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Selecting a sustainability seal
August 7, 2012
by Jeff Gelski
Consumers may wish to buy products from companies that source ingredients in a sustainable manner. They may be glad to know that the palm oil in the products had no destructive impact on forests and that the farmers of the cocoa in their product received a fair price.
Still, grain-based foods manufacturers may want to ask a few questions before placing a seal on their products that denotes sustainable sourcing of ingredients. For example, will consumers recognize the seal and does enough supply of the ingredients exist to meet the company’s demand?
In regard to cocoa sourcing, the Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade International both have seals that are appearing on more products. In palm oil sourcing, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (R.S.P.O.) introduced a trademark last year and continues to certify more acreage as sustainable.
People already see sustainable seals on many products. The Natural Marketing Institute, Harleysville, Pa., collected data on “green” consumers and their purchasing habits through the LOHAS Consumer Trends Database. In June the N.M.I. reported a majority of U.S. consumers said they are more likely to buy products with green seals, but about half of them feel there are too many green seals and certifications. Three-fifths of them are looking for one universal seal that crosses industries.
According to the N.M.I., more than 400 registered green logos are found worldwide.
“The hundreds of green seals and certifications in the market make it difficult to know what each seal means, whether it’s credible, and hence make this simple solution desirable,” the N.M.I. said. “For manufacturers, simply adding to the green seal clutter is not a solution that will be sustainable with consumers in the long run. The consequence of seal clutter is diminished effectiveness of each individual seal.”
Consumers are becoming more aware of some seals. Global sales of Fairtrade-certified products rose 12% in 2011 to €4.9 billion from €4.3 billion in 2010, according to Fairtrade International, Bonn, Germany. In the United States, Fairtrade-certified products increased 10% to €1,031 million in 2011 from €937 million in 2010.
In estimated sales in volume per product, bananas led all other food products in 2011. Estimated global sales of Fairtrade-certified bananas in 2011 were 320,923 tonnes, a 9% increase from 294,447 tonnes in 2010. Cocoa bean volume increased 14% to 40,198 tonnes from 35,285 tonnes. Cane sugar volume increased 9% to 138,308 tonnes from 127,144 tonnes.
Fairtrade International seeks sustainable livelihoods for crop producers. More than 1.2 million farmers and workers are found at 991 Fairtrade-certified producer organizations in 66 countries.
Rainforest Alliance, based in New York, seeks to prevent deforestation and other environmental destruction by ensuring that millions of acres of working forests, farms, ranchlands and hotel properties are managed according to sustainability standards.
The organization has partners in the food industry.
Clif Bar & Co., Emeryville, Calif., this year collaborated with the Rainforest Alliance. Clif Bar will source 100% of the cocoa bean ingredients for its Clif Bar energy bars from farms certified by Rainforest Alliance. The energy bars carrying the certified seal will become available to consumers in 2013.
“The Rainforest Alliance certification is a big step toward our five-year goal of increasing Clif Bar & Co.’s purchase of organic and sustainable ingredients to 80% by 2015,” said Carly Lutz, brand director of Clif brands. “Today, only 1% of the world’s cocoa is organic, which makes the need for sustainable sources of cocoa even greater.
“By collaborating with Rainforest Alliance for certification, we’ve expanded our commitment beyond organic. Our work with Rainforest Alliance also enables us to contribute to restorative farming, foster food to farm connections and promote fair treatment of labor.”
Clif Bar will be hesitant to place other seals on the packaging.
“The convenient, portable size of our bars and the information already on the packaging doesn’t leave much additional room on the primary display panel,” Ms. Lutz said. “That makes it unlikely we’ll be able to feature many more sustainability seals in the future.”
Mars Chocolate recently announced more than 20% of the cocoa supply it purchases this year will be certified sustainable. Mars’ cocoa purchases in 2011 were certified according to the standards of the Rainforest Alliance and Utz Certified. The company began purchasing Fairtrade cocoa in 2012. Mars plans to purchase certified cocoa for all products by 2020.
Barry Callebaut, Zurich, Switzerland, provides training in Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and support in setting up systems to help farmers and cooperative managers meet the environmental, social and economic criteria of Rainforest Alliance. Barry Callebaut has trained 15,000 cocoa farmers from 50 farmer cooperatives in Cote d’Ivoire.
Barry Callebaut pays the cooperatives a premium for the certified beans. Farmers receive half the premium. The cooperatives retain the other half and use it to provide services to its farmer members or for community facilities.
The Rainforest Alliance earlier this year honored Blommer Chocolate Co., Chicago, with a “Sustainable Standard-Setter” award in recognition of the company’s farmer-focused programs and its investments in cocoa’s future. Blommer plans to invest $45 million in cocoa sustainability efforts by 2020. By that year the company plans to reach an additional 50,000 cocoa farmers worldwide, which would double its current farmer base.
Blommer trains farmers in West Africa, Indonesia and South America in pre-harvest and post-harvest agronomic practices. These sustainability programs include training on safe farming practices, environmental stewardships, HIV awareness and the appropriate role of children on the farm.
“Companies like Blommer Chocolate Co. continue to raise the bar, making bold commitments to sustainability and traceability,” said Tensie Whelan, president of the Rainforest Alliance. “Through working with Rainforest Alliance, Blommer is helping to improve the livelihoods of cocoa farming communities while protecting natural resources for generations to come.”
Archer Daniels Midland Co., Decatur, Ill., also is involved in sustainable cocoa sourcing as the company seeks to educate farmers and help communities in cocoa growing regions, said Neil Widlak, director of product service and development at ADM Cocoa. Unlike major corn and soybean growing regions, cocoa grows in areas where the countries are economically challenged, he said. Cocoa is grown in smaller farms that are isolated and in between forests and jungles.
Cocoa yield needs to improve because there are not a lot of areas in the world where people may grow cocoa, Mr. Widlak said. Farmers also may have the opportunity to grow other crops besides cocoa. For example, rubber crops are easier to grow than cocoa crops.
Palm oil often is sourced from Malaysia and Indonesia.
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, based in Kualu Lumpur, Malaysia, last year introduced a trademark for its certified sustainable palm oil. R.S.P.O. certification at the plantation level and the trademark on the end product reflect that sustainable oil palm cultivation does not contribute to the sustained destruction of tropical forest or damage the interests of people living where palms are grown.
As of June 29 of this year, the R.S.P.O. had issued 61 trademark licenses across 13 countries. Makers of such products as margarine, cookies, chocolate, soap and cosmetics may use the trademark on their packaging.
The R.S.P.O., formed in 2004, promotes the growth and use of sustainable palm oil products through global standards and the engagement of stakeholders. The not-for-profit association has stakeholders in seven sectors of the palm oil industry: oil palm producers, palm oil processors or traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks and investors, environmental or nature conservation non-governmental organizations and social or developmental non-governmental organizations.
The R.S.P.O. updated its progress in June. Membership has grown by over 35% this year and is nearing 900 members from more than 50 countries, said Darrel Webber, secretary general.
Certification is taking place in Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, West Africa and Latin America. The R.S.P.O. in total had certified 36 grower companies with 146 mills. Land area covered 1.3 million hectares, or about 3.2 million acres, with 6.4 million tonnes of certified sustainable palm oil, or about 12% of the total global crude palm oil.
IOI Loders Croklaan, which has a U.S. office in Channahon, Ill., brought its first delivery of certified sustainable palm oil to North America in 2011. The IOI Group was a founding member of the R.S.P.O.
“Sustainable palm oil production starts with the plantation,” said Tim Surin, director of sales and marketing at IOI Loders Croklaan Americas. “All of the plantations of IOI Group have completed the work needed to comply with the principles and criteria of the R.S.P.O. Supply chain certification, also managed by R.S.P.O., ensures that C.S.P.O. (certified sustainable palm oil) is delivered to the final customer by a method that is approved and audited on an annual basis by an independent assessor.”
AarhusKarlshamn AB, which has a U.S. office in Edison, N.J., is another founding member of the R.S.P.O.
“AAK continues to expand its sustainable portfolio to meet our customer demands,” said Mark Zavodnyik, sourcing and trading associate.
ADM, another member of the R.S.P.O., in 2011 announced plans to invest in sustainable palm oil production in Brazil. The investment will encompass about 12,000 hectares, or nearly 30,000 acres, of palm production and include the construction of a palm processing plant.
Minneapolis-based Cargill, an R.S.P.O. member, has said palm oil products, excluding palm kernel oil products, supplied to its customers in Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand will be certified by the R.S.P.O. and/or originated from smallholder growers by 2015. Cargill said by 2020 its commitment will cover 100% of its palm oil products to all customers worldwide, including China and India.
If using a seal from the R.S.P.O., Fairtrade International or the Rainforest Alliance, grain-based foods companies still may need to educate their customers.
“Seals can be a valuable part of the marketing mix for green products, but marketers should be aware of the growing clutter, and that seals, like any brand, need to be supported with consistent marketing,” the Natural Marketing Institute said. “Availability of marketing resources has a direct impact on awareness. Some of the non-profit-backed seals are tackling important issues, are very credible and aligned with consumer interest, but as products of non-profits, are under-supported. This clearly can lead to a catch-22, where promoting seals is limited by a lack of marketing dollars, but higher fees would limit participation.
“Balancing education and outreach with accessibility and value is a difficult, but an important, balance to strike.”
Cereal makers reduce waste for sustainability efforts
Three of the top U.S. cereal makers have become more sustainably active by reducing waste, particularly in packaging.
• The Kellogg Co., Battle Creek, Mich., improved its package-to-food ratios across product categories by an average of 3.5% in 2011, which builds on a 7.9% improvement in 2010.
• General Mills, Inc., Minneapolis, reduced its solid waste generation by 34% from 2005 to 2011, which pushes the company closer to its goal of a 50% reduction from 2005 to 2015.
• MOM Brands, Lakeville, Minn., reduced packaging by placing its cereal in a bag, not a box. The company also has a “Bag the Box” campaign that engages customers on the issue of excess packaging and promotes Malt-O-Meal cereal in bags.


