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Food safety actions are key to building trust, says Yiannas
Food safety actions speak the loudest when it comes to building trust, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response.
“What we say on food safety issues, what we write on food safety issues, but more important is what we do,” said Frank Yiannas at the ONE – Health, Environment, Society – conference. in Brussels and online.
The event, from June 21 to 24is organized by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the European Chemicals Agency, the European Environment Agency, the European Agency Medicines and the Joint Research Center (JRC) of the European Commission.
Yiannas gave two examples of what the FDA is doing to increase consumer confidence.
“The first is food traceability, we are releasing a final rule later this year. We know from a food safety perspective that in the event of a food crisis, quickly tracing the source can allow us to withdraw the product from the market and shorten the epidemic curve, perform secondary intervention and prevent other diseases.We believe that better food traceability is a matter of transparency and that increasing this in the food system will engender trust,” he said.
“What is the opposite of transparency in food? To me that’s what we have in today’s food system, too much anonymity, we really don’t know where these products come from, under what conditions they were produced, what certifications they really have obtained and consumers do not know it either.
Data and consumer trust issues
The second action involves data, Yiannas said.
“I often say that better food safety will start and end with better data. We have the ability to use tools to convert large volumes of existing massive data into actionable preventive information. There’s this big gap, but new tools like artificial intelligence, machine learning and the Internet of Things are bridging that gap,” he said.
“In the age of data, collaboration will increasingly involve public-to-public and private-to-public organizations sharing data and converting it into information, and the entire food system will become smarter together. At the FDA, we are working on data trusts and have started a few projects to achieve this. »
Yiannas said we are experiencing a “mega loss of consumer confidence”.
“Social scientists tell us that consumers trust institutions, governments, businesses, corporations and even nonprofits less. On top of that, people are increasingly polarized over issues of politics, climate change and pandemic management. What about food? Do you think we as a society are becoming more polarized on food? I think the answer is yes,” he said.
“After three decades in the profession, I am sad to say that I see food increasingly dividing us. I think food should unite us. We hear people say I want local food, others say they’re ok with global food. Some people want organic and others are fine with conventional food, it tends to be more affordable. Some eat only natural foods and others accept processed foods. Today we have a problem in many countries where too much food is as bad as too little food.
“Never before in history has the responsibility of providing safe, available and sustainable food to so many people rested on the shoulders of so few and never before have the consequences of not achieving this right been greater.”
More than 4,200 attendees registered online for the four-day event and approximately 1,000 registered to attend in person. Of these, almost 90% come from Europe, the rest from Africa, Asia and North America.
EFSA’s perspective on One Health and the collaboration
Bernhard Url, EFSA’s executive director, said the speed of change is creating widespread uncertainty and anxiety.
“The food system is in crisis: hunger, obesity, food waste, resource depletion and loss of biodiversity. With this conference, we would like to explore how food safety and more integrated health assessments can contribute to the transformation of food systems,” he said when opening the conference.
“The One Health concept aims to balance and improve the health of humans, animals and the environment. We believe the principles of One Health make it an ideal tool to support our work to address the complexity and urgency of the health challenges ahead. At EFSA, we believe that by applying these characteristics, our work on food safety will progress, be more fit for purpose and better inform policies aimed at transforming the food system. One Health acts as a springboard, linking food security to sustainable food systems.
Url said there is a need to see faster innovation in scientific methodologies to meet the challenges ahead.
“There is a problem of trust – how can we anchor our scientific advice in a society that is ready to accept it. Even if the outcome is not liked due to differences in values, people trust the process,” he said in a subsequent panel discussion.
“Everyone talks about collaboration and says yes, we need to collaborate more, it’s obvious but it’s not done enough, so what are the obstacles? I think something is fundamentally wrong here, so let’s fix it. Collaboration adds a layer of complexity, you lose autonomy and give something away for a bigger goal, which means it takes longer. There may be cultural or linguistic differences, the budgetary cycles and the objectives of the organizations are different. Maybe we need to make collaboration a goal of organizations and not just something that can help us on the sidelines. »
European Commission on regulation and the role of EFSA
Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health and Food Security, said trust in the food security system underpins more sustainable food systems.
“The COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have highlighted how much we need a robust and resilient food system that provides sufficient and affordable food at all times,” he said. she declared.
“It also made us realize how interconnected our health, ecosystems, supply chains, consumption patterns and planetary boundaries are. The increasing recurrence of droughts, floods, wildfires and new pests constantly reminds us that our food system is under threat and needs to become more sustainable and resilient.
Kyriakides also mentioned the 20th anniversary of the General Food Law Regulation and the establishment of EFSA.
“The common definitions, objectives and general principles of the Regulation have redefined and shaped EU food law and policy. Chief among them is the principle of risk analysis, according to which food legislation should be based on science,” she said.
“EFSA’s scientific excellence has served to give EU measures a solid scientific basis. It maintained confidence in the EU food supply. It has improved EU food safety and standards and certainly helped raise international standards in the process. Thanks to EFSA and General Food Law, the European Union can boast of having one of the strongest and most effective food safety systems in the world. »
(To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, Click here.)


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Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific has announced the launch of TLC, a premiere lifestyle channel, which will replace Discovery Travel & Living from September 1, 2010. TLC will adopt a much hipper and trendier look with new faces, new genres and new places.
Rahul Johri, Senior Vice President & General Manager, India, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, said, “TLC marks the beginning of a refreshing journey. It will add a new dimension to lifestyle programming by introducing innovative formats, spunkier hosts and swankier locales; promising ultimate viewing experience.”
He further said, “The launch of TLC reiterates our commitment towards our affiliates and advertisers by providing them with a valued platform to reach to their target audiences.”
TLC will reinvigorate entertainment by offering a diverse range of high quality programmes from Discovery’s vast repertoire of content. Featuring inspiring lifestyle and factual entertainment focused on travel, cuisine, adventure, environment, home improvement and gripping human interest stories. The new programming line-up on TLC, with over 150 hours of content, includes 15 premiere shows, six new hosts, 11 new seasons and innovative genres such as extreme adventure, family and makeovers.
TLC will bring new seasons of popular shows like ‘World Café: Middle East’, ‘Globe Trekker’, ‘Bizzare Foods with Andrew Zimmern’, ‘Hell’s Kitchen’, ‘Vir Sanghvi’s Asian Diary’, ‘Living with a Superstar – Shah Rukh Khan’, and ‘Shimmy and Extreme Sommer’.
Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific’s current portfolio of six networks in India includes Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Discovery Science, Discovery HD World, Discovery Turbo and now TLC. Widely distributed, TLC will reach 50 million subscribers in 2010 across the Indian Sub-continent.
Globally, TLC will be available in over 75 countries by early 2011, making it one of the most widely distributed lifestyle channel brands in pay TV.

domain: news


text: Photography is set to endure a massive shake-up later this year with the introduction of Lytro. The start-up camera brand has announced a revolutionary approach in which focus has essentially been thrown out the window. With any photo, images and focus can be adjusted after the photo has been taken, meaning no more missed shots. This is achieved by a hypersensitive sensor that captures all available information allowing you to tweak focus, light levels and even create 3D imagery. Despite this, the cameras will be available in a relatively affordable package with reasonably-sized image files as mentioned by its creator, Dr. Ren Ng. Ever since the invention of cameras, we’ve been on a continual slop of convenience and simplification. With Lytro, technical skill has become an afterthought it seems. A set of examples can be seen below, where you can click and focus on different points.


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It was a good weekend for Kakaako's newest condominium project.
Units for Symphony Honolulu went on sale Saturday, and they've already sold 194 units of the 288 available.
The new condos will be built on Kapiolani Boulevard across from the Blaisdell Center.
Prices range from around $500,000 for a one bedroom to more than $800,000 for a three bedroom unit.
They've also reserved 100 units for first-time home buyers who meet certain income requirements.
Those units will be sold at a later date.
Related story: Line starts early for new luxury condos in Kakaako
United Airlines is facing a major online backlash. It bumped a Pearl Harbor survivor off a flight from California to Honolulu.
South Africans in Hawaii are grieving, remembering Nelson Mandela as a man who defined the word, "hero." He's inspired many around the world including two women here in Hawaii.
Global civil rights icon Nelson Mandela, whose legacy is ending South African apartheid, has died.


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NubyTech and EB Games have announced the exclusive distribution of NubyTech's Official Street Fighter Anniversary Arcade Stick. Featuring custom Street Fighter art from Udon to commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of Capcom's Street Fighter, the Official Street Fighter Anniversary Arcade Stick is compatible with both PlayStation 2 and Xbox.
"There is no better way to bring back the nostalgia of playing Street Fighter than to introduce a product closest to the original Arcade machine. By exclusively partnering with EB Games, we feel we can get these Arcade Sticks into the hands of the people who want them most," stated Paul Chen, President and COO of NubyTech.
"NubyTech has created a unique product that we are excited to offer to our customers. With its dual-compatibility and full-color, 5-panel poster, it is sure to be a hit with Street Fighter fans," said Carol Beck, Vice President of Merchandising for EB Games.


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Latest Articles & Videos
IN CHINA even a handshake is an expression of power. When Xi Jinping met Barack Obama in Beijing this week at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit, Mr Xi stood on the right,...
India boasts the world's third-largest population of online users, and Indians' increasing reliance on the internet leaves the country increasingly vulnerable to cyber warfare.
Unlike with Washington, Moscow and Beijing agree on how the state can monitor the Internet.


