text:
With a deluge of controversies engulfing Facebook right now, CEO Mark Zuckerberg took time out from crisis management to introduce a number of new features, including a new mixed reality platform for Quest, new and improved hangouts space and a new fitness focused Active Pack.
Let’s have a closer look at everything coming to the Oculus Quest platform in the next few months.
This is a series of accessories Facebook is offering for the Oculus Quest 2, that’ll help to protect your headset and controllers when you’re using the Horizon Workout apps, Beat Saber, and other fitness-themed activities.
So, when your hands are getting sweaty, the new set of grips will help ensure they don’t fly out of your hands and straight into grandma’s photo on the mantlepiece. There’s also a new face pad, which is much easier to clean. Considering the existing one is foam, this will be much more suited to activity.
Facebook says the Activity Pack will be out next year.
You might like…
Oculus is introducing a new mixed reality platform, which it says will be key to building a natural and more authentic “metaverse.” It comes under the Presence Platform banner. Mixed reality apps are heading to the Oculus Store and App Lab from the likes of Unity Labs, Spatial and YouTube VR.
The company says it is working on new technologies called Spatial Anchors and Scene. They’ll be introduced to the company’s Passthrough SDK, “understanding capabilities that will help virtual objects seamlessly blend with your actual physical environment.”
As part of this effort, the company is using an Interaction SDK, which will add high-quality hand interactions and voice input methods.
Facebook is announcing new virtual reality hangout spaces. It’s where you’ll spend time with your various contacts in the “metaverse.” There’s Horizon Home (previously Oculus Home), Horizon Workrooms, Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues. Horizon Home is designed to be a more social version of the VR meeting place where Quest owners can gather, launch videos, play games and chat.
Workrooms is debuting next year and Worlds will enable people to program their own spaces to hang out in virtual reality. “Whether you’re a master creator or just starting out, learn how easy it is to build the immersive experiences that inspire,” the company says, while adding it is bringing 2D apps to the store for the first time.
It added: “Working virtually is about to get an upgrade. Multitask, check things off your to-do list and stay connected while in VR with Progressive Web Apps like Slack, Dropbox and Instagram. Plus, personalise your office environment in Horizon Home or (soon) Workrooms.”
They join the Horizon Venues (previously known as just Venues) where you’ll be able to attend entertainment events.
Messenger Audio Calls
The Facebook Messenger app is getting an upgrade within the Quest ecosystem. So, if you’re playing a game and want a friend to join you in VR. Likewise, if you’d like to stay in VR and just make a quick call without taking your headset off, you can do so via Messenger. Right now, text is the only option, which isn’t ideal.


text:
Now in its 39th year, the Telly Awards honor groundbreaking work in video and television across all screens; this marks WCA’s third win
SIERRA MADRE, Calif. – May 23, 2018 – Wound Care Advantage (WCA) announced today that it has been honored with a Silver Telly Award in the category of “Best Promotional Video” for FlightPlan, part of an online promotional campaign to launch a next-generation community outreach platform designed to help wound centers increase local awareness.
FlightPlan was created by Chris Schellenbach, WCA’s director of media, and Glenn Martinez, editor. Nick Keezer, chief technology officer, was an adviser on the project.
“Our media team takes an extremely creative approach in everything that they do, and they put their hearts and souls into the work,” said Mike Comer. “This is a well-deserved honor. I can’t wait to see what they do next!”
Now in its 39th year, the Telly Awards honor excellence in video and television across all screens. Each year, the organizers receive more than 12,000 entries from all 50 states and 5 continents. Judges are comprised of more than 200 leading experts from advertising agencies, production companies, and major television networks.
The full list of the 39th Annual Telly Awards winners can be found at www.tellyawards.com/winners

domain: news


text:
I’m watching the Apple october 2018 event where the new iPad Pro was announced to get the numbers they showed about how fast the latest iPad Pro is.
Why I mention the latest iPad Pro has one reason: tomorrow begins WWDC 2019. There is one thing I’m interested in the most: Macs on ARM CPUs. The latest iPad Pro seems to be really fast (never tried one). If Apple tomorrow announces that Macs will have ARM CPUs, this will be huge. I think this transition would be bigger than the transition from Power to Intel CPUs. ARM CPUs on the Macs would mean power efficiency (better battery life on MacBooks) and maybe a fanless Mac.
Mac hardware has returned to marking time. This year’s new models have shown minimal engineering effort: improved iMacs and MacBook Pros, but no glimmer of real change or innovation, and they were announced in passing, as if Apple was almost embarrassed to mention them, avoiding its customary pizzazz. And we still have the stop-gap iMac Pro covering for the long-absent Mac Pro replacement.
One feasible explanation is that these models – iMac, MacBook Pro and Mac Pro – will be the first to be based on Apple’s future hardware architecture, almost certainly featuring its in-house ARM-based CPUs. For those to be released in 2020, Apple needs to seed developers with mature prototypes this summer, just as it did when it switched from PowerPC to Intel processors.
This made me think: if Apple tomorrow announces the new Mac Pro with Intel CPU and there will be no word about ARM, this would mean a modular Mac Pro with Intel CPU for a longer term. This would be a little weird. Another scenario is no Mac Pro announcement at all.
And the third scenario: Mac Pro announcement with ARM CPU. That would be sometning.


text:
1 Sip wine in the sunshine.
In the 30-plus years since Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta started, it’s become one of the most exciting culinary events in the City Different. Over five days, 60 restaurants and 90 wineries host dinners, luncheons, seminars, and tastings. Tickets for some events are sold out, while others still have spots available, like the Rosé All Day bash on Sunday. There, attendees are invited to sip rosy-pink wines from around the world and snack on bites from local chefs, who include Jeffrey Kaplan of Rowley Farmhouse Ales, Martín Rios from Restaurant Martín, and Paddy Rawal from Raaga-Go. The event takes place on the green lawn at Bishop’s Lodge from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Find a full list of events and tickets here.
2 Bask in the glow of golden leaves.
Satiate your craving for fall in Red River during Aspencade, a four-day bash that celebrates changing leaves and autumnal vibes in the high mountain town. Vendors set up shop at Brandenburg Park and live music at the Motherlode Saloon. “It’s great to celebrate the fall colors in the northern New Mexico mountains,” says Max Khudiakov, director of economic development and tourism in Red River. “The festival is a big celebration of the New Mexico art community. We have about 35 artists coming from all around the state, bringing everything from fiber art, to paintings, to jewelry.” Hear live concerts from Americana musicians like Junior Brown and Joe Purdy at the saloon and enjoy snacks and drinks while you peruse the park. “The festival has something for everyone,” says Khudiakov.
3 Support Indigenous students’ art.
Buyers and collectors love the Friends of the Hubbell Native Art Auction, where they get the chance to choose from more than 400 unique works of art that cross the auction block. Catch the action Saturday with viewing of the items at the Gallup Community Services Building from 9 a.m. to noon, and the auction starting at noon. From baskets and jewelry to fetishes and weavings, the Indigenous-made works represent an array of mediums. The proceeds from the auction support Indigenous students going to college and fund scholarships through the Friends of Hubbell organization, which has been hosting auctions since their founding in 1990. In that time, they have donated more than $300,000 to scholarships.
“The auction has a magical atmosphere,” says Frank Kohler, chairman and treasurer at Friends of Hubbell. “An auction item crosses the block every 30 to 45 seconds, and we have collectors who come back year after year.” In addition to the auction items, attendees can shop vendor booths and grab a bite at the snack bar.
4 See what two artists shared.
American painter Georgia O’Keeffe and British sculptor Henry Moore were known as mavericks in their respective fields. An ocean apart, both O’Keeffe and Moore were collectors of bones, driftwood, twisted branches, shells, and stones. Other parallels exist in their lives and careers, including their deaths in 1986, and their retrospectives, which took over the Museum of Modern Art in New York just a few months apart in 1946. Both artists were motivated by nature and endeavored to capture it in their works.
Albuquerque Museum’s latest exhibition, O’Keeffe and Moore, puts these artists and their shared aspects on view. Opening Saturday, the show includes more than 100 paintings and sculptures, which help the viewer see the similarities and connections between these two great artists. Curated by Anita Feldman, deputy director of curatorial affairs and education at the San Diego Museum of Art, the exhibition is up through December 31.
5 Make a ristra at the park.
Take the kids to Dolores Huerta Gateway Park in Albuquerque on Friday afternoon, and learn to make your own ristra at the 6th annual Chile Ristra Harvest Festival, hosted by La Familia Growers Market. From 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., the park fills with live performances, food trucks, ristra-making accoutrements, and vaccination stations where attendees can get COVID-19, flu, and RSV vaccines. Look forward to delicious tacos from Birria & Barbacoa El Delicioso!, dance shows from Ballet Folklórico Fiesta Mexicana, and live music from Tommy Elyicio & Power Drive USA. The event includes arts and crafts vendors, a farmers’ market, and activities for the kiddos, too.