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Why Kraft Heinz Is Getting Sued Over Its Iconic Mac N’ Cheese
A Florida woman is suing Kraft Heinz over the preparation time of its Velveeta Shells & Cheese meal. The label on a cup of the microwaveable food says the cooking time is only three and a half minutes. But Amanda Ramirez says this is false and misleading. As a result, Kraft Heinz is facing a $5 million class action lawsuit from the Hialeah resident.
Lawyers for Ramirez filed the Kraft Heinz lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida on November 18th, CNN Business reports. According to the document, the advertised three-minute preparation time doesn’t consider the other four steps required to prepare the pasta. This includes removing the lid and sauce pouch, adding water, microwaving, and stirring.
These additional steps mean Velveeta Shells & Cheese can’t be ready in just three and a half minutes. The Kraft Heinz lawsuit also says the company is unfairly profiting from false advertising, especially since people expect the brand to be honest with them. The suit claims the product is sold at a substantial price premium using misleading marketing which instantly catches the eye of consumers.
“Customers are paying more than they otherwise would because of the three and a half minutes claim,” the Kraft Heinz lawsuit alleges. Ramirez’s legal team says their client is like any consumer who wants to stretch their money as far as possible when buying groceries. But due three-minute time claim, she paid more for the product than she should have and wouldn’t have purchased it if she knew the truth.
In addition to the $5 million in damages, the Florida woman is also seeking punitive damages from the food manufacturing giant in the lawsuit. She wants the courts to issue the popular food brand with a cease and desist order to halt its deceptive advertising. The company must also be made to engage in a corrective advertising campaign.
While some might be quick to dismiss the Kraft Heinz lawsuit as a cash grab, Ramirez’s lawyer, Will Wright says it’s important to hold corporations accountable in all forms. “There are a lot of people that may feel this is just a little fibbing and not really a case,” he told NPR. “But we are striving for something better. We want corporate America to be straightforward and truthful in advertising their products.” But the Kraft Heinz Foods Company dismissed the claims as frivolous.
In a statement to CNN Business, a spokesperson for Kraft Heinz Foods Company said, “We are aware of this frivolous lawsuit and will strongly defend against the allegations in the complaint.” Interestingly, this isn’t the first time a consumer has sued a company for what they deem as false advertising. A New York man filed a lawsuit against McDonald’s earlier this year.
According to BBC News, he said McDonald’s adverts made their burgers look much bigger than they actually were. Court documents went on to state that the burgers in print and on television were at least 15% larger than they were in real life. Rival Burger King was hit with a similar lawsuit in Florida this March.

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Tens of thousands of snacks and drinks have been saved from being wasted after Approved Food mounted a rescue mission in London’s West End.
The online retailer was contacted by Nimax Theatres, the company that operates the Garrick, the Apollo, the Duchess, the Lyric, the Palace and the Vaudeville – some of the capital’s best-known venues.
The recent easing of lockdown restrictions means audiences are due to begin flocking to shows such as Death Drop, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, in addition to celebrity appearances from the likes of Jimmy Carr, Kathy Burke and Jennifer Saunders.
But when staff returned from furlough to prepare for the highly anticipated restart of West End shows, they discovered many of the snacks and drinks already in stock were approaching or had passed their best before date.
With shelves, fridges and stockrooms already full, there was nowhere for the new stocks of food and drink to go.
Nimax Theatres, run by Nica Burns and Max Weitzenhoffer, got in touch with Approved Food as soon as they realised the extent of the problem.
In a matter of hours, Approved Food MD Andy Needham and his team had worked out a rescue mission that saw a vehicle from sister company Morris & Son collect provisions from all six theatres.
Some will be redistributed through the company’s website while others have been donated to street kitchens to help feed the homeless.
Approved Food has completed similar rescue missions throughout lockdown, travelling to football grounds, entertainment venues and arenas around the UK to collect and redistribute food and drinks that would otherwise have been thrown away.
Andy said: “This was one of the consequences of a sudden shutdown that isn’t immediately obvious. The theatres were in suspended animation when staff were furloughed and the doors locked for months. It wasn’t until an opening date was in sight and employees returned to get ready for the re-openings that they realised they had a problem.
“Disposing of so many items as waste was simply too upsetting to contemplate so we managed to put a plan into action within a few hours.
“Logistically, under normal circumstances, co-ordinating six separate pick-ups in the busy streets of London’s West End could have been almost impossible, especially since many of the items were no longer in their case packaging or were in difficult to access areas of the theatres.
“But the show must go on and we are now adept at collecting similar items from venues such as stadiums, arenas, conference centres, tourist attractions and even zoos. So we got together with our sister company, Morris & Son, and completed the rescue mission.
“I’m delighted there is an end in sight for the devastated hospitality and entertainment industries. It has been a long time coming and fingers crossed it will be a permanent thing and we are on the long road back now to normality.
“If there are any other venues out there with similar issues please get in touch and we will try to help wherever we can.”
Approved Food sources perfectly good ‘problem stock’ directly from food manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors, that may otherwise end up as waste, and sells it directly to consumers via the company website. This includes products close to or just past their best before date – but never anything past its use by date.


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A committee of top health, medical and nutrition experts gathered Jan. 23-24 in Houston, Texas, to develop the scientific basis for the 2020-25 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA), which establishes nutrition recommendations for everything ranging from prisons to hospitals to a doctor's advice.
This is the fourth of five public meetings the committee is holding to discuss progress in its reviews of the science, and it was the second and final opportunity for stakeholders -- from concerned citizens to health care providers to industry representatives -- to deliver in-person comments to the committee.
Cary Frye, senior vice president for regulatory affairs with the International Dairy Foods Assn. in Washington, D.C., gave oral testimony on the important role dairy can play in a healthy diet.
Frye said the committee as well as American consumers have been disappointingly subjected to misleading claims about dairy products. “These false claims have confused and scared the public for years using weak studies based on questionable scientific methods and preyed on the media’s preference for controversy,” she said.
Since the last DGA update, three things have occurred that should cement dairy’s place within the guidelines. “First, a panel of health experts from organizations including the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Heart Assn. recommended children under five consume just two beverages: cow’s milk and water. Second, dietary advice in other countries have recommended full-fat dairy products as part of dietary patterns. Third, several meta-analyses indicate there is no negative effect on heart health from consuming dairy, no matter whether those dairy products were full fat or low fat,” she testified.
Frye suggested that dairy should continue to be a separate food group in the 2020-25 DGA and said the guidelines must preserve the recommended three servings of dairy per day in dietary patterns to ensure that Americans meet their recommended intakes of essential nutrients. Also, the committee should embrace the evidence showing that dairy foods at all fat levels are part of a nutritious diet, she added.
Dr. Molly McAdams, a Texas beef rancher who testified on behalf of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Assn. (NCBA), noted that more than 20 gold standard studies have shown that beef contributes favorably to heart health and other positive health outcomes. She stated that “today, the amount of beef we eat is consistent with what science shows to support healthy diets ... and is within current DGA recommendations. We don’t need to cut back on beef intake to eat a healthier diet; rather, we should eat more nutrient-rich foods and less empty calories.
“Research now shows that plant-based diets aren’t a silver bullet, either. In addition, many Americans benefit from a low-carb and higher-protein diet with meat. DGA should encourage this choice,” McAdams added.
Nina Teicholz, executive director of the not-for-profit Nutrition Coalition, claims that, according to a report by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine, the U.S. Department of Agriculture does not adhere to a state-of-the art scientific methodology in developing its guidelines. After the 2015 dietary guidelines came out, she advocated for the guidelines to be reliable and based on the best and most current science.
“There are a lot of agendas at work here, and with the players in this field, it’s hard to make good science rise to the top,” Teicholz said, adding that financial conflicts of interest are pervasive among the expert committee disclosures, which USDA refuses to publicly disclose. For instance, a very powerful animal rights movement has promoted a vegetarian diet that has nothing to do with health but, rather, animal rights.
She said the Nutrition Coalition’s goal is to try to get USDA to base its nutritional guidance on a more rigorous scientific process and to increase transparency. She also said it is important to establish a range of options within the dietary guidelines. “The guidelines offer a one-size-fits all approach, which is so disheartening, because it is clearly not working,” Teicholz said.
Since 1970, Americans have followed the U.S. dietary guidelines, which includes a 28% drop in consumption of red meat and a 79% drop in consumption of whole milk. The availability of fresh vegetables is up 20% and fresh fruits up 35%. Plant-based food intake has risen 35% from 1970 to 2014, while animal-based food consumption is down 6%, according to data from USDA's Economic Research Service.
Danielle Beck, NCBA director of government affairs, said the National Academy of Sciences report found that bias is hard to prevent in establishing the dietary guidelines, but USDA and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services are working to prevent as much bias as feasible.
As long as the DGA committee "sticks to the science, science will speak for itself,” Beck stated, adding that NCBA has been very comfortable with working with the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee.


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Starbucks recyclable cups to hit British streets
Recyclable and compostable Starbucks coffee cups will hit the streets of London this week, meeting a promise made a year ago.
The coffee shop giant said that its new paper cup will be trialled at some of its London stores for the next four weeks.
The new cups will look nearly exactly the same as the company’s traditional paper vessels.
They replace the traditional plastic cup lining with a biodegradable material.
It is part of a push by Starbucks to make the company more environmentally friendly.
Earlier this year, it announced plans to reduce waste by 50% in the next decade.
The trial is part of the NextGen Cup Challenge, an effort by Starbucks and other food giants, including KFC, Pizza Hut, Coca-Cola and Nestle.
The consortium chose 12 finalists from hundreds of entries from “industry experts and cup scientists” for the new design. It later narrowed this down to one cup which is going to be scaled up for market tests.
London was chosen as the only European city to be part of the global trial. The other cities are Seattle, San Francisco, New York and Vancouver.
In March 2019 the company promised that customers would be trying new recyclable cups “over the next year”.
“It is with great intention that we move forward with highly collaborative and innovative work to bring both recyclable and compostable cups to scale around the world,” chief executive Kevin Johnson said at the time.
He added: “We are reimagining the future for Starbucks, and for the more than 30,000 communities we serve each day, with a great sense of responsibility for a more sustainable planet.”
The company banned the use of reusable cups in its stores last week over concerns that they could help spread coronavirus.
Customers will still get a 25p discount for bringing in their reusable cups, but will be served a disposable one.