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McDonald's Corp. said Monday its same-store sales climbed 4.3 percent in July, as the biggest U.S. hamburger chain benefited from budget-conscious consumers and wide promotion of new coffee drinks.
The Oak Brook, Illinois, company said U.S. same-store sales climbed 2.6 percent because of new products, including McCafe espresso-based coffee.
European same-store sales surged 7.2 percent, helped by growth in France and the U.K.
Same-store sales for Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa rose 2.1 percent, as strength in Australia helped offset weakness in China. Longer operating hours also boosted sales.
Deutsche Bank analyst Jason West, who rates the stock "Buy," said the third quarter "is off to a good start" but maintained his earnings-per-share estimate of $1.10.
McDonald's same-store sales, or sales at restaurants open at least 13 months, are a key indicator of performance because they measure growth at existing restaurants rather than newly opened ones.
Total sales declined 0.3 percent because of currency translation.
McDonald's shares rose 90 cents to $56.10 in morning trading.
Many companies that sell their products abroad convert sales from foreign currencies back to dollars when reporting financial results. When the dollar is stronger than those currencies, it results in fewer dollars in revenue.
McDonald's results have benefited from consumers trading down to cheaper meal options amid the recession, but its second-quarter profit declined 8 percent because of the stronger dollar and a year-ago gain. Year-ago results also benefited from a better economy and stimulus checks, the company said.
McDonald's, which has at least 32,000 restaurants worldwide, plans to release August same-store sales on Sept. 9.


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PORT ST. MAARTEN – Approximately 200 persons from the public and private sectors attended two-days of cruise sector stakeholder sessions last week organized by Port St. Maarten, in preparation for December cruise ship calls.
The stakeholder sessions attracted various companies from the private sector that included jewelers, taxi associations, tour companies, excursionists, dive shop operations, small hotel sector, restaurants, watersports, media, and many other hospitality related businesses that cater to the cruise sector. Employees from Port St. Maarten also took part as well as civil servants from several government departments including the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau.
The objective of the cruise passenger experience sessions were to prepare the aforementioned entities for December cruise ship post-Irma calls.
“The sessions for cruise sector stakeholders were a huge success and underscores the destinations eagerness to return to business in the right manner. The interests was very high and those who attended were upbeat and ready to welcome the first cruise passengers back to the island.
“We need to maintain the momentum and we encourage everybody to continue to prepare for the first and subsequent cruise ship calls that are planned for December and 2018,” Port St. Maarten Management said on Monday.
Port St. Maarten organized two stakeholders’ cruise experience sessions on November 17th and 18th. These sessions took place at the Port St. Maarten Cruise Terminal Building Conference room, and each session was 45 minutes.
Former cruise line executive Mico Cascais of Carnival Cruise Line, was the key presenter who provided information and tips to prepare cruise tourism stakeholders on the alignment of the cruise guest expectations with the current story and the experience they need to deliver when the first guests arrive, as well as the significance of the first cruise ship call which will shape future calls to the destination.
Mico Cascais, is a 30 year veteran of the Cruise Industry both in Ship Board Management and Corporate Management. The past 19 Years Mico was responsible for the Shore Excursion Programs, Carnival Cruise Lines offered to all its guests worldwide having had many interactions with current stakeholders in St. Maarten over the years.
Additionally, Mico was also Chairman of the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association’s (FCCA) Shore Excursion Committee for the past 18 years, traveling vastly through the Caribbean as part of this Committee.
Mico is currently the Principal of Mico Cascais, Inc. a company focused on reshaping the story and experiences cruise guests will enjoy when sailing in the Caribbean.
PHOTO CUTLINE: Some of the participants that took part in the cruise stakeholder’s sessions.


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Microsoft has just published results from tests by the Microsoft Edge team that show that Microsoft Edge delivers 36-53% more battery life on machines running Windows 10 than competing browsers.
The Gigabyte Aorus X7 DT packs an overclockable mobile processor and desktop-class NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980, all with the aim of becoming a portable VR-ready powerhouse.
Razer has launched an updated version of its 14-inch Razer Blade gaming notebook. The new Blade now features an Intel Skylake processor and Thunderbolt 3 port, which means that it will work with the Razer Core external graphics enclosure.
Join us as we take a tour around Apple's new global flagship store in Union Square, San Francisco.
Bluetooth 5 has just been officially announced and it will offer up to four times the range and double the speed of Bluetooth 4.
As expected, OS X is now macOS, and Apple also showed off its latest operating system, macOS Sierra at WWDC 2016. Here are some of its key features.
Still up? Join us as we give you the latest updates from the Apple WWDC 2016, live from the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco!
The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2016 (WWDC) takes place next week, and here's what we can expect to be announced.
Computex has got to be every component geek's favorite event of the year, with a bonanza of gaming hardware, laptops, and of course, components. If you haven't had the time to catch up, we've compiled a spread of the key highlights from ASUS over the past week in Taipei.
More leaked photos of Apple's new MacBook Pro indicate that the new notebook will have an OLED touchpad above the keyboard and four USB Type-C ports.


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One of the biggest stories of the American restaurant industry for the past decade has been the emergence of "fast casual" eateries as a force to be reckoned with. Chipotle, Panera, Five Guys and all their ilk offered the promise of relatively high-quality food at moderate prices -- and attracted away hordes of customers from fast-food chains (McDonald's, Taco Bell) and casual dining chains (Applebee's, Olive Garden) alike.
A new Technomic study ("Future of Casual Dining Consumer Trend Report") shows just how big those hordes have become. Nation's Restaurant News reports:
85 percent of consumers surveyed said they eat at fast-casual restaurants at least once a month, and 82 percent reported visiting a traditional casual-dining brand once a month. The strength of traffic at traditional casual-dining restaurants resulted in part from customers trading down from upscale casual, the report found, as only 40 percent of respondents who recently patronized a casual-dining restaurant also visited an upscale eatery in the same time frame.
85 percent! And this is a category that barely existed in the 20th century. That's the kind of growth you'd normally only expect to see in the waist circumference of someone who eats at Chipotle every day, and not just every month.


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Closing report: INTERMAT ASEAN 2017 – the inaugural edition
Bangkok, Thailand 20th June 2017 – The first edition of INTERMAT ASEAN – the Southeast Asian trade show for construction and infrastructure, ended on a positive note on 10 June 2017, after three days of productive business discussions and networking sessions at the IMPACT Exhibition and Convention Centre in Bangkok, Thailand.
INTERMAT opens inaugural edition in Asia
Bangkok, Thailand, 8 June 2017 – INTERMAT ASEAN 2017, the Southeast Asian trade show for construction and infrastructure, opens its doors today at Hall 3 – 4 and IMPACT Lakeside, IMPACT Exhibition & Convention Center, Bangkok, Thailand. In the inaugural edition of INTERMAT ASEAN, the opening ceremony was graced by Mr. Chartchai Tipsunave, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Transport, Thailand.
INTERMAT ASEAN all set for its inaugural edition
Bangkok, Thailand, 24 May 2017 – INTERMAT ASEAN 2017, the Southeast Asian trade show for construction and infrastructure, is all set to open the doors on 8 June 2017 over a three-day show period, at Hall 3 – 4 and IMPACT Lakeside, IMPACT Exhibition & Convention Center, Bangkok, Thailand.
INTERMAT ASEAN 2017 keeping up to date with industry trends and technologies
Bangkok, Thailand, 20 February 2017 – Scheduled to take place at Halls 3-4 and Outdoor Areas, IMPACT Exhibition and Convention Center Bangkok, Thailand from 8 – 10 June 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand, the inaugural INTERMAT ASEAN 2017 is the region’s trade show for construction and infrastructure. The first INTERMAT ASEAN exclusive talk, “Leading ASEAN Infrastructure Trends and The Construction Market Moving towards New Technologies of Innovative Machinery”, was held on 24 January 2017, at The East Wing, The Oriental Residence in Bangkok.
INTERMAT, One of the World’s Largest Construction Industry Trade Shows Moves to ASEAN
INTERMAT moves onto the international scene and officially associated with IMPACT to create a new INTERMAT ASEAN show which will provide the best access to the construction industry in the entire ASEAN region. The first edition of INTERMAT ASEAN will take place in Bangkok, from 8th to 10th of June 2017.


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SubscriptionsTom Dennis on why even devout accessory dodgers will soon be wearing their tech on their arm.
The best of today's tech was shown off at this year's awards - and now you can see what all the fuss was about.
The T3 Awards nominations for 2012 have finally been announced, with Apple, Samsung and Asus battling for your votes.
TechRadar DealsGet a subscription to T3 magazine for just £27.49 for 13 print issues, plus free access for to the T3: iPad Edition or T3: Android Edition.
T3 is offering up a Black Friday deal which will see the annual price fall to £27.49 – and include not only the iPad edition free but also a Griffin iPad A-Frame.
The T3 Gadget Awards 2011 were announced this week, with Microsoft Kinect taking home the top honour of Gadget of the Year.
T3.com has relaunched, with the gadget website given a completely new look and a whole heap of new functionality.
The T3 Awards are here again – with the gadget Oscars opening up its longlist of products and highlighting the growing battle between Android and Apple's iOS products.


