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13 Sep Turbocharging Brand Strategy
Posted at 16:00h in All, Brand, Marketing, Strategy by Markus Kramer
Analyzing brand strategy is sometimes confused with analyzing the company. Over the past year, I had the pleasure of engaging with arguably the world's most iconic manufacturer of sports cars: Ferrari! It is, I believe, worthwhile contemplating some of the core branding principles with broader applicability for any marketer, communications professional and business leader looking to fine-tune or re-think their brand.
How does Ferrari turbocharge its brand? What are some of the challenges it faces today? Where does the brand get the power from to command a leading edge over other competitive cars? What are some of the key lessons Ferrari can teach us?
Musing on Ferrari's success as a powerful brand, there are three ideas that are deeply engrained in the very genetics of the Ferrari marque: Luxury, Formula 1, and Italy. These three qualities don't change over time and, as always, they continue guiding and governing all other elements and manifestations of the brand. Together, luxury, Formula 1 and Italy make up the large, invisible foundation of the Ferrari brand's iceberg. The smaller, more visible tip of this iceberg is focused on cars and the company's performance, but this isn't necessarily how the brand figures in its clientele's hearts and minds.
Lifting the hood
The power of Ferrari doesn't just come from its mechanical performance. That's only one aspect of the total power it commands over other luxury sports cars. The majority of Ferrari's power comes from its iconic appearance. If we analyze the visual codes and the design identity of the luxury brand, we can easily see that it encapsulates and carries more Italian masculine identity than any of the other Italian super-high-end cars such as Maserati and Lamborghini. The brand embodies Italian spirit more eloquently than its competitors. Its design language exudes Italian vivacity and elements of 'la dolce vita'.
"Ferrari's design language exudes Italian vivacity and elements of 'la dolce vita'."
Ferrari is a luxury car brand that is famous for its organized scarcity strategies, which are at the heart of a very profitable perception management equation. The major components of this organized scarcity are: conscious and careful balance of supply and demand through a blend of the latest ultra performance, special and limited editions, selective distribution and, of course, a highly loyal and passionate client base. As a case in point, consider 2013, when the paradigmatic builder of super sports cars publicly announced that it was cutting its production to less than 7000 cars per year. The effect? Sales for the brand rose by 5% and profits surged 9% [1]. Alongside such profits, deliberately creating scarcity means that the ability to pay a large amount of cash does not automatically qualify someone for ownership. Instead, one must join lengthy waiting lists, which are subject to a close-knit screening system. Having to wait may seem to fly in the face of today's consumerist culture of instant gratification. But the trick is that having to wait fuels the perception of exclusivity and plays on the idea that 'good things take time'. As Kyle Stock from Bloomberg writes: "As in any thoroughbred business, net worth is merely a prerequisite for Ferrari ownership: commitment and decorum are the only true considerations." [2]
The Ferrari Owners' Club is like a good old cult of exclusive fraternal organization. It offers a perfect meeting space, both physically and intellectually, for like-minded enthusiasts gravitating around a shared territory of passion. True, status purchase is important, but the further up the value chain the brand aims (think V12 engines, or La Ferrari), the truer the spirit of what Ferrari stands for. A holistic, all-stakeholder encompassing event management system further strengthens post-purchase P.R. (Powerful Relations) for the brand. If you thought Customer Centricity and Co-Creation of value with customers are inventions of recent technological advances, think again. Just like many other luxury brands, companies such as Ferrari and Harley-Davidson have been integrating their most loyal customers into powerful, company-facilitated eco-systems long before the rise of social media and its respective opportunities.
Super Acceleration & Carbon-Ceramic Braking Power
Like any high-end super sports car manufacturer, Ferrari operates in a small, albeit highly aspirational and lucrative market segment facing a number of macro- and socio-economic challenges, ranging from slowing economies to taxation and regulatory frameworks (e.g. emission). Whilst the brand is as strong as ever, there are a number of potential challenges that the Ferrari brand faces. For instance, listing a proportion of Ferrari on the public market raises much needed capital for R&D, but increases expectations for the brand to leverage its brand equity outside its core, into much broader luxury categories. Although this opportunity is tempting, there is a real possibility of diluting the brand. The market is saying that so far the team in Maranello is getting this tricky balance just right (RACE[3]). From a brand management standpoint, Ferrari on the track adds brand value to Ferrari on the road. When it comes to competing, anything other than the first place in Formula 1 is a loss for Ferrari.4 The emblem of the prancing horse needs to move up the rankings, and anything other than getting to number #1 isn't going to cut it. To leverage the brand successfully, this will have to be true outside the core, too.
"In order to avoid diluting the brand in the future, managed scarcity may not be enough."
In order to avoid diluting the brand in the future, however, organized scarcity may not be enough. I've recently written on the changing nature of luxury consumers,5 proposing that values, sophistication and taste offer a new frontier that brands need to master in order to remain (and flourish) at the epitome of aspiration. For a power-brand like Ferrari, strategic brand reflections will also have to focus on consumer segments outside its traditional core (Grand Touring, to name one), as well as on very simple levers, such as color for instance. And whilst Tom Selleck (Magnum) and Don Johnson (Miami Vice) embodied and transported the brand perfectly well in the 80ies to places like the US (Ferrari's largest market today), the purist Ferrari-in-red appearance may no longer connect with younger consumers or non-core-sports-car audiences. Non-red Ferraris that still capture attention, but in a less pretentious manner, offer a great way to create tasteful relevance underneath the brand's umbrella of aspiration.
The structural drive of the HNWI6-segment purchasing Ferraris is often summarized as – "Big Toys for Big Boys", though this is a populist viewpoint at best. Because Ferrari is certainly not an expression of mere status. It is an extension of power. The roaring engine is the indication of its power. The manifestation, not the exertion or assertion, of its brand power is clear even when only cruising along at 60 km/h. It is meant to be an extension of its driver's pre-existing power.
"Ferrari's brand has the opportunity to increasingly create relevance beyond the expression of status."
Overlaying the brand's past and future ambitions with the notion of the increasing sophistication and taste of its target audience, a train of thought worth pursuing is to look at the change in perceptions of 'power'. Specifically, what is the difference between 'exerting power' and 'owning power'? It is a subtle difference, yet it has broad implications. For instance, how often, would you say, do Ferrari owners actually use their car's power? How often is the car driven at 350 km/h? The response to this would suggest that the drive behind purchasing into the world of Ferrari is more about owning power than about using or exerting it in everyday life, albeit unconsciously. It is about having the means to make oneself powerful. But actually using these means isn't necessary to be recognized as a person of power. The magic is in the belief others hold in regards to one's will to use these means: underneath that brand-iceberg lays a lot of Ferrari's unwavering power.
Sharpening powerful engines and delivering peak performance on the Grand Prix track is the visible DNA of Ferrari: a brand that stands proud in a realm of success. Just as marketers refine their value propositions in contemporary times, Ferrari adjusts its products and brand in subtle, yet relevant ways. Turbocharging its latest cars with sub-four liter engines, for example, isn't just an engineering feat, but an adjustment to the world at large, making sure the brand stays in business and fascinates future generations to come.
What are you doing to achieve this higher dimension for your own brand strategy?
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-08-14/rare-ferrari-expected-to-fetch-up-to-75-million
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-13/we-applied-to-buy-a-400-000-ford-gt-here-s-what-we-learned?bcomANews=true
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/race
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/features/2016/6/winners-and-losers—europe.html
https://www.markuskramer.net/the-changing-nature-of-luxury-customers/
http://www.nielsen.com/eu/en/solutions/high-net-worth-individuals.html
Image Credentials: Ferrari.com
Brand, Luxury, Strategy
Markus Kramer advises Boards, Executives and Operational Teams on all aspects of strategic positioning, growth and brand management. The brands Markus has worked with include Harley-Davidson, Aston Martin, Luxury Goods, Financial Services Firms, Technology brands, NOGs, startups and many more. Markus is Visiting Professor in Strategic Brand Management at Cass Business School London and holds degrees from the University of California (USA), Oxford (UK), MIT (USA) and speaks regularly at select conferences and business schools around the world.
Zürich (Switzerland) & London (UK)
Web: markuskramer.net
© Copyright Markus Kramer | All Rights Reserved