text:
Eight months ago, Sales Force surveyed 8,000 customers worldwide to see how customer engagement trends have changed. They found that we were in the middle of engagement revolution. Now, just a few months later, the world is a drastically different place. The “revolution” in how we engage with our customers, has been sped up. We have surged forward to get to where we were already heading.Read more
- Posts Tagged "engagement"


text:
Moving into 2019, small and medium businesses face several, growing IT security risks. As companies continue to invest in IT, hackers also adapt. A proactive approach to IT support is necessary to mitigate the risks these threats pose. Below are three security threats to watch out for next year.
Internet of Things (IoT)
Many small to medium business owners do not realize the vulnerabilities their IoT devices present. The IoT comprises everything from WiFi synced thermostats to RFID inventory management systems. Part of what makes IoT devices such prime targets for exploitation is a lack of security standards in managing these devices and inadequate authentication mechanisms. IoT devices pose such a problem that a recent poll revealed 97% of IT administrators said that an IoT attack on their business would be catastrophic. Leveraging the IoT without implementing security best practices has created new opportunities for criminals. Consider the rise in cryptojacking, wherein hackers force company network infrastructure and devices to generate cryptocurrency. Not only can cryptojacking result in slower internet, but it can also incur significantly higher electricity costs. Another problem is that IoT devices create an increased vulnerability to distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Last year, organizations across the world saw a 91% increase in DDoS attacks because of the growing use of the IoT. With IoT investment predicted to rise in 2019, small and medium businesses should begin thinking of how to manage their security risks with the gains of productivity from using the IoT.
Since the 2017 Wannacry and Petya attacks, Ransomware has been thrusted into the cybersecurity spotlight. Ransomware is malware that disables a computer and threatens an organization or individual with permanently locking the device or publishing confidential files unless the victim pays a fee. Several increasingly widespread technologies from cryptocurrency to the expansion in IoT devices are facilitating a growth in ransomware attacks. One trend among these attacks is extorting companies to make a payment in Monero, a cryptocurrency favored by criminals because of its difficulty in tracing. Ransomware inflicted a staggering $5 billion economic loss in 2017, making it one of the costliest cybersecurity threats.
Advanced Persistent Threats (APT)
APT is a type of attack where an intruder breaks into a network and collects data for an extended period, usually with the intent of stealing privileged information. According to the Ponemon Institute, these attacks are often undetected for as long as seven months. This past year, we saw a slew of nation-state sponsored APT attacks on the United States government as well as large corporations. Most of these attacks originated from countries such as Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. Even though large corporations or states are usually the primary targets, small and medium businesses within the supply chain are often exploited to gain access to these larger institutions. Tactics of APT attacks run the gamut from spear phishing to deploying rootkits. Particularly devious of APTs is forensic destruction, preventing system administrators from determining if information has been stolen.
- 97% of IT administrators think an IoT attack would be catastrophic
- Poor security practices towards IoT devices will make more businesses vulnerable to cryptojacking and DDoS attacks
- Ransomware caused a five-billion-dollar economic loss in 2017
- APT will affect more small businesses part of the supply chain of larger corporations


text:
The 25 fastest growing fast food chains in America
The COVID pandemic has created an intense battle for fast service market share.
Many of the top fast food restaurants boast about the enthusiasm of their franchisees.
“If you look at the last five years, and if you look at both the pizza industry and the [quick-service restaurant] the industry in terms of actual net store count and percentage, Domino’s is a leader in this area, and despite these numbers, we’re going to continue to be a leader,” said Domino’s CEO Russell Weiner. “Also, what I think it tells me is that while we continue to lead development, our franchisees are doing exactly what they need to do, which is balancing capacity needs between the current stores they have and the stores they need to open.”
Channels are also driven by their own growth. Chipotle, which is wholly owned by the company, opened 42 stores in the second quarter. Fast casual has a unit growth target of 8-10% per year, and it has the pipeline to do so. Eighty percent of sites in development are Chipotlanes, which feature higher AUVs and margins.
Every year the QSR 50 captures how top fast food players are improving their footprint on a yearly basis. Here is a ranking of the 25 fastest growing chains in the United States
Check out past results:
Other related lists:
The 50 Best Fast Food Chains of 2021
The 50 Biggest Fast Food Chains in America
These 32 fast food chains earn the most per restaurant
QSR contenders for 2022
To note: Unit count is for U.S. restaurants at the end of 2021.
Note: If you are viewing on a computer, please click the arrow in the image to continue. * Indicates estimate by QSR.
Comments are closed.


text:
Year on year, a brand new entry from Samsung is heavily anticipated.
Heard of the rumors about the upcoming Galaxy S20?
Leaks about the device have reached the globe far and wide. But here is the thing about device leaks: not until the phone manufacturer has a say, it all remains just rumors.
But accident or not, did Samsung just leak its upcoming flagship smartphone on its own website?
Samsung leaked Galaxy S20 on its own website
Usually, people rely on leaks to have a clue what the next Galaxy phone would look like. Some of the leaks are reliable, some are not.
But would you still consider it as a rumor if, get this, Samsung itself leaks pictures of the upcoming phone?
Well, it looks like Samsung has accidentally leaked a set of marketing images of the Galaxy S20. With only a week to go before Samsung’s Unpacked event, these images were first spotted by WinFuture.
The South Korean company leaked the phone on one of its European websites for a brief moment on Tuesday. After it was spotted, it was shortly being taken down. But some people are just too quick to take screenshots of the product page.
And WinFuture definitely got loads of it. That’s good news, right?
Leaked images confirmed details of the Galaxy S20
The images definitely gave us a glimpse into the world of the Galaxy S20. And while we are still waiting on confirmation for many of the major details about the device, Samsung’s accidental leak gave us some useful information.
The screenshot of images confirmed a few things that were already rumored about the device. Included in the things that were confirmed is the Galaxy S20 name.
Did you expect it to be Galaxy S11 too? Technically, Galaxy S11 would be the next by current Galaxy naming standards.
The hole-punch camera and a tall camera bump also made an appearance in the leaked images. Plus, the screenshots also revealed a new gray case with LEDs. This is similar to the LED case Samsung released just last year for the Galaxy S10.
Samsung’s Unpacked event
Do you want to know a secret?
This is not the first time, Samsung has accidentally posted official marketing materials to its own website of its upcoming smartphone. The company accidentally leaked the Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10 Plus too.
And the funny thing about this is the leaked went public just a day before those devices were set to be announced in August of last year.
Now, the timing has never been more unfortunate for the South Korean tech company. This February 11th is Samsung’s Unpacked event where it is expected to announce the Galaxy S20 phones.
In addition to that, the Galaxy S20 is expected to come in three different variants, which includes the new “Ultra” model that looks like a monster in recent leaks.
Furthermore, all three of the new phones are expected to have 120Hz displays, 5G support by default in the US as well as camera upgrade across the board.
But that is not it…
Samsung is also expected to announce a new vertically folding phone called – Galaxy Z Flip. Rumors about the release of this device have also been leaked online as well ahead of the Unpacked event.
Guess, we will have the Unpacked event to look forward to. We will see which of the rumors and leaks will push through with the final product. Any guesses?


text:
Chillingo officially slashed the price of Air Mail, its Crimson Skies/Pilotwings-inspired flying game that has players protecting a kingdom from an evil empire. Now you can grab it for just $0.99, which is quite the bargain, as we feel it is one of the prettiest and more immersive titles on the App Store. [Download]
It seems famous video game designer Peter Molyneux must change the title of his upcoming iOS and Android effort, Curiosity. At first, fans assumed this came at the request of NASA, with its own Curiosity exploring the Martian surface. Turns out, the robot did play a role in this, but only when it comes to Google. Molyneux doesn’t want his game to get consumed in some SEO nightmare, and hopes to pick something that’ll help his creation stand out in search engines.
Square Enix finally got around to announcing a release date for its iOS RPG, Final Fantasy Dimensions. The port of Final Fantasy Legends, a collection of cell phone adventures released in Japan, will hit the App Store August 31.
Meanwhile, the super popular iPhone and iPad game, Doodle Jump, received a free update. Now, players can dress up as a ninja and explore a ninja-themed environment with brand-new power-ups, enemies, and obstacles. In addition, players can enjoy outfits with new abilities, like Sumo, Shadow, and Double Jumper, along with the option to upgrade propeller hats and jetpacks. [Download]
Angry Birds Space also scored a free update. This time around, the Angry Birds teamed with NASA to stop the pigs. Those bothersome swine kidnapped the Mars Curiosity Rover in a desperate scramble to find eggs. This amounts to 20 new levels, an astronaut pig, and three hidden rovers and landers to find. [Download: iOS/Android]
Bethesda kicks off E3 with a plethora of looks at upcoming games. More »
Posted: Apr 16, 2015
Posted: Dec 4, 2014
Posted: Nov 20, 2014
Posted: Oct 29, 2014


text:
Compiled byAmanda Vender, Sheba Sethi and Akira Tanaka
Water makes up nearly two-thirds of a person’s body. Everyone needs it to live. Most of us in the United States don’t have to worry about getting enough clean water because it is purified and provided through a government-owned community water system. All around the world, global corporations are earning large profits by selling water to people while hurting the environment.
In spite of images of snow-capped mountains on its label, Pepsi’s Aquafina brand water really comes from the tap. In July Pepsi admitted this fact and agreed to put “Public Water Source” on the Aquafina label. In June the mayor of San Francisco banned city spending on bottled water. This is all part of a growing campaign to limit the power of bottled water companies and to protect public sources of water.
In some places of the world, these same bottled water corporations take so much water that they put the local water supply and environment in danger. In Michigan local residents challenged Nestle in court because they were concerned that the company was taking so much water that it was damaging the environment. In India Coca-Cola leaves little water for the local farmers. In addition, in October the state government in Kerala, India, gave notice that it may file criminal charges against Coca-Cola for polluting the groundwater and making it unfit to drink.
While battles over who can use water take place in the courts, ordinary people, including kids, are involved in the “Think Outside the Bottle” campaign. As part of the campaign, 11-year-old Nicholas Grech of Novato, California wrote to the chief executive of Coca-Cola, “I wish that Coca-Cola Company would stop taking the water out of the ground in India… They have millions of very poor people who depend on that water to live.”
As companies that make money from selling water become more powerful, they are able to reduce government money that supplies public water systems. This means that corporations rather than governments control and profit from water. The World Bank, which offers loans to poor countries, often requires that countries privatize their water systems in order to get a loan.
Says Patti Lynn of the “Think Outside the Bottle” campaign, “There is no substitute for public water. Water is a human right, not a privilege.”
DID YOU KNOW?
• Up to 40 percent of bottled water comes from tap water.
• People in the U.S. spent $11 billion on bottled water in 2006.
• Each day 60 million plastic water bottles are thrown away. Most are not recycled.
• More than one billion people in the world lack access to safe drinking water.
• By 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population will lack access to water.
PUBLIC VERSUS PRIVATE
• Tap water
• Maintained by local governments
• Not to make money
• Public citizens have more control
• Bottled water and water companies
• Maintained by private corporations
• To make money for the owners
• Public citizens have less control
THE CORPORATIONS BEHIND BOTTLED WATER
Nestle owns: Poland Spring, Purelife, Deer Park
Coca-Cola owns: Desani, Vitamin Water
Pepsi owns: Aquafina
PAYING MORE FOR THE SAME THING
1 bottle of water like this one (20 ounces) sells for 1 dollar. But look how many glasses of tap water you could get for only 1 cent!
That’s 51 pint glasses of tap water for just 1 cent. Don’t drink ’em all at once!
BOTTLED OR TAP — WHICH IS SAFER?
The tap water from your faucet is tested for safety by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Bottled water is tested by a totally different agency, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Even though bottled water companies may suggest that their products are safer than tap water, the EPA’s safety standards are generally much stricter than the FDA’s.
For example, bottled water is not tested for several microbes (organisms that can make you sick if you ingest them), but tap water is. The EPA is also required by law to monitor the levels of dozens of contaminants, or chemicals that can make you sick, in tap water. The FDA does not test bottled water for several contaminants, including the harmful mineral asbestos and the cancer-causing chemical benzene.
YOU CAN HELP
Kids just like you are writing letters to the bosses of bottled water companies. Find out how in the box at right (“What You Can Do”).
WHAT YOU CAN DO
• Learn more about water and educate your friends. For more information, visit www.stopcorporateabuse.org.
• Don’t buy bottled waters and drinks. Drink from the water fountain or carry a refillable bottle.
• If you do have to buy bottled water, then make sure to recycle the plastic container.
• Ask local restaurants to stop serving bottled water and to serve tap water instead.
• Write to the chief executives of bottled water corporations to tell them to be honest about the source of their water and to not pollute the environment:
CEO Neville Isdell
The Coca-Cola Company
1 Coca-Cola Plaza
Atlanta, GA 30313
CEO Indra Nooyi
700 Anderson Hill Road
Purchase, NY 10577
CEO Kim E. Jeffery
Nestlé USA Inc.
800 North Brand Blvd.
Glendale, CA 91203
• Hold a tap water challenge. Challenge your classmates to see if they can tell the difference between tap water and bottled water.


