After protests, NJ Transit makes major change to plan for controversial power plant

Emilee Geist 2 days ago

After more than a year of protests on land and even in the water, environmentalists got their wish. An NJ Transit project to build a back-up power system to keep trains running will be fueled by solar and battery storage instead of natural gas.

“We are reimagining the project to make it more environmentally friendly,” said Kevin Corbett, NJ Transit CEO, at Friday’s Alliance for Action transportation conference. “The goal is to get to 100% renewable energy. We want to make it as green as possible.”

The project, known as Transitgrid, has been opposed by environmentalists and 13 Hudson and Bergen county towns and cities that passed resolutions opposing the project because it would worsen pollution in North Jersey.

The 140 megawatt generator is part of the larger NJ Transitgrid Power System, a $546 million project that would provide electricity to Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, parts of NJ Transit’s Morris and

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Cooler Screens Shows Tech Can Make Money And Protect Privacy With ‘Identity-Blind’ Digital Advertising

Emilee Geist 2 days ago

Despite growing concerns about data privacy, most brands still rely on consumer information to make sure their ads get in front of the right people at the right moment in time. But change is coming. Consumers have taken note of the brands that are evolving their business practices and those that are not. The next generation of digital advertising will follow a new business model that delivers streamlined digital experiences without compromising customers’ personal information. This new world of advertising will come in the form of “identity-blind” ads that no longer need individualized, personal information to generate the same, or better, results. 

The New, Identity-Blind Advertising Model

Chicago-based Cooler Screens aims to prove this new model by bringing everything customers love about online shopping (and none of the tracking) to frozen and refrigerated food aisles across the nation. What exactly is Cooler Screens doing? The company is replacing old glass

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The Designers Group CEO on how COVID-19 has changed interior design

Emilee Geist 2 days ago

Blima Ehrentreu is the founder and CEO of The Designers Group, an interior design firm with offices in Toronto, New York, and Miami. She spoke to Doreen Lorenzo for Designing Women, a series of interviews with brilliant women in the design industry.

Doreen Lorenzo: Have you always been interested in design? What led you down this path?

Blima Ehrentreu: I always had a passion to create, improve, and perfect. As a kid, I wanted to be involved in anything visual. After graduating with a master’s degree in interior architecture and design, I started working at an architectural firm. That’s where I learned how to work with drawings and plans, and the technical side of design. In 2009, I founded The Designers Group with another designer—and what started as a two-woman firm in Toronto has since blossomed into an international firm with locations in Toronto, New York, and Miami. At TDG,

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DOJ, 11 States Slap Google With Antitrust Lawsuit

Emilee Geist 3 days ago

The U.S. Department of Justice and multiple states have filed suit against Google parent company Alphabet over antitrust allegations, in what could lead to a moment of reckoning for the tech industry.

The federal court docket, which surfaced Tuesday, didn’t itemize details of the case, but according to earlier media reports that day, Google is accused of engaging in anticompetitive tactics to preserve its search and advertising businesses and block competition.

More from WWD

Public comments from DOJ officials center on Google’s large investments to maintain its position as the default search engine on Android devices. Google, which makes the Android platform, has paid billions to smartphone makers, carriers and browser developers, the officials reportedly said, functionally cementing distribution by preinstalling the search engine on handsets and prohibiting its removal.

Responding to a WWD request for comment, Google offered the following statement: “Today’s lawsuit by the Department of Justice is

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Three Simple Solutions To Take Your Company Communications To The Next Level

Emilee Geist 3 days ago

Founder + Creative Director at Gallery Design Studio NYC, award-winning B2B communication design agency.

Take a moment to look at the website you’re reading this article on: Is it easy and simple to navigate and understand? Of course it is. But did you know copywriters, designers and developers spent countless hours making it that way? 

When things run smoothly, we don’t question the clarity of the design or the information provided. It’s when things don’t work as expected or a critical piece of information is not clear that you realize the value of clear and simple messaging and information placement.

