Planet Business

Image of the week: Connected cats

This poor cat is wearing a "Tsunagaru Col" gadget, next to a smart phone displaying the connected app, at the Wearable Device Technology Expo in Tokyo. The gadget by Japan's Anicall Corp ("Tsunagaru" means connection) tracks information about pets, including details of the other animals that it might be interacting with, with the purpose of providing "social networking" for animals. Yes, wearable technology is going to the cats and dogs. Social networking has already gone there, in fairness.

Photograph: Reuters / Yuya Shino

In numbers: Getting to the crunch

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Flavours of crisp sold by Belfast’s Simply Crispy! cafe, which claims to be the world’s first outlet to specialise in the delicacy known as the crisp sandwich.

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Hours it took before the cafe sold out of its one dish after it opened to feed the carbohydrate-craving queues on Monday.

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Weeks that the pop-up cafe, the latest in a line of novelty establishments, expects to stay open before everyone gets sick of crisps and never wants to eat one between slices of bread ever again.

The lexicon: Hydrogen embrittlement

Short version: The “Cheesegrater” has lost a third bolt and it’s all the fault of “hydrogen embrittlement”. Say again? London’s Leadenhall skyscraper, nicknamed the Cheesegrater, lost two of its steel bolts in November and now a third broken bolt has been caught by “precautionary tethering”. Here’s the science bit: In a process called hydrogen embrittlement, single hydrogen atoms diffuse into the steel, combining with others to form two-atom hydrogen gas molecules in small cavities, creating pressure from the inside. Cracks start to appear. So now a number of bolts, which are a little under 1 metre long, will be replaced. But it’s just a precautionary measure - definitely just precautionary.

Getting to know: Romeo Beckham

These are good times for Romeo Beckham (12), the second son of David and Victoria. He's been credited with boosting fourth-quarter sales at luxury group Burberry, for which he toils as a brand ambassador. Young Beckham has appeared in three ads for Burberry to date, including a four-minute festive promo (directed by chief executive Christopher Bailey) in which he wore the fashion house's "Heritage" trench coat and played Cupid in snowy London, with the aid of some magical fairy dust stored in a Burberry gift box. Some 9 million YouTube views later, and US sales soared like one of his father's free kicks.

The list: Last Christmas

So how was Christmas? “Oh, you know, it was quiet.” When your friends and colleagues report a quiet Christmas, they invariably look glum. But for retailers, it’s disastrous. Here are five companies that would have preferred it to be a lot livelier.

1. Game Digital: Shares crashed more than 50 per cent on Wednesday after it admitted that too many Black Friday discounts had killed subsequent sales.

2. Boohoo. com: The company revealed last week that not all online retailers are having a joyful time of it.

3. Thorntons: The confectioner got its profit warning out of the way before Christmas, blaming lower supermarket sales.

4. Morrisons: The UK grocer's figures were so rubbish it sacked chief executive Dalton Philips.

5. Marks & Spencer: Amazingly, its clothing ranges continue to grow in unpopularity.