text:
Now comes word that the new Mustang is going to officially debut at the LA Auto Show this November. It was originally planned to be unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show next January. The unveiling of the 2010 Camaro probably had a little to do with the unveiling of the Mustang being pushed up.
It’s already been reported that the new Mustang will look smaller than the current generation. Expect revised V8 and V6 engines. It’s also been rumored that the Mustang could receive a version of Ford’s 3.5L EcoBoost V6.
Full Story: Inside Line
2010 Ford Mustang is Going to Look Smaller


text:
College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources Cooperative Extension Agent Andrea Kawabata shows attendeees how to count green coffee during a Friday afternoon workshop at Buddha’s Cup in Kona. Chelsea Jensen/West Hawaii Today
Luis Aristizabal, a specialist in tropical-agro ecology with the University of Florida’s Mid-Florida Research and Education Center discusses the coffee berry borer with workshop attendees Friday morning in Kealakekua. Aristizabal is a scientist from Columbia, a country that has learned to live with the coffee berry borer that arrived in the late 1980s. Chelsea Jensen/West Hawaii Today
Knowledge will be key if Kona coffee farmers are to survive the pesky coffee berry borer, a scientist who has experience with the pest said Friday.
Understanding the insect will be the best means for coffee farmers in Kona to continue producing a high quality product, said Luis Aristizabal, a specialist in tropical-agro ecology with the University of Florida’s Mid-Florida Research and Education Center. Aristizabal is a scientist from Colombia, a country that has learned to live with the coffee berry borer that arrived in the late 1980s.
In Colombia, “we had a very similar experience,” he said, explaining that like Kona’s farmers, Colombian farmers and scientists immediately began requesting information and searching for answers, often turning to other areas of the world for ideas. “All the ideas have to be integrated. One tool by itself is not enough.”
Among the tools and information Aristizabal shared with more than 150 attendees of the first day of a two-day workshop on integrated pest management for the coffee berry borer were the need for farmers to really understand the insect, its lifespan and behaviors; their coffee trees; Kona’s weather and its impact on the pest; and the importance of having an integrated pest management plan.
“This insect wants to eat the money we want to produce,” he said. “That is why this is important.”
According to Aristizabal, the female coffee berry borer ranges in size from 1.4 to 1.6 millimeters — double the size of the male beetle. Females live up to 157 days while males live from 20 to 87 days. Up to nine generations can be born in a year in some areas of the world.
The female lays an average 74 eggs per cherry with adults maturing in 60 days, he said. The pest seems to congregate in one area of a coffee field, and prefers trees near roads, property boundaries, shaded areas, weighing stations and others. It also likes older trees, he said, noting that trees in Colombia that were five years old saw a 5 percent infestation while trees that were about one year old had less than 1 percent infestation.
The beetle affects coffee starting 60 days after flowering and can cause damage for the next six months until harvest, he said. The coffee berry borer emerges with high humidity, above 90 percent, and temperatures between 78 and 88 degrees. Drought followed by good rain will produce a large population.
The best time to spray the Beauveria bassiana fungus that attacks the borer is between 90 and 120 days after flowering when the female is most vulnerable because she is flying between cherries looking for a new home to lay her offspring. Spraying outside that is wasteful, he said, noting that the fungus, which does not penetrate the berry, has to touch the beetle to be effective.
Farmers also need to practice good sanitation by removing all cherry from the trees and ground post-harvest.
“By implementing integrated pest management programs, we can regulate the population of the coffee berry borer without affecting the environment or risking human health. We can continue to produce the best coffee in the world, despite the presence of CBB,” he said.
Controlling the coffee berry borer is important, Aristizabal said. An infestation greater than 5 percent can result in a loss in weight, quality and price. Damage can range from spots to full-blown rot with 50 to 100 percent of berries attacked being deemed a loss.
As an example of the impact of the coffee berry borer on Colombia, Aristizabal said in less than 10 years, the acreage of coffee dropped in the late 1980s from 2.7 million acres to 1.97 million acres. He also noted the coffee berry borer caused coffee prices to drop from $1.20 per pound to just 60 cents per pound in less than a week.
“Many, many farmers faced the coffee berry borer and realized the best option for them was to change to another” crop, he said. “CBB is really, really serious.”
College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources’ Department of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences Skip Bittenbender, who was not taking part in the workshop, said the coffee berry borer, from his knowledge, hasn’t pushed any coffee growers out of the business in Kona because many coffee farms here belong to multiple income families.
“For a MIF, the farm provides access to land, tax breaks, cheaper loans and a third income,” he explained. “It’s still an income stream, and it provides access to a lifestyle. … I wouldn’t expect to see a lot of people go, but it may make some people decide (to change crops) if they have to have an ag(ricultural) designation.”
The Kohala Center, Hawaii Community Federal Credit Union, Kona Coffee Farmers Association and the Kona County Farm Bureau-sponsored workshop continues today at 9 a.m. at Kona Hongwanji in Kealakekua. Cost is $25. The workshop is followed by a trip to a local coffee farm where attendees can use what they’ve learned hands-on.


text:
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Family Dollar Stores Inc.
reported its fiscal second-quarter profit fell to $90.9 million, or 80 cents a share, from $140.1 million, or $1.21 a share, a year earlier. Revenue fell to $2.72 billion, from $2.89 billion a year earlier, the discount retailer said Thursday. Analysts had expected earnings of 90 cents a share on revenue of $2.77 billion, according to FactSet. Same-store sales were down 3.8% last quarter. "Our second quarter results did not meet our expectations," said Chairman and CEO Howard Levine, noting that the holiday season proved particularly challenging. Family Dollar said it is closing about 370 under-performing stores. The retailer expects a per-share earnings range for the current quarter of $0.85 to $0.95, which excludes restructuring charges. For the full year, the firm expects an earnings per share range of $3.05 to $3.25. Shares in Family Dollar were down 1.8% in premarket trading.


text:
Westfield Retail Trust price falls, 'and so will rents'
INVESTORS in Westfield Retail Trust have marked down the stock after the Lowy Family Group's surprise exit, with some saying it was an indication that growth prospects for the vehicle lay outside of Australia.
Co-chief executive Peter Lowy held a briefing at the UBS offices in Melbourne on Friday, where he suggested that if sales growth in Australia did not pick up, rents may have to fall.
One fund manager present said the feeling was that the group now appeared to be indicating that its overseas businesses were offering better growth in the future, given the flat retail environment in Australia.
At the Westfield full-year result on Wednesday, the other co-CEO, Steven Lowy, forecast that the Australia and New Zealand malls' net operating income growth would be between 1.5 and 2 per cent, which was lower than the 2.9 per cent reported in 2012.
As a result, the group said rents for new leases were being signed at 4 per cent to 5 per cent lower than previous expiries across about 15 per cent of the tenants in Australia.
Close to 60 per cent of Westfield's revenue is now generated from its development and management of malls across North America, London and the new joint venture investments in Milan and Brazil.
The retail behemoth has a development pipeline forecast of $1.25 billion to $1.5 billion for this year, with its share being about $500 million.
Financing will come from assets sales, cost cutting and "redeployment of capital". The group is also using capital for its ongoing share buyback.
Paul Checchin of Macquarie Equities said while signs were emerging that retail was improving, the Lowys' sell-down at this point again raised the question as to the extent of deterioration still to occur.
"Again, we have for some time been expecting a downward structural re-set in the retail sector to occur through higher vacancy rates, negative rental reversions and lower development volumes," he said.
Managing director of Maxim Asset Management Winston Sammut said Peter Lowy had reiterated the company's commitment to continue with the share buyback.
"The exit of the LFG was a surprise. However, it is an investment decision made independently by the manager of the LFG, David Lowy," Mr Sammut said.
After the close of trade on Thursday, the Lowy Family Group, the family's private investment fund, sold 218 million securities in Westfield Retail Trust at $3.09.
A majority of the securities were placed with a range of institutions.
UBS put through a line of about 177 million securities at $3.09 early on Friday, with the balance said to have gone to UBS affiliates.
The sale was completed at the same time as most of the real estate investment trust sector paid out about $2.3 billion for distributions made during the recent profit results season. That gave investors the firepower to buy the shares.