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Is Your Mate Worth $600 a Year?
Love is a wonderful thing — if you can afford it.
By Steven Butler
Love certainly has its rewards, but you might have to pay a price to get them. Actually, love can be quite costly — and it ain't getting any cheaper. We've all heard the saying that two can live as cheaply as one, but that only turns out to be true if you can afford the price of admission. What's the ticket cost these days?
Naturally, no two lovers are alike, but a joint survey conducted by the National Endowment for Financial Education and the relationship website YourTango.com, found that:
of individuals spent an extra $600 annually while in a relationship.
That could be worse, right? Well, for many it is. More than 1 in 7 people, the survey found, upped their spending by over $3,600 annually just to woo their significant other. Think restaurant visits, vacations — not to mention gym memberships, trips to the beauty parlor or shopping sprees. When in love, it seems, money just flows out the door.
Turns out it's guys who are the real suckers. Thirty-five percent of men make a habit of buying frivolous gifts once a month, compared to just 21 percent of women. Money is, of course, a constant source of tension in relationships, and Paul Golden, a spokesman from NEFE, says the survey was aimed, in part, at getting couples to start a dialogue about exactly how they're spending money.
Just in time, it turns out. A survey by the Canadian website RateSupermarket.ca pegged the cost of dating through marriage at around $40,000, an increase of 11 percent in just one year. The costs break down to nearly $6,200 for a year of dating, more than $8,700 for the engagement and over $25,500 for the wedding — what the site reckons is a reasonable cocktail of dinners, movies, vacations, a ring and a wedding dress, the wedding itself and the honeymoon. "If you don't have a plan in place it can eat into your savings," warns Penelope Graham, editor at the site.
Still, some research has found the dance of courtship could all be worth it — if you can tie the knot. In fact, if love really lasts, it could be downright lucrative. "Getting married and staying married is a wonderful way to increase your wealth," says Jay Zagorsky, an economist and the author of a study at Ohio State's Center for Human Resource Research that found that the wealth of married couples increased at an average rate of 16 percent annually, compared to half that for singles.
But there's a big catch (of course there is!). If you don't stay married, those accumulated savings often go up in smoke: The wealth of divorcées clocked in 77 percent lower than that of singles. And while it's probably not a good idea to plan your love life around these financial consequences, it's hard to ignore them.
Steven Butler, OZY AuthorFollow Steven Butler on FacebookFollow Steven Butler on TwitterContact Steven Butler

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Q: is_object with concatenate doesn't work normal? Here is the problem:

*

*When i write this
echo is_object($person->getCompany()) ? $person->getCompany()->getName() : 'test';

it returns me "test".