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Seafood cheats get a week to shape up
NSW seafood retailers are cheating consumers and threatening the future of the Australian prawn industry by passing off Asian farmed prawns as local product, the NSW Minister for Primary Industries, Ian Macdonald, warned yesterday.
Two weeks of inspections by the NSW Food Authority found nearly half of those retailers selling imported prawns had failed to label the product correctly.
Prawn imports, mainly the vannamei, have surged by more than 50 per cent in the past year. Inspections found several consignments to be contaminated with antibiotics, and the Herald revealed on Saturday that prawn farmers from India and China had sought help from the CSIRO to mask their use of antibiotics.
Big retailers, including Woolworths and Coles, have been involved in deceptive labelling.
Of 110 retailers inspected, the 47 caught cheating have been given a week to comply or face fines of up to $275,000.
"This is about protecting the livelihood of hard-working Australian seafood industry operators and the reputation and sustainability of the local industry," Mr Macdonald said.
"By not disclosing the prawns are imported, outlets are cheating the majority of honest operators, as well as consumers who think they're buying local prawns."
Prawn farming has also been labelled an environmental, social and economic disaster by Steve Trent, director of the British-based Environmental Justice Foundation, which conducted a three-year study of the industry.
The industry's massive growth was destroying mangrove stands, causing salination of farmlands and exploiting impoverished workers who lost access to traditional fishing zones, he said.
"By and large a small group of individuals are getting very rich on the back of this industry. Little of the money is trickling down and it needs root and branch reform," Mr Trent said.
Mr Trent also confirmed rampant use of antibiotics and chemicals in the industry.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation has warned the unintentional consumption of antibiotics is leading to resistance in bacteria that cause disease in humans, rating it one of the most serious risks to human health.
Peter Collignon, a professor of microbiology at Canberra Hospital , said:
"A lot of the antibiotics, particularly quinolone type antibiotics, cause [drug-resistant] super bugs to develop.
"A number of these fish products have been found to be associated with strains of multi-resistant salmonella which then cause problems because they get into land animals and then cause problems for people."
The chairman of the Seafood Importers Association of Australasia, Harry Peters, rejected criticism of imported prawns.
All imports were intensively tested before leaving the producing country, he said.
"Some of these test requirements are far more stringent than is required for domestically produced prawns."


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Apple Decided Not to Buy Reese Witherspoon's 'Hello Sunshine' Media Company
Reese Witherspoon's media company "Hello Sunshine" recently courted various buyers, and while Apple was one of parties interested in buying Hello Sunshine, the Cupertino company did not end up going through with the purchase.
Hello Sunshine was valued at around $900 million thanks to its involvement in popular series like The Morning Show," "Big Little Lies," and "Little Fires Everywhere," and it would have marked Apple's largest media purchase to date had a deal been established.
Instead, Hello Sunshine is being purchased by an upcoming media venture run by two former Disney executives backed by Blackstone Group. According to The Wall Street Journal, the purchase was made as part of a plan to build an independent entertainment company.
There is no word on how much was paid for Hello Sunshine, but Reese Witherspoon and current CEO Sarah Harden will join the board of the new company and will continue to operate it.
Though Apple did not purchase Hello Sunshine, the two companies will continue to work together. Hello Sunshine is responsible for "The Morning Show" and it is involved in multiple upcoming Apple TV+ projects including "Surface" starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, "The Last Thing He Told Me" with Julia Roberts, and country music reality series "My Kind of Country."
Recent rumors have suggested that Apple is exploring other purchase opportunities and has expressed interest in film studio A24. A24 has developed hit movies like "Hereditary," "Moonlight," "Lady Bird," and "Midsommar," plus it already has a content deal with Apple.


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Petition Started to Get Princess Leia Named An Official Disney Princess
I don't know if you know this or not, but to be an official Disney Princess, the character has to be animated. There has never been a live action Disney Princess, but that could all change if some people who started a petition on Change.org get their way.
Carrie Fisher, aka Princess Leia, passed away just a few days ago, but there is already a move on the Change.org website to get her named an official Disney Princess. The guy who started the petition says making Princess Leia an official Princess "would be a wonderful way to remember Carrie and a welcoming to one of Disney's new properties that is beloved by millions."
Disney bought the Star Wars franchise in 2012, but George Lucas did have a moment of seller's remorse about the sale.
Princess Leia is such a badass. I think making her an official Disney Princess would be amazing for little girls. She is clearly a princess, but Leia is such a great role model that making her an official Disney Princess would show just how tuned in Disney is to their Star Wars fans.


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Infineon: high SNR MEMS microphones complement Amazon AVS far-field development kit
XMOS has launched its VocalFusion 4-Mic Dev Kit for Amazon Alexa Voice Service (AVS) for far-field applications. The kit integrates Infineon’s high SNR microphones to ensure highest performance and reliability. XMOS now offers the first Amazon AVS development kit with a linear mic array for far-field applications. The 4-Mic Development Kit features crystal clear voice capturing even in noisy environments. This enables commands to be accurately captured from across the room for processing by the Alexa cloud-based speech recognition system.
Infineon’s microphones provide very low self-noise (69 dB SNR), distinguished microphone to microphone phase and sensitivity matching as well as fast signal conversion for low latency, ensuring excellent hit rate and extended voice pick-up distance for far-field applications.
Last month, Infineon Technologies announced a strategic investment in XMOS, with the target to bring solutions for enhanced human machine interaction to the next level. Addressing the voice interface market is the first step of the partnership which will focus on making the communication between humans and smart devices as seamless as possible in future.


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Some popular examples of blockchain are Bitcoin and Ethereum, which are used to create and track transactions in Bitcoin and Ether, respectively. After the spectacular rise and fall of Bitcoin, and many of the other highflying digital currencies that captured the imagination of investors and speculators, some critics are sounding the death knell for cryptocurrency. However, the reports of the death of the blockchain have been greatly exaggerated. In reality, the nascent technology is in its infancy and the very best is yet to come.
Here are a few ways blockchain is changing everything from Accounting to Shipping.
If ever there was an area of business that can benefit from blockchain technology, it is accounting. The complexity of the tax code, the challenges of managing business operations in far-flung locations and the need for precision and accuracy can all be managed with blockchain technology.
In a recent article in the Journal of Accountancy, the author noted that “[b]lockchain’s ledger-based technology can simplify the procurement process because it enables secure recording of transactions in a way that can lead to unprecedented transparency and increased operational efficiency… Blockchain’s transparency gives visibility to all transactions for approved users, and this may decrease auditors’ work with sampling and validating transactions. But this allows auditors more time to focus on controls and investigating anomalies. Meanwhile, opportunities are emerging for CPAs to use blockchain technology as they expand their assurance services to areas such as cybersecurity and sustainability.”
While some entrepreneurs, like the Winklevoss twins, are striking it rich with cryptocurrency, the best chance for the rest of us to be millionaires continues to be hoping for a large inheritance or winning the lottery, despite the fact that the chances of winning the Powerball jackpot are aboutone in 175.2 million. And here too, blockchain technology will have a role.
Blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt the 260 billion dollar a year global lottery market by providing participants and providers with anonymity and confidentiality, as well as transparency, while reducing the potential for fraud and manipulation to nearly zero. Prime Ball will be among the first fully decentralized and transparent lottery platforms using blockchain, managed by Ethereum smart contracts. All the winning results will be publicly recorded and distributed on the Ethereum blockchain without any third-party involvement, providing a new model for an industry where scratch-offs and pencil-filled in play slips are still commonplace.
Advertising & Marketing
A new report from Juniper Research has found that advertisers will lose an estimated $19 billion to fraudulent activities next year, equivalent to $51 million per day. This figure, representing advertising on online and mobile devices, will continue to rise, reaching $44 billion by 2022. The technology underlying bitcoin and other cryptocurrency, can help dramatically reduce “click fraud” and help marketing and advertising executives ensure their campaigns are reaching their target market.
“We’re seeing that the principles of blockchain, which were historically developed to prevent fraud in banking, can be applied to programmatic media buying,” explains Amir Jan Malik at Accenture Interactive, “by using the system to monitor and govern budget spend, advertisers can to track investment from the initial transfer of the media budget to the final publication of creative with the media owner; reducing the risk of overcharging and underperformance.”
Human resources professionals plan, direct, and coordinate the recruiting, interviewing, and hiring of new staff; consult with top executives on strategic planning and often handle other human resources work, such as those related to employee relations, compensation and benefits, and training. Don’t let the “human” in Human Resources fool you, there is a lot of technology behind hiring, retaining, evaluating, compensating and terminating employees.
According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), blockchain technology will soon revolutionize hiring – allowing HR professionals to quickly verify credentials of job candidates and existing employees, “[b]lockchain systems would reduce the chances of third-party companies providing inaccurate historical data about a candidate or existing employee, since those individuals would have greater input and control over data that’s already been verified by multiple parties.” Blockchain technology will also impact payroll, especially for multinational corporations or businesses with foreign employees, by simplifying and standardizing payments in multiple currencies.
Shipping and Logistics
The logistics and transportation industry will grow to $15.5 trillion, from a current market value of $8.1 trillion, according to a recent Transparency Market Research report. IBM estimates that the global container shipping and logistics market can save $27 billion of costs a year by introducing the blockchain technology. The fragmentation of the global shipping industry, and inefficiencies throughout nearly every stage of the process makes this one of the areas prime for innovation.
Matrix AI Network, a global open-source, public, intelligent blockchain-based distributed computing platform and operating system that combines artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain, is developing a groundbreaking technology to make blockchains faster, more flexible, more secure, and more intelligent, qualities that are uniquely suited for disrupting the shipping and logistics industry.
Matrix AI Network recently announced a new partnership with the Beijing Haitong Transport Company, an international freight forwarding and integrated logistics services company covering maritime, land and air transport, listed on China’s New Third Board Market, to develop an intelligent global freight shipping application platform integrating big data information processing, smart contracts, DApps, financial services and payment systems on the Matrix AI Network blockchain.
Led by companies like Matrix, we are seeing a technological revolution taking place right now in the shipping and logistics industries that will change the way goods are transported all over the globe.
What’s Next for Blockchain
For blockchain technology’s early adopters and evangelists, it feels a lot like Silicon Valley in the early 1990s where there was a potent combination of great ideas, intermingling of smart money and dumb money, iconoclastic personalities mixing brains and braggadocio and a strong sense that the Internet was going to change everything.
Blockchain technology has this same potential. Its practical applications are only limited by the imagination and effort of the entrepreneurs and visionaries who are looking at ways blockchain technology can be used to transform their companies, profiting from the upheaval and disruption of traditional business models.