That’s why when building a website, it’s so important to invest time and resources to create clear and simple communications for users, employees and prospects. When you don’t, you run the risk of your users not understanding what you are trying to convey, thus setting yourself up for

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This Giant Inflatable Frosty the Snowman Is Taller Than Your House and Puts on a Dazzling Light Show

Emilee Geist 3 days ago

Photo credit: Hammacher Schlemmer Reviews
Photo credit: Hammacher Schlemmer Reviews

From Best Products

Prepare for an decoration so big that there’s a very real chance that you’ll have to set it up outside. Hammacher Schlemmer is selling an 18-foot inflatable Frosty the Snowman that will tower over every other decoration in the neighborhood. It’s even bigger than that insane viral skeleton that people couldn’t stop talking about for Halloween!

This inflatable looks exactly like the beloved Frosty, complete with corncob pipe, button nose, two eyes made out of coal, and a candy cane in hand. He even has that old silk hat that brought him to life! All you have to do is activate the built-in electric air pump and it’ll inflate in minutes — just make sure you have plenty of space when you do!

As if the size itself weren’t enough to gain the attention of your neighbors, the fact that it puts

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Mitigating the High Costs of Shopping Cart Abandonment

Emilee Geist 3 days ago

shopping cart

It happens regularly, and most of us have done it ourselves. A customer is on an ecommerce website, looking at various items, and adding some of them to their shopping cart. Then something happens during their experience, and they make the decision to abandon the website and its associated shopping cart, meaning that the brand lost both a sale and a potential customer.

According to a report from the Baymard Institute, shopping carts are abandoned an incredible 69.57% of the time! Shopping cart abandonment costs brands billions of dollars each year, and yet it can be avoided through usability studies, redesigns, and customer-centric ecommerce practices. This article will look at the various ways brands can avoid shopping cart abandonment and increase ROI by understanding the bottlenecks and pain points that are the leading causes of abandonment.

Top Reasons for Shopping Cart Abandonment

Deborah Goldring, associate professor of marketing at Stetson

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Learn How to Make a Professional Shopify Store with These Online Courses

Emilee Geist 3 days ago

Partner content by StackCommerce

As you may already know, Shopify is a commerce platform that allows anyone to set up an online store and sell their physical or digital products. Businesses of all sizes use Shopify, no matter if they sell online, through social media, in stores, or out of the trunk of their cars. In other words, Shopify is a popular platform for anyone who wants to build their own eCommerce business.

Although it’s an intuitive platform to use, you can easily set your eCommerce business and Shopify store apart from the crowds with the right approach. That’s where this bundle of online courses enters the picture.

The Complete Shopify Bootcamp Bundle teaches you how to create and launch a successful Shopify store with a 30-hour video guide to SEO, dropshipping, design, and branding. Normally $1,194, this bundle of online courses is on sale today for $29.99 (97% off).

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The Strange Ways That Celebrities Are Getting Out the Vote

Emilee Geist 3 days ago

Tyler, the Creator’s phone camera appeared to be smudged. He had aimed his lens up his nostrils. He seemed to be sweating. “I know I’m the last person y’all should ever take advice from,” the 29-year-old rapper told his fans in a video posted to Instagram and Twitter. “But I’m reiterating what everyone else is saying. Please, please, if you’re young, and your fucking back don’t hurt, go to the polls and cast a fucking vote.”

Stylistically, this was a typically scruffy and profane message for an artist whose signature chorus goes, “Kill people, burn shit, fuck school.” Substance-wise, it seemed to make him squirm. In the past, Tyler said in the video, he “didn’t give a fuck about none of this shit”—politics—“just like a lot of y’all … But I see the light.” He wants follow-through for the Black Lives Matter movement. He wants more arts education in schools.

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The aim of these rocks at JoCo museum is to bring smiles

Emilee Geist 3 days ago

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Thea Levin, 4, takes a closer look at the Kindness Rocks at the Johnson County Arts & Heritage Center.

Courtesy photo

Need some bold colors to bring a bit of cheer? The Johnson County Arts and Heritage Center’s Kindness Rocks project might brighten your day. A new painted rock garden is taking shape just outside the Overland Park building.

Installed Oct. 8, it’s a partnership with Overland Park Painted Rocks, a local group that’s been painting rocks for years. Leawood resident Shannon Levin, who’s been part of the group for about a year and a half, approached the center with the idea toward the end of the summer.

“In the metro area, there’s not a full rock garden anywhere. It opened up that doorway for us to say yes,” said Devin Graham, fine arts coordinator for the center. “Being an arts and culture center, it just kind of fit with

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