According to an article from safnow.org, the Society of American Florists (SAF) has created a new policy, to take down fraudulent trade practices. The article states that due to a rise of web-based marketing, phony advertising practices have impacted florists across the country. These practices include, but are not limited to, false or misleading advertisements or purposefully failing to explain fees through tricky or ambiguous language.

Per the article, the SAF Retailers Council created the policy to increase the industry’s reputation and circumvent negative sales or customer interactions. As a whole, the policy is designed to protect both retailers and consumers.

Tim Galea, of Norton’s Flowers & Gifts in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and a member of SAF’s board of directors and Retailers Council, was quoted in the article and said, “Going back 40 years ago, deceptive advertising started with the Yellow Pages, and then the Internet upped it a level.” Galea owns Norton’s Flowers & Gifts in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and is a member of SAF’s board of directors and Retailers Council, according to the article. “These retailers are misleading consumers by saying they are in a different location than where they are physically located. With the adoption of the Deceptive Trade Practices policy, SAF is taking a stand for local retail florists by clearly defining ethical retail business practices and providing a mechanism for SAF members to report policy infractions to the association.”

Continue to the full article on safnow.org to read the full policy.

According to a recent article published on NPR, IBM engineer George Laurer has passed away at the age of 94. Laurer is most famous for creating the universal bar code now used across the world for retail packaging.

Read the story, below:

On a June morning in 1974, a Marsh Supermarket cashier in Troy, Ohio, rang up a 67-cent pack of Juicy Fruit chewing gum using something novel — the black and white stripes of a universal bar code.

The Universal Product Code is now a packaging mainstay on everything from cereal boxes and produce to electronics and airplane tickets, but it might not have worked without IBM engineer George Laurer.

Laurer, who died this month at 94 in North Carolina, had been given an assignment by his manager: Write a proposal for grocery executives explaining how IBM would take a previously invented bar code pattern, in the shape of a bull's-eye, and make it work in supermarkets across the country.

But when that manager returned from a vacation, Laurer was there to meet him. "I didn't do what you asked," he said.

Instead, Laurer had created something else — the bull's-eye was gone and in its place was a linear bar code. Laurer had deemed the bull's-eye design unworkable. The circular code, inspired by Morse code and patented by N. Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver in 1952, was too small, and it would smear when run through the poor-quality printing presses used for most food labels at the time.

Continue to the full story at NPR.

According to an announcement, GardenComm will provide scholarships that range from $500 to $1,000 for any student pursuing a career in garden communications, and the deadline is today, Dec. 13. The scholarship includes a year of membership to GardenComm.

The announcement states that students must be enrolled in either of two categories:

Community colleges and technical schools

The GardenComm Kathleen Fisher Memorial Scholarship is made in recognition of Kathleen Fisher who was the editor of The American Gardener, the journal of the American Horticultural Society. It is given annually in the amount of $500 to any full-time or part-time post-secondary or graduate student, including technical schools and community colleges, majoring in horticulture, plant science or journalism, with an interest in garden communications.

Colleges and universities

GardenComm general scholarship grants are provided for college-level juniors or seniors, as well as graduate students, enrolled as a full-time student majoring in horticulture, plant science or journalism, with an interest in garden communications, including garden photography. General scholarships are given annually and vary in number (2-9) and amount ($500-$1,000) depending on the earnings of the scholarship endowment. It is beneficial for horticulture or plant science majors to have taken courses in journalism and vice-versa, although exceptions will be made.

In recent years, over $100,000 has been awarded to outstanding students, per the release. Grants range from $500 to $1,000 per student at the discretion of the GardenComm Board of Directors. Scholarships will be awarded directly to the institutions on behalf of students.

If you are a student or know someone who is interested in applying, click here.