*But when i write this
echo 'Company: ' . PHP_EOL . is_object($person->getCompany()) ? $person->getCompany()->getName() : 'test';

it returns me error

PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught Error: Call to a member function getName()
  on string

So same code, same variables, but first time it execute right part (it's not an object), next time execute left part ?

A: In the second case, your ternary is being evaluated differently.
PHP is checking to see if 'Company: ' . PHP_EOL . is_object($person->getCompany()) is TRUE or FALSE not the is_object.  The is_object result gets appended to your string and since non-empty strings are always true, the first part of your ternary gets evaluated resulting in your error.

A: The reason this fails it because of the order the expression is parsed. Try using parentheses around your ternary operator:
echo 'Company: ' .
     PHP_EOL .
     (is_object($person->getCompany()) ? $person->getCompany()->getName() : 'test');

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


You are a member of the S.A.S. and you have been sent to an American Embassy to shoot terrorists that are holding hostages. The game is a 1st person shooter with the whole embassy building on the screen. There are a number of windows and terrorists or hostages will slide past the various windows in a different color top. As the people appear in the windows you are told what colour the terrorists are wearing and these have to be shot by moving a cross-hair and pressing fire.
You have only six shots and when these run out then you must move to a cross-hair in the bottom left and shoot it to reload your gun. For every terrorist shot you receive a merit and collect enough before the time runs out and you are promoted. Shoot a hostage though then you are demoted and if you are demoted from Private or let the time run out then it is game over. During the game the colour of the terrorists can also change to a different color.


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YOUR WEEKEND
The final installment of The Hunger Games franchise spends a second week as the top-grossing film at the domestic box office with another $52m, which is less than a 50% drop.
The Good Dinosaur—the latest Pixar animation to hit the silver screen—enjoyed having the fourth-highest Thanksgiving opening in recorded history, debuting at #2. Interestingly, though, it's also the worst opening for a Pixar flick since 1995's Toy Story. As for extremely disappointing openings, Fox's Victor Frankenstein really takes the cake, as it bowed with a dismal $840 per-theater average, even though it opened to a sizable 2,797 locations.
1. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (Lionsgate) $52m 4,175/$12,359 avg. (week 2)
2. The Good Dinosaur (Buena Vista) $39m 3,749/$10,454 avg. (debut)
3. Creed (Warner Bros.) $30m 3,404/$8,848 avg. (debut)
4. Spectre (Sony) $13m 2,940/$4,354 avg. (week 4)
5. The Peanuts Movie (Fox) $10m 3,089/$3,140 avg. (week 4)
Meanwhile, Focus' The Danish Girl, which stars Eddie Redmayne as one of the first known recipients of sex reassignment surgery, dazzled in limited release, raking in a total of $185k across just four theaters.


When an unknown material is found in a product, manufacturers need to know the source of contamination. Contaminant testing projects involve the determination of components at low concentrations (e.g. ppm levels).
A strategic technical approach is required to identify the unknown contaminant by using a comparison study between a control and suspect sample. The technical approach is dependent on the sample matrix and the suspected level of contamination. Often, we start with a general screen of the control and suspect sample using GC/MS and LC/MS. Depending on the test results, we may need to isolate the contaminant from a large amount of sample to allow analysis using FT-IR and NMR spectroscopy. Once identification is complete, we can further quantify the contaminant in the sample matrix.
Typical contamination testing and identification projects have involved off-odor/flavor investigations, off-color problems, or foreign particles in a product. Some sources of contaminants have been from the environment, improper storage of the product, or poor quality raw materials. We work closely with our clients to trace the source of contamination and develop a realistic corrective action program.
Chemir has performed contamination testing investigations for the food and beverage industries; home, health and beauty; and chemical industries. If needed, we can help with testing for contamination in emergency situations, working 24/7 to resolve the problem.
I would like someone to contact me with more information regarding Contaminant Identification & Testing. I saw it in the Advanced Materials & Processes Online Directory.