text:
In 2014, when Kyle Mayer was living in Chicago, he took a day to visit the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a three-hour drive from the city, to see the Motorcycle Grand Prix. That road trip changed his life.
“Machines are flying by you at 200 mph or more. They’re loud, they’re big, they’re fast. It gave me goosebumps. The hair went up on the back of my neck. It’s like standing next to a jet plane,” Mayer said. “The sights, the sounds, the smell of racing fuel and exhaust. It just clicked.”
Today, the West Hartford native is living in Hartford again with his wife and twin 3-year-old sons, hoping to open a motorsports-themed cafe.
Petrolhead Cafe is under construction now in the busy business hub at 1429 Park St. It is in the vacancy where Caval restaurant used to be.
Mayer is seeking investors for the cafe who believe in the potential for car racing to draw customers on a daily basis. Potential investors can search for Petrolhead at mainvest.com. His goal is $40,000. His deadline on Mainvest is Feb. 15.
Mayer’s landlord applied for a $150,000 HartLift grant, the financial incentives issued by the city to invigorate empty storefronts.
Julio Concepcion of Metro Hartford Alliance said the grant is in the approval stages.
Other restaurants that have recently opened that received HartLift grants are Secrets Bistro & Bar and Bloom Bake Shop.
Some of the other soon-to-open HartLift grantees are My Wife Didn’t Cook, a new location of the New Britain favorite; Urban Lodge Brewing, a taproom based on the Manchester microbrewery; Cantina, a Mexican restaurant; Charred, a pizza place; Raw, a seafood restaurant; Fire by Forge, where Firebox used to be; Lyons Den, a bar with live music; and Corner Three, a sports bar.
“Motorsports needs an audience. It competes with so much other entertainment, even esports, which are on the rise,” Mayer said. “Motorsports enthusiasts will come out of the woodwork for a chance to get together. It will be nice to raise the funds but it’s really about getting the community together around the cafe.”
In the two-story space, Mayer envisions serving drinks at the bar and popular foods like brisket sandwiches, waffles and barbecue ribs around a bar with 12 to 20 TVs showing races throughout the day. A small library will hold motorsports books and periodicals.
“I’m thinking of Petrolhead as a lifestyle brand that happens to sell food and drinks. Any motorcycle enthusiast will tell you it’s a lifestyle,” he said.
Susan Dunne can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org.


text:
Tencent, officially known as Tencent Holdings Limited, is a multinational conglomerate headquartered in China. Founded in 1998, Tencent got its start by launching a simple messenger product that allowed users to connect with each other online.
A Chinese man was required by his workplace to issue an apology after expressing his love for Team Rocket, the antagonistic trio from Pokémon, and insinuating his support for the Hong Kong protests. T...
Tencent, the Chinese conglomerate that partners with Epic Games to sell in China, has announced a new set of rules for anyone who streams their games domestically.


text:
It might be tomatoes; and it might not be tomatoes. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not know what is causing the salmonella. The investigation into the source of the salmonella broadens to other produce, as the number of reported illnesses reaches a thousand people – with the numbers increasing:
“…Officials from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say it is premature to declare jalapenos the lead suspect, and still list it with tomatoes, cilantro and serrano peppers as one of the common salsa ingredients under investigation. Officials also have stepped up testing of cilantro and serrano peppers, but “there is no specific ‘prime suspect,’ ” FDA spokeswoman Stephanie Kwisnek said.
As the number of illnesses tops 900, the stakes are high. If federal officials wait too long for proof, there’s a risk that more people will get sick. But if they single out the wrong food, a mistake could cost an industry millions of dollars. The tomato industry says it already has lost $100 million.”
This means that other food sectors, in addition to the tomato industry, might suffer a staggering financial set back. Understandably, people who are producing these perishable items are angry at the handling of this salmonella outbreak. As this investigation drags on, as millions of dollars are lost and as people are becoming ill from some food source, it is abundantly clear that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration needs a major overhaul. Presently, the agency can not fulfill its mandate of protecting citizens from unsafe products. This salmonella problem is a clarion call.


text:
- New Jobs for Returnees: 10 BAM for a Kilogram of Blueberries
- Konzum to buy 60 tons of Fish from the domestic Fishery “Slap”
- Export of Meat from B&H Enormously increased: Export done by Airplane
- “Bimal“ among the most Successful Companies in B&H
- The Synergy of the Government and Economy: Four B&H Dairies to sell their Products on the EU Markets
- Export of milk from Bosnia to EU approved
- Export of 15,000 Tons of Meat on Turkey Market made a Boom in BH Livestock
- Strawberries from Visoko on the Dubai Market
BH producers welcomed the export of 15,000 tons of meat to Turkey, as a salvation for domestic production.
The results are the first positive effects of recovery and revitalization of BH livestock, especially regarding the breeding of cattle and cows.
Domestic farmers have no longer issues with the placement of their meat, and they are satisfied with the selling price.
“We got the tender for 4,000 tons of meat without bones to Turkey market. Good part of it is from our own production, but we still supply the most from the domestic market,” said Damir Pavkovic, director of the Meat Industry Sisovic.
Pavkovic said that B&H is producing 10 % of beef meat for the purposes it could not sell since the imported meat is much cheaper, probably due to the state subsidies, so that now domestic producers are finally prominent.
By the decision of the Government of Republic of Turkey on the import of 15,000 tons of beef from B&H made a boom in domestic livestock, according to Era Lasic from the Chamber of Commerce of FB&H.
“We wish that this decision lasts as long as possible, because it would result in new workplaces, opening of new capacities, utilization of raw land etc.”, said Lasic.
Precisely because of this chance for local livestock breeders, the number of cattle on dairy farms suddenly started to increase, as well as the interest for opening of the new farms.
“Regarding the Herzegovina, this reflected in a very positive way. We have farms with 50-100 cattle in herds, where they will become prominent,” said Pavkovic.
The approval of the import of beef from B&H was preceded by verification of its high quality. That is why the people in our country are hoping that more than 15,000 tons could be exported in the next period.


text:
A study conducted by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI) predicts aggregate growth of 7% this year in overall equipment sales. Packagers, says PMMI, have newfound optimism about business prospects which is manifesting itself in capitalequipment budgets. Moreover, PMMI expects equipment purchases to be up in all eight of the market segments it monitors.
PMMI credits both renewed business confidence and higher rates of capacity utilization for the spurt in sales. A third of respondents to the PMMI study planned to spend more on packaging equipment this year than last. Last year, packagers that planned no change in their machinery spending were in the majority. The shift lends further support to the idea that the cautious, indecisive mood of the past few years is giving way to more optimism and resoluteness, says PMMI. And another third of respondents expect purchases of packaging machinery this year could exceed their original budget estimates if the economy cooperates.
The biggest jumps in forecasts are in the areas of pharmaceuticals and medical products, followed by beverages, personal-care products, and foods. PMMI says packagers in these areas are particularly under the gun to replace older machines with new models and boost efficiency, productivity, speed, or flexibility. Reduction in maintenance costs is a significant motivator as well.
Some 20% of those polled said they were buying new equipment to increase their capacity. Another 12% were gearing up to accommodate the expected addition of new products and SKUs. Companies are also installing more automated packaging machines as a way to reduce labor costs. Evolution of new packaging is a catalyst for machinery demand as well, as are the requirements of superstores and retail chains.
One result of superstore influence is a proliferation of product varieties, sizes, and configurations. This is forcing packagers to operate an increasing number of packaging runs per line, says PMMI. The result is a need for more flexibility in handling several packaging formats with quicker changeovers.
Pack Expo Las Vegas kicks off with over 900 exhibitors in five packaging technology pavilions. Sponsored by PMMI, the show is billed as the year's largest and most comprehensive packaging event in the western hemisphere.
Taking place Sept. 26-28 in the Las Vegas Convention Center, the show will highlight advances from across the packaging industry, including labeling and coding technologies, brand-building materials, robotics and active and protective packaging solutions.
Making its debut at Pack Expo is the Contract Packaging Pavilion, offering a showcase of the latest contract packaging services for consumer and industrial-goods manufacturers. A Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Pavilion will return, as will a Packaging Security Pavilion. The Containers & Materials Pavilion, one of the most well-received pavilions to debut at the show in 2003, will make its second appearance. With over 133 material and containers suppliers, the pavilion highlights packaging materials such as plastics, resins, films, glass, metal, coatings/treatments, additives, rubber, textiles, and woven materials.
The Showcase of Packaging Innovations, featuring winners of the ClearChoice and AmeriStar Awards as well as finalists in the National Paperboard Packaging Competition, will be one of the show's attractions. These awards, sponsored by such prominent packaging associations as the Glass Packaging Institute (GPI), the Institute of Packaging Professionals (IoPP) and the Paperboard Packaging Council (PPC), are among the most prestigious in the industry.
In addition, the Food Processing Machinery Expo (FPM EXPO) will again colocate with Pack Expo. FPM Expo will focus on the newest developments in processing technology to meet the challenges faced by the industry's food and beverage manufacturers.
Among the technical presentations of note at the Pack Expo conference sessions is one by Kraft Foods. At 2:45 Monday, Sept. 26, Kraft will discuss how it worked with a team of packaging machinery manufacturers to develop an awardwinning packaging line, yielding millions of dollars for the bottom line. This bonus session is open to all conference registrants. But attendees must register for this complimentary session.
Also of interest are keynote sessions that include one on Monday at 8:30, where John A. Delfausse, vice president, Package Development at Aveda, speaks on packaging sustainability. On Tuesday at 8:30, Helmut Traitler, vice president, Packaging at Nestec Ltd., discusses Nestlè's innovative approach to sustainable and differentiated packaging. Finally, on Wednesday at 8:30 Mike Meranda, president of EPCglobal will talk about the EPC and counterfeit pharmaceuticals.
More information about the show is available at PMMI.org


text:
Evernote unveiled a new Home experience today that makes it easy to find all of your important content right away. The new Home experience is a dashboard that includes important content, such as notes, tags, and shortcuts. The new experience is rolling out over the next few weeks to Evernote on Windows, Mac, and Evernote Web.
Evernote saw a major change last September when it started rolling out the new Evernote. That improved experience brings better search results, reliability and stability improvements, background sync and automatic updates, and the ability to start on one device and continue on another. In its announcement post of the new Evernote Home experience, the company calls the new Evernote a “start” of its journey, and that the new dashboard is another step forward.
The Home dashboard is available for both Evernote Basic and Plus customers and has three default widgets, notes, scratch pad, and recently captured. If you’re an Evernote Premium or Business customer, you’ll also see Notebooks, Pinned Note, Tags, and Shortcuts.
Evernote plans to make its widgets more powerful, flexible, and helpful in the future. The company will also introduce additional widgets in the future.
We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.