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New York -- Manhattan-based telecommuters looking for
high-speed Internet access gained a new option last month, when Prism Communication
Services Inc. began offering its digital-subscriber-line service, branded "Red."
The Red launch followed a yearlong beta-test of 200
subscribers, and it was backed by highly visible teaser ads in local print and television.
Prism will spend more than $10 million to market Red this year, chief marketing officer
Dennis Kruse said.
Densely populated New York City can expect a heated battle
for high-speed customers.
RCN Corp. already offers high-speed-data service in certain
apartment buildings in New York. Time Warner Cable has said that it will add its Road
Runner high-speed service later this year. And Bell Atlantic Corp. plans to roll out its
own DSL service in Manhattan late next month.
"There's certainly a lot of low-hanging fruit
among people who have become accustomed to high-speed service at work," said Patti A.
Reali, an analyst with Dataquest.
Road Runner spokeswoman Sandy Colony said the company has
received thousands of e-mails from New Yorkers asking when the service will be available
"We don't want to make any real commitments until
we're ready to receive what we know will be a huge onslaught of requests for
service," she said.
Prism's "Red Residential" service offers a
downstream speed of 640 kilobits per second, with 120 kbps upstream, starting at $79.95
per month, including the Internet-service-provider fee and modem rental.
Pricing is higher for its small-business service ($149.95
per month), which offers speeds of 1 megabit per second downstream and 120 kbps return.
"The Red Network" costs $349.95, and it includes a router and additional e-mail
addresses. Installation costs $299.
"That's a high-end offering," said Bruce
Leichtman, an analyst with The Yankee Group, adding, "$80 is not broad-scale consumer
Bell Atlantic plans to price its DSL service starting at
$39.99 per month for customers with their own ISPs, or $59.99 with its ISP. Starting this
summer, the telco will package its service with America Online Inc., and Bell Atlantic is
in talks with other ISPs to give customers more choices, according to spokeswoman Joan
Red will not offer the option of choosing an ISP.
"We feel that it's very important for us to have
the one-to-one relationship with the customer," Kruse said.
Formerly named Transwire Communications, Prism leases Bell
Atlantic's copper plant for delivery of its high-speed-data service. Prism's
facilities-based networks are colocated at Bell Atlantic's central switching offices.
Kruse said Prism's DSL technology covers the majority
of Manhattan today, and it will be built out to 67 percent of New York City's five
boroughs -- with 44 switching sites -- by the end of the second quarter.
The company also has plans to bring its Red service to much
of the East Coast, as well as to selected markets across the country, over the next two
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9 interesting, random and maybe even useful links to read and share. Here's what caught our eye on Tuesday, August 26: Amazon's media ambitions, blogging as networking, why it's impressive to ask for advice, a new productivity rule, Twitter's platform / publisher problem, mass-deleting tweets, GoPro dog harnesses and Instagram's new app. Read more »
P ebble just got kicked to the curb. Sometime around 9 p.m., Tuesday, West Coast time, Coolest Cooler became the biggest Kickstarter fundraiser project in history.
With 58 hours to go, founder Ryan Grepper’s teched-out cooler has raised $10.39 million from more than 49,000 backers (Pebble with its smartwatch campaign on Kickstarter raised just under $10.3 million in 2012, a record that until ...5 minutes ago
U nder Armour’s offer to best Nike for an endorsement deal involving basketball star Kevin Durant is not just about the highest bidder. It is also a sign of disruption in a $4.5 billion basketball sneaker market that is dominated by Nike.
Here's a quick summary of the current situation: Under Armour is reportedly offering the Oklahoma City Thunder forward $265 million to $285 million ...27 minutes ago
N ext year is the 75th anniversary of Disney’s version of Pinocchio, the Italian story of a puppet who wished away his strings and through the power of a magic spell, became a real boy. So it’s only fitting that the entertainment giant is looking to get into the marionette business in its own right, but with a high-tech twist: drones.
In a patent application dated August 31, Burbank, ...1 hour ago
O ne rainy day at a country club in San Diego, Catherine Ferrigno downloaded a book about starting an apparel line.
Ferrigno, an attorney by trade, read the book cover to cover that day and decided she would fill what she saw as a hole in the marketplace — stylish but comfortable golf attire for women.
More and more women are wearing athletic clothing, even if they aren’t playing a sport, The ...2 hours ago
T hink of Consumer Consumer reports for the $1.8 trillion global black market, and you’ve got a pretty accurate image of Havocscope, a data company for illegal markets. Their data set includes global prices for illegal products and services including contract killing, AK-47s, human smuggling, and organs.
Founded in September 2013, Havocscope gathers their information from both open-source and ...18 hours ago
L ong before Apple launched its App Store leading the way for dozens of other companies that all wanted to create various platforms on which other companies could build their products, Cory Ondrejka, Facebook’s vice president of engineering, helped create an entire virtual world called Second Life, in which people could have entire careers on a digital platform.
Since Facebook acquired virtual ...19 hours ago
N ow that Amazon has scooped up the video startup Twitch, beating out a reported deal with Google, we can add gaming to the long list of industries in which it plans to compete. It's an aggressive move but it's certainly not the first one that founder Jeff Bezos has made lately.
Take a look at the other companies and verticals he is going after.... 20 hours ago
Peter Šurda commented on Bitcoin Foundation leader weighs in on ethical implications of bitcoin reporters using bitcoin on Saturday, August 23rd
Emma Bail commented on Why Boston is in the center of the Internet of Things on Monday, August 25th
Jeremy Wall commented on Stitches and startups: 5 entrepreneurial lessons from my life as a dressmaker on Tuesday, August 26th
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Greece sells €1.13B of 26-week bills
Greece sold 1.1375 billion euros of 26-week bills in an auction that saw a decline in yield to 4.25% compared with 4.27% in February’s auction while the bid to cover ration inched down to 1.34 times from 1.68 times in the prior auction.
Total bids reached 1.438 billion euros higher than 1.053 billion euros in the prior auction, and a total of 1.1375 billion euros was accepted from 0.8125 billion euros in February’s auction.
The bills will be issued March 8 next year, and mature 36-week later on September 6.


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Spinach is loaded with vitamins and minerals and can be an excellent addition to your diet. Of course only in case if you cook it right.
Registered dietitian Samara Abbot explains: “Boiling vegetables can cause a loss in water-soluble vitamins. So you won’t get as much vitamin C and folate as you would if you’d just eaten a raw spinach salad. Raw spinach is not considered to be the best calcium source because it also contains oxalic acid, which prevents calcium absorption.”
However, there are some ways of cooking spinach that will allow you to get both vitamin C and calcium. Nutritionists suggest steam or microwave spinach in order to get more nutritional value in every gram of the vegetable. Spinach cooked like this can be added to smoothies, soups or omelets.
A study, published in the journal Neurology, suggests that eating a diet that includes many fruits, vegetables, and whole grains connected with the reduced disability and fewer symptoms of multiple sclerosis.
For the study, a team of scientists examined the questionnaires completed by 6,989 people with multiple sclerosis as part of the North American Research Committee registry. The scientists found that people in the group with the most healthful diet were 20% less likely to have more severe physical disability than people in the group with the least healthful diet.
The study author Kathryn C. Fitzgerald, working in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD, concludes: “While this study does not determine whether a healthy lifestyle reduces MS symptoms or whether having severe symptoms makes it harder for people to engage in a healthy lifestyle, it provides evidence for the link between the two.”
Sujetha Shetty, nutritionist and diet expert at online fitness platform Gympik, and Gulneer Puri, dietician at tele-medicine platform Doctor Insta, proposed some effective tips to start a healthy diet with your children.
Grains: Prefer whole grains such as whole-wheat bread, oatmeal or brown bread. Whole grains are rish in vitamin B and fiber wich improves digestion and fills the children well.
Protein: It is a building material for maintaining and repairing tissues, making haemoglobin, improving immunity, and helping muscles grow. The foods that contain protein are eggs, seafood, lean meat and poultry, legumes, peas, beans, soy products, unsalted nuts and seeds.
Fruits: It is important to fill your child with lots of fresh fruits. Let fruit juice be the last option as the juice takes out the fibre that comes from the whole fruit. Also, fruit juices come with loads of added sugar that only contribute to empty calories sans nutrition.
Vegetables: Give your child a variety of fresh, colourful, seasonally and locally available vegetables. Aim to provide a variety of vegetables, including dark green, red and orange, beans and peas, starchy and others every week.
Dairy: Dairy is a major source of calcium. Include low-fat dairy products such as milk, yogurt, cheese or fortified soy beverages in your child’s diet.
Try to avoid such products in the children’s diet: added sugar (processed foods, chocolates, bars, breakfast cereals and candies) and saturated and trans fats (full-fat dairy products, red meat and poultry).
A new research suggests that the risk of premenopausal breast cancer can be higher in women who had a poor diet in adolescence and early adulthood.
For their study, the researchers from the University of California Los Angeles analyzed the data of 45,204 women who participated in the Nurses’ Health Study II. Some of the women completed a food questionnaire in 1991 when they were aged between 27 and 44 years old. Later, in 1998 these women completed a food frequency questionnaire that detailed their diet during high school.
Having analyzed the data, the scientists concluded that women with the highest inflammatory diet score in early adulthood had up to 41% increased risk of premenopausal breast cancer as opposed to the women with the lowest inflammatory diet score.
The study does not establish cause and effect dependence, but the team of the researchers believes that the results further highlight the importance of healthy diet in people’s lives.


