November The government has issued protocols for mountaineering and trekking activities to control the spread of coronavirus and at the same time to revitalize the essence of the tourism industry in the country.


text: Mastercard (MA) upgraded at Goldman from neutral to buy, Goldman Sachs said. $575 price target. Company is leveraged to strong credit and international volume.Mattel (MAT) upgraded at MKM to buy from neutral, MKM Partners said. $41 price target. Solid 2013 outlook and capital returns should accelerate. Mercury General (MCY) upgraded at Stifel from sell to hold, Stifel Nicolaus said. New regulations in California should boost claims. MetLife (MET) rated new hold at Deutsche. $38 price target. Industry will struggle in a period of low interest rates and higher unemployment. Nasdaq OMX (NDAQ) rated new neutral at Compass Point. $28 price target. Valuation call, as the stock is up 17% over the past six months. PG&E (PCG) upgraded at Jefferies to buy from hold, Jefferies said. $45 price target. Will trade in line once San Bruno proceedings are resolved. Buy rating. Qualcomm (QCOM) rated new buy at Topeka. $75 price target. Current momentum should continue in the near term. Ross Stores (ROST) upgraded at Deutsche from hold to buy, Deutsche Bank said. $66 price target. Company can continue to deliver solid growth in an uncertain environment. Sapient (SAPE) upgraded at Goldman from sell to neutral, Goldman Sachs said. $11 price target. Sales have stabilized in the core business. Synovus Financial (SNV) upgraded at KBW from market perform to outperform, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said. $3.25 price target. DTA recapture and TARP repayment are potential near-term catalysts.


text: Chennai-based travel website, Pickyourtrail.com, is richer by $3 million.The online customised holiday platform has received Series-A funding thanks to investments by Zoho co-founder and GoFrugal CEO Kumar Vembu, Freshworks co-founder and CEO Girish Mathrubootham, iThought founder Shyam Sekhar and Entrust CIO Rajagopal Subramanian.PickYourTrail did not divulge details on the break-up of individual contributions to its funding of $3 million.“There is a massive opportunity in the experience economy, and I am excited to be partnering with PickYourTrail in creating a global vacation planning product,” Vembu, who heads POS firm GoFrugal, said in a statement.A statement from Freshworks co-founder, Girish Mathrubootham said, “Many of our employees have been raving about PickYourTrail, and that’s when I decided to back this team.”The capital infusion will be used primarily for expanding PickYourTrail’s team in Chennai and enhancing customer acquisition, said the company’s founders.“We will require a solid engineering team, and given that we have been bootstrapped, we have been figuring out how to do customer acquisition at zero cost up until now,” Srinath Shankar, co-founder of PickYourTrail told CNBC-TV18.The company will set aside a large chunk of the fund towards innovation in the tech space, to make what Srinath calls “moon-shots” — bold, risky experiments with new ideas.“Around 30 percent of the investment will be spent towards setting up a great product and team,” said Hari Ganapathy, co-founder, PickYourTrail, “Another 20 to 30 percent would go towards overall marketing spend, and the remaining fund will go towards taking these moon-shots.”At present, PickYourTrail’s team of 90 in Chennai will expand to 150 by May. Srinath expects the total headcount to be capped off at 200 by the end of the year. Expansion in terms of operations will see PickYourTrail target tier-2 cities that are seeing a fledgeling market for online travel planning.“A large part of travel happens in places like Mysuru, Coimbatore and Jalandar,” said Ganapathy, “However, even in the United States, 53 percent of vacations are still planned face-to-face. So, we know that our model will be a touch-plus-tech model, but with a focus on enabling better experiences.”PickYourTrail was founded in 2014 by Ganapathy and Shankar, as a customized online travel planning solution. The website lets travellers pick multiple international destinations to visit, and curates vacation experiences like adventures, F&B, sightseeing and the like.As on date, the start-up services over 400 international travel destinations, which the company says make up 96 percent of Indian outbound travel. As part of transitioning to a global brand, the company will begin servicing overseas customers as well. “In the next 2-3 years, you will see us in the top markets of out-bound vacations,” said Ganapathy, signing off.


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|By PR Newswire||
|February 25, 2013 01:10 PM EST||
SEOUL, Korea and PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- LG Electronics Inc. has acquired the webOS operating system technology from HP, the companies announced today.
To support its next-generation Smart TV technology, LG has entered into a definitive agreement with HP to acquire the source code, associated documentation, engineering talent and related websites associated with webOS. As part of the transaction, LG also will receive licenses under HP's intellectual property (IP) for use with its webOS products, including patents acquired from Palm covering fundamental operating system and user interface technologies now in broad use across the industry.
Today's announcement paves the way for continued innovation on the webOS platform and on LG's roadmap of innovative solutions for many years to come, while allowing HP to focus its resources on strategic business opportunities such as cloud computing.