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November 30, 2005 by zekezielinski
Stumped on what to give your lady? Well, Santa and his elves have a great gift up their sleeves
Shopping for that special gift for that special lady in your life is a daunting holiday task for most men.Suffice it to say, our women may adore us as gods, but they think our sense of fashion is downright atheistic.I learned years ago to stop buying clothes for my wife, who subsequently would dispatch them with warp speed. Whenever she would open one of my Christmas gifts, my presents seldom were met with a twinkling, welcoming eye. My fault, not hers. In retrospect, some of my gifts were scary enough to spook the stripes off a zebra.So now I'm reduced to giving her just gift certificates for Christmas. They're not bad, of course. But there is nothing extraordinary romantic or sexy about a Wawa or Home Depot gift certificate.So would I resort to giving her a honest-to-goodness Christmas present that you can actually gift wrap? In a heartbeat, assuming I could get somebody else to gift wrap it. I've gotten a tad handy over the years, but my hand-eye coordination still isn't sharp enough to handle a gift wrap that doesn't look as if the present was chewed on by squirrels. The trick is finding a gift that works for her — and for me.Guess what? If I live long enough (not a given in a day and age when you need the steely calculation of a riverboat gambler just to merge onto the California freeway that has stolen the identity of our West Shore Bypass), there is hope on the horizon.Indeed, such a gift could truly be extraordinary — a true gift that keeps on giving.Yep, (pretend you hear a drum roll in the background as you read the next few words) a new nasal spray aphrodisiac for women that works in minutes may soon hit the market.Doctors said women who used the drug PT-141 in test studies felt a tingling or throbbing, followed by a strong desire to have sex immediately after spraying their noses.What a fabulous gift to share with your lady! Such a present undoubtedly would bridge the gender gap. I know I risk generalization when I say that sex owns a time-share in the foyer of most male minds. And I know I risk resorting to a stereotype when I say that sex usually is stuck in the attic of most female minds once they hit 30 and/or get married.Still, facts are facts.And this incredible gift has the bright promise of a sizzling sunrise to change all the dynamics of a relationship. Of course, a word to the wise: When the nasal spray aphrodisiac for women hits the shelves, make sure your lady only uses it in your company. Otherwise you may have to serve her divorce papers in lieu of gifts.
Every day is Groundhog Day at Antietam Lake
Call me a pessimist, but I'm starting to think that we'll likely see peace on earth, mankind playing polo on the surface of Jupiter, frogs playing in the brass section of the New York Philharmonic, and the Phillies winning a World Series before we see a resolution to the Antietam Lake squabble.Actually, that's being somewhat optimistic. Because maybe there never will be a resolution, just an infinite series of legal mumbo-jumbo playing on an endless loop of nonsense.At this point, City Council and the mayor could sell Antietam Lake to the devil for 30 pieces of silver and I wouldn't care. All the legal glop has bled my interest pale.But in case you still harbor a glimmer of interest in this never-ending story, check out Don Spatz's concise synopsis of the latest shenanigans in today's Eagle.
The Eagles don't light up the sky, but repeat after me: A win is a win
Well, the Philadelphia Eagles' first victory after four straight losses hardly was sanguine.Fortunately for the Birds, they played the stumbling, bumbling, fumbling, humbling, mumbling Green Bay Packers late this afternoon at the Linc.Suffice it to say that Eagles fans were in desperate need of electroshock therapy during the dust of the conflict. I would hazard a guess that some Eagles enthusiasts either sustained bruised heart tissue and/or suffered orbital fractures to both eyes watching such a brutal bout of indigestion.But it ended well for the Philly bunch as they rode four David Akers field goals and five Packer turnovers to a 19-14 victory that pulled them within a game of .500 at 5-6. Granted, there were highlights.Akers, for one, no longer seems hamstrung by his hamstring.Brian Westbrook, who earlier this season saw the football so infrequently that introductions were in order at times, rushed for 117 yards on 21 carries.Those rushing numbers would have been staggering and shocking in the glory days of Donovan McNabb to Terrell Owens. However, McNabb and Owens aren't playing these days for the Birds. But you already knew that.Consequently, Andy Reid has gone more conservative than George W.'s henchmen. Reid had passed nearly 73 percent of the time in the first nine games. But today the Eagles ran 34 times and passed 28 times.And they did it with two linemen making their first start in left tackle Todd Herremans (in place of Tra Thomas, back) and left guard Adrien Clarke (in place of Artis Hicks, knee).Reid used to be almost ridiculous and reckless with his pass-drunk philosolphy. Now he treats forward passes more delicately than he does the family china.Actually, I applaud Reid for playing it so close to the vest that his nipples must have been rubbed raw. Simply said, the Eagles' passing attack no longer is a tide strong enough to suck up oodles of yards.Mike McMahon, filling in for McNabb, is armed but not dangerous. He finished a pedestrian 12 of 28 for 91 yards. He was a mere 4 of 12 for 27 yards in the first half. If McMahon hadn't run four times in the game for 29 yards, the Eagles essentially would have been playing with just 10 men on offense. At least McMahon didn't throw a pick or lose a fumble. Still, he's more of a caretaker than he is a quarterback right now.Another Eagles highlight was the defense, which had a much less agitated appearance than had been the case during the past futile month. Of course, some of the stellar moments by Eagles defenders came courtesy of Packers QB Brett Favre, who seems to be playing in some sort of limbo that his own mind has imposed on him. Favre misfired on nine of his first 10 passes, was an abysmal 6 of 18 for 78 yards at halftime, and finished 15 of 33 for 171 yards, one TD and two interceptions. His second pick wound in the Eagles end zone — nestled in the hands of cornerback Rod Hood — with 49 seconds left in the game as Green Bay plunged to 2-9.Safety Michael Lewis also picked off Favre in the end zone, in the second period.In the twilight of his grand career, Favre definitely is high risk, high reward. His game is pockmarked with evocative highs and cavernous lows. Stats can be terribly misleading, but his 19 TDs and his 19 picks say it all.Speaking of twilight, the Eagles are clinging to the last streaks of light in their season. A losing season is a verdict they desperately want to avoid. But with their injury-depleted lineup, they're going to have to plumb some deep wells of inner resources if they want to come together before darkness drops its final curtain on them.
Splitsville for Jessica & Nick; nirvana for me
For months I have had little sleep. The Reading Parking Authority, in fact, requested the use of the large bags under my eyes for additional lots.Why haven't I been able to enjoy the sweet bliss of slumber?Angst over Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey.For agonizing months, I've been tormented by their marital problems.Months and months of ugly rumors, knee-jerk denials and magazine stands polluted with cover stories about the star-crossed couple have given me psychic whiplash.Thank God, the long national nightmare is over.Jessica and Nick have officially called it quits.May they go their separate ways in peace.As for me, I'm going back to bed.Sleep deprivation is a real kick in the teeth, you know.
With apologies to all the freshly deceased turkeys, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Many of us, myself included, don't seem to live in the present anymore. That's because we're never fully engaged in a given moment because we're always in a hurry to move on to something else.Consequently, we skim along the surface of life. We exist in the topsoil of life and never seem to have the time to get to the root of the matter.I guess we're all prisoners of our hyperkinetic existence.Except for holidays.Happy Thanksgiving everybody!Do yourself a favor today. Push the pause button on your life, at least for a few hours. You can hit the fast-forward button again tomorrow.In the meantime, expend your voracious appetite on turkey and all the trimmings. Watch some football. Try to enjoy your family. Experience some serious jubilation. Savor some serious reflection on how fortunate we all are to be Americans.And a special thanks to all the faithful browsers of my blog. If our crack Internet Services team could figure out a way, I'd love to download an extra slice of pumpkin pie to all of you. Maybe next year.
A shattering KO for T.O.
Well, I guess Terrell Owens' ego — at least for now — no longer is as swollen as a blowfish.Arbitrator Richard Bloch turned T.O.'s champagne smile upside today when he sided with those madcap comedians in the Eagles organization.Bloch upheld the Eagles' four-game suspension of their mutinous wideout and their right to deactivate him thereafter.Bloch's ruling effectively ends Owens' season. That hissing and howling you now hear undoubtedly belongs to Owens, who will have even more free time to be preoccupied with his celebrity. Bloch wrote that the Eagles clearly proved that the suspension was justified, and were within their right to pay their All-Pro receiver but not allow him to return "due to the nature of his conduct and its destructive and continuing threat to the team.""We couldn't have written it any better ourselves," an Eagles official told ESPN's Sal Paolantonio.After the ruling, the Eagles released a one-paragraph statement thanking Bloch for considering the matter and saying Philadelphia is looking forward to "moving on with our preparations for Sunday's game vs. Green Bay and the rest of the 2005 season and will have no further comment on this issue."There had been reports this morning that Bloch was going to soften T.O.'s punishment. Instead, his ruling dramatically vindicated the Eagles — about the only victory they've posted latelyT.O.'s posse and the players union had argued that the suspension was excessive and the deactivation for the season was too severe. Owens sought reinstatement to the Eagles or a release so he could sign with another team.The Eagles maintained the suspension was fair and are willing to pay Owens about $1 million to stay home the final five games.Bloch's ruling is the latest development in the almost cartoonish relationship between Owens and the Birds, who undoubtedly will part ways with him in the offseason to avoid paying him a March roster bonus of $5 million. For those of us who have been on the T.O. watch all summer and autumn, the closure of this media circus seems rather surreal. There were times this year when it seemed Owens would sit like a clot on the psyche of the Eagles organization for eternity, like a few grains of cereal perpetually stuck to the side of the bowl.Now the selectively loquacious rebel who always is searching for a way out of the lockstep NFL world now finds himself on the outside looking in.As for the Eagles, their season already a lost cause, they no longer have to worry about the T.O. nonsense welling up inside them like a terrible virus.In a twist of irony, Terrell Owens — who elevates self-consciousness to an art form — now finds himself to be a solitary man, a lonely receiver without a team.
We can't blink away the danger in Reading
Every year the scary numbers pop off the page of my Reading Eagle, triggering flecks of fire-engine red in my irises.Reading again is the most dangerous city in Pennsylvania, the fifth most-dangerous in the nation among cities of similar size, and the 29th most-dangerous city in the entire country.Just when we take a hopeful pause and point to all the marvelous initiatives trying to point Reading in a new direction, we again are brutally reminded that we live and work in a crackling cage of friction where the point on its moral compass is broken.Too often our town lapses into flash violence, a place where a Niagara of lawlessness can disconnect synapses and life itself. Such tragic rankings are unblinking and remorseless. They all add up to a sorry tale of impotence and failure by everybody around here.Granted, we could have better police resources. But more importantly, we need fewer bad guys and more good guys to finger the bad guys for the cops.For too many years we have had too many eyes turning glittery with primitive darkness in our city. Those eyes have destruction in them, including their own.And we also have too many eyes that spill primal fear from their pupils, like deer caught in the blinding headlights of a violent vortex. It all comes down to the eyes. The eyes of the cowed who wish they had eyes in the back of their head. And the eyes of the predators whose retinas never are detached from bloodlust and money lust.