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Intel Corporation today announced it has completed the sale of the majority of its smartphone modem business to Apple. This transaction, valued at $1 billion, was announced on July 25, 2019. As previously disclosed, this transaction enables Intel to focus on developing technology for 5G networks while retaining the option to develop modems for non-smartphone applications, such as PCs, internet of things devices and autonomous vehicles.
Following the acquisition, Apple reportedly set an aggressive timeline of 2022 for the launch of its own 5G modem. Given the amount of development, testing, and certification that needs to be done, its likely company will have to push hard to meet this goal.


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The British casino scene is set for a shakeup, with GentingBet set to close it’s UK operations. The Malaysian casino operator has decided that it is time to shut up shop on British shores, having taken the decision to close its online sportsbook from the 16th of August and its online casino a week later. On top of that, it is also putting 1,600 jobs at risk as it moves to close its clubs and hotels that are dotted around the United Kingdom. Given it boasts 27 casinos across the country, that will be a big loss to the market.
It appears as if the decision to close its UK-based operation is, in part at least, because of a move into Las Vegas and the ever-growing market in the United States of America. It’s also likely that Genting’s decision to close down in the United Kingdom could be because of lost revenue over the past year and a half, when casinos had to remain shut even as pubs, restaurants and bookmakers were able to open back up when restrictions began to be eased in the middle of 2020.
Reduced Trading Hours Led To Closing
There’s no question that any number of businesses have found it tough to operate over the past year or so. High street stalwarts like John Lewis and Boots moved to cut more than 5,000 shops between them in the wake of the enforced closure brought about by lockdown. Sales at Boots dropped by about 72%, whilst its high street opticians also missed out on around 48% of business compared to the same period the year before. Little wonder, then, that casinos are also suffering.
When Genting wrote to staff at its venues explaining what was to come, the company cited ‘temporary closure of business and reduced trading hours and changes to operating model’ as being behind the decision-making process. That was back in July of 2020, with things getting worse for the company in the twelve months or so that followed the initial cutting of more than 1,600 jobs. It wasn’t just its casinos that suffered, with clubs also facing shutdowns at the time.
No More UK Operations
When Genting wrote to affiliates recently they said, “Regrettably, Genting Malta Limited (T/A GentingBet) has taken the decision to close all licensed operations with effect from 23 August 2021. Genting Malta Limited (T/A GentingBet) will cease trading its sportsbook on 16 August and its online casino on 23 August 2021.” It meant that its online operation was following its land-based one and shutting down, resulting in customers having to withdraw any money in their accounts as soon as possible.
When the company released its end-of-year information and announced losses of £153 million for the year up to the 31st of December 2020, many will have seen that the writing was already on the wall. Over the same period the year before, Genting enjoyed £39.5 million, showing just how much 2020 had been a damaging year for the Malaysian company when it came to its UK-based operation. At the same time, its revenue decreased from £305.2 million to £119.8 million.
The online gaming business of Genting Casino was transferred to Genting Malta in September of 2019. That was not enough of a move to stave off the difficulties of operating in such a tricky market, which is why the company has made a decision to end its association with the British market. This is in spite of the fact that the performance after its casinos reopened was ‘well ahead of expectations’, according to a statement that was signed off by the company’s board.
A Foray Into Las Vegas
Though Genting’s UK-based operation is being drawn to a close, the company is making moves to attack the ever-increasing US market. Resorts World Casino cost $4.3 billion dollars to build, taking years to make it through the process. Las Vegas arguably suffered more than most other cities in the United States of America during 2020, meaning that it needs some luck to go its way in order for it to bounce back from an ‘economically crippling shutdown’.
Resorts World was part of Sin City’s comeback, having been the first newly-built casino to open on the strip for a decade. Promising guests a 117,000-square-foot casino floor, an infinity pool that stretches over 1,800 square-foot and the ability to let customers gamble on slot machines without touching anything thanks to its state of the art app, its little wonder that the Malaysia-based company is feeling confident about its ability to make inroads into the lucrative US market.
For British punters, that will be scant consolation. It was one of the largest casino operators in the United Kingdom, meaning that bettors up and down the country will be disappointed at its ever-shrinking presence as well as its disappearance from the online gambling world. A GMB officer named Mick Rix called it a ‘serious slap in the face to loyal and long-serving staff’, to say nothing of the UK tax payers who have seen their money contribute ‘millions of pounds’ to Genting thanks to the furlough scheme and the likes.
Even so, for the company itself there won’t be too many tears shed. The new resort that they’ve opened in Las Vegas has 3,500 hotel bedrooms to offer guests, as well as a 5,000 seat theatre that will allow it to have mega-shows on on a regular basis. This is in part thanks to its partnership with Hilton Worldwide, which has three hotels in the resort. Las Vegas as a city will also be cheering on Genting’s offering, given the manner in which Macau overtook it as the world’s gambling centre in 2007.


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A media trends report for 2016 was launched today in the Middle East and North Africa by UM’s MENA office.
This will be the first of its kind project by a media agency based in this region and will become an annual fixture for the entire industry. The report highlights yearly trends specific to the MENA and UM’s view of where the market is heading towards on various buzzing themes in the industry. Written by media specialists at UM MENA, the report also features input from professionals at Coca- Cola, Google, DMS and Yahoo!
Highlights from the report:
• Technology & Innovation: For 2016, brands must approach their inevitable ‘what to do with wearables’ discussion around how the wearables ecosystems can improve consumers’ lives. While some brands might not be quite ready to fully embrace this new age, we’re undoubtedly not as far off as we may think. Internet of Things (IoT) enabled brands are poised to jump on the bandwagon and reap the benefits of wearable technology.
• Big Data: The Oreo moment is so 2013. This year, we need to be anticipating and predicting trends. This is where big data can come in. The real power of big data is the extent to which it can enable brands to create experiences and deliver communications which add genuine value to consumers’ lives.
• Branded Content: Narrative brands are the way forward. They have the credibility and knowledge to create stories that work. Brands need to reinvent themselves as storytellers, although crafting good stories is not easy. But in the evolutionary cycle of adapt or die, we are now at an inflection point. Content is the only marketing left.
• Mainstream Media: This year, we need to put our money where our mouth is. So how do we integrate mainstream advertising seamlessly on multiple screens? By providing an experience as compelling and immersive as the one on TV. When multi-screen becomes the new mainstream, brands are able to increase their reach and create more meaningful engagement.
• E-commerce: In the connected era, technology has altered the consumer journey. The neat funnel from awareness to loyalty has evolved into a sort of flight plan as shoppers dart back and forth between stores, online review sites, word of mouth and traditional ads. In MENA, as internet and mobile penetration reach record highs, it’s now a matter of e-tailers catching up, especially on the user experience front.
• Media Economy: Should the Iranian media market open up, it will have a sizeable impact on MENA media inflation. Like peanut butter and jelly, or hummus and –well, everything – MENA’s media spends go hand in hand with the region’s GDP. With positive provisions for economic improvement in Iran, despite lower oil prices, the marketing and media activity in the country could grow by 80% to 100% from the previous year.
“The report echoes the views of not just our media experts at UM but as well the direction in which our company is heading in the coming years when it comes to media planning and marketing solutions for our clients. There is a definite shift in the industry but by thinking forward and adapting our approach to the future trends we can achieve maximum impact and ROI. NEXT THING NOW will provide you with necessary insights and the way forward for you as a marketer and a media professional” said Chris Skinner, CEO, UM MENA
The trend report will be distributed to UM MENA clients and publishing partners around the region and by Q2 of this year will also be available online through their website for all to read. A 2017 edition will be out later in the year.