text:
Apple has mistakenly declassified information about its two new products - the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 tablet computers.
The slide, which shows the new tablets, appeared in the user manual of the new version of the iOS operating system for iPad. Judging by these images, both new “ipad” are equipped with a Touch ID fingerprint sensor. Previously, experts have already stated that, most likely, this innovation will find application in new Apple gadgets. Unfortunately, no other useful information can be extracted from the slide. At the same time, by now it has already been removed from iTunes.
Apple Presentation October 16On October 16, Apple will hold its presentation on which the above tablets will be presented, as well as the new iMac computer.The new ipads should get more powerful processors, while the iMac will presumably be equipped with a Retina display.
Presentation of new devices from GoogleOn October 15, one of Apple's main competitors, the Internet giant Google, held a presentation of its new Nexus 6 smartphone and Nexus 9 tablet. The Nexus Player was also shown.
Interestingly, the Nexus 6 became the first phablet (a smartphone with a diagonal greater than 5 inches) among the phones released by Google. You can pre-order the gadget from the end of October.
As for the tablet Nexus 9, then it will have a diagonal of 8.9 inches and will be released in two variations - with 16 and 32 gigabytes of memory. The minimum cost of the tablet will be $ 399.


text:
The Diving Equipment and Marketing Association announced this week it will induct author/photographer and PADI executive Al Hornsby and SSI executive Doug McNeese into the DEMA Hall of Fame.
Hornsby is PADI Worldwide’s senior vice president for legal affairs. He has been with PADI for 35 years, during which he co-originated Project AWARE, and has also served on DEMA’s board of directors and was president for six years. He has also authored and co-authored four books, including his most recent, “Face to Face: Up Close with Mother Nature,” published in 2016.
McNeese is president of Scuba Schools International. He spent 25 years in dive retail before purchasing the National Association of Scuba Diving Schools (NASDS) which subsequently merged with SSI.
The official ceremony of the awarding of the “Reaching Out Awards” to the two men will take place this coming November at DEMA Show in Orlando, Florida.


text:
Smart card shipments to more than triple by 2017
09 July, 2012
category: Contactless, Financial, Smart Cards
Annual volumes of smart payment and banking cards shipped are forecast to increase from 1.1 billion in 2011 to 3.5 billion in 2017. This is one of the conclusions from IMS Research’s report The World Market for Payment and Banking Cards – 2012 Edition.
“In terms of volumes, the payment and banking card market is the second-largest smart card market and this is forecast to continue to be the case over the next five years,” stated Don Tait, senior analyst at IMS Research’s Financial and ID Technology Group and the report’s author. “That being said, the proportional importance of specific geographical markets is forecast to change during this time.
China is going to be one of the biggest markets for smart cards. The People’s Bank of China announced in March 2011 that it’s converting China’s debit and credit payment cards to smart cards. Also, all financial institutions in China must be ready to issue financial smart cards by January 2013.
“By 2015, all new cards in issuance will be smart-card based,” Tait said. “This will have a significant impact on the number of smart payment and banking cards shipped in China from 2013 to 2016. In 2016, the number of smart payment and banking cards shipped in China is projected to increase to 1.3 billion (or two-fifths of total world shipments).”
The U.S. smart card market is also expected to grow in the next five-years. The installed base of smart payment and banking cards is projected to increase to 935 million by the end of 2017.
“The U.S. is the world’s second-largest market for payment and banking cards (magnetic stripe as well as smart cards) by volume,” Tait said. “It is also the world’s largest market in terms of card expenditure. Until recently, the U.S. was the only mature country to have not committed to EMV migration. However, the announcements by Visa Inc., in August 2011 and MasterCard in January 2012 will help to kick start EMV migration in the U.S.
The IMS Research report The World Market for Payment and Banking Cards – 2012 Edition examines these issues in detail, along with presenting forecasts for more than 50 individual countries. The report also provides a discussion on different products, implementations, technologies and standards as well as presenting the market by card type (credit, debit, prepaid, ATM-only), authentication type (SDA, DDA, CDA), IC shipments plus much more.


text:
2022 Review: Top 10 Plant-Based Stories Of The Year
8 Mins Read
We dive into some of the headlines that topped plant-based alternative protein space, from vegan labelling wars to never-seen-before product launches. Here’s what the plant-based sector brought for us in 2022.
1. Plant-based milk sales top $2.3 billion
Vegan milk sales in the U.S. reached new highs (yet again) this year, growing 6.4% to almost $2.3 billion in June. Almond milk remained the category leader, taking up $1.2 billion of the share of sales, but oat milk saw a major hike of 50%. Exact figures for other markets are not yet available, but no doubt oat milk’s rise was a global phenomenon. South East Asia saw the arrival of a new homegrown brand Oatside to rival category giant Oatly’s popularity across the Asian region. Over in India, Bengaluru-based Alt Co. caught the attention of investors with a $1M round for its barista-approved oat milk line.
2. Vegan labelling wars continue
2022 was a year of more debates over plant-based labelling. There were some wins. In April, the case Tofurky won its lawsuit in the Louisiana courts against the 2020 ban over the use of “meaty” terms for vegan products. In the ruling, the judge sided with Tofurky’s First Amendment violation challenge, in essence allowing products like vegan sausages and plant-based burgers to be labelled as such. Months later, we saw one of the most iconic American legacy brands in the plant-based space, Tofutti, finally add the term “vegan” to its packaging. India also hailed a win, with authorities working on further clarification of vegan definitions. However, the labelling dispute is still ongoing in Turkey, where the sale of vegan cheese is banned entirely on grounds of “deception”. In July, activists decided to sue, challenging it as unconstitutional.
3. Impossible Foods forges ahead with global expansion
Impossible Foods kept pushing on with its expansion plans over the year, most notably in the Australian and New Zealand markets. In March, the brand landed in retail giants Woolworths and Countdown in both countries. Just months later in October, Impossible brought its plant-based beef to pizza chain Domino’s. The brand also made inroads in Asia, where it debuted its vegan chicken nuggets in Hong Kong. But it hasn’t been good news all the way for the company, as it faced a legal battle with Motif Foodworks over its signature heme ingredient early on in the year (the case is ongoing and in Europe, Impossible saw one of its patents revoked), as well as its decision to layoff 6% of its workforce as part of a restructuring plan following founder Pat Brown’s exit as CEO and generally turbulent market conditions. The company is now helmed by former Chobani executive Peter McGuinness, while Brown retained a role as “Chief Visionary Officer”. A few months later, the company announced Brown would be heading up a new research arm dubbed Impossible Labs. However, in November, the visionary former CEO confirmed he was taking a leave of absence from the company until March 2023.
4. Food giants hop on the vegan cheese train, debut slew of plant-based food offerings
As plant-based eating becomes even more mainstream, 2022 saw large food corporations take up the opportunity to expand their vegan offerings. First up was France’s dairy giant Bel Group, which launched a vegan Babybel in January, with a plant-based version of The Laughing Cow to come soon. After announcing a partnership with Chile’s vegan leader NotCo in February, Kraft Heinz unveiled new products in October, including dairy- and egg-free mayonnaise, as well as three vegan cheeses: American, provolone and cheddar. In December, Kraft also rolled out a vegan edition of its iconic Philadelphia cream cheese in its domestic U.S. market after its debut in the U.K. Outside of the cheese space, big food corporations also doubled down on their overall vegan ranges, such as IKEA’s moves towards making 50% of its menu veggie, and Amazon Fresh adding over two dozen new vegan food products to its platform.
5. Beyond Meat’s no good, very bad year
Unfortunately, 2022 was a bit of a write-off for food tech giant Beyond Meat. In June, Don Lee Farms lodged yet another lawsuit against its former co-manufacturer, alleging Beyond of unfair competition via misleading ads, on top of its previous accusation of breach of contract, fraud and arrears. Then, amid missed sales targets, a scandal involving its COO Doug Ramsey being arrested for attacking another man, as well as the ultimate failure of its much-anticipated partnership with McDonald’s to supply the McPlant burger, Beyond announced job cuts of nearly 20% of its workforce. Some hope to end the year, though, with the brand scoring a deal to stock its plant-based burger at 1,600 Rewe supermarket locations in Germany after its PR highlight of getting Kim Kardashian on board as a “Chief Taste Consultant”.
6. Vegan cheese and plant-based eggs take off across Asia
While vegan cheese and egg alternatives saw major mainstreaming in the U.S. and European markets last year, the category skyrocketed in Asia over the course of 2022. We saw the region’s first-ever dairy-free festival held in Jakarta, as well as a whole bunch of product launches. Thailand welcomed its first vegan cheese factory, Indonesian food tech Green Rebel entered the egg- and dairy-free realm, and South Korea’s Armoured Fresh secured $23M this year to bring its almond-based cheeses to new markets. In the egg alternative space, India’s Evo Foods says it will work with Ginkgo Bioworks to create even more realistic analogues, while Japan saw the rollout of two new egg alternatives: Umami’s konjac-based product, and Kewpie’s soy-based “Hobotama” that mimics scrambled eggs.
7. Huge funding rounds for vegan meat players
Three vegan meat makers saw major inflows of capital to continue their expansion, despite the global economic downturn. It kicked off with Chinese plant-based meat maker Starfield’s $100M Series B in January, which went towards building a new commercial factory line for everything from vegan pastrami to meat chunks. Then in March, Next Gen Foods bagged a whopping $100M, the largest single Series A investment in the sector to date, for its vegan chicken brand TiNDLE which has since landed in Veggie Grill locations stateside. Fast forward to September, Swiss startup Planted scored $72M in a Series B geared to expand its range of clean-label whole-cut analogues.
8. Plant-based innovation abounds chickpea ice cream, plant-based loin & fish-free seafood products galore!
The plant-based alt-protein seriously stepped up its game with a number of never-seen-before products. These included Juicy Marbles’ whole-cut loin, which it described as the “biggest, most insulting piece of plant muscle ever conceived”, Haofood’s peanut-based chicken, FairFlavor’s gelato made using kenari nuts, and ChickP’s vegan ice cream, made from–you guessed it–chickpeas. In the vegan seafood category, we saw an outburst of newbies, from Thai Union’s vegan shrimp to not one, but two ultra-realistic salmon fillets: Revo Foods’, which is mercury-free and 3D-printed, and Plantish’s whole-cut version. There’s even vegan snapper debuted by SeaSpire, unbreaded fish fillets that Jack & Bry made using jackfruit, and famous frozen foods brand Birds Eye’s new fishless battered fish. And it looks like the seafood space won’t be short of innovation in the months to come either, with Seafood Reboot netting $3.3M in May, promising to launch a whole new line-up of regenerative algae-powered alternatives.
9. France’s plant-based scene finally picks up pace
2022 was a year when the French plant-based scene (finally) got going to catch up with neighbouring European countries, starting off with fast food chain Burger King’s move to add vegan bacon to its menu. In May, the QSR, which made serious plant-based inroads in Europe, Asia and the Middle East over the course of 2021, partnered with La Vie Foods to use plant-based bacon rashers for its Veggie Steakhouse burger. One month later, homegrown food tech HappyVore bagged €35M to fund the buyout of a Chevilly-based facility, which is the largest specialist vegan meat factory in France. To round out the year, plant-based meat maker Umiami took over a former Unilever factory to kickstart large-scale production of any type of vegan meat and fish. According to Umiami, after a full revamp, the factory may be able to churn out upwards of 22,000 tons of whole-cut meat–that could make France a serious alt-protein powerhouse to watch.
10. Vegan alt-protein takes off in a big way across India
India’s plant-based industry also had a breakthrough year. It started out with Indian delivery giant Swiggy’s deal with homegrown vegan firm GoodDot to add a separate plant-based category to its platform, then Mumbai-based Blue Tribe Foods scoring Bollywood celebrity and cricket star Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli as brand ambassadors. Soon after, India’s leading spices company Agromatic Nutrifoods revealed a whole new line of frozen vegan meats, from kebabs to nuggets, while Evo Foods covered all the alt-protein bases with what was the world’s first heat-stable vegan boiled egg. In the Spring months, BVeg Foods began upgrading its analogues by working with Swiss production leader Bühler, which will mean we get one step closer to ultra-realistic whole muscle cuts, while the Greenest brand continued expanding its range with burger patties and more (and has since closed a pre-seed round too). Drink maker Novolutions said it’ll enter the vegan meat space with meatballs and even “spicy fingers”. Perhaps the most exciting news of all was coffee giant Starbucks’ collab with Imagine Meats to bring everything from vegan sausage croissant rolls to hummus kebab wraps to stores across the country.
Lead image courtesy of Plantish.


