Malta’s favourite beer Cisk takes home multiple international awards

Dec 10 2021

No less than four brews from Farson’s portfolio were awarded in the International Beer Challenge (IBC) 2021. The latest competition was judged last September in the UK, winning the local brewery even more fame and recognition to add to their growing acclaim.

A silver prize was awarded to Cisk Export – the excellent quality 5% ABV premium lager and made especially for the export market. Farsons Green Hop IPA followed suit with another Silver award, having been the latest addition to the Carson’s Classic Brews portfolio. This also marks the first award for the newly launched beer.

Cisk Excel was awarded Bronze, the famous first low-carbohydrate beer with original Cisk Lager taste. Considering how the IBC rewards and promotes excellent beers from around the globe, these awards acknowledge the skill of the brewer to compete on an international level.

But there’s more… Cisk Excel was also awarded a Silver medal in this year’s edition of the Brussels Beer Competition. These awards follow the announcement last week of the Gold metal awarded to Cisk 0.0 in the Non and Low Alcohol Beer – Class 1 category at the International Brewing and Cider Awards 2021.

Last but not least, Cisk Strong, a 9% ABV Premium Lager, was awarded a Bronze medal in the Strong Beer – Class 1 – lager category. Eugenio Caruana, Chief Operations Officer, commented on how his year’s awards come after a particularly challenging year for the industry globally.

‘They are a tribute to a skilled and experienced team whose dedication to the craft of brewing is unrivalled. We are extremely proud of these results, our beers and their rich heritage and tradition.’

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Photo Source: Cisk FB

Urgent request submitted by PN to discuss anti-cannabis petition

Dec 10 2021

The Nationalist Party formally requested the Parliament Petitions Committee to convene and discuss a petition submitted by an NGO coalition last week.

The petition calls for a number of amendments to be made to the cannabis reform. Among other things, the petition is calling on MPs to increase minimum age for cannabis consumption from 18 to 25, along with fines for smoking cannabis in public to double.

The petition also calls for regulation of the amount of cannabis THC consumed and the increase of distance between cannabis associations and schools to one kilometre. It also asks that anyone living next to a school be banned from growing cannabis in their home.

The Bill, having made it through the committee stage, requires a final vote to be taken in Parliament on Tuesday.

After this, the Bill would be signed by President George Vella and made law. The Bill has faced its fair share of criticism by many, but now the Opposition requested a division.

This is partly due to the fact that the petition has just been submitted, with the party going on to state that after a formal parliamentary request earlier this week, contact was also made with Labour MP Joe Mizzi, the petitions committee chairperson.

This was in order for it to be convened urgently to discuss the petition by 53 NGOs and others. With no reply received, the Opposition formally wrote to the chairperson to urgently convene before the vote.

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Photo Source: Bernard Grech FB, BBC

‘I will make a show out of police if they fine me for not wearing mask’

Dec 10 2021

Uploading videos and posts to Facebook, Edwin ‘Dwinu’ Gatt went on to reveal how he will ‘make a show’ on social media with the first police or LESA officer who tries to fine him for not wearing a mask.

Gatt’s posts follow the most recent introduced measure wherein Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne announced that as of Saturday, masks will need to be worn outside in public spaces. Gatt made it clear that he was not having it, questioning why people got vaccinated against COVID-19 if mask mandates will still come into effect.

*Warning – Contains strong language*

He also went on to shrug off the recently discovered Omicron variant, mocking it by saying that soon enough, Optimus Prime will ‘come and transform and you’ll swallow that up too.’ Gatt also seems to have gotten some online support for his views, going on to thank anyone who backed him up. He did criticise both political party and also, falsely, accused those who got vaccinated of being more likely of spreading COVID-19.

As of yet, the penalties for not wearing a mask were not specified. The previous mask mandate between October 2020 and July 2021 had fines at €100, reduced to €50 if paid before commencing legal proceedings.

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Source: Edwin Dwinu Gatt FB, Chris Fearne FB

Instagram’s chronological feed will be making a comeback in 2022

Dec 10 2021

Instagram head Adam Mosseri has revealed that the company will be bringing back a version of its feed which shows user’s posts in chronological order instead of its current ranking algorithm. The current algorithm sorts posts based on user preferences, but became largely disliked by users who prefer to have their posts and others’ surface in a timely fashion.

This was introduced in 2016 and updated in 2017 to include recommended posts. Using AI, it creates what Instagram considers a more personalised feed. Despite the company asserting otherwise, users heavily critiqued this feed. But it seems the company may have given in as, speaking during a Senate subcommittee on Wednesday, Mosseri revealed the 2022 update.

This will see Instagram become a home page with a single stream of photos appearing according to when they were uploaded. In June 2021, Mosseri wrote on a blog post saying that ‘it became impossible for most people to see everything, let alone all the posts they care about.’

He explained how by 2016, people were missing 70% of all their posts in Feed, ‘including almost half of posts from their close connections.’ This led to the development of the current algorithm. Instagram will not be completely shifting algorithms, with Mosseri saying that it will instead provide users more options as to how to sort their feeds. This comes just after they launched the ‘Take a Break’ feature.

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Photo Source: CNBC