• Chapter 2 provides background information on existing research in the field of computational music harmonisation and generation, as well as some the¬ oretical background on musical structures. Finally, the chapter concludes with an outline of the scope and aims of this research.
• Chapter 3 provides a short overview of the field of Machine Learning, ex¬ plaining concepts such as entropy measures and smoothing. The definitions of Markov chains and Hidden Markov models are introduced together with their methods of inference.
• Chapter 4 begins with the definition of Hierarchical Hidden Markov models and techniques for linear time inference. It continues by introducing the new concept of Input-Output HHMMs, an extension to the hierarchical models that is derived from Input-Output HMMs.
• Chapter 5 is a short chapter that shows the importance of the music rep¬ resentation and model structures for this research, and gives details of the representation.
• Chapter 6 outlines the design of the software used for the HHMM modelling, and gives details of the software implementation and use.
• Chapter 7 describes how dynamic networks of models were used for the generation of new pieces of music using a "random walk" approach. Several different types of networks are presented, exploring the different possibilities of layering the musical structures and organising the networks.
• Chapter 8 tries to evaluate musical examples that were generated with sev¬ eral different types of networks. The evaluation process is both subjective and objective, using the results of a listening experiment as well as cross entropy measures and musical theoretical rules.
• Chapter 9 offers a discussion of the methodology of the approach, the con¬ figuration and design of networks and models as well as the learning and generation of the new musical structures.
• Chapter 10 concludes the thesis by summarising the research's contribu¬ tions, evaluating whether the project scope has been fulfilled and the major goals of the research have been met.