text:
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) continue to take the world by storm as evidenced by the March 16 announcement that Sotheby’s would be entering the NFT game by facilitating the sale of tokenized art by the anonymous artist known as “Pak.”
The latest cryptocurrency project to receive a boost from NFT related activities is Everipedia (IQ), a blockchain-based encyclopedia that has the vision of creating “a world where all knowledge is available to all people.”
The Everipedia ecosystem also includes PredIQt, a decentralized knowledge base and DeFi platform that includes a prediction market where users can make predictions about future market events and earn cryptocurrency for successful predictions.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that the price of IQ has rallied 400% in the past week from a low of $0.00781 on March 8 to a high of $0.039 on March 16, its highest price in over two years.
Everipedia considers itself to be the next generation encyclopedia that has been redesigned for the modern age and the project has already become the world’s largest English encyclopedia by content in just a few short years.
NFT artwork brings attention to Everipedia
The lead-up to Tuesday’s price spike began on March 3, when the Associated Press announced it was going to auction an NFT that was created in collaboration with Everipedia by utilizing data that the AP published on Ethereum with Everipedia’s OraQle tech.
In the future, every historic event will be called on-chain and archived with NFTs.https://t.co/QkmcXN7hc5
— Everipedia (@Everipedia) March 3, 2021
After an initial increase in trading volume following the announcement, action for IQ died down until the completion of the auction on March 10 which saw a winning bid of 100 Ether, which was roughly $180,000 at the time of the bid.
As part of the tweet announcing the winning bid, the AP stated “Stay tuned for more NFT collabs between AP and Everipedia!” Shortly after this announcement IQ’s trading volume spiked from $3 million to initiated another surge in trading volume which grew from $3 million to $252 million.
It remains to be seen what the Everipedia team has in store to capitalize on its newfound attention, but developments related to NFTs and decentralized finance show that the project understands the value and customer app of the two hottest trends in the cryptocurrency sector.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.


text:
Consumer prices in OECD area hike 9.4% year-on-year
The annual consumer inflation in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) area slowed to 9.4% in December from 10.4% in November last year, according to data from the international group on Tuesday.
This was the lowest level since April 2022 thanks to a sharp fall in energy inflation in most OECD countries, the Paris-based organization noted.
Energy prices surged 18.8% year-on-year in December, easing from a 23.8% increase in November.
Double-digit inflation was recorded in 15 of 38 OECD countries in December, with the highest inflation rates recorded in Hungary,Latvia, Lithuania, and Turkiye (all above 20%).
OECD inflation in 2022 was more than double its 2021 level reaching 9.6%, the highest annual average rate since 1988.
Core inflation, excluding food and energy, in the OECD area also fell to 7.2%, partially driven by pronounced falls in Turkiye .
In December 2022, inflation dropped in all G7 countries except for Japan.
The largest decline was seen in Germany, reflecting a one-off subsidy on gas bills.


text:
British millennial men are the largest cryptocurrency adopters in the country, according to a new Dynata survey. More than a fifth of UK male millennials have bought or invested in some form of cryptocurrency. 34% of Gen Z men (24 and under) have invested in cryptocurrencies, while 26% of Gen Z women have invested in some digital asset class.
British men between the ages of 25 and 49 are currently more actively investing in cryptocurrencies, compared with the global average of 46% for this age group, far exceeding cryptocurrency investors of all ages and genders.
According to the survey, 41% of crypto users used their cryptocurrencies to buy gift cards, while 15% of Britons said they used cryptocurrencies to buy something.


text:
Close on the heels of snapping up an strategic investment from National Bank of Canada, ONGO, a Myanmar-based mobile led digital payment firm owned by Ronoc Asia, is readying for a consumer service launch in 2017.
ONGO currently offers business-to-business services in Myanmar. “We have a very strong focus on business-to-business payments,” said Allen Gilstrap, CEO of ONG, Gilstrap also leads Ronoc Asia, a Singapore entity backed by private equity firm Ronoc.
Headquartered in Ireland, Ronoc has invested in a range of businesses from microfinance, retail banking, digital payments and mobile fintech.
Late last month, ONGO announced that the National Bank of Canada (NBC) has become a new strategic shareholder acquiring a 22 percent shareholding in Ronoc Asia.
NBC has previously co-invested with Ronoc in Tenger Financial Group headquartered in Mongolia whose subsidiaries include XacBank. NBC also owns a 90 percent controlling stake in ABA Bank of Cambodia, after making an additional investment of $103 million in May 2016.
“We look to tap some of their (NBC) experiences and scaling the financial service business as they have done successfully in other places,” said Gilstrap, adding, “we are looking to tap their expertise at the board level as we grow here in Myanmar.”
Over the next five years, Ronoc Asia will be looking to expand into six or seven markets in South East Asia, said Gilstrap.
“Myanmar is particularly exciting because it recently opened up and this was the first country in the world that moved directly from no mobile phones to smart phones and skipped the old feature phones,” he said.
In Myanmar, a number of mobile led financial service providers have sprung up. Telecom operators like Telenor has already launched Wave Money and Ooredoo will soon launch M-Pitesan, a mobile wallet. Others include Ascend Group backed Thailand based online payment company, True Money, MyPAY, partnership of AIM listed MySQUAR, OK Dollar, led by Internet Wallet Limited and 1-Stop, a partnership between Singapore-based payment service 2C2P and Myanma Awba.
“Honestly it is a huge market. There’s room for several companies to be successful here,” said Gilstrap.
Gilstrap, former CEO of digital payments service OpenRevolution, joined hands with Ronoc to formed Ronoc Asia in July 2015.
Myanmar Oriental Bank is the bank-licencing partner for ONGO to facilitate settlements for customers. ONGO services include airtime top ups, peer to peer money transfer, bill payments, payroll service among others.


text:
Limited Number Of Advance Tickets On Sale
July 9, 2007
Polka Dot the Clown (Ron Albanese, left) and Quick Chek Hackensack store manager Mohammad Janajreh have what everyone wants – tickets to this year’s 25th Anniversary Celebration!
Advance tickets for this year’s 25th Silver Anniversary Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning in association with PNC Bank are on sale and are going fast.
Buy now and save big! Tickets can be purchased for just $17 for adults — an $8 savings over the gate price — and for just $7 for children ages 4-12 — a $3 savings over the gate price; children age 3 and under are admitted free — but you have to act soon! Advance tickets are available through midnight Thursday, July 26.
Advance tickets are available at all 108 Quick Chek store locations throughout New Jersey — another great reason to visit your local Quick Chek, where you can grab a delicious fresh brewed iced coffee for just $1.29 for 20 ounces! To find the nearest Quick Chek visit www.quick-chek.com.
Advance tickets are also available by calling 1-800-HOT-AIR9 or here on line (“Tickets and Merchandise”) through midnight, July 21st.
Festival hours are Friday, July 27, from 1:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.; Saturday, July 28, from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.; and Sunday, July 29 from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.