"This groundbreaking development demonstrates LG's commitment to investing in talent and research in Silicon Valley, one of the world's innovation hotbeds. It creates a new path for LG to offer an intuitive user experience and Internet services across a range of consumer electronics devices," said Skott Ahn, president and chief technology officer, LG Electronics Inc. "The open and transparent webOS technology offers a compelling user experience that, when combined with our own technology, will pave the way for future innovations using the latest Web technologies."
Ahn explained that LG Electronics' investment in webOS technology and its acquisition of the innovation team's R&D capabilities are expected to extend LG's leadership in bringing Internet services directly to consumer electronics devices. "Integrated with LG, this team will be the heart and soul of the new LG Silicon Valley Lab, focused on bringing innovative technology solutions to market through the most popular platforms for sharing and consuming content and experiences," he said. With the transaction, LG will add the Sunnyvale and San Francisco sites to its global R&D locations, in addition to its existing U.S. sites in San Jose and Chicago.
Also under the agreement:
- LG will assume stewardship of the open source projects of Open webOS and Enyo.
- HP will retain ownership of all of Palm's cloud computing assets, including source code, talent, infrastructure and contracts.
- HP will continue to support Palm users.
"WebOS and its associated community deliver market leading platforms for the next generation of connected devices. We are constantly looking for opportunities to accelerate the delivery of this platform from the community," said Bill Veghte, HP's chief operating officer. "LG's track record of innovation and broad distribution provides this opportunity, while enabling HP to accelerate our Cloud efforts. In particular, with the cloud assets that will remain with HP, we will focus on delivering innovative solutions that will enable our enterprise customers to mobilize their workforce."
HP and LG do not expect this transaction to have a material impact on either company's financial statements. Terms were not disclosed.
HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world's largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure to solve customer problems. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.HP.com.
About LG Electronics USA
LG Electronics USA, Inc., based in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., is the North American subsidiary of LG Electronics, Inc., a $45 billion global force and technology leader in consumer electronics, home appliances and mobile communications. In the United States, LG sells a range of stylish and innovative home entertainment products, mobile phones, home appliances, commercial displays, air conditioning systems and solar energy solutions, all under LG's "Life's Good" marketing theme. LG is a 2012 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year. For more information, please visit www.LG.com.
About LG Electronics, Inc.
LG Electronics Inc. (KSE: 066570.KS) is a global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics, mobile communications and home appliances, employing more than 93,000 people working in over 120 operations around the world. With 2012 global sales of $45 billion, LG comprises four business units – Home Entertainment, Mobile Communications, Home Appliances, and Air Conditioning & Energy Solutions. LG is one of the world's leading producers of flat panel TVs, mobile devices, air conditioners, washing machines and refrigerators. For more information, please visit www.LGnewsroom.com.
SOURCE LG Electronics USA, Inc.
SYS-CON Events announced today that IoT Now has been named “Media Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 20th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 6–8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. IoT Now explores the evolving opportunities and challenges facing CSPs, and it passes on some lessons learned from those who have taken the first steps in next-gen IoT services.
Feb. 19, 2017 06:15 PM EST Reads: 913
SYS-CON Events announced today that WineSOFT will exhibit at SYS-CON's 20th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Based in Seoul and Irvine, WineSOFT is an innovative software house focusing on internet infrastructure solutions. The venture started as a bootstrap start-up in 2010 by focusing on making the internet faster and more powerful. WineSOFT’s knowledge is based on the expertise of TCP/IP, VPN, SSL, peer-to-peer, mob...
Feb. 19, 2017 06:00 PM EST Reads: 1,211
SYS-CON Events announced today that delaPlex will exhibit at SYS-CON's @CloudExpo, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. delaPlex pioneered Software Development as a Service (SDaaS), which provides scalable resources to build, test, and deploy software. It’s a fast and more reliable way to develop a new product or expand your in-house team.
Feb. 19, 2017 05:45 PM EST Reads: 760
You think you know what’s in your data. But do you? Most organizations are now aware of the business intelligence represented by their data. Data science stands to take this to a level you never thought of – literally. The techniques of data science, when used with the capabilities of Big Data technologies, can make connections you had not yet imagined, helping you discover new insights and ask new questions of your data. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Sarbjit Sarkaria, data science team lead ...
Feb. 19, 2017 05:00 PM EST Reads: 7,875
The Internet of Things can drive efficiency for airlines and airports. In their session at @ThingsExpo, Shyam Varan Nath, Principal Architect with GE, and Sudip Majumder, senior director of development at Oracle, discussed the technical details of the connected airline baggage and related social media solutions. These IoT applications will enhance travelers' journey experience and drive efficiency for the airlines and the airports.