One of the Isle of Wight's most popular attractions - a horde of animatronic dinosaurs! had a makeover last week (10th- 11th October) with a Raspberry Pi. This video is a general overview of how the two day event went.
Staff at Blackgang Chine, (where the dinosaurs roam around) were instructed by Lucy Rogers, and Neil Ford on how to hack the electronics the Dinosaurs came with using a Raspberry Pi. Taking inspiration from staff member Mark Bulter who had already successfully got the T-Rex working on a Pi, a group of enthusiastic would-be hackers sat around and learned how to use Node Red for the code running it on a Raspberry Pi.


My spidey senses tell me someone is shopping this deal through a leak to the press, seeking to drive an auction. We'll see.
This assumes that their self-reported revenue numbers are accurate. Talk to small business owners who've used them.
John , 50million x 12 months = 600 million . Rumored Sale Price : 2.5 billion. It is almost 4.2 times the run rate. Not too bad for a business that does not have any secret sauce except for the first mover advantage. It would be justified.
@Sidharth yes, sorry, I corrected that – I transposed.
I stand by the word "mere" given how strategic this buy would be, and how reasonable such a multiple is, especially compared to similar multiples for, say, YouTube or DoubleClick, which were way higher.
Its impossible to value Groupon one way or another knowing just the monthly revenue.
I like your auction theory, John.
Now playing the cynic: I don't see a lot of added economic value in Groupon's business model, plus it can be very easily replicated (as pointed out by Uwe). Sure, there's a little value added in the way Groupon aggregates and efficiently distributes coupons to consumers (keeping in mind they send me 2 emails every frikkin' day…seems like they are on the road to burning out their user base). However, businesses can't ALL slash their prices ALL the time, and insane deals are what attracts consumers to Groupon and keeps them coming back. Without the insane discounts, Groupon suddenly becomes pretty boring. It's a classic law of retail: you can't put everything on sale all the time; not only does that erode (or eliminate) profit margins, it erodes the perceived value of the products/services. Coupons are an age-old marketing tactic, and they're definitely going to move online like so many other commercial tactics, but Groupon hasn't revolutionized commerce to the tune of a $2.5 billion valuation. The ridiculously deep discounts that Groupon promotes simply aren't sustainable over the long run. Lastly, I don't care about $50 mil reported revenue…what's their cash flow look like?


Studying for a Test? Get Organized!
You have to figure out what is important and what to ignore. Check the syllabus for the course. Check the course description. Check your notes for underlined points that describe major themes, structure, concepts. You need to understand those. Cramming leaves no time for niceties. You need the main points and nothing else.
Now figure out how much time you have. Be conservative. It's no good making a plan that you don't carry out. Allow for sleep, eating, breaks etc. How many hours do you have?
Work out a cramming schedule. Spend 30-35% of the remaining time going over the material that you deem the most important. Spend the remaining 65-70% of your time in repeating that material to yourself until you know it. Here's how.
Go over the material you have selected for your study effort. Read all the notes, paying attention to underlining or any emphasis that has been recorded. Now use your notes (or the textbook if you must) to create an outline of the material you are studying. Write down the broad concepts, use itemized lists for the details, include any examples taken from lectures, and in particular, any information highlighted in the notes as being emphasized by the instructor (this is why attending lectures/class is important).
Now go over the material again, formulating questions that might be asked on an exam or test, and answering those questions using the notes. Record the questions in your outline, along with point form answers.
At some point, when you believe you have a decent grasp of the material, start using the outline you created. Essentially you want to memorize the outline, and be able to re-write it from memory. That tells you it should be condensed, with no fluff, just all stuff. That memorized outline is going to be your salvation.
SLEEP! If you don't get enough sleep your brain won't retain all the information that you have crammed in there.
If you don't have notes, you need to essentially create some for yourself. Since you don't have a record of what the professor considers most important, you will have to figure it out on your own. Go through the textbook, paying special attention to the introduction, the first paragraph of each chapter, chapter summaries and any questions or study notes at the end of each chapter (sometimes these are included in the body of the chapter as breakout boxes).
The introduction should give you a good clue as to where to focus. While going over the material and making notes (as described above) pay particular attention to examples in the text. You need to understand them. If you had taken notes in class, the prof would have presented examples to aid in understanding. You will have to do your best on your own. And that's it. Carry on as above, except that you will have to wade through more material. It is extra important for you to create an outline. You don't want to go through the text more than once (after you have identified what material you will be focusing on).
Avoid the temptation to go over everything in a shallow manner. You will then master nothing. Remember, at this point your aim is a pass. Using these cramming strategies, you have already identified the most significant material. And you have focused heavily on it. The questions with the most marks and most of the large mark questions should come from material you studied. Don't do yourself the disservice of just skimming the important information so that you have time to also skim the least important.