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CIFF in Guangzhou, China, signs more exhibitors for March show
Casual Living Staff -- Casual Living, February 14, 2012
The 29th China International Furniture Fair anticipates about 900 indoor residential furniture exhibitors, up from 780 that showed at the event last March. Running in conjunction with the fair, the Outdoor & Leisure show will feature some 200 exhibitors showing in about 300,000 square feet.
Guangzhou’s China International Furniture Fair, held each March and September, typically attracts more than 150,000 visitors for the indoor and office furniture segments.
Combined, the events will cover about 3.6 million square feet of show space, up from about 3.4 million last year, show officials said.
The indoor residential furniture segment will occupy about 2.3 million square feet of show space and will be divided into two primary areas - one for contemporary and modern furniture and another for classic or traditional styles. Most of the exhibitors are Chinese manufacturers from the Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Sichuan and Shangdong provinces. There also are international pavilions with manufacturers from the U.S., Europe and other parts of Asia represented.
Home Décor & Housewares China will feature about 400 exhibitors in about 800,000 square feet. The home textiles segment will feature about 200 exhibitors that occupy 200,000 square feet.
In the second phase March 27-30, CIFF will feature more than 900 exhibitors in the office furniture segment, while the woodworking and raw materials show will have more than 1,000 exhibitors.
For more information on the event or to register, visit ciff-gz.com.
Tiny Girl, Big Dream


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It’s a Touchdown – The Big Game Wins on Online and Offline Conversations
Engagement Labs Ranks the Top Performing Advertisers and Sponsors of The Big Game on Social Media
TORONTO, Ontario — February 8, 2016 – Technology and data company Engagement Labs, creator of eValue Analytics™ score, today released Total SocialTM rankings of the top performing advertisers and sponsors of the Big Game on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, which took place on February 7, 2016.
The opportunity for brand amplification both online and offline has never been bigger than during the Big Game. Conversations online and offline are augmenting each other to drive a bonanza of dialogue - superseding all demographics and standard advertising metrics. It is no surprise to see advertisers and sponsors spending millions of dollars to attach themselves to the event.
eValue Rankings of the Top Ten Performing Advertisers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram:
eValue Rankings of the Top Ten Performing Founding Legacy Sponsors on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram:
“This game is the television event of the year. Without fail, the game draws in millions of spectators creating conversations both online and offline,” said Bryan Segal, CEO of Engagement Labs. “Recognized immensely for the advertisements and sponsorships, this is the event of all events for them to showcase their brands in unique ways that will get people talking. With increased emphasis on leveraging online channels, the week leading up to the event saw the advertisers and sponsors launching online campaigns which resulted in brand discussions that occurred before the game and extended well past the main event.”
On Facebook, Engagement Labs’ data found that during the week of the Big Game, advertiser, TurboTax, ranked first with the highest eValue score. Budweiser, who placed third overall, had an early release of its commercial starring Dame Helen Mirren, which topped many favorite advertisement lists for this year’s game. The brand, also having one of the most highly talked about ads during the 2015 game, had one of the highest Impact scores and Responsiveness scores along with the highest number of likes per 1,000 fans during the day of the Big Game.
When Engagement Labs looked at the brands follower growth on the day of the Big Game, the Company found that Walt Disney Studios gained the most followers on Facebook with 27,776 new followers. This was due to the release of the latest trailer for the highly-anticipated film, The Jungle Book.
On Twitter, Avocados in Mexico ranked first with the highest eValue score. With the early reveal of its Scott Baio-helmed commercial, #AvosInSpace, the brand also secured the highest Responsiveness score of the top ten. Apartments.com, whose commercial featured Lil Wayne and Jeff Goldblum, garnered one of the highest number of favorites and mentions per 1,000 fans during the game, along with scoring the second highest overall eValue ranking. Doritos had the largest follower growth on Twitter with 4,685 new followers.
On Instagram, Pokémon took the first spot with the highest eValue and Engagement score during the week of the game. The brand released teaser images leading up to the game and encouraged fan interaction by asking fans to spot and comment on the Pokémon references in the commercial, amplifying engagement with the channel.
Amongst the sponsors, Yahoo! placed first on Facebook with the highest Impact score. Dignity Health ranked first for Engagement, while tenth-place finisher, Seagate, scored the highest for Responsiveness. With the event taking place at the Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, sponsor Levi’s experienced the largest fan growth on Facebook the day of the Big Game, with 7,069 new fans.
On Twitter, San Francisco Travel scored the highest for both eValue and Engagement scores and Old Navy placed second with the highest Responsiveness score. Fifth-place brand, Google, scored the highest Impact and also had the largest amount of followers and increased its follower base by 78,561 during the week of the game.
On Instagram, San Francisco Travel placed first again with the highest eValue and Engagement scores during the week of the game. San Francisco 49ers secured second place with the highest Impact score or 86.0, out of the possible 100, while SAP placed third overall along with an impressive Responsiveness score.
“Social media provides the perfect avenue for advertisers and sponsors to leverage event affiliation and get consumers talking about the brand leading up to and during the game, as highlighted by the immense success of early commercial releases,” continued Segal. “The Big Game has become an omni channel event for advertisers and sponsors to create conversations about their brand both online and offline and we are seeing the success of this as word of mouth conversations around the Pro Football Championship leading up to and after the Big Game continues to increase year over year.”
According to Keller Fay Group’s TalkTrack® research on word of mouth conversations surrounding the league, has steadily risen over the past three years. “Based on recent trends we expect that well over 200 million conversations about the NFL will take place during the weeks surrounding the Big Game. With the continuous rise in popularity of the sport league in both the online and offline worlds, as well as the mass reach of the event, it is evident that the Big Game is at the center of all conversations,” noted Segal.
About Engagement Labs
Engagement Labs offers intelligent Total SocialTM data, analytics and insights for marketers and organizations enabling them to track, measure and benchmark the conversations happening around their brand or industry both online and offline. These conversations are proven to drive critical business outcomes, including sales, while Engagement Labs’ tools provide data and actionable insight to help guide business decisions and power marketing effectiveness.
Engagement Labs’ eValue™ Analytics tool is the global benchmark for social media scoring. eValue’s proprietary data technology offers real-time analysis to measure a brand’s social media and digital marketing efforts, distilling it down to a single meaningful number between 0 and 100 – an eValue score. Composed of a series of metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), an eValue score measures social media Engagement, Impact and Responsiveness which is benchmarked against 100,000+ handpicked and verified brands. The Keller Fay Group, an Engagement Labs company, is the only firm to regularly measure offline conversation, which independent research finds is a significant driver of sales with twice the impact of online conversation.
For media inquiries please contact:
Kate Tumino / Kenneth Cousins
KCSA Strategic Communications
email@example.com / firstname.lastname@example.org
212-896-1252 / 212-896-1254


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Students and staff at Queen Mary, University of London can now find out more about the university’s research and activities through NFC posters placed at the institution’s Mile End campus. NFC marketing provider Tamoco‘s tag management platform is being used to manage and update the content delivered via the posters. Additional campuses are due to be added in the coming weeks.
- Uber runs NFC marketing campaign in London pubs and clubs
- Transcript: eBay CEO John Donahoe discusses the future of PayPal as an independent company
- NFC technology report available for free download
- iPad to get Apple Pay support?
- eBay to spin off PayPal as a separate company in 2015


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Nuveen Real Estate is ready to invest €250 million in Italy in 2021, focusing on logistics and student housing in a country it describes as ‘strategic’.
The group has already invested €2 billion in Italy but it is looking for more opportunities, Mario Pellò, Nuveen RE’s Head of Italy (pictured above), told Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy’s business daily, in an interview.
The pandemic has not halted Nuveen’s expansion, he said, which has been focused on logistics and, in a broad sense, “living” including student housing. After the success of the first pan-european logistics fund the group is now launching a second dedicated fund and is hoping to finalise the acquisition of a logistics portfolio in Italy before the end of the year.
The focus is on the main arterial roads in the North of Italy but also along the A1, Italy’s main motorway, which runs southwards to Rome. Nuveen is ready to invest €120 million, but will be selective, said Pellò: “We see many logistics investments in the wrong locations or with the wrong tenant.”
The pandemic has accelerated existing trends and led to the growth of e-commerce, especially in Italy where many people discovered the joys of online shopping for the first time during lockdown.
Not all logistics assets are created equal
But it is wrong to bundle all logistics investment together, because different sectors have performed very differently this year, he said: food, pharmaceuticals and e-commerce have done well, but other sectors have suffered and there have been issues with transport and supply chains.
Student housing is seen as another growth area in Italy because of the supply/demand imbalance. Nuveen is developing one project that will open in 2022 and is close to finalising another two for a total investment of €130 million. It wants to add several more next year, each with at least 500 to 1,000 beds, focusing on seven university towns: Milan, Bologna. Florence, Rome, Turin, Padua and Pisa.
The group has very strict criteria for investing, said Pellò: the location must not be more than 30 minutes’ distance by public transport from the university and the buildings must be sustainable.
Nuveen, which is active in the multifamily residential sector in the US, hopes to introduce it to Italy next. It is exploring the idea but with caution, as there are no specialised private operators in the sector in the country at present.
Whether it is logistics, student housing or multifamily, the investment must have green credentials, Pellò said: “We are long-term investors and we intend to keep and manage these assets. If an asset is not sustainable, we will not buy it.”