Feb. 19, 2017 05:00 PM EST Reads: 754
The security needs of IoT environments require a strong, proven approach to maintain security, trust and privacy in their ecosystem. Assurance and protection of device identity, secure data encryption and authentication are the key security challenges organizations are trying to address when integrating IoT devices. This holds true for IoT applications in a wide range of industries, for example, healthcare, consumer devices, and manufacturing. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Lancen LaChance, vic...
Feb. 19, 2017 05:00 PM EST Reads: 7,977
With billions of sensors deployed worldwide, the amount of machine-generated data will soon exceed what our networks can handle. But consumers and businesses will expect seamless experiences and real-time responsiveness. What does this mean for IoT devices and the infrastructure that supports them? More of the data will need to be handled at - or closer to - the devices themselves.
Feb. 19, 2017 05:00 PM EST Reads: 1,439
SYS-CON Events announced today that Dataloop.IO, an innovator in cloud IT-monitoring whose products help organizations save time and money, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 20th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Dataloop.IO is an emerging software company on the cutting edge of major IT-infrastructure trends including cloud computing and microservices. The company, founded in the UK but now based in San Fran...
Feb. 19, 2017 04:15 PM EST Reads: 1,914
In his session at @ThingsExpo, Sudarshan Krishnamurthi, a Senior Manager, Business Strategy, at Cisco Systems, will discuss how IT and operational technology (OT) work together, as opposed to being in separate siloes as once was traditional. Attendees will learn how to fully leverage the power of IoT in their organization by bringing the two sides together and bridging the communication gap. He will also look at what good leadership must entail in order to accomplish this, and how IT managers ca...
Feb. 19, 2017 02:30 PM EST Reads: 1,035
SYS-CON Events announced today that CA Technologies has been named “Platinum Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 20th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, and the 21st International Cloud Expo®, which will take place October 31-November 2, 2017, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. CA Technologies helps customers succeed in a future where every business – from apparel to energy – is being rewritten by software. From ...
Feb. 19, 2017 02:00 PM EST Reads: 877
SYS-CON Events announced today that Cloud Academy will exhibit at SYS-CON's 20th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Cloud Academy is the industry’s most innovative, vendor-neutral cloud technology training platform. Cloud Academy provides continuous learning solutions for individuals and enterprise teams for Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and the most popular cloud computing technologies. Ge...
Feb. 19, 2017 01:15 PM EST Reads: 701
The best way to leverage your Cloud Expo presence as a sponsor and exhibitor is to plan your news announcements around our events. The press covering Cloud Expo and @ThingsExpo will have access to these releases and will amplify your news announcements. More than two dozen Cloud companies either set deals at our shows or have announced their mergers and acquisitions at Cloud Expo. Product announcements during our show provide your company with the most reach through our targeted audiences.
Feb. 19, 2017 12:45 PM EST Reads: 983
20th Cloud Expo, taking place June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world. Cloud computing is now being embraced by a majority of enterprises of all sizes. Yesterday's debate about public vs. private has transformed into the reality of hybrid cloud: a recent survey shows that 74% of enterprises have a hybrid cloud strategy.
Feb. 19, 2017 11:45 AM EST Reads: 957
SYS-CON Events announced today that Outlyer, a monitoring service for DevOps and operations teams, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 20th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Outlyer is a monitoring service for DevOps and Operations teams running Cloud, SaaS, Microservices and IoT deployments. Designed for today's dynamic environments that need beyond cloud-scale monitoring, we make monitoring effortless so you...
Feb. 19, 2017 11:30 AM EST Reads: 850
With major technology companies and startups seriously embracing Cloud strategies, now is the perfect time to attend @CloudExpo | @ThingsExpo, June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY and October 31 - November 2, 2017, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA. Learn what is going on, contribute to the discussions, and ensure that your enterprise is on the right path to Digital Transformation.
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Have you ever noticed how some IT people seem to lead successful, rewarding, and satisfying lives and careers, while others struggle? IT author and speaker Don Crawley uncovered the five principles that successful IT people use to build satisfying lives and careers and he shares them in this fast-paced, thought-provoking webinar. You'll learn the importance of striking a balance with technical skills and people skills, challenge your pre-existing ideas about IT customer service, and gain new in...
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SYS-CON Events announced today that CrowdReviews.com has been named “Media Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 20th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 6–8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. CrowdReviews.com is a transparent online platform for determining which products and services are the best based on the opinion of the crowd. The crowd consists of Internet users that have experienced products and services first-hand and have an interest in letting other potential buyers...
Feb. 19, 2017 11:00 AM EST Reads: 1,560
With 10 simultaneous tracks, keynotes, general sessions and targeted breakout classes, Cloud Expo and @ThingsExpo are two of the most important technology events of the year. Since its launch over eight years ago, Cloud Expo and @ThingsExpo have presented a rock star faculty as well as showcased hundreds of sponsors and exhibitors! In this blog post, I provide 7 tips on how, as part of our world-class faculty, you can deliver one of the most popular sessions at our events. But before reading the...