text:
Like the beer it proudly serves, Finbar has undergone an evolution in Rehoboth Beach.
The 316 Rehoboth Ave. restaurant redesigned the interior, moving the bar from the back of the building to the front.
Co-owner Mark Grabowski said Finbar is also focusing on the emerging craft beer market by removing bottle storage and installing more taps, more than doubling in capacity from 12 to 28. Combined with a new cooler for bottles, and Finbar has 130 beers available.
Grabowski said the restaurant is evolving past its Irish/English pub beginnings. Finbar’s beer menu was originally centered on Irish brands like Guiness, Smithwick’s and Harp. However, the focus has shifted to regional and national craft brews like Dogfish Head, Evolution, 16 Mile and Yards.
“Guiness is a good seller for us, but our biggest seller last year was (R.J. Rocker’s) Son of a Peach and Allagash, and some of these microbrews are taking over,” he said.
Grabowski said he plans to create flights of beers with a particular theme. He said, there would be a local flight with Dogfish, 16 Mile, Old Dominion and Evolution or a West Coast flight with Stone and 21st Amendment.
“We definitely have the most pours in town,” Grabowski said.
While the beer menu evolved, the food menu has largely remained unchanged as a combination of Irish cuisine and seafood.
Grabowski said the evolution has been positive, with sales up 42 percent over Memorial Day weekend and 11 percent so far this year. Last summer was Finbar's best; Grabowski said moving the bar triggered a huge growth spurt, one he hopes will establish Finbar amongst Rehoboth restaurant elite.
“We’re still like the younger guys,” Grabowski said. “It’s almost like you have to get into your teens to be established. But we’re getting there.”
Finbar is open seven days a week for dinner at 4 p.m., with lunch Friday through Sunday at 11:30 a.m. For more information on Finbar, call 227-1873 or visit www.finbarspub.com.


text:
Yesterday, the European Union announced that it would welcome fully vaccinated travelers as well as unvaccinated travelers from Covid-safe countries (the list of those countries is expected to be released on Friday). While details are pending, the new measures could go into effect as early as next week.
The news comes as a big step forward for river cruisers like us. We not only will be allowed to travel to Europe again at long last but also will be able to enter E.U. countries without having to quarantine.
River cruise companies have been quick to respond. This morning, Scenic and Emerald wrote to us to say that they plan to restart on Portugal’s Douro river beginning in late July. In the afternoon, we heard from Uniworld, which will resume cruising on June 20 in Italy and in France on June 27.
Strasbourg-based CroisiEurope told us last week that its ships are expected to begin sailing again as early as next month. We expect AmaWaterways and Avalon to resume cruises in late June or early July. Viking cranks up again in July. Crystal River Cruises says it won’t start up operations again until the end of August.
There are mixed messages about traveling to Europe, though. As of this writing, the CDC recommends against travel to many E.U. countries, including all of the countries in Europe where there are river cruises. The CDC’s recommendation, however, seems to contradict its own updated advice that vaccinated Americans can safely resume travel.
What is certain is that travelers are being cautious, not only with health protocols but also with protecting their travel investments. Our contacts at Insure My Trip tell us that they have seen an increase in travelers opting for CFAR (Cancel For Any Reason) trip insurance, in case those travelers want to back out of their vacation plans. We highly recommend CFAR.
Also unclear is whether negative PCR tests will be required for vaccinated visitors entering Europe. Some E.U. countries will require a negative test less than 72 hours before departure. Others may require tests upon arrival. Again, details are still being worked out. Italy’s rules are complex. Visitors from the U.S., for example, will require a test and a 10-day quarantine, unless they take “Covid-tested flights” and meet other requirements. France will make PCR tests available free of charge to all visitors this summer, but details are murky. Rules vary by country and with 27 EU countries, the differing requirements are too varied for us to cover in this post.
In a conversation with CroisiEurope last week, a company spokesperson told us that bookings for the summer have surged since President Emmanuel Macron announced a June 9 easing of travel restrictions for foreigners. Moreover, case numbers and positivity rates in France have been dropping. Nearly 31 percent of the French population has received at least one jab of the vaccine. The number of vaccinated is expected to rise as universal eligibility for vaccinations opens for adults in France on June 15. Museums and cultural sites are reopening, as are restaurants and cafes.
There was more good news yesterday. Abbott Laboratories and United Airlines announced that they are partnering to make an “at-home” Covid test available that meets CDC guidelines for travelers returning from Europe. We expect river cruise companies and other airlines will be coming up with similar solutions to satisfy the CDC requirement for proof of a negative Covid-19 test result three days before boarding a flight returning to the United States.
As of now, there still are many questions. The CDC’s relaxing of masks among vaccinated people would seem to suggest that river cruisers in Europe (where the CDC has no authority) will not have to mask up. Don’t get us wrong: We have no problem with wearing masks but, of course, prefer to go bare-faced. Will we need a booster vaccination? We received the second of our two doses in late March. The vaccines are proving to be effective for at least six months, but beyond that, it’s too early to say.
What all of this says to us is that early summer cruises will be off to a slow start, and there will likely be some bumps along the way. Things are poised to pick up late summer and it should be smooth sailing by early fall.
This week’s news comes as welcome news, and it does seem that the world is returning to normal, and that many of us will be river cruising in Europe once again before the year is out.
- September 23-October 3, 2021 Amsterdam roundtrip on Crystal Bach from $5,599 per person
- October 4-October 11, 2021 Budapest roundtrip on Emily Bronte from $3,569 per person
- October 21-27, 2021 Barging Besançon to Montbéliard with singer/songwriter David Wilcox from $4,095 per person
- April 8-14, 2022 Barging Alsace from LaGarde to Strasbourg from $3,495 per person, 1 cabin available
- April 16-22, 2022 Barging Burgundy from Dijon to Bescancon from $3,495 per person, 1 cabin available


text:
Every 'NBA 2K' cover star since 1999
Updated September 08, 2023 with 30 photos
The "NBA 2K" video game series, which simulates professional basketball games, has sold millions of copies since its release in 1999. The latest, "NBA 2K24," releases September 8, 2023, featuring the late Kobe Bryant. Here's a look back at all of the players who have graced the cover of the game.


text:
Pakistan’s current account (C/A) clocked in a deficit of $662 million in December 2020, compared to a surplus of $513 million in November 2020, the worst since October 2019.
The current account has been in surplus since the last five months, consecutively. The current account recorded a variance of $1.175 billion, which was largely fueled by an increase of $940 million in imports of goods. The exports of goods increased by $13 million and home remittances grew by $98 million.
Taking cue from earlier released numbers by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the increase in the imports of goods can largely be attributed to higher imports of (1) Wheat, (2) Raw Cotton, (3) CKD/CBU units of automobiles.
It is important to note that discrepancy exists between State Ban of Pakistan (SBP) and PBS figures, as SBP relies on receipts and payments of foreign exchange to compile its data while PBS monitors physical movement of goods, according to an analyst at Topline Securities.
The analyst expects the impact of the recent increase in international oil prices to be visible in coming months’ imports.
The C/A surplus in the first half of 2020-21 clocked in at $1.131 billion compared to a deficit of $2.032 billion, where improvement in balance is largely due to increase in home remittances by $2.832 billion (i.e. +25% YoY). The exports of goods declined by $590 million (-5% YoY), while imports of goods increased by 1.071 billion (+5% YoY).
The C/A surplus in 2QFY21 came in at $266 million (vs. $865 million in first quarter 2020-21), where encouragingly exports of goods increased by 20% QoQ compared to imports of goods which grew by 18% QoQ. Home remittances declined by 1% QoQ.
In spite of a C/A deficit in December 2020, the overall balance recorded a surplus of $678 million potentially because of borrowings. The overall balance in the first half 2020-21 recorded a surplus of 1.279 billion largely owing to C/A surplus and foreign direct investments (FDI) of $901 million during the period.
Pakistan’s external account estimates are where we now expect home remittances to clock in at $27.5 billion in 2020-21. However, trade deficit estimates are to be $25.2 billion.
The imports of goods are likely to increase higher than expected as economic activity has picked up (e.g. import of Auto CKD/CBUs, coal for cement etc.), while pressure on account of import of machinery through TERF is also anticipated.
The analyst report said that a PKR/USD estimate of Rs 166 by June 2021 and 172 in December 2021 is intact for now. There is no change in the policy rate in the January 2021 MPS, however the analyst predicts an increase in the policy rate by 100bps in May/July 2021.


text:
CRASNTON, RI – August 23, 2023: Cranston Mayor Kenneth J. Hopkins today expressed excitement and support for the pending formal announcement of Costco coming to Cranston.
“After many months of speculation, discussions, and development meetings, I am pleased that the formal steps will be rolled out that will soon lead to the establishment of a Costco Wholesale facility in Cranston,” said Mayor Hopkins.
The mayor said that the permitting process will soon get underway that will bring Costco to Cranston to the site of the former medium security prison in the Howard Industrial Park. The 16.8-acre property at 20 Goddard Drive was acquired from the State of Rhode Island in 2021 by 20 Goddard LLC, a related entity to well-known Rhode Island developer Churchill & Banks of Providence.
Mayor Hopkins said that he will join in sponsoring legislation that will rezone the M-2 industrial parcel for the customary Costco uses that are found at their facilities including the wholesale club and gasoline fueling pumps.
“I look forward to Costco bringing forward their development plan for public hearings before the Planning Commission as a major land development project and to the City Council for the rezoning of the parcel.” He said, “I know Costco officials want to share how they will demonstrate to the community they can be a good neighbor and satisfactorily address all traffic and environmental concerns”. Hopkins said a public review and consideration of their plans is important.
“I have worked hard to encourage Costco to find a suitable location in Cranston. I did not want to lose this premier wholesale club to another community and wanted to bring the jobs and tax revenue to our city,” said Hopkins.
“This is amajor economic development announcement for Cranston and our residents.” He said Cranston is enhancing its well-deserved reputation as a state and regional destination for shopping and dining and visiting to enjoy the special quality of life. “With the opening of Top Golf in the Fall, Garden City Shopping Center, Chapel View and all our local economic corridors like Knightsville, Rolfe Square and Pawtuxet Village, Cranston is the place to be,” Hopkins said.
Mayor Hopkins said in October of 2022 the developer had received city approvals to build a 210,000 square foot industrial warehouse on the former prison site. “Those plans will be held in abeyance while Costco goes through the permitting and regulatory steps to open in Cranston.”
He concluded by emphasizing, “This is a major economic development announcement for Cranston taxpayers and the expansion of the commercial tax base.I look forward to the Costco groundbreaking.”