Members of Sudbury's Ukrainian community gathered at the Ukrainian Seniors' Centre on Notre Dame Avenue Sunday afternoon to commemorate a devastating time in their history 79 years ago.
Between the spring of 1932 and July 1933, as many as 10 million Ukrainian men, women and children were starved to death by a man-made famine.
The Holodomor, or hunger plague, was a famine engineered by the Soviet Union, under Joseph Stalin — a communist dictator — as part of a series of actions, including mass executions, designed to destroy the Ukrainian nation, according to holodomor.org.uk. The government confiscated all agricultural food sources, including grains and livestock. Massive amounts of grain were sold to foreign markets to build factories and provide weapons for the military, leaving the Ukrainian villages barren and hungry. The Ukrainians were also kept from leaving their homes.


text:
import React from 'react';
import { observable, action } from 'mobx';
import { persist } from 'mobx-persist'; // add this.

class CounterStore {
  @persist @observable count = 0; // count is now persistent.

  @action.bound
  increment() {
    this.count += 1;
  }

  @action.bound
  decrement() {
    this.count -= 1;
  }
}

export const counterStore = new CounterStore(); // You need to export the counterStore instance.
export const CounterStoreContext = React.createContext(counterStore);

// index.js
import { Navigation } from 'react-native-navigation';
import AsyncStorage from '@react-native-community/async-storage';
import { create } from 'mobx-persist';
import { counterStore } from './counter.store'; // import the counter store instance.

// Create a store hydration function.
async function hydrateStores() {
  const hydrate = create({ storage: AsyncStorage });
  await hydrate('CounterStore', counterStore);
}

Navigation.events().registerAppLaunchedListener(() => {
  hydrateStores().then(() => {
    // ...register screens and start the app.
  });
});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


I was seven years old the first time it occurred to me I might be different from my peers. On the verge of entering the second grade at a new school, I was tested and found to have a mild learning disability, one that surfaced as dyslexia.
Upon learning of this, my parents sat me down and explained it would be harder for me to learn the things I'd have to learn in the second grade. They told me I could either go back to the first grade or try to keep up with my classmates on a new level. My father reassured me he'd get up early to work with me and help however he could, whatever I chose. My father happened to have a serendipitous skill set. Though he spent most of his livelihood as a machinist, he had been academically trained and professionally qualified as an educator.
I chose the second option, and so began an arduous trek through a land of fragmented words and thoughts.
I fondly recall shopping with him for supplemental texts and workbooks to help with our morning lessons. I also recall how phonics never quite worked for me, as I've always been a little fussy about the structural inconsistencies of the English language. So we found work-arounds.
My wife claims I have excellent improvisational skills. Some of those come from ADHD, but the ability to use them effectively is a result of the winding paths my father helped me blaze in pursuit of the written word. The patchwork effort of reassembling broken words and concepts is a huge part of why I think about things the way I do.
It comes in handy sometimes, especially in a media landscape dominated by incomplete thoughts. Reconstructing complete thoughts out of (sometimes intentionally) chaotic patterns is often an advantage for me.
The happy ending of my second grade odyssey — aside from catching up with my peers and acquiring an abiding love for words and writing — was the bond my father and I formed along the way. Those learning sessions and the series of tiny triumphs they brought are woven into who I am.
There are millions of fathers who would've been equally determined, if not as well equipped, to help a child through the struggles I faced. I'm just grateful my father was there to help me. Of all the seemingly automatic sacrifices my father made for his family, the way he gave of himself and shaped my capacity to understand and appreciate words will echo through my life as much as any of them.
A simple thank you would never suffice for all my father has done, but anyone who knows him knows that's all he would accept.
So to my father on this Fathers Day, thank you. I love you.


text:
Liautaud Ethéart (1826–1888) was a Haitian playwright and politician. Born in Port-au-Prince, Ethéart served as Secretary of State in 1879. He was Minister of Finance 1872-1873 and 1876-1877. He is best remembered for his theatrical works.

Selected works

 Le Monde de Chez Nous (1857)
 Miscellanées (1858)
 La Fille de l'Empereur (1860)
 Un Duel sous Blanchelande (1860)

References

1826 births
1888 deaths
Haitian male dramatists and playwrights
People from Port-au-Prince
Foreign Ministers of Haiti
Finance ministers of Haiti
Government ministers of Haiti
19th-century Haitian dramatists and playwrights
19th-century male writers