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With the rise of virtual currency, various illegal activities including speculation, publicity stunts, and fraud have become increasingly fierce. According to an announcement issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China on August 9, since the beginning of this year, the regulator has introduced measures to clean up illegal information, accounts and websites that have constituted so-called “publicity stunts” regarding virtual currency.
The regulatory body has urged major platforms to maintain strict attacks on the speculation of virtual currency transactions, and it has intensified self-examination of information and accounts aimed at inducing virtual currency investment.
According to user agreements, Chinese social media platform Weibo, internet giant Baidu, and other websites have closed 12,000 illegal accounts such as “ICE Blizzard Entertainment Founder” and “Currency Circle Expert.” Such websites have cleaned up more than 51,000 units of illegal information, such as “investing in Bitcoin to make money easily.”
The national cyberspace watchdog has closed 989 accounts on Weibo, Baidu Tieba and WeChat that induced users to invest in virtual currency, virtual assets and digital assets under the banner of “financial innovation” and “blockchain.”
In addition, the body has instructed local network information departments interviewing more than 500 entities involved in the publicity stunts and speculation of virtual currency. 105 websites dedicated to advocating virtual currency marketing, publishing tutorials to explain cross-border currency speculation and virtual currency mining were closed as a result.
For the next step, the Cyberspace Administration of China will continue to cooperate with relevant departments to strengthen the crackdown on illegal financial activities related to virtual currency.


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Tesla’s Q4 and FY2021 financial reports were released Wednesday. Unaudited financial statements show that the company had $1.26 billion in digital assets at December’s end last year. This amount remains unchanged from the third-quarter.
The unaudited statement by Tesla of cash flows shows that no digital assets were purchased or sold in the past three quarters. In the first quarter, Tesla purchased bitcoin for $1.5 billion. Also, the company’s only sale was in the first quarter.
Musk hinted previously that Tesla has close to 42K BTC.
In March 2021, the electric car company began accepting bitcoin payments. The company stopped accepting crypto payments in May, citing environmental concerns.
Musk stated that Tesla would accept BTC once bitcoin miners can verify clean energy usage. He stated that Tesla would resume accepting Bitcoin transactions once there is confirmation of reasonable (50%) energy use by miners with a positive future trend. Tesla has yet to accept bitcoin.
Tesla is now accepting DOGE, the meme cryptocurrency dogecoin (DOGE), for some merchandise. Musk, who is also known as the Dogefather in crypto circles, has long supported dogecoin. Recently, he attempted to persuade McDonald’s to accept DOGE. He offered to eat a happy dinner on TV if the fast-food restaurant accepted the meme coin. Musk replied that McDonald’s would only accept DOGE if Tesla accepted ‘grimacecoin’.


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This post originally appeared at Smart Content News.
That $45 billion Comcast did not get to spend on Time Warner Cable seems to be burning a hole in its pocket.
On Monday, Comcast announced it would invest $200 million in BuzzFeed at a valuation of $1.5 billion, giving the old-line cable MSO entree to BuzzFeed’s more than 200 million unique monthly visitors, including 82.4 million in the increasingly elusive 18-34 age group.
“BuzzFeed has built an exceptional global company that harmonizes technology, data and superior editorial abilities to create and share content in innovative ways,” NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke said in a statement. “They reach a massive, loyal audience and have proven to be among the most creative, popular and influential new media players. We are pleased to be making this investment and for our companies to partner and work together.”
The BuzzFeed deal comes one week after Comcast unveiled a similar $200 million investment in Vox Media, valuing the parent of SB Nation, The Verge and Vox.com at roughly $1 billion.
Comcast is also reportedly planning to launch a new digital video service called Watchable that will focus on original, unlicensed content and made available to Comcast subscribers with an X1 set-top box.
As an inducement to creative talent — and to pry popular videomakers away from YouTube and Facebook — Comcast is planning to offer creators a 70 percent cut of the advertising revenue their videos generate on the service, compared to the 50-60 percent they typically get from other platforms.
While each of those investments alone is small beer compared with the $45 billion Comcast was prepared to spend to acquire Time Warner Cable, together they could produce significant returns for the MSO.
The BuzzFeed and Vox investments will give Comcast access to a rich vein of new audience data on consumers who are increasingly hard for marketers to reach through traditional TV channels. Watchable, if it gains traction, could give Comcast valuable insight into the behavior of its users when they’re not using Comcast’s traditional offerings.
Those data are the key to the strategy. Apart from their immediate benefit, the new data streams could provide valuable inputs into the data-based audience targeting platform Comcast has been building on the TV side of its business through NBCUniversal, and where it has carved out a leading position.
A survey of media buyers following the recent TV Upfront season, for instance, ranked NBCU’s Audience Targeting Platform tops among TV network data platforms, largely because it incorporates set-top box data from Comcast cable systems.
“That’s very appealing because that has not been offered in any platform to date,” one buyer told AdWeek.
As consumers increasingly cut the cord and drift away from the traditional linear TV ecosystem, that data and ad-targeting platform will grow more vital to Comcast’s and NBCU’s hopes of remaining relevant to marketers. Enriching that platform with additional sources of data and extending its targeting capability to online platforms is a logical and essential goal for Comcast, particularly if its original goal of achieving greater scale remains blocked by the government.
The $200 million antes Comcast put up for BuzzFeed and Vox Media probably aren’t the last moves it will make in the new media publishing game.


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Motorola has announced the international release of its next generation flagship foldable smartphone Moto Razr 2022. In this, Qualcomm’s latest chipset Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 has been given. The company’s new foldable phone is ready for release in select European markets after about three months.
Moto Razr 2022 Colors
According to GSMArena, the 8GB RAM and 256GB storage variant of the foldable phone, which is available in Satin Black color, will retail for 1,200 Euros, which is roughly Rs 98,500. However, Motorola has not yet told when this phone will be available. At the same time, the company has not said anything yet about the release of the new Moto Razr 2022 in India. If launched in India, the Moto Razr 2022 will be similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4. Galaxy Z Flip 4 starts at Rs 89,999 in India.
The Razr 2022 flaunts a 6.7-inch FHD+ OLED foldable screen with a 144Hz refresh rate. The phone comes with a 2.7-inch OLED cover screen that allows users to access all the functionalities without having to open the main screen. You get Android 12-based MyUX on the Razr 2022.
Moto Razr 2022 Camera and Battery
Motorola Moto Razr 2022 packs a 50-megapixel main camera with OIS and a 13-megapixel ultrawide module. A 32-megapixel camera is housed inside the punch-hole at the top of the main display. The new Moto Razr 2022 comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage.
As per the report, the 8GB/128GB and 12GB/512GB variants are not included in the global release. There is no support for microSD card in the phone. Motorola Moto Razr 2022 includes a 3,500mAh battery with 30W charging, eSIM+ physical SIM slot, IP52 splash rating, and dual speakers with Dolby Atmos.


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(VOV) - Vietnam and Austria have great potential for enhancing their trade and investment, said a top business leader.
Doan Duy Khuong, Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) vice chairman, told a business forum in Hanoi on May 29 that Vietnam is speeding up its economic reform, perfecting its legal system and market economy institutions to attract foreign investment.
“During this process, we welcome and are ready to create the most favourable conditions for foreign investors, including those from Austria,” he said.
For his part, the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber general director Walter Koren said Austrian companies are keen to invest in Vietnam. According to him, 50 Austrian companies expected not only a better insight into Vietnam’s market potential but specifically to learn the advantages of maintaining a presence in the country.
He also encouraged Vietnamese companies to co-operate more actively with Austrian counterparts to realize untapped potential.
In recent years, bilateral trade between Vietnam and Austria has shown propitious signs. In 2011, two-way trade reached US$630 million, up 240 percent against 2010, and then US$171 million in the first quarter of this year.
In order to boost the trade development between two countries, Vietnamese Trade Counselor in Austria Nguyen Thi Thu Huong advised Vietnamese companies to increase their exports to Austria, take advantage of its location to expand their markets in Europe, while being aware of business risks Last year, Austria invested US$51 million into 19 projects in Vietnam, mostly in manufacturing and processing, accommodation, food services, and entertainment.


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A CHEER went up as the velvet ropes dropped and Melbourne's first Zara boutique customers surged into the Bourke Street Mall store yesterday.
Most of the 250-odd early shoppers queued in the hour before its 9am opening but a hardy handful had camped in freezing temperatures since midnight.
''This is comparatively civilised,'' said city worker Seona James. ''I was at Target's Stella McCartney launch and that was crazy - pushing and shoving and grabbing. This is orderly.''
Miss James clutched one of thousands of the Spanish fashion chain's string-topped shopper bags evident around the city by yesterday afternoon. She pulled from it a handful of delicate patterned silk - ''three tops for $220''.
The blouses' quality was good, the prices were typically low. Zara Melbourne had a new devotee. ''This is a sign of the future,'' Miss James said, gesturing around the mall at Zara's competitors. ''Myer and David Jones have made a big effort, but these others are looking a bit tired now.''
The quality of fashion in local chains had fallen in the past five years, she said, but prices had risen. ''I used to work for a couple of them, so I know. I think [closure of the fashion chain] Colorado is a sign of what's happening already.''
Around the Mall, Zara's competitors were adjusting in creative ways. Just Jeans opened half an hour earlier and installed a crew of cheerful girls to hand out discount flyers. Forever New stayed open an extra hour last night to match Zara. ''It's been a bit busier this morning, so that's good,'' said a store worker. ''It's good for traffic.''
Bardot set up outside its store a barista's cart offering free coffee. ''Anything new creates a buzz and more foot traffic's good for us,'' said manager Lashanda Houston.
Zara shoppers oscillated between euphoria - ''It's amazing, fantastic, so much good stuff'' - and disappointment - ''I think the sizes are quite small, like, an 'extra large' would only be a 13, or 14 at the most.''
Spanish corporation Inditex owns the Zara chain of 1900 stores worldwide, two of which are now in Australia. Sydney's opened to chaotic scenes two months ago and queues still form daily outside that Westfield store in peak periods.