text:
Call2Recycle collected nearly 8 million pounds of batteries during 2022
Call2Recycle has released its annual battery collection data for 2022. In 2022, nearly 8 million pounds of batteries were collected for recycling in the U.S., including over 3 million pounds of lithium-ion batteries, the highest number of lithium-ion batteries collected in the program's history.
Call2Recycle is a U.S.-based non-profit that works to advance battery collection and recycling exclusively in the U.S. through the support of battery and product manufacturers, consumers, and collection sites. Overall, U.S. battery collections dipped two percent from 2021; however, a 13 percent increase in lithium-ion battery collections drove an overall four percent growth in total rechargeable battery collections. In total, more than 5.6 million lbs of rechargeable batteries and over 2.3 million lbs of primary batteries were collected for recycling. Growing awareness among U.S. consumers was reflected in a 16 percent increase in online drop-off locator searches and a 12 percent increase in batteries collected from retail sites.
In Vermont, the first state in the U.S. that mandates primary battery producers to finance a battery recycling program, over 149,000 pounds of batteries were collected through Call2Recycle's established collection network, a slight increase from 2021.
Over 26,000 lbs of e-bike batteries were collected and recycled during the first year of the voluntary e-bike battery recycling program, powered by Call2Recycle and endorsed by PeopleForBikes. Supported by 37 participating OEMs representing 53 brands, the program now has over 1,600 specially trained e-bike battery collection sites nationwide.
"Thanks to consumers, industry stewards, and our collection partners, we're able to continue safely and responsibly recycling batteries every year," says Call2Recycle CEO Leo Raudys. "At Call2Recycle, we're dedicated to making battery recycling more accessible to consumers while responsibly managing batteries at their end of life. Circularity plays an important part in ensuring safety and requires all of us – regulators, manufacturers, retailers, and consumers – to work together to responsibly recycle batteries."


text:
US group Back to Nature has expanded into two more categories – soup and cereal – to move the business into different eating occasions.
The privately-owned firm, best known for its cookies and crackers, is launching a total of ten products across the two sectors. It said it had secured listings at retailers including Walmart, Kroger and Whole Foods Market.
"We're really excited to introduce two new product categories this year – soup and cereal – which allows us to expand into different dayparts and give consumers more opportunity to enjoy our products anytime during their day – whether it be for breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack time," CEO Vincent Fantegrossi said. "We know that consumers are always looking for more better-for-you options that are rich in nutrients so we've developed these new categories with their needs in mind."
Back to Nature, owned by private-equity firm Brynwood Partners, sought to emphasise the health credentials of the new products. It said the soups contained "25% less sodium than leading soup brands". The cereals contain "whole ancient and sprouted grains and are high in fiber and protein".


text:
Iceland supermarket to stop using plastic bags for its own-label bananas in bid to reduce waste
- Supermarket chain is switching to paper-based packs that are recyclable
- Iceland is set to remove plastic from its own-label products by 2023
- Retailers have dramatically changed their position on packaging for produce
Supermarket chain Iceland will no longer pack its bananas in plastic bags as it steps up efforts to tackle waste and pollution.
The company is switching to paper-based packs that are 100 per cent recyclable in a decision that will stop 10 million plastic bags going into the bin every year.
Iceland has led the High Street with a pledge to remove all plastic from its own-label products by 2023 and is calling on other retailers to follow its example.
Iceland has said it will no longer pack its bananas in plastic bags as it steps up efforts to tackle waste and pollution
Iceland’s new packaged bananas will be the first product in any major UK supermarket to bear the Plastic Free Trust Mark, launched by A Plastic Planet earlier this year.
Supermarkets have dramatically changed their position on packaging in the wake of the Daily Mail’s Turn the Tide on Plastic campaign and a public backlash following the Blue Planet II series, which highlighted the dangers of plastic pollution to the oceans and sea life.
Morrisons offers paper bags for fresh produce, while Waitrose is switching the black plastic lids on drinks bottles to clear plastic to boost the number that are recycled.
Supermarkets have dramatically changed their position on packaging for produce such as bananas in the wake of the Daily Mail’s Turn the Tide on Plastic campaign
Most watched News videos
- Adorable dog seen dressed up as Chucky for Halloween
- Lib Dem deputy Ed Davey taken to task on Question Time
- Shocking moment road rage driver is shot in the neck with a flare gun
- Hero pensioner beats off girl who tried to snatch her card
- Belgian fighter jet passes overhead before crash in France
- Question Time audience member calls Lib Dems 'morally corrupt'
- 'Get her': Mother spurs on daughter in viscous scrap with schoolgirl
- Danny Drinkwater appeared to headbutt a man on the dancefloor
- Chaos breaks out at Walmart after family members resist arrest
- PAND-AHH! Adorable moment panda squeezes her young cub
- Paramedics speaks to woman whose blister exploded on flight
- Cristiano Ronaldo 'wants to find generous McDonald's workers'


text:
1. Funding Boom for India’s Gaming Industry
Venture Capital Funds have invested $438 Million in Indian Gaming Startups since April’20, topping the combined funding of last 5 years (mint). However, Dream11 alone accounted for $225 Million of venture funding.
2. India’s E-sports boom is drawing big corporates
Tech Mahindra announced in Feb’21 that it will organize a global chess league this year. This move makes Tech Mahindra the 3rd Indian big corporate to enter eSports after Airtel and Reliance Jio (mint).
3. Indian gaming industry is witnessing a hiring spree
Job postings and job searches were up by 13% and 15% respectively in Jan’21 vis-à-vis Jan’20 (The Indian Express). Speaking of jobs, in Feb’21, GOI announced the formation of a Centre of Excellence in gaming and related areas in collaboration with IIT Bombay. Courses will begin from this year itself. This move is likely to create a pool of talent to further fuel the growth of India’s gaming industry (IGN India).
4. Strength in Numbers:
Over 50% of India’s population is below 25 years of age (WEF).
India is the 2nd largest internet consumer with over 560 million internet users (WEF).
In 2020, India rose to the number 1 spot in mobile game downloads clocking 7.3 billion installs (WEF).
This article is a part of the February'21 edition of our Startup Newsletter. Here's the complete publication:


text:
Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8.0 is going to hit America’s shores tomorrow and it’s going to cost $399. It isn’t the model that Europeans will be getting, the one with a SIM card slot and the ability to make phone calls; Americans will be stuck with the WiFi only variant. The guys at PocketNow made a video review of the device, which I’ve embedded below.
I’ve been backpacking through South East Asia with my girlfriend since January 5th. Samsung unveiled a pink version of my phone, the Galaxy Note II, in February. We’ve been trying to find one just to see what it’s like, but we kept on being told that it wasn’t available yet.


text:
Driving relevance means driving growth. Join global brands and industry thought leaders at Brandweek, Sept. 11–14 in Miami, for actionable takeaways to better your marketing. 50% off passes ends April 10.
Gaming publisher King, the company behind mobile phenomenon Candy Crush, will build its use of creators, alongside its YouTube and TikTok strategies, as its focus on creating “niche communities” grows.
Speaking at Social Media Week Europe, King’s director of social marketing and creators Roberto Kusabbi outlined the strategy while discussing the success of the 10-year-old game and its recent Candy Cave initiative to support six creators to realize their ideas while promoting the game alongside.
Over the last two-and-a-half years, the Activision Blizzard-owned company has been leaning into creator collaborations, which recently included working with music artist Meghan Trainor who debuted her latest video for the track “Made You Look” exclusively through Candy Crush in October.
According to Business of Apps data, the game had amassed around 255 million users by 2021 and has reached the release of its 8,000th...


text:
Kindle users are in for a special treat with the latest update from Amazon to its popular line of eReader devices. The company released a rare interface refresh that’ll make navigating around Kindles a more pleasant experience for devices released after 2015.
The new Kindle eReaders interface isn’t exactly rewriting the book on navigation. However, it looks a bit more streamlined and modern than the previous interface, which was released in 2016.
Amazon describes the update as “a new, intuitive, and easier Kindle reading experience with our latest software update that will be rolling out over the coming weeks to Kindle.”


text:
It's hard to top the greatest food convenience since sliced bread, but the Le Bread Xpress vending machine might be it.
Dispensing warm baguettes from a machine, Le Bread Xpress wants to make sure hungry clients can grab their favorite French staple whenever their hearts desire. The loafs are partially cooked when they are loaded into the machine, then completely baked when ordered. Benoit Herve, the company's CEO and founder, said on the company's website that the idea came from his search for a baguette in the San Francisco area.
"I then discovered a French baker who has built a micro-bakery to deliver freshly baked baguettes from the oven on-demand 24/7," Herve said.
The machine uses a cloud-based interface. Patrons can pay for the baguettes via cash, credit card, Android Pay and Apple Pay. Currently, the only Le Bread Xpress can be found in San Francisco.


text:
InnoTrans will bring together technology innovators from all around the world for its first-ever hackathon event.
Run in conjunction with Hack Partners, which held its first hacktrain hackathon in the UK in 2015, the event will look to originate and develop innovative tech solutions for the sector during the course of the four-day show.
The hackathon is being supported by Network Rail, Deutsche Bahn, Siemens, Silver Rail, Fujitsu, ORM, SBB and the UK’s Department for Transport.
More than 400 applications were received, with 80 innovators selected to take part.
Hack Partners CEO River Tamoor Baig said: “We’ve never had this much top talent applying to attend our hackathons before from so many different parts of the world.
“One of the participants has never actually even been on a long-distance train in his entire life having grown up in Hong Kong using only the MTR. Yet, the ideas he is suggesting on how the passenger experience for long distance journeys can be improved are astounding. It’s why I’m so excited for this years event.
“We’ll have participants literally coming from all corners of the world which will make for an incredibly diverse and creative hackathon.”
The overall winners of the event will be given a £600 travel voucher. Other prizes include a Nintendo Switch, an Amazon Alexa and a £100 Amazon gift voucher.
Baig said they hope to be able to take forward 100 per cent of the ideas generated during this year’s hackathon.
He added: “Historically, we’ve always been a facilitator, introducing innovative tech companies and suppliers to TOCs and Network Rail etc. For last year’s hackathon we actually helped continue the ideas by collaborating with some of our hackathon participants and partners to run pilots with TOCs.
“By doing so, we managed to take forward 10 out of the 19 challenges that were given to our participants. Now, with established tech companies like Fujitsu, Siemens, and digital consultancy ORM we are aiming for that magic 100 per cent.”
The launch will take place at the Business Lounge from 5pm – 8pm on September 18. More information can be found on the InnoTrans website.