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Graeme Devine certainly thinks big.
Since it was founded in 2011, what Magic Leap has been working on has been shrouded in mystery. An augmented reality company that promises to do no less than change the world, the Florida-based startup and Google cash bucket has given some pretty amazing demonstrations. On Thursday at the Games for Change festival in New York City, Magic Leap's Graeme Devine shared with an audience of developers and enthusiasts of "serious gaming" his predictions for how augmented reality will be integrated into regular peoples' private lives — and gave everyone just a bit more insight into what will happen when the media starts integrating with reality.
Devine is the Chief Creative Officer and Senior Vice President of games, apps, and creative experiences at Magic Leap but he prefers to go by another title: Chief Game Wizard. With long groovy hair and a Scottish lilt, Devine started off his keynote address, "A World Without Atoms," with a refresher of what augmented reality is. An understanding of this is a requisite for comprehending what we're working with here, so we'll refresh as well. This is the slide that Devine showed Thursday's crowd — it's an excellent definition, he says, because he wrote it. Augmented reality is, in essence, mixed reality.
"I'm here because I help Magic Leap think about the future," Devine announced at the start of his talk. He quickly added that this future is rapidly approaching. Mixed reality, he claims, will be a fact of life in the next two years. He describes this as a meeting of augmented reality and the meatspace aided by a headset, which will allow people to directly interact with images superimposed over open spaces.
Devine says that the first headset to hit the market will only be the beginning. He sees the world five years from now being 50/50: half mixed reality, half atom. In 10 years, Devine predicts, mixed reality will be absolutely everywhere.
"It only will work if it works socially," says Devine.
He also describes successful products as things that pass the five mile rule: Things that you would go back for at home if you forgot them, but only realized five miles away. Smartphones he says, often pass this rule; Apple Watches do not. Magic Leap wants us to never feel like we should be separated from our augmented reality headsets.
With Magic Leap's device, he says, you'll be an active participant rather than a passive consumer. Devine doesn't want a world where we're all living in our own bubbles — he sees tech as a tool to help us be more a part of the world, rather than an isolated bubble. He also predicts this engagement will benefit how we consume media (there's no need to pull out your phone and look up the IMDB page of an actor if your headset does it for you) and will even make the most annoying experience more enjoyable — advertising.
He says the better way to combat popup ads and banners you don't want to see will be working with businesses to make mixed reality experiences that you'll actually want to see.
Much of Devine's keynote went back to the idea that this will all be for the benefit of the people. Of course, there's no question that Magic Leap isn't going to make a lot of money doing this — and "change the world" seems all too Silicon Valley — but with the open and no-frills way that Devine presents himself, it's hard not to believe him.
This won't be by making the world "crazy and insane" — something that he says they could do with the technology if they weren't being smart about it. But instead, Magic Leap wants to "improve what is already there" — how we consume information, how we communicate with each other, how we experience games and entertainment. While it's undeniable that augmented/mixed reality will be a game changer for more serious matters like military training and security, Magic Leap would rather focus on making everything, well, more magical.


text:
Q: How to create JAVASCRIPT ARRAY from external file JSON What is the best way to create javascript array from json file?
I have four empty JavaScript array that I would like to populate with data imported from a json file.
var firstname = new Array();
var address= new Array();
var city = new Array();

File Json : "file.json"
[
{"name ": "John", "address": "350 Fifth Avenue", "city ": "New York"},
{"name ": "Mark", "address": "1101 Arch St", "city ": "Philadelphia"},
{"name ": "Jack", "address": "60th Street", "city ": "Chicago"}
]

I try:
$.getJSON('file.json',function (data) {

    for (var i = 0; i < data.length; i++) {
        firstname.push.apply( firstname, data[i].firstname );
        address.push.apply( address, data[i].address );
        city.push.apply( city, data[i].city );
    }

});

but arrays are still empty.
Thanks in advance
================================ SOLVED ===============================
$.ajax({
    async: false,
    url: 'file.json',
    data: "",
    accepts:'application/json',
    dataType: 'json',
    success: function (data) {
        for (var i = 0; i < data.length; i++) {
            firstname.push( data[i].firstname );
            address.push( data[i].address );
            city.push( data[i].city );
        }
    }
})
// Get arrays outside callback function
console.log('result: '+firstname.length); // result: 3

A: You seem to have the order wrong, data is the array so it's not
data.name[i]

but
data[i].name

and removing the strange apply it would be
$.getJSON('json.js',function (data) {
    for (var i = 0; i < data.length; i++) {
        name.push( data[i].name );
        address.push( data[i].address );
        city.push( data[i].city );
    }
});

Also note that name is a bad choice for a variable name in the global context.

A: You have two or three problems.
Your JSON is invalid.
Remove the quotes from around the outside of it.
Seriously consider giving is a .json file extension, then you are more likely to get the right MIME type for JSON. (JSON data files are not JavaScript programs).

File Json : "data.json"
[
{"name ": "John", "address": "350 Fifth Avenue", "city ": "New York"},
{"name ": "Mark", "address": "1101 Arch St", "city ": "Philadelphia"},
{"name ": "Jack", "address": "60th Street", "city ": "Chicago"}
]

You are accessing your data in the wrong order
This is overly complicated and is accessing properties in the wrong order.
name.push.apply(name, data.name[i]);

Forget about using apply. You don't need it.
Then note that your JSON array contains the objects, not the other way around. You need to access the array index before the property name:
name.push(data[i].name);

Remember the A in Ajax
Finally - your code doesn't show how you are testing the result. Remember that Ajax is asynchronous, so that if you examine the values of your arrays outside the callback function, they might not have been populated yet.


text:
package tasks

import (
	"fmt"

	consulapi "github.com/hashicorp/consul/api"
	"github.com/starkandwayne/rdpgd/globals"
	"github.com/starkandwayne/rdpgd/instances"
	"github.com/starkandwayne/rