Italian fashion duo go a little bananas over a name



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.

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