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Twitter brought together marketing minds from all over Hollywood in Santa Monica on Tuesday to show off what the company calls its “creative toolkit”: the growing number of video-based products and services that can help entertainment industry drive audience engagement.
Attendees were able to sample everything currently in the toolkit including Periscope, Vine, Amplify and Snappy TV and Niche. All together, they represent myriad ways content companies can publish, create and collaborate to get the word out for their own product on mobile devices. “When we think about what how we want to engage with our partners, it’s about making sure we’re connecting all the pieces of what’s possible,” said Jennifer Prince, senior direct of media and entertainment at Twitter. “We want the entertainment category to know what to do with everything from GIFs to Periscope.”Prince explained the timing for the event was idea as movie studios finalize their summer marketing plans and TV networks get their fall lineups together. From a Twitter perpsective, the company is also looking to get the word out on some of its newer video ad products, including scratch reels, promoted video on Periscope and conversational ads like the one Marvel recently did for “Captain America: Civil War” enabling personalized replies.
Boasting the hashtag #twitter4entertainment, the event was held at headquarters for Tastemade, which counts Twitter as just one of the many digital platforms on which its content about food and travel gets distributed every day. “Twitter is a great partner for us and has been for some time,” said Steven Kydd, one of Tastemade’s founders.
Tastemade treated attendees to cuisine from chefs the company works with in Argentina and Brazil.
Hanging out with @Tastemade video creators at #Twitter4Entertainment tonight! 🍽 pic.twitter.com/SSYpTu4m86
— Twitter Video (@TwitterVideo) May 11, 2016


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IDC: PC shipments fell another 15% in the third quarter compared to Q2 last year
Earlier this year, IDC reported that PC shipments for the second quarter of 2022 fell 15.3 per cent compared to the second quarter of last year. Now the analysts have published preliminary results for the third quarter, which show that the industry suffered another decline of 15%.
Total shipments (direct-to-consumer plus shipments to distribution channels) increased to 74.3 million, up from the 71.3 million units shipped in Q2, but below the 80.5 million units shipped in Q1 (which represented a decrease of 5 .1% year after year from the 1st quarter of 2021).
Overall, it looks like 2022 will be weaker than last year. That said, shipments are still “well above” pre-pandemic levels, as a large portion of the new PCs purchased were just intended to replace old Windows 7 machines as the operating system neared its end-of-life phase (the deadline was the 14 January, 2020).
What will happen then? Well, IDC has also been keeping an eye on the average selling prices (ASPs) of computers. There was a shortage of components and their prices rose (as did the cost of logistics), so ASPs rose for five consecutive quarters, reaching a high of $910 in the 1st quarter of this year, the highest level since 2004. ASP’ however, declined in Q2 and again in Q3, indicating “a market in retreat,” writes Linn Huang, research vice president, Devices & Displays at IDC.
|Top 5 Companies, Worldwide Traditional PC Shipments, Market Share and Year-over-Year Growth, Q3 2022 (Preliminary Results, Shipments are in Thousands of Units)|
|company||3Q22 Shipments||3Q22 Market share||3Q21 Shipments||3Q21 Market share||3Q22/3Q21 Growth|
|2. HP Inc.||12,706||17.10%||17,603||20.20%||-27.80%|
|3. Dell Technologies||11,963||16.10%||15,184||17.40%||-21.20%|
|Source: IDC Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker, October 10, 2022|
Looking at individual companies, Apple increased by 40.2% compared to the same period last year, the rest of the Top 5 companies were in decline. This means that Apple almost matched Dell in volume this quarter, although the situation looked very different in Q3 last year – Dell shipped twice as many computers as Apple did back then.
A quick note on what IDC includes under the “PC” label – this means desktops, laptops and workstations, but not x86 servers or tablets (2-in-1 convertibles weren’t included either).


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Mid-November may feel too early to be bopping along to Christmas tunes, but there’s one Christmas tradition that requires a long head start. English Christmas cake, according to Out magazine editor Aaron Hicklin, needs at least five weeks to mature, a process that calls for the cake being regularly soaked in booze. (If only human maturity was developed the same way.)
Hicklin, who moved to New York from the U.K. in 1998, explained that Christmas cake is primarily made up of dried fruit such as raisins, cherries, orange and lemon peel, as well as almonds. After being baked at a low temperature for several hours, the cake is kept in an air-tight metal cannister. Then every few days, holes are poked in it and brandy, rum, or port is added in spoonfuls.
Since the dried fruit already has a long shelf life, keeping it in a cake for weeks on end has no effect on the quality. Instead, the regular addition of liquor or wine allows the fruit to really soak in the liquid. “That makes that cake rich and really kind of gives it depth and kind of almost a chocolaty, velvety quality,” Hicklin said. He also recently started adding dried blueberries as a nod to American traditions.
Hicklin also stressed the importance of using quality dried fruit, since that is the cake’s main component. “People who dislike fruitcake may not have had homemade fruit cake,” said Hicklin, who adds that store-bought versions can be off-putting. “And homemade fruitcake is… on a whole other level.”
Hicklin, who is the partner of WNYC’s Ilya Marritz, said that the traditional dessert has a long history in the U.K., where it originated as a means of preserving fruit through the winter. Thanks to Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria and a man credited with popularizing Christmas trees and cards, there’s even a day dedicated to making the cake.
(Photo: Aaron Hicklin)
“He instituted Stir-Up Sunday, which is actually a Protestant day,” Hicklin said. “It’s the last Sunday before Advent, which typically falls in late November… it’s really a day when the whole family gets together, and they stir up the fruit for the Christmas pudding and the Christmas cake... I never knew any family that celebrated Stir-Up Sunday, but I kind of want to institute it.”
This year, Stir-Up Sunday falls on November 24. While that may still be several weeks before Christmas, Hicklin explained that the cake has the advantage of lasting several weeks past the holiday, as well.
“In the nuclear winter, the only thing left standing would be… scorpions and Christmas cake,” he joked. “Typically, you would eat it… from Christmas day through to the 12th day of Christmas. And I mean, I defy anyone to still have any cake left after 12 days. It’s delicious.”
If you’re interested in starting a Stir-Up Sunday tradition in your house, Hicklin recommends this Christmas cake recipe from the English cook Delia Smith.


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Do you think that only high-tech Startups have a chance? In this CBS News video, Mark Isreal describes how he started baking doughnuts in his apartment and delivering them via bicycle, but now sells over a million doughnuts a year from Doughnut Plant.
Today the SUNY Fredonia Technology Incubator announced that the Silicon Wolves Computing Society (SWCS) will be joining their incubator program. SWCS is a consumer-friendly high-performance computing system developer and manufacturer of the most advanced workstations and computer gaming solutions on the market. The high-tech start-up company recently relocated to the Incubator from Anaheim, Calif.
We are thrilled to be in Dunkirk and affiliated with SUNY Fredonia through the Technology Incubator,” said Ryan Wolf, President of SWCS LLC. “This is a great community, and a renowned university and we are excited about our opportunities for growth.”
SWCS is a computing solutions manufacturer and integrator that conduct research and development in highly specialized computer workstations, desktops, laptops and servers, and in particular, develop and configure dedicated computing solutions for Cloud, Virtualization, HPC and Reconfigurable Computing environments.
The Incubator is all about attracting companies which are poised for substantial growth, and helping them through the process while providing them access to the resources that a nearly 6,000-student institution like SUNY Fredonia can provide,” said Robert Fritzinger, Director of the Technology Incubator. “I see a strong fit between Silicon Wolves Computing Society, the SUNY Fredonia campus, and the Incubator and I am anticipating a successful partnership.”
Read the Full Story.
Today ScaleArc announced a set of new customers, a growing network of national resellers, and a new U.S. office to accommodate the company’s rapidly growing global operations. The company’s software lets companies instantly scale their database environment and gain visibility into real-time SQL analytics without having to modify existing applications or databases.
We’re excited by the strong customer response we’re seeing,” said Justin Barney, president and COO of ScaleArc. “The rapid adoption of iDB validates the fundamentally different approach we’re taking to database infrastructure by giving customers a turnkey, easily deployed solution that provides instant horizontal scaling, higher availability and performance, and real-time SQL-analytics so they can instantly troubleshoot issues and speed-up database responses without requiring any modifications to existing applications or databases.”
Read the Full Story.
In this video, TechCrunch interviews StartUp Health, a new NYC company focused entirely on bringing the health care and wellness industry into the future.
In this video, Lisa Kavanaugh from Ask.com describes how employees can learn both courage and creativity through onstage antics, which translate into new product development and growth.
In this video, Alex Iskold, founder and CEO of social entertainment network GetGlue, tells Fast Company how startups can increase their user bases in the most effortless way.
In this video, Reid Hoffman, Steve Case and Peter Diamandis the founders of LinkedIn, AOL and the X PRIZE tell Ali Velshi what makes a successful startups and how startups can help fix the jobs crisis.
Last week, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to pass a bill that would let small business raise money through crowdfunding – and would make it easier (and cheaper) for them to go public. The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act would ease certain Securities and Exchange Commission rules that make initial public offerings expensive, and force many small companies to delay them. The Senate has not yet voted on a similar version of the bill.
Said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor after the bill passed in the House: “This bill makes it easier for startup businesses to happen again in America. By having a win like this, I think we can demonstrate that [both political parties] really can work together.”
Read the Full Story.


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Tomb Raider: Phoebe Waller-Bridge Reportedly Penning Amazon Series
Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) is reportedly set to write and executive produce a live-action Tomb Raider series for Amazon's Prime Video.
The popular video game franchise Tomb Raider looks to be getting a live-action series adaptation from Amazon's Prime Video, with Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) reportedly set to pen the streaming series (though Waller-Bridge isn't planning on starring in the project). Still in its developmental stage, the series falls under Waller-Bridge's recently renewed overall deal with Amazon. In addition, Waller-Bridge will executive produce the Amazon series along with Ryan Andolina and Amanda Greenblatt.
First announced back in January 2021, Netflix's Hayley Atwell, Allen Maldonado & Earl Baylon-starring anime is set to pick up after the events of the highly successful "Tomb Raider" video-game reboot series. Twenty-five years after her first game appeared, Lara continues to explore new territory. Baylon reprises his role from the video game as the voice of Lara Croft's (Atwell) most trusted friend Jonah Maiava, while Maldonado is set to voice the team's tech expert and colleague Zip. Executive Producers are series writer Tasha Huo (The Witcher: Blood Origin, Red Sonja), dj2 Entertainment Founder and CEO Dmitri M. Johnson (Sonic the Hedgehog), Stephan Bugaj, and Howard Bliss; and Robinson, under his company Tractor Pants. Here's a look back at a previously released look from October 2021:
In the first 25 years since its launch, the "Tomb Raider" video game series sold over 81 million copies and garnered a treasure chest worth of awards. The game's success has led to a global franchise encompassing movies, merchandise, comic books, and now, a stylish animated series. The game release, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, received numerous "Best of" nominations and awards. The "Tomb Raider" video games are developed by Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montréal and published by Square Enix. On the live-action side, Lara Croft was brought to life by Angelina Jolie in two films (2001 & 2003). Fifteen years later, the franchise was revived with Alicia Vikander tackling the lead role (to name just some of the past and in-development projects).


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'Some of the animals were showing signs of significant psychological distress including compulsive, constant pacing'
The store, which stopped selling fur in 2005, said it wants to 'inspire brands and customers through thoughtful, ethical and transparent buying strategies'
The giant corporation, which has partnered the Humane Society International on its #BeCrueltyFree campaign, says it's invested more than $420 million over forty years in developing non-animal test methods
People from South Korea and around the world signed a petition against the grisly trade
Animal protection figures have called the industry a 'scam'
They want to support each other in 'progressing veganism and meat reduction in the UK and beyond'
A number of organizations are campaigning for new legislation
The experiments involved killing the dogs to examine their internal organs
Campaigners have called for the improved treatment of animals
Almost every surface of the apartment was covered in feces
Disturbing photos expose the grim reality of the dog meat industry
The shift is part of a program to 'build a fair world for animals'
The retailers have since dropped the items
TK MAXX, Boohoo, And Not On The High Street are some of the big names
He desribed the experience as 'emotional'
The high profile vegan sisters give shoppers their top tips
More than 170 whales have been killed in what Japan claims is scientific research


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Decathlon unveils rebrand with Wolff Olins and AMV BBDO
The brand transformation 'Ready to Play?' campaign reflects the brand's shift from French retailer to global sports brand
12 March 2024
Decathlon, the third biggest sports company in the world, has relaunched its brand to reflect its transformation from French retailer to global sports brand, in partnership with global brand consultancy Wolff Olins.
Following a collaboration over two years, the rebrand spans across strategy, design, internal culture and brand experience, and encompasses every Decathlon touchpoint: revitalising the visual identity, the product portfolio and the omnichannel experience.
Since its creation in 1976, Decathlon has catered to pros and beginners alike - the company designs for all sports, all people and all levels. But despite the scale of the business, its brand voice wasn’t carrying it well enough into the hearts of customers or future audiences.
With the appointment of Barbara Martin Coppola as Global Chief Executive Officer of Decathlon in 2022, Wolff Olins was briefed as trusted brand transformation partner to support the new business strategy of shifting Decathlon from a French retailer to a future-fit global sports brand.
With the Sports category changing rapidly in line with consumer trends, the question at the centre of the strategic approach was: what role does sport play in our lives? Insights showed that people's love for sport is not tied into the winning, but in the enjoyment and wellness it brings.
This led to the development of a new purpose for the organisation: ‘to move people through the wonders of sport’, with the entire brand strategy anchored around the idea of wonder. Wonder as the promise of amplifying all the emotions of sport; enjoyment, connection, adventure. Celebrating movement, participation and progress. An invitation for people to play their way, on their terms.
The new Decathlon brand platform is rooted in its new positioning ‘make sport yours’; enabling everyone to embrace sport on their own terms and live happier, healthier lives. Breaking away from the category’s traditional focus on perfection and injecting a sense of play and enjoyment back into sport.
The Wolff Olins team streamlined a portfolio of 85 brands into one unified brand: Decathlon. This supported the design of a desirable, expressive visual identity that positions Decathlon as a maker, not just a retailer. This included revitalising the iconic blue, celebrating the iconic, heritage wordmark and introducing the new brand icon: L’Orbit.
L’Orbit is an expression of the brand’s purpose; conveying movement and circularity, with a strong angle inspired by the iconic wordmark and a peak representing its connection to outdoor sporting activities. It will now feature prominently on all products, from play to pro, signalling a new narrative for sport.
The wider identity system is designed to work effortlessly across all channels. A new voice, art direction, motion, iconography is brought together with a bespoke typeface: Decathlon Sans. Inspired by the iconic Avant Garde wordmark of the 1970s, Decathlon Sans is both expressive and technical in its details and design, making it impactful wherever it is met.
A motion system brings the Orbit to life, working across animated type, imagery, layouts and cinematography with a signature orbital movement. The approach to art direction aims to redefine sport, with a focus on emotion and authenticity as well as showcasing a spectrum of narratives that embrace the diversity of ages, abilities and sports that makes Decathlon unique.
To launch the new Decathlon brand to the world, Wolff Olins’ sister creative agency AMV BBDO has developed a campaign centred on the concept of play. At the heart of the creative work lies a profound human insight: regardless of age, skill or sport, the joy of play lives in every single one of us. Decathlon invites everyone, everywhere to rediscover the joy of play. In a world where stress and perfectionism hold so many people back from enjoying sport, Decathlon simply asks, "Ready to Play?". This bold question serves as an invitation and rallying cry to experience the sheer delight of movement and spontaneity, fostering a deeper connection between individuals and the world of sports.
The integrated campaign will launch with a hero 60-second film directed by Hector Dockrill, through Magna Studios. The film mixes original footage and found footage and celebrates sport, not as we’re used to seeing it, but as it truly occurs with real people around the world. From children to older people, from beginners to professionals, everyone in this film is united by the spirit of play. The out of home campaign, featuring stills shot by Tom Sloan, also captures the joy of real people at play across a range of sports. Versions of the film will also run in 30, 15, and 6 second formats, across TV, digital and social media.
A full 360-campaign, it will first air during Decathlon’s official launch event in Paris and across its global markets on 12 March, and broadcast across 70 markets throughout the month.
Barbara Martin Coppola, Global Chief Executive Officer at Decathlon, said: “Today marks a very special moment in both the history and future of Decathlon. Now more than ever, business needs to be a force for good and we hope that by moving people through the wonders of sport, we can do that while building a new narrative for the category. From day one, the Wolff Olins team has been a close partner in driving this transformative vision forward with us, navigating the brief with considered detail and aplomb. We are overjoyed to reintroduce Decathlon to our customers, our teammates, our partners and our communities today, and really celebrate the start of a new era for our global business.”
Celine Del Genes, Global Chief Customer Officer at Decathlon, added: “We understand that the role of sports to people worldwide is evolving, and our new brand directly reflects this changing dynamic. It unites all of Decathlon’s customer initiatives and elevates how we go to market in a fresh and playful way. Wolff Olins’ customer-centric approach to the development and design of the brand will help connect people of all levels with Decathlon and enable them to make sport theirs, on their terms. AMV BBDO have done a fantastic job heroing this through the concept of play in the launch creative. Huge congratulations to all involved, it’s been a real ‘dream team’ collaboration.”
Emma Barratt, Global Executive Creative Director at Wolff Olins, commented: “From the start of our journey together it was clear that Decathlon is special - it deserved a brand that matched its heritage and its ambitions. Decathlon has always been for everybody; a sportsmaker, misunderstood as a retailer. A democratising influence in sport, fast becoming a leader in circularity. But above all, its aim to simply bring fun, joy and wonder to people of all levels and abilities. We have honoured this with the new brand and identity, which is an open invitation for all to move in their own way. It has been inspiring to work so closely with the impressive Decathlon leadership and we couldn’t be more excited to see how they will continue to innovate and bring the wonder of sport to the masses.”
Laura Rogers, Executive Creative Director at AMV BBDO, added: “Play is at the heart of the Decathlon brand, from their stores to their people and now, in their communications. We’re delighted to share Decathlon’s unique, democratic and people-centred approach to sport with the world. We hope that this work, which is our first in partnership with the brand, inspires people everywhere to find that joyous spirit within themselves and get out there and play.”
External partners: FourOneNine, Studio PIC, Peek Content, Grilli Type
Wolff Olins: Emma Barratt, Neil Cooper, Steffan Cummins, Astrid D’Hondt, Flora Gouin, Milan Kendall-Shah, Guy Marshall, James McNaught, Finn O’Brien, Rico Oyejobi, Hanni Randell-Bateman, Matt Saint, Charlie Stott, Jocelyn Turlan, Millie Tyler, Tom Wason
Brand: Decathlon Brand Platform Global Launch
Campaign title: Ready to Play?
Client name: Celeste Raphael Goumain, Erwan Soquet, Lola Le Blanc, Caroline Marien, Jean Chevalier, Guillaume Ramond and Vitor Tovar
Creative Agency: AMV BBDO
CCO: Nick Hulley and Nadja Lossgott
Executive Creative Director: Laura Rogers
Creative Directors: Jack Smedley and George Hackforth-Jones
Creative Director/Copywriter: Tim Riley
Creative Director/Art director: Michael Jones and João Paulo Testa
Social creative: Chelly Brown
Agency Planning Team: Alice Aldridge and Rebecca Brett
Agency Account Team: Bruna Bechelli, Pink Kitsawat, Kenza Chakib, Alexandra Sandford-Smith and David Stokes
Agency Producer: Nick Godden (Film), Rhiannon Nicol (Photography),
Agency Assistant Producer: Kieran O’Malley
Agency Designer: Simon Dilks and Dian Sofia
Production Company: Magna Studios
Director: Hector Dockrill
Production Co. Producer: John Bannister
Post-production Company: Coffee & TV
Sound studio: Sine Audio
Audio Post-production: Sine Audio
Local Production Company: Gatehouse Commercials
Director: Meghan Daniels
Production Co. Producer: Nick Voortman
Photographer: Tom Sloan
Photographer Agent: LalaLand Artists
Retouching: Studio Private