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9/11/2003 - Sequence Design opened its fifth "Center of Excellence", providing R&D and marketing resources for Sequence worldwide, as well as post-sales support for customers in India and nearby regions. Sequence, based in Santa Clara, Calif., supplies electronic design automation (EDA) software to chip designers worldwide and plans to invest as much as $2 million over the next 12 months in its India operations.
"There is a tremendous surge in high-end electronic design in India today," according to Sequence president & CEO, Vic Kulkarni, an IIT Bombay graduate. "The wealth of talent and ideas here deserves the highest level of support we can provide, and the company can utilize the local engineering community's tremendous intellectual resources to significantly extend our R&D efforts."
Sequence specializes in EDA software for nanometer integrated circuit (IC) design that helps companies create low-power chips generating less heat, and consuming less power than current generations of silicon. Sequence India will initially employ 30 engineers, with plans to double that number by 2005. It will be located at Sequence Design India Pvt Ltd, A-75, Sector 57, Noida, U.P, 201301, Ph: +91-120-2490468. Sequence's current customers in India include Motorola, Texas Instruments, ST, and Cisco. Sequence India becomes the company's fifth Center Of Excellence, joining other facilities in Acton, Massachusetts; Austin, Texas; Santa Clara, Calif.; and Tokyo.
"These centers place high value on personalized, ongoing customer service and contact," said Dr. Susheel Chandra, senior vice-president of R&D and product marketing at Sequence, and managing director of Sequence India. "Additionally, they can tap into local talent to fire up our global R&D staff. India is particularly interesting because it creates a 24/7 R&D environment; a team here can take over a problem from colleagues in California, work on it during their normal working hours, and have their results back by the time folks in Santa Clara are starting work."
Sequence India general manager, Krishna Kumar, held senior positions with Mentor Graphics, IBM, CrossCheck, and DRDO prior to joining the company. He has been in the industry for more than 15 years, developing high-end EDA tools in the areas of formal verification and board design, among others. He became general manager of Sequence India in August 2003.
"We are excited about the opportunity that Sequence India provides for creating and supporting tools for nanometer design," Kumar said. "We will cater to a variety of high-end customers on the forefront of design technology, and the R&D center places Sequence far ahead of others with its very high-quality manpower and global resources. We are committed to providing our customers with the latest technology, services, and support."
Sequence Design Inc. is currently represented in India by its distributor BlueChips Technology Pvt. Ltd. BlueChips will continue to act as a representative for sales activity in the region. For more information: http://www.bluechipstech.com.
Sequence Design, Inc. enables system-on-chip designers to bring higher-performance and lower-power integrated circuits quickly to fabrication. Sequence's power and signal integrity software give its more than 120 customers the competitive advantage they need to excel in aggressive technology markets, despite demanding complexity and time-to-market issues of nanometer design.
Sequence has worldwide development and field service operations. The company was recently named by Reed Electronics as one of the top 50 companies to watch in the electronics industry. Sequence is privately held. Sequence is a member of Cadence Design Systems' ConnectionsTM and Mentor Graphics' Open DoorTM partnership programs. Additional information is available at sequencedesign.com.
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A diet rich in cheese and yoghurt may not increase the risk of heart disease and stroke, according to new research that challenges the widely held belief that dairy products can damage health.
"This latest analysis provides further evidence that a diet that is high in dairy foods is not necessarily damaging to health," said Jing Guo, a nutrition scientist at the University of Reading."The number of participants in particular gives us a really clear global picture of the neutral association of dairy on heart disease risk," said Guo.
It also provides "some indications about the potentially beneficial effect of fermented dairy on heart health, although further studies are needed to confirm this," said Guo. The research supports previous findings that dairy foods, such as milk, cheese and yoghurts, can be part of a healthy, balanced diet.


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VETERINARY CARE IN BIRTH
& SICKNESS IS RARE !!!!
LOWER COSTS MEANS INCREASED PROFITS-
CHOOSE HOME GROWN FOR SAFETY
FROM EFFECTS OF GROWTH HORMONES-
Australian cost of production significantly below UK
In light of the news the Government was close to agreeing a deal with Australia including a zero tariff arrangement on all products, Cedric Porter takes an in-depth look into the facts and figures behind UK and Australian beef production
Australian cost of production significantly below UK
Australian beef producers do have much lower costs of production than their British counterparts, but some costs are higher, while there is more alignment between finished product prices.
Comparing the cost of production between different systems was not an exact science because of different systems and the lack of data. The closest liveweight comparison we could find was AHDB figures from 2016 and Australian government figures from 2016/17.
Australian beef production is regional. The heat of the north of the country means most production there is based on Bos Indicus breeds which are suitable to more extensive systems. Conditions in the south mean that breeds more familiar to British producers can be reared.
The average cost of production in the north is 127p/kg liveweight, according to figures from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural & Resource Economics & Sciences (ABARES) and using a currency conversion rate of £1=Aus$1.70 the average cost in the south was 148p/kg, resulting in an average of 138p for the two regions.
In the UK, the average total cost of producing stores in 2016 was 213p/kg liveweight, according to AHDB. Comparing GB finished prices with Australian ones was a little tricky because the Australian figures were published in liveweights and British in deadweights. But assuming the liveweight value is 60 per cent of the deadweight one, then the cost of production for British finished 16 to 24 month cattle was two thirds higher than the average Australian cost.
There were lower costs for some items for UK stores, with lower vet, fuel and machinery bills and labour costs. Australian producers have much lower feed costs, with British store producers spending more than twice as much as their Aussie competitors. There were lower vet, fuel, machinery and maintenance costs for British finishers, but feed costs were three times higher and rent bills were more than 150 per cent higher.
One of the most significant differences was the cost of purchased livestock. Australian producers paid just 21p/kg liveweight. British store producers paid 124p/kg liveweight for stock and finishers the equivalent of 97p/kg. If those stock purchases were removed, then store producers have lower costs of production than their Australian counterparts, while the finisher cost was 15 per cent higher.
Australia beef and lamb facts
- The country has 24.6 million beef cattle producing 2.1 million tonnes of beef a year. That is a four per cent share of global production
- Exports of 1.2 million tonnes a year worth £6.25 billion
- 17 per cent share of global beef export market – second after Brazil at 22 per cent. UK has 2.4 per cent
- 62 per cent of beef exports are frozen and 38 per cent chilled
- Top three beef markets are China, Japan and USA
- The average Aussie eats 22kg of beef a year, compared to 12kg for the average Brit
- The Australian sheep flock is 64 million head, the third larges tin the world after China and India and 31 million larger than UK
- Annual production is 650,000 tonnes, compared to 287,000 in UK
- Sheep meat exports are 432,000 tonnes, the largest volume in the world and 36 per cent of total exports, ahead of New Zealand at 30 per cent
- China, the US and Malaysia are the main markets and Australia accounts for 14 per cent of UK sheep meat imports
Source: MLA, AHDB, IHS-Markit & OECD/FAO
High cost British production
Other international benchmarking data shows Australian costs of production were much lower than in the UK.
Finished price alignment
British and Australian beef producer selling prices were more in line. In the week to May 20 2020 the average Australian medium steer was making Aus$3.99/kg liveweight in the country’s stockyards, according to Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA).
That works out at 218p/kg using the current exchange rate of £1=Aus$1.83. The other side of the world, medium steers in British auction rings were averaging 227p/kg lw, according to the AHDB. Although the British liveweight price was only four per cent higher than the Australian price, a cost difference of 50 per cent does give Australian producers a larger margin for profitability.
MLA was quoting an average medium steer deadweight price of Aus$7.40 last week – the equivalent of 404p/kg. Coincidentally, that was the same average price AHDB were quoting for GB medium steers.
The producer price was an important part of the equation, but the selling price is key, especially in export markets. Last week 85 per cent Australian lean beef trimmings were being sold in US wholesalers at the equivalent of £3.96/kilogramme, according to market monitoring service and Farmers Guardian sister company Urner Barry. In UK markets, standard trimmings were fetching £3.35/kg and that with a provenance such as Angus was selling at a 40p/kg premium.
There is other evidence that Australia is not the lowest priced exporter of beef. In 2019 to 2020 the average export price of Australian beef was US$5.86/kg (£4.14/kg), according to figures from IHS-Markit, that compared to
US$4.82/kg (£3.40/kg) for the EU, US$4.45/kg (£3.14/kg) for Brazil and just US$2.85/kg (£2.01/kg) for India,
which accounts for 12 per cent of world beef exports. Those are average prices masking what products were being exported.
“Cost of production is important, but it is not the only thing, because selling price is crucial,” said Duncan Wyatt, lead red meat analyst at AHDB.
“Australia has some good markets in the US and Asia for commodity beef. Australia would compete with countries such as those in South America in the UK market as much as with UK and Irish producers.”
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If you want to know what breast milk tastes like, but are prevented by basic human decency from asking the lactating women in your life for a favor, then a candy company in Austin, Texas has got a deal for you: breast milk lollipops.
The lollipops contain no actual breast milk (in fact, they're vegan), but contain a candified version of breast milk's flavor, apparently based on the milk of real mothers who volunteered to help company Lollyphile develop the new product.
"We felt it was our responsibility to find out just what this flavor was that could turn a screaming, furious infant into a placid, contented one," the lollipop product page reads. "Surely the flavor must be heavenly, yes?"
The lollipops will no doubt raise some eyebrows, but other companies have taken breast milk curiosity even further. In London in 2011, an ice cream shop debuted a flavor made with the real deal. Also that year, a graduate student at New York University created an art installation called the Lady Cheese Shop, with cheese made from human breast milk. And in 2010, a Manhattan chef offered a cheese made from his wife's breast milk, though the New York Health Department quickly shut that experiment down.
On the Lollyphile website, curious people can snag a batch of four breast milk-flavored pops for $10, though the price could come down if you act quickly: The code COLOSTRUM at checkout takes 15 percent off your order. Colostrum, of course, is the yellowish-clear "first milk" that feeds newborns in the first days of life.
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Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. She was previously a senior writer for Live Science but is now a freelancer based in Denver, Colorado, and regularly contributes to Scientific American and The Monitor, the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association. Stephanie received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.