Feb. 19, 2017 10:45 AM EST Reads: 7,645
While not quite mainstream yet, WebRTC is starting to gain ground with Carriers, Enterprises and Independent Software Vendors (ISV’s) alike. WebRTC makes it easy for developers to add audio and video communications into their applications by using Web browsers as their platform. But like any market, every customer engagement has unique requirements, as well as constraints. And of course, one size does not fit all. In her session at WebRTC Summit, Dr. Natasha Tamaskar, Vice President, Head of C...
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In the enterprise today, connected IoT devices are everywhere – both inside and outside corporate environments. The need to identify, manage, control and secure a quickly growing web of connections and outside devices is making the already challenging task of security even more important, and onerous. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Rich Boyer, CISO and Chief Architect for Security at NTT i3, will discuss new ways of thinking and the approaches needed to address the emerging challenges of securit...
Feb. 19, 2017 09:45 AM EST Reads: 1,156


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Sainsbury's has helped turn a whopping 1.5 million red noses into underlay
A month has passed since Red Nose Day and like many of you, the Tank is still feeling bruised by the raw power of David Brent's anthemic "Equality Street". Shaken, rattled and rolled. How One Direction landed the official charity single gig over that clarion call for multiculturalism is frankly beyond us.
So all credit to Sainsbury's, which has clearly done a better job than the Tank of getting on with things and ploughed ahead with the business of making Red Nose Day that little bit greener.
The supermarket has recycled almost 1.5 million of the red noses returned to its stores into a carpet underlays for homes and, er, cruise ships, marking a significant improvement on the one million noses recycled last year.
The Tank had thought rubber chickens, clown shoes, or even a toupée for Jessie J would have been a more appropriate end product for the recycled noses, but our suggestions were shouted down and carpet underlay got the gig.
"The noses will be processed in our state of the art factory where they will be chipped, bonded and rejuvenated to attain the quality necessary for our carpet underlay," parped Ann Shaw, sales director at recycling company Ball & Young, presumably speaking from a bath of fund-raising baked beans.
"The enthusiasm from customers and employees has been tremendous and we're pleased to continue our work with Comic Relief and Sainsbury's."
Apparently, it takes just a day to turn the PU Foam Red Noses into underlay in which the red flecks can still easily be spotted. And to the Tank's mind, this fact alone makes it funnier material than anything Lenny Henry's come up with in the last five years. Boom boom!
YouGov survey across seven European countries suggests restrictions on flights during Covid-19 crisis has had little negative impact on businesses' operations and has proved beneficial for many executives' working lives
With funding from the plastic bag charge Waitrose launched a £1m grant fund for innovative plastic-waste busting ideas - Hubbub's Trewin Restorick sets out the key achievements
Latest EPC statistics reveals percentage of new homes to bag top EPC ratings is on the rise, but top scores remain uncommon for older homes
Report commissioned by energy firm argues BECCS technology offers climate and cost benefits for decarbonising UK energy system


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The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) will on Thursday, August 11, 2016, hold a seminar in Benin City, Edo State on consumer protection.
This programme, Business Post correspondent gathered, is aimed at educating consumers on their rights and how such can be protected under the law.
It is no news that not much has been done by service providers in the country as regards giving quality services to their customers.
The Thursday’s programme is the 77th edition of NCC’s Consumer Outreach Programme (COP) and it will take place at the Uyi Grand Hotel Event Centre, 35 Aideyan Street, GRA, Benin City, Edo State by 11:00am.
The theme of the event is “Information and Education as a catalyst for Consumer Protection”.
Questions would be entertained at the conference.


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LG G7 ThinQ came in May 2018, and it came with Android Oreo pre-installed. This amazing device is from the Korean company, and they give the guarantee of a minimum of two major OS upgrades.
Android Pie is still running on the device, and, from mid-February 2020, the most-awaited LG G7 ThinQ Android 10 update is still in the stage of beta testing.
When the device got a new Android 10 beta build with an April patch, then the users thought that the stable update would also roll out soon might be in this month.
The March security update only enabled the VoWiFi calling in India, that too while holding the base OS. Right now, the Verizon Wireless is also giving the same Pie-based update; the only difference is that it is coming with the new April 2020 security patch.
The update is coming in the version G710VM20g, and it is airborne, so it might take some time before hitting all the units. The users are expecting the LG G7 ThinQ Android 10 update in this quarter.
The Sprint users of the G7 ThinQ have to wait for Android 10 as it may take some time as the device only got the Android Pie in February 2020. The LineageOS 17.1 build based on Android 10 is already working even in the unofficial version.
LG Stylo 5 is going to get a new security update from Verizon, and the device OTA is coming as version Q720VS10f and get the latest April patch. Same as its counterpart, the update is open, and some units will get it before others.