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Author ：Iflowpower – Portable Power Station Supplier
In recent years, my country's new energy auto production has continued to rise in high-speed growth in the world, maintain the world's first. As it is, the problem of power lithium battery recovery is increasingly prominent. According to the useful life of the vehicle power lithium battery 5-8 years, in 2014, the battery launched in 2015 entered the batch scrap period in 2020.
Data show that 2019 global power lithium battery accumulated recovery of about 120,000 tons, the market size is about 10.5 billion yuan. Industry estimation, in 2020 my country's power lithium battery recovery will reach 26.
69GWH (about 200,000 tons), the corresponding market size has increased significantly from 137% to 17.5 billion yuan, this is the first wave of lithium battery recovery peak; to 2025 Then there is 110GWH (about 800,000 tons) power lithium battery to be recovered, and the corresponding market is more than 70 billion yuan. From a longer time and from a global perspective, the International Energy Agency expects that the global lithium-ion battery recycling market will rise to 20 billion euros (about RMB 164.
8 billion) in 2030. This is a huge cake. Policies to promote waste of old dynamic lithium batteries, if not recycling, the potential harm to people and the environment is obvious.
Recycling reasonable recycling, it is not only possible to avoid hazards, but also improve the recycling of battery raw materials, and policies have given sufficient attention to this. On August 5, in order to regulate the recovery of scrapped motor vehicles, strengthen the recycling and dismantling management of the report, the Ministry of Commerce, the Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the implementation rules of the "Recovery Management Measures" (hereinafter referred to as "Rules" ). The "rule" has clearly defined from the aspects of qualification and management, recycling of dismantling behavior, recycling behavior, supervision and management, legal responsibility, etc.
, from September 1, 2020. More than "rules" on September 1. As early as April 29, the 17th National People's Congress Standing Committee passed the revised "Solid Waste Control Law of the People's Republic of China" (referred to as "solid waste law"), this year Officially implemented September 1.
The new "Solid Waste Law" stipulates: 1. Strengthen the responsibility system, battery brand and big agents will involve waste battery recycling; And illegal disposal is more than 3 tons, if there is no recycling certificate, a large number of hoarding, the old battery will make criminal law, etc. In other words, the new "Survival method" will severely crack down on the non-compliant "small workshop" battery recycling.
On the other hand, it is better to standardize the operation of the battery recycling company. Under policy drivers, my country has initially formed a recycling system that is co-consisted with multiple parties such as vehicle, battery companies, materials companies, third-party recycling companies. As far as the total number of companies related to the current power lithium battery recovery, the inspection verification data shows that there are 208, including 41 new year ago, this year's new company accounts for 19.
71%. At present, there are 3,000 companies in my country's business scope of "battery recovery". In recent years, relevant company increments have risen year by year, only 700 new companies in 2019.
Specific company, it is understood that a large number of power lithium batteries such as Ningde Times, BYD, Greenmeal, Nandu Power, Sandton, China AV, China University, Swong Technology and other large batteries are all in the field of battery recycling field. For example, in August 14, investors asked "Can I recover new energy cars?" China, Nandu power reply, the company's subsidiary China Platinum new materials, Nandu Huayu and Central South University have established technology joint development The group, while having its own R & D team, the R & D and application of lithium-ion battery recycling and re-use key technology, as of 2019 disclosure, the company's first year of treatment 25,000 tons of waste lithium ion battery recycling project has received construction License, is working on equipment bidding. Green Mei's deep-cultivation resource circulation utilization area for many years, "With the arrival of the dynamic lithium battery, the company's cobalt nickel recovery is expected to continue to rise.
"Greenmeal thinks. Green Mei said, revolving around "battery recycling - raw material reconstruction - material recreation - battery pack reconstruction - new energy car service" new energy cycle value chain Recycling agreement and unconventional cooperation, including BYD Auto, Beiqi, Juanluo, Jaguar Road Tiger, Toyota Industrial Vehicle, Dongfeng Honda, Ningde Times and other new energy automobile production companies and battery companies. Green Mei revealed that from 4 to May this year, the number of recycling of its dynamic lithium battery pack has exceeded last year, and it is expected to double up all year round.
Summary: In fact, the huge power lithium battery recycling market, and it is not as good as the first wave of peak is now the first wave. Because the more developed, the more developed, the year is the year, and there will be no low valley period in the next few decades. Library dynamic lithium battery recycling market and has explored profit models, inevitably becomes big in the future!.
Copyright © 2023 iFlowpower - Guangzhou Quanqiuhui Network Technique Co., Ltd.


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Hawken Latest News
Indie developer Adhesive has unveiled a new mech for their first person mech shooter Hawken, as well as a new co-op game mode.
Indie developer Adhesive Studios has announced that the studio will be adding leaderboards to Hawken to spur more competitive gameplay. They expect the feature to go live in November.
Indie developer Adhesive Games' free-to-play mech-based shooter Hawken will be getting a major update by the end of the month, which will revamp mech customizable, among other things.
Meteor Entertainment has enlisted the help of monetisation firm Live Gamer to help launch its free-to-play shooter.
Adhesive Games has announced that Hawken is to be delayed. The upcoming mech title will receive an open beta period on 12th December, allowing the team to work on changes provided from community feedback.
No new release date has been set.


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Articles - Innovation Watch
A total of 51 items listed.
INNOVATION WATCH - Indoor positioning system
Cambridge-based Ubisense combines Ultra Wide Band radio, RFID tags and GPS to create a sophisticated object-tracking system
Innovation Watch - Helping Buildings Breathe
A Cambridge based company, Breathing Buildings, has achieved rapid commercial success by producing a pioneering method of natural ventilation in buildings
Innovation Watch - Greener buses
Innovation Watch - Intelligent queue monitoring
Retail businesses are using infrared technology to speed up customer queuing times
Innovation Watch - Home area network for energy visibility and control
AlertMe is a recent UK innovation helping consumers control their energy usage.
Innovation Watch - Speckled mobiles
An explanation of the ripples that effect mobile phone reception
Innovation Watch - Radical approach to air decontamination
A machine that decontaminates indoor air and surfaces eliminating viruses, bacteria and superbugs
Innovation Watch - Secure Hypervisor
‘Virtualisation’ enables computing resources to be optimised for power and performance
INNOVATION WATCH - Flybrid Flywheel
Affordable hybrid cars could soon be on the market thanks to a new kind of mechanical energy storage device.
INNOVATION WATCH - A quiet revolution
A new generation of wind turbines designed to take into account the turbulent wind patterns of urban environments.
Innovation Watch: shock absorbing material
A flexible polymer that stiffens on impact is now being used in protective sportswear, military equipment, and in coverings for high-value goods.
Innovation Watch - Autonomous taxis
A new form of driverless taxi is set to ferry passengers at Heathrow Terminal 5


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ANCAP will adopt Euro NCAP protocols in-full from 2018
The Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) plans to essentially align its testing criteria with sister organisation Euro NCAP by 2018.
ANCAP will also make some changes over the interim, from January 1, 2015, that will see it directly transfer many Euro NCAP results without running them through its own testing policies and protocols.
Essentially it boils down to ANCAP altering its standards over time until it reaches a point of parity with Euro NCAP, which at present for example has harsher marking standards on preventative safety technology such as Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB).
The “transition phase” operates in parallel with ANCAP’s existing ‘Road Map’ out to 2017, which lays out the increasingly stringent requirements for getting a five-star result.
Every year, ANCAP makes it harder to attain the maximum score. For example any car launched from this year needs side-rear head-protecting airbags to get five stars, which as we know has ruled out the Renault Captur from the maximum score when it launches early next year.
This process, along with what ANCAP’s research shows as an increased demand for safety in new vehicles from consumers market-wide, is the mechanism by which NCAP organisations the world over attempt to force safety innovations from car-makers in lieu of regulatory oversight.
“Cars tested by Euro NCAP we’re going to take them as they are…” ANCAP CEO Nicholas Clarke told CarAdvice today.
ANCAP has for the past 15 years used Euro NCAP data, but in the words of Clarke, has also been “filtering them through our own protocols”. Euro NCAP is a bit ahead of ANCAP at the moment in areas such as forcing the fitment of AEB and lane departure warning, for instance.
So, for example, from 2015 cars tested under Euro NCAP guidelines will need to have AEB to get five stars. ANCAP will apply this procedure to all European cars sold here.
But, for instance, a Japanese car not sold in Europe and not made to meet this criteria will still be assessed under ANCAP’s provisions that will not yet require mandatory AEB. This will discourage European brands from de-speccing cars for Australia.
Then, from 2018, any and all cars sold here will be judged with the same rule book as Euro NCAP, whether they’re sold in Europe or not.
The practical application from then will be thus: Cars tested in Europe will have that grade applied directly to Australia via ANCAP. Cars not tested in Europe, meaning those not sold there, that are offered in Australia will be tested in Australia by ANCAP.
This means that post-2017, when Australia no longer has a mainstream car manufacturing industry, ANCAP will still physically crash vehicles here. Clarke projects the current ratio, of sourcing 50 per cent of its results from Europe and 50 per cent from local testing, to more or less remain in place.
“Improvements in vehicle safety design and development in the past few years have been swift and substantial - particularly in the realm of advanced safety assist collision avoidance technologies - and test programs the world over are adjusting their plans to match pace,” Clarke said.
"The ANCAP Rating Road Map already takes some of these changes and advancements into account however given the rapid pace at which vehicle safety is moving, and the need for new car assessment programs (NCAPs) to acknowledge these advancements, ANCAP has revised and expanded its forward plan.
“This is an important step in the evolution of ANCAP and NCAPs worldwide as we work together to share knowledge, data and expertise; and encourage manufacturers to develop cars for a global market.”


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In a surprising reveal at the 2019 Shanghai Motor Show in China, Hyundai has unveiled the second generation ix25 SUV, or what we better know in India as the Creta compact SUV. The current generation Hyundai Creta and the Hyundai ix25 share the same underpinnings, and you can expect the same with the new generation version too, including the design, features and possibly powertrain. The new ix25 gets new design elements shared with the new Sonata and the new Santa Fe and the Palisade as well. The styling is bolder than the current model and looks more compact as well.
The 2020 Hyundai ix25 gets an upright front with the massive cascading grille taking all the attention, while the headlamps get the split set-up much like the new Kona and the upcoming Hyundai Venue that debuts in hours from now. There's a new brushed silver skid plate integrated in the front bumper, while expect to see something similar at the rear too, along with revised LED taillights. Interestingly, the alloy wheel design is similar to that we've seen on the upcoming Venue subcompact SUV and certainly looks good. The roof gets the black treatment with the side panels finished in brushed silver too. There's additional cladding on the side as well for a slightly rugged look. Overall, the new Creta looks beefier than its predecessor whilst retaining its sporty, urban appearance.
Inside, the new generation Hyundai Creta witnesses a complete overhaul over the current model. The cabin has moved up a notch on the premium quotient with a massive touchscreen infotainment system taking prominence and integrates well with the centre console. Even the usage of buttons is minimal, hinting at a more virtually connected cabin. It would be safe to say that the model will come equipped with the new Hyundai BlueLink connectivity system right from the start along with the usual tit bits including Android Auto and Apple CarPlay compatibility. The ix25 for China also displays features like cooled seats, paddle shifters, electronic parking brake and a Terrain mode. Although not confirmed, the new generation Creta is expected to be offered in both five and seven-seater versions.
With respect to the powertrain, the all-new Hyundai Creta is expected to get new 1.5-litre petrol and diesel engines. The new power mills will also propel the Verna facelift when it arrives sometime next year. Needless to say the engines will be BS6 ready when the arrive in India. The second generation Hyundai ix25 or the Creta arrives at a time when the compact SUV segment is hotting up globally. The model will lock horns against a number of offerings in India including the Renault Captur, Nissan Kicks, Tata Harrier, Jeep Compass, the upcoming Kia SP2i SUV as well as the MG Hector.


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Just a quick PSA for all our readers rockin’ the Verizon Fascinate: the recent over-the-air update (DL09) introduced a bit of a nasty bug. You know that little “Emergency Call” button that shows up at the bottom of the screen on the pattern unlock screen, so you can dial 911 without unlocking the handset? Yeah, that button doesn’t work.
Samsung’s comment on the matter:
It has come to the attention of Samsung Mobile during the recent DL09 OTA (Over-the-Air) update for the Samsung Fascinate that some users utilizing the Pattern Lock are finding that the Emergency Call shortcut is not automatically launching the dialer. However, unlocking the device will allow the user to make calls as they normally would, including emergency calls. We apologize for the inconvenience and are continuing to evaluate the issue, including if the issue is linked to the update.


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Marketplaces are big business online and poised to get bigger. As more people transition to freelance and consulting, marketplaces are how small businesses find willing buyers all around the world. For an SMB getting off the ground, the opportunity is massive and sounds dreamy, but it’s not a free ride —competing against so many other vendors, today’s marketplace sellers have just a few seconds to convince potential buyers that they’re a trustworthy trading partner.
Ecommerce firms like AirBnB, Etsy, and Amazon give small firms the ability to sell through to large audiences and across geographies they could never reach without using a marketplace. These ecommerce platforms have made transactions silky smooth for buyers, but it’s still frustratingly hard for small businesses to get paid. There’s a lot of friction around payouts, especially for international sellers.
Bridging international payments between buyers and sellers
That’s where Payoneer comes in — the NYC-based technology firm sees itself as an enabler of cross border trade, in particular for small businesses. The company helps sellers on dual-sided marketplaces like Amazon sell to buyers around the world and get paid in their local currencies. Payoneer opens virtual bank accounts for sellers in the countries that they’re doing business. Sellers can then cash out by transferring cash to a Payoneer debit card or to a local bank account. Sitting in between the payments of marketplace sellers and buyers, Payoneer is almost like middleware for global trade.
“There’s been an incredible transformation, an opportunity for buyers and sellers to meet across borders, but what hasn’t changed are the challenges in moving money around world,” said Scott Galit, CEO of Payoneer. “In a world where everything is digital, marketplaces were still kind of stuck with letters of credit, wires, and checks. We’re building a digital b2b payment platform that brings together techology and a new global approach to selling and getting paid.”
Marketplaces exhibit strong growth
Indeed, Payoneer moved into a space that seemed ripe for the taking. Marketplaces are seeing much stronger growth than general ecommerce. According to the Internet Retailer 2016 Top 500 Guide, of 26 retailers that disclosed their sales from online marketplaces, marketplaces brought in $455.5 million, or 14.4% of their total $3.17 billion in sales in 2015. That’s up 42.9% from $318.8 million worth of goods sold through marketplaces the year before.
It’s taken Payoneer 11 years to hone its payments ecosystem. The firm has invested heavily in its banking and global compliance infrastructure — it takes years of planning and millions of dollars to expand into new geographies, like the company recently did in Japan. Payoneer handles 200,000 monthly applications from SMBs from 200 countries. “If an entrepreneur pitched me today to raise money for an idea like Payoneer, I probably would have said he’s crazy,” joked Payoneer’s Galit.
Using marketplaces to acquire customers
“Many top fintech companies struggle to acquire customers — we got lucky when we started and then got smarter along the way,” explained CEO Galit. In the early days, individual sellers sought out Payoneer to help them sell internationally. But over time, these same sellers, like those on the leading skills marketplace, Odesk (now called UpWork after merging with Elance) brought the payments provider to the attention of the marketplace’s management. Once Odesk started offering its freelancers the option to get paid using Payoneer, word spread to other marketplaces. Now, two-thirds of all seller applications show up at Payoneer directly. According to Galit, the firm recently held a meetup in Guangzhou, China and had 1000 suppliers show up at the event.
Going upscale, moving downtown to B2B
Payoneer’s ability to handle mass payouts has secured them much of the B2C marketplace business where transactions are small and frequent. But, the firm’s had its eye on expanding into B2B payments where payments are much larger and the trust divide is larger between buyers and sellers. Letters of credit, still the go-to payment structure for larger commercial transactions, are time consuming and expensive. Because of all this, many B2B marketplaces function as matchmakers, receiving payment to connect buyer to seller but leaving them to transact on their own.
To move into this new territory, Payoneer acquired Armor Payments in March of 2016. Armor offers what it calls, Escrow as a Service (EaaS). This service injects an added layer of confidence to B2B transactions — ensuring that each side is protected and encouraged to complete the sale.
Payoneer’s Galit believes the true potential of the merger will emerge in the near future as the tie-up influences B2B marketplaces to move away from the matchmaking model and become fully transactional. “Instead of focusing on listing fees, with Armor and Payoneer, B2B marketplaces can fully monetize the trillions of dollars expected to be transacted on B2B marketplaces over the next few years,” he said.


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A Google affiliate began utilizing drones Friday to deliver customers’ Walgreens and FedEx purchases in a test being run in a Virginia town.
Wing, which is owned by Google parent Alphabet, obtained federal approval earlier this year to make commercial deliveries by drone. It was the first drone that got permission within the U.S., beating out Amazon’s Prime Air, which revealed its drone plans in 2013.
Earlier this month, UPS additionally received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to fly delivery drones. The company has been operating delivery tests with WakeMed’s hospital campus in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Wing partnered with Walgreens, FedEx, and local gift store Sugar Magnolia to carry out the tests in Christiansburg, Virginia. Walgreens customers within the town will be capable of ordering from a list of more than 100 items and getting them delivered to their doors by drones.
The first Walgreens drone delivery customers ordered cough and cold medicine. A Wing drone additionally delivered a FedEx package from Dick’s Sporting Goods to another family in town.
Susie Sensmeier received a purple winter vest she ordered from Dicks Sporting Goods delivered by a drone to her front yard. The 81-year-old mentioned she never thought she’d see something prefer it.
The Wing has already launched tests in Canberra and Logan City, Australia, and Helsinki. However, Friday’s flights mark its first live commercial deliveries within the U.S. since receiving the air carrier certification from the FAA.
Wing CEO James Ryan Burgess noted the speed with which drones could make deliveries sometimes within minutes of ordering and the environmental profit of getting fewer delivery trucks on roads.
Privacy and safety considerations have been a concern throughout the U.S. as drone use increases. However, Burgess stresses that Wing’s delivery drones don’t operate with the same intention as those flown for hobbies.
The goal of Wing’s drones is not to take pictures and video, he stated, however, instead to safely make deliveries. There are cameras on Wing’s drones that are used for navigation; however, Burgess mentioned the pictures are processed onboard the aircraft and not streamed back to Wing’s main servers.


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AMD Radeon Pro SSG Will Transform Workstation PC Architecture
AMD has announced it is developing a new Radeon Pro solution for large dataset applications, to be available initially as a developer kit.
HP and AMD Used for Spirit City VR Teaser
HP's Z Workstations featuring AMD's FirePro W-Series GPU allowed Hasraf Dulull to create this VR teaser for Spirit City.
AMD Breaks 8GHz Overclock Record
AMD breaks the world record for CPU speed with its new 8GHz overclocked processor.