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It's official - Kim Kardashian is slowly but surely taking over the entire world.
Fresh from #breakingtheinternet with her naked shoot for Paper magazine, the reality star and mum-of-one has just revealed her and hubby Kanye West are the stars of the Balmain's Spring 2015 menswear campaign.
The moody picture, which she posted to Instagram today, shows Kim grabbing Kanye's face as she leans in for a kiss, her hair swept back away and dark, smokey eyes.
While Kanye bares a hint of chest in a black blazer.
Kim, a good friend of the label's creative director Olivier Rousteing, excitedly captioned the shot: "BALMAIN!!!!!!"
A second snap sees Kim lying on her back, while the rapper, who's wearing leather trousers and staring straight into camera, places a protective hand over her chest.
Talking about the Spring 2015 campaign and its famous stars, Rousteing said: "For this Menswear campaign, I wanted to capture a moment of love. Kim and Kanye are style icons and friends.
"It is an honour to have them in this Balmain campaign. Together, they represent love, beauty and diversity - they are the new modernity.
"This is more than a campaign, it expresses something beyond clothes - it is a celebration of love and friendship.
"This is a new statement for Balmain."
Just after Kim posted the shot, momager Kris Jenner quickly did her bit too and shared this message (and many hashtags) alongside the campaign image: "THE BALMAIN LOVE #kanyewest + @kimkardashian for @balmainparis #itsallaboutlove ....beautiful kids!!! Love the new Balmain Ad campaign #gorgeous #proudmama


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Don't let it get away!
Keep track of the stocks that matter to you.
Help yourself with the Fool's FREE and easy new watchlist service today.
In another sign of continued tough times, Talbots (NYSE: TLB ) said yesterday it plans to sell its J. Jill unit. For those of us who know this stock's corporate history over the years, and for any long-time Talbots shareholders out there, I'd venture to guess that a common response might be, "Good riddance."
Last week, I nominated Talbots as one of the World's Scariest Stocks and also took a trip down memory lane. In 2005, when J. Jill was still a stand-alone, publicly traded company, I nominated it as a Halloween Trick, only to be later shocked when Talbots agreed to buy it. Needless to say, that acquisition just hasn't done much of anything for shareholders or the company since, other than add a lot of debt to Talbots' balance sheet. (And at the time of the acquisition, both brands needed a makeover.)
I could call this the week of my "Thanks for Nothing" articles on acquisitions. Yesterday I found myself wishing Whole Foods Market (Nasdaq: WFMI ) hadn't decided to buy out organic rival Wild Oats. Seriously, although they can be helpful, maybe investors should look at mergers and acquisitions with more skepticism than euphoria at the get-go.
After all, history often belies any rose-colored glasses regarding such hook-ups; as much as they often excite investors in the short term, it's not uncommon that these deals disappoint in terms of future growth, and sometimes are serious drags instead. Look no further than, say, Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX ) join-up with AOL, or how about eBay's (Nasdaq: EBAY ) pricey yet arguably fairly pointless acquisition of Skype, at least in terms of driving new revenue.
Shareholders might breathe a sigh of relief that Talbots plans to try to sell the J. Jill brand and stop distracting itself by trying to reinvigorate it. But here's the question, and it's a big one: Who's going to buy it? The brand needed help even before the consumer spending slowdown, and October retail comps in general made it clear that all of our worst conjectures about holiday spending look likely. The credit crunch won't help this, either.
Last but not least, Talbots withdrew its previous guidance for the second half of the year. When it comes to pulling its outlook, Talbots certainly isn't alone given the terrible macroeconomic environment, but since it's long been struggling to turn its business around and has an onerous amount of debt, I still consider Talbots one of the riskiest stocks in retail. Investors, beware.


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Venture Capital Fundraising is up in the US
On 6th April, Dow Jones reported 41% increase in US venture capital fundraising, raising $4.1 billion across 34 funds in the first quarter of 2010.
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers setup fund for iPad developers
The New York Times reported on 31st March 2010 (not quite last week!), Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, who invested in Google and Amazon.com early on, has double its $100 million iFund set up in 2008 and managed by Matt Murphy for application development to $200 million to support iPad application development. The iFund has invested in 14 iPhone applications including
The iFund has invested in 14 companies to date, including:
- Booyah – Creating new forms of entertainment to the masses by bringing together elements of the real world and the digital world.
- Cooliris – a 3D interface for browsing vast amounts of rich media content on the iPhone and web
- GOGII – Leading free texting (textPlus), communication, and group social interaction product for mobile.
- iControl – Stay connected in real-time to what matters most-family, property, home, and business-from anywhere in the world, anytime, day or night.
- InMobi – the largest independent mobile ad network, reaching mobile users in 37 countries
- ng:moco – The first iPhone-only games publisher with 10+ leading titles and the Plus Network for 3rd party developers.
- Pelago (Whrrl) – Mobile social network and discovery app that allows you to find people, places, events, and trends through the eyes of your friends and other people on the Whrrl platform.
- Pinger – a publisher of great utility and entertainment apps for iPhone
- Shazam – The world’s leading mobile music discovery and socialization application – enabling consumers to experience and share music with others.
- shopkick – focused on the intersection of mobile and the physical retail world. Its goal is to dramatically improve the experience of consumers on that intersection.
- Zynga mobile – the world’s largest social gaming network, bringing social games to iPhone and iPod Touch


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FedEx sounded the alarm on the US economy during its first-quarter earnings call this week. “I think there is a lot of whistling past the graveyard about the US consumer and the United States economy versus what’s going on globally,” CEO Fred Smith told analysts. “This is the most dispiriting […]
Cronos, the Canadian cannabis producer, was up almost 14% Monday after getting an endorsement from “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer. After Friday’s closing bell, Cramer said the company was the “second best” in the industry, behind Canopy Growth. Back in December, the cigartte maker Altria invested 2.4 billion Canadian dollars […]
Tim Cook has dismissed as “bologna” speculation that Apple’s iPhone XR is a flop. In an interview with Jim Cramer, Cook said that since Apple started shipping the XR, it’s been the most popular iPhone every day. Apple has had a rocky start to 2019 after last week’s shock earnings […]
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DaimlerChrysler sells stake to BEE group in R500m deal
DaimlerChrysler Motors, owner of Mercedes- Benz and Jeep, yesterday announced that, together with Sandown Motor Holdings, it had sold 40 percent of its Sandown retail dealership to a BEE consortium in a deal worth R500million.
DaimlerChrysler, which previously owned 75 percent of the dealership, will be selling 25percent to the True Class consortium. Entrepreneur Roy McAllister's 25 percent share in the company will be taken down to 9,5 percent.
The True Class consortium, led by True Class Holdings, said it functioned as a broad-based BEE investment company in the motor industry. Its shareholders include a variety of famous South Africans, including businessman Lot Ndlovu, musician Yvonne Chaka Chaka and television personality Felicia Mabuza-Suttle.
Ndlovu said that investment company Makalani Holdings funded R300million of the purchase price, the DaimlerChrysler BEE foundation funded R67,5million and DaimlerChrysler and Roy McAllister together funded the remainder.
"One of the 'non-negotiable' objectives of this transaction was that genuinely disadvantaged communities had to benefit, not just entrepreneurs," said McAllister.


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Ban on diamond exports partially lifted
Participants in the Kimberley Process (an international coalition working to prevent the trade in "conflict diamonds") have decided to lift partially an embargo on diamond exports from the Central African Republic (CAR).
The embargo was imposed in May 2013, two months after the Séléka rebel group deposed the president, François Bozizé, setting off a bitter internal conflict. As security conditions worsened, various militia groups competed to control mining and export channels, raising concerns that revenue from diamond sales would fuel the conflict. The embargo immediately halted the CAR's legal exports of rough diamonds, cutting sharply into fiscal revenue. In 2012 the government generated an estimated US$6.7m in revenue from the diamond industry, which alone covered the public wage bill. Diamonds also accounted for nearly half of total exports prior to the ban; export revenue fell from US$186m in 2012 to less than US$100m in 2013, and rose marginally to an estimated US$106m in 2014.
The decision to ease the embargo will provide the government with critical fiscal receipts ahead of the October elections. The UN Development Programme stated in July that despite the interim authorities' commitment, the electoral budget still faces a shortfall of around US$21m. Exports will resume gradually (sales will only be permitted from certain sites in the "green zone", a south-western region that is under firmer government control) and a significant increase in monitoring is necessary to ensure that diamonds from conflict zones do not enter formal export channels. A joint working group has been set up by the Kimberley Process and the interim government to oversee compliant zones and to conduct a forensic audit of existing stockpiles, which should allow limited exports to begin in the coming months.
Nonetheless, the illegal diamond trade will continue to fuel violence, particularly in areas outside government control. In July 2014 the World Diamond Council raised concerns about the illicit traffic in Central African diamonds, which, despite the embargo, were exported by armed groups to Cameroon. Moreover, a UN expert panel estimated in November 2014 that around 140,000 carats (worth US$24m) had been exported from the CAR illegally since May 2013.
Impact on the forecast
An uptick in diamond exports suggests upside risk for our economic growth and fiscal account forecasts. However, the impact will be modest, as sanctions remain in place for many diamond-producing areas under the control of armed groups.