A tiny South African jewellery business has been forced to rebrand after the Italian fashion icons Dolce & Gabbana took umbrage at the Cape Town business's tongue-in-cheek name, Dolce and Banana. Lawyers for the Italian company produced a 300-page affidavit in the Cape High Court, accusing the South Africans of diluting Dolce & Gabbana's brand.
Dolce and Banana said it didn't have the resources to contest the claim and instead has begun using "... and Banana" for its line of jewellery made from natural materials. The website is still dolceandbanana.com, though.
As compensation, the company has the chance to reap a publicity windfall. They need merely to follow the example of The Blackball Hilton, a small hotel in a town on the wild west coast of New Zealand's South Island. Faced with a similar cease-and-desist letter from the hotel megacorporation's lawyers, they renamed it as Formerly The Blackball Hilton and never looked back.
Testy driving
How do you get out of a car that's plunged into water? How do you drive through a flock of sheep? Which way should you jump from a rolling vehicle? And how do you staunch bleeding from a major artery (possibly in someone who incorrectly guessed the answer to the previous question)?
These are all genuine questions from the written section of China's driving test. And for good reason: crowded roads and burgeoning car ownership in the world's most populous country mean that more than 62,000 people died on Chinese roads last year. On average, nearly one in every thousand drivers is involved in an accident causing injury or death each year.
Those who seek a licence are given 100 questions, selected at random by a computer, and have to get 90 right.
Tree house in the sky
Every kid dreams of a tree house, but few would have envisaged the one built in Tennessee by Horace Burgess, which now reaches 10 storeys into the sky - dwarfing the six trees on which it was nominally built. The structure was constructed over 11 years from mostly recovered materials and goes out as well as up, featuring more than 900 square metres of living space. This includes - as any good treehouse should - a spiral staircase, a choir loft and a basketball court.
Watery lesson
How else to end a night out in Canada than to jump in a shopping trolley with your buddies and go through an automatic car wash on the "typhoon" setting?
Three 20-year-olds were found by British Columbia police, who had been called to the Vancouver car wash around midnight after people heard screams.
The three aquanauts were in a state of undress and could be said to have dined not wisely but too well. They were given an official warning by the police, who probably deemed that by that stage, the trio had already learned a far more painful lesson than anything officialdom could come up with.
Blind faith in GPS
Three Japanese tourists on holiday in Australia opted to trust their car's GPS to direct them to Stradbroke Island, off the coast of Queensland.
The word "island" should have been a clue. The GPS recommended route included 14km across Moreton Bay but failed to suggest that this might best be done by ferry. They arrived at low tide and set off across the sand and mud flats. They got about 500 metres.
jhenzell@thenational.ae
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
RESULTS: 2018 WORLD CUP QUALIFYING - EUROPE
Albania 0 Italy 1
Finland 2 Turkey 2
Macedonia 4 Liechtenstein
Iceland 2 Kosovo 0
Israel 0 Spain 1
Moldova 0 Austria 1
Serbia 1 Georgia 0
Ukraine 0 Croatia 2
Wales 0 Ireland 1
Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
Match info
Uefa Champions League Group H
Manchester United v Young Boys, Tuesday, midnight (UAE)
How to increase your savings
- Have a plan for your savings.
- Decide on your emergency fund target and once that's achieved, assign your savings to another financial goal such as saving for a house or investing for retirement.
- Decide on a financial goal that is important to you and put your savings to work for you.
- It's important to have a purpose for your savings as it helps to keep you motivated to continue while also reducing the temptation to spend your savings.
- Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
WORLD CUP SEMI-FINALS
England v New Zealand
(Saturday, 12pm UAE)
Wales v South Africa
(Sunday, 12pm, UAE)
The biog
Favourite Emirati dish: Fish machboos
Favourite spice: Cumin
Family: mother, three sisters, three brothers and a two-year-old daughter
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
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Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
The biog
Favourite book: Men are from Mars Women are from Venus
Favourite travel destination: Ooty, a hill station in South India
Hobbies: Cooking. Biryani, pepper crab are her signature dishes
Favourite place in UAE: Marjan Island
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
The specs: 2019 Audi A7 Sportback
Price, base: Dh315,000
Engine: 3.0-litre V6
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 335hp @ 5,000rpm
Torque: 500Nm @ 1,370rpm
Fuel economy 5.9L / 100km
Turning%20waste%20into%20fuel
%3Cp%3EAverage%20amount%20of%20biofuel%20produced%20at%20DIC%20factory%20every%20month%3A%20%3Cstrong%3EApproximately%20106%2C000%20litres%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EAmount%20of%20biofuel%20produced%20from%201%20litre%20of%20used%20cooking%20oil%3A%20%3Cstrong%3E920ml%20(92%25)%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ETime%20required%20for%20one%20full%20cycle%20of%20production%20from%20used%20cooking%20oil%20to%20biofuel%3A%20%3Cstrong%3EOne%20day%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EEnergy%20requirements%20for%20one%20cycle%20of%20production%20from%201%2C000%20litres%20of%20used%20cooking%20oil%3A%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3E%E2%96%AA%20Electricity%20-%201.1904%20units%3Cbr%3E%E2%96%AA%20Water-%2031%20litres%3Cbr%3E%E2%96%AA%20Diesel%20%E2%80%93%2026.275%20litres%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Match info
Liverpool 4
Salah (19'), Mane (45 2', 53'), Sturridge (87')
West Ham United 0
Zodi%20%26%20Tehu%3A%20Princes%20Of%20The%20Desert
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EEric%20Barbier%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EYoussef%20Hajdi%2C%20Nadia%20Benzakour%2C%20Yasser%20Drief%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Company profile
Name: Dukkantek
Started: January 2021
Founders: Sanad Yaghi, Ali Al Sayegh and Shadi Joulani
Based: UAE
Number of employees: 140
Sector: B2B Vertical SaaS(software as a service)
Investment: $5.2 million
Funding stage: Seed round
Investors: Global Founders Capital, Colle Capital Partners, Wamda Capital, Plug and Play, Comma Capital, Nowais Capital, Annex Investments and AMK Investment Office
Vidaamuyarchi
Director: Magizh Thirumeni
Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra
Rating: 4/5
Crazy Rich Asians
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeon, Gemma Chan
Four stars