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Appearing Friday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) praised China’s response to combat the coronavirus, despite the communist regime’s attempts to cover up the spread of the deadly illness.
A transcript is as follows:
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Senator, is our system up to this? You were talking about our system needing to be up to this. Bank of America, major banks, are calling this a recession right now. What is it that keeps it from careening into a depression?
SEN. GARY PETERS: You’ve got to keep people working. That’s important to understand that not everybody can necessarily go home and shelter-in-place. You still have to keep the economy moving. One thing that I’m particularly concerned about is when you think about critical supply chains, things like food, our grocery stores, we have to have people continuing to work. You got to continue to have some manufacturing going on. I think it’s important to realize, if you just shut down industries, it’s not like you can just push a button at some point in the future and start it back up again. It’s a lot more complex than that. And if you have a supply chain that’s been deteriorating, small businesses that close down and can’t re-open, some estimates say a very large percentage of these small businesses if they close, their not going to be able to re-open. That creates havoc in the supply chains. When we do get through the health crisis aspect of it, you can’t just turn on a switch to get the economy running right away. We’ve got to focus on that.
While we’re dealing with the healthcare crisis, which is first and foremost, you’ve got to deal with that, but you’ve got make sure you’re helping families, you make sure unemployment insurance is there, you make sure families aren’t losing their homes or can’t buy food. At the same time, you’ve got to keep other elements of the economy going to work. We saw that in China. Outside of Hubei province, a lot of the factories continued to work. They separated their employees, they had partitions, they found ways to continue to keep some of the economy going in other parts of the country that weren’t impacted as much as it was in Hubei. We’ve got to be doing that same kind of thing here. Thinking strategically on dealing with the disease, but also maintaining our economy so that when we do get through it, it can come back up fairly quickly.


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Peshawar Zalmi, arguably the most popular franchise in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), is renowned for brilliant performances on the field and exceptional marketing off it. Zalmi has always been ahead of the curve with their marketing and promotion with extraordinary anthems, kits, and roping in celebrities from across the world to promote the franchise.
Keeping with their trend of bringing in celebrities, Zalmi has once again signed one of Pakistan’s most famous stars, Mahira Khan, as brand ambassador for the upcoming seventh edition of the tournament. Mahira has been associated with Zalmi over the past four years.
Zalmi took to various social media platforms to announce Mahira as their brand ambassador for PSL 7.
We are pleased to announce @TheMahiraKhan as Peshawar Zalmi's Brand Ambassador for PSL 7 marking 5 Seasons of association with Zalmi.
— PeshawarZalmi (@PeshawarZalmi) January 9, 2022
Peshawar has always had top Pakistani celebrities as their brand ambassadors over the years. Last year, they roped in the likes of Mahira Khan, Hania Aamir, Dananeer and also brought in famous Turkish actor, Esra Bilgiç to their team of brand ambassadors.
Zalmi has also been at the forefront of bringing innovation to the kits in PSL. Their latest kit, which will be used for PSL 7, took social media by storm for its unique design which pays homage to the city of Peshawar and to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Peshawar will be seen in action in their first match of the tournament against Quetta Gladiators on 28 January at National Stadium Karachi. The team will be determined to go one step further this time and win the title after finishing as runners-up in the previous edition.
You can also check the complete PSL 2022 schedule here!


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For many Apple fans, the Apple AirTag is a very useful product. Allows you to find lost items quickly and effortlessly. But agree that this is not a final product and it still takes some time to fix the bugs. Let’s just remember the last few times when thieves used it to track luxury vehicles and stole them. Now, the product sends alerts to people who are not being tracked at all.
False alerts from Apple AirTag
Recently, a mother and daughter were leaving Disney World when their daughter received a notification on her iPhone saying that someone was watching her using someone else’s AirTag. Although no incident occurred, this caused tremendous unrest and terrified her.
The same thing happened with Ryan McClain, a 25-year-old trader in Indianapolis. He received a notification last month saying he was being watched. “It was a shock for my morning,” he said. “I thought, ‘Who would want to chase me?’ “Who would want to hurt me?”
Another case we want to recall refers to an iPhone user, 24-year-old Natalia Garcia. She received a notification telling her that “An AirTag was found to be moving with you”. Received the alert after one night in downtown Chicago. “It was scary,” Garcia said. “I checked my bag, looked around to make sure no one put an AirTag on me,” he said. He tried to force the tracker to ring his alarm clock, but the Find My app simply said “AirTag Not Reachable”.
Further reading: Apple AirTag and other trackers could do more harm than good
The point is, Apple AirTag sends false alerts to people. Thus, no one is watching them, but warns them as they are being watched. Worst of all, iPhone users may receive notifications in the middle of the night. Agree that this could be scary. We understand that this is a mistake or an error. But it does not save Apple users from falling victim to it.
However, Toronto-based consumer researcher Marcus Geisler found the motion pattern created by AirTags strange. “The AirTag motion plan on the map looked extremely strange,” Geisler said. “I thought my neighbor’s dog might have swallowed it by mistake,” he said, adding that he could not find any AirTag fraudsters.
The Wall Street Journal He said the reports had created “confusion and concern and led the recipients to pursue a wild duck”. When trying to figure out if there is logic in the directions of the alerts, the creation patterns show the erratic movements of these AirTags moving in irrational directions.


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Bitesize Blighty: September 28, 2018
- Savers in the UK now have an opportunity to Bank with one of Wall Street’s investment juggernaut as Goldman Sachs launched a savings account for members of the UK public. The new savings, called Marcus, offers savers a competitive rate of 1.5% which is the highest return seen in the UK savers market in well over two years. This offer is expected to shake up the market for challenger banks, who will have to confront the competition from a banking heavy weight like Goldman Sachs and will likely see savers moving their savings pot from high street banks like HSBC to the shiny new Marcus.
- This week, the Competition and Markets Authourity (CMA) published its findings on the proposed merger of two of UK’s largest grocery retailers, Sainsburys and ASDA.Following the referral of the merger proposal to the competition watch dog in August and a finding that the deal raises sufficient concerns to be referred for a more in-depth review as "at a local level, the parties' stores overlap in several hundred local areas across the UK.”. This means that the merger could substantially lessen competition. The merger proposal has now been referred for full market review through a Phase 2 inquiry which will take into account changed market dynamics.
- It has been another Friday of locked customer accounts for UK banks as TSB and HSBC bank users had difficulties with their mobile banking app. Spokespeople for both banks have issues an apology, promising to continue investigating.


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The Gray Lady Agrees: Southern Workers Are Cheaper Than China's
By Harold Meyerson | Aug 03, 2015
Today’s New York Times features a front-page story on Chinese textile firms opening new factories not in China but in the American South. With the steep rise in the wages of Chinese workers and the stagnation (at best) of the wages of American workers—Southern workers most particularly—and with the higher levels of productivity and lower energy costs that U.S. factories enjoy, it actually is cheaper to manufacture in Dixie than it is in Guandong.
The Times article echoes my piece in the current issue of the Prospect, in which German union leaders on the boards of that nation’s auto and aerospace manufacturers stated that it was cheaper for their companies to operate low-wage assembly plants in the South than it was in China. What the Times piece doesn’t echo is the thesis of my article: that low Southern wages have had the effect of bringing down wage levels across the nation, both in manufacturing and in retail (for which Walmart’s move north, while maintaining Southern wage levels, is largely responsible).
There’s nothing wrong in the Times piece not looking at the macroeconomic consequences of the story it documents; that would entail writing and editing an entirely different article. Where the Times piece fails on its own terms, however, is in omitting any reporting on the wages paid to the workers in the Chinese-owned factory in South Carolina that is the subject of the article. The piece does report that local residents are “desperate for work, even at depressed wages,” but it neglects to specify with a dollar figure just how depressed those wages are. It does cite the national average for manufacturing wages, but that’s an average that runs from, say, skilled operators of sophisticated machinery at Boeing’s plant in Seattle to, it’s probably safe to assume, workers like the employees at the South Carolina textile factory that is the subject of the Times piece.
The article further omits the fact that South Carolina is one of five states never to have passed a minimum-wage statute, or that the rate of unionization there is 2.2 percent—the second-lowest in the nation. It omits the nationwide effects of low Southern manufacturing wages—one of a number of factors that contributed to the 4.4 percent decline in the median U.S. manufacturing wage between 2003 and 2013, and a leading factor in the decline of the hourly wage differential between all Midwestern and Southern workers (not just those in manufacturing) from $7 to $3.34 between 2008 and 2011, according to Moody’s Analytics.
Still, missing the broader implications of its own story is one thing. Missing the key fact of what the workers’ pay is in the very factory the piece reports on is something else—particularly at a moment when the Times is increasingly running stories on the stagnant or declining wage levels of the vast majority of American workers. Don’t the reporter and editors who worked on this otherwise commendable story ever read the Times?


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KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama): Supermax Corp Bhd's net profit for the second quarter ended Dec 31, 2018, rose to RM38.14mil from RM35.9mil recorded in the same period a year ago.
Revenue increased 14.6% year-on-year to RM385.1mil from RM335.91mil previously, following the commissioning of new replacement lines at its Perak plant and full-quarter contribution from plants 10 and 11, the group said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia today.
“The construction of our 12th plant has commenced and it will add to the group's production capacity when completed,” it said.
Supermax, Malaysia's largest own brand manufacturer and the world's second largest producer of rubber gloves, also reported basic earnings per share of 5.82 sen versus 5.42 sen previously.
It said the global market for disposable gloves remained vibrant for both natural rubber and nitrile variants, driven by various factors including rising healthcare awareness and healthcare reforms mandating its use in the medical and other non-traditional sectors.
“Global demand continues to grow at a rate of eight to 10% per annum and these positive factors continue to augur well for the company and the industry as a whole,” it said.On its contact lens business, Supermax said it would continue to work on obtaining the necessary product licences and approvals, expand its product range to include other types of lenses such as toric and colour lenses, and increase the market penetration for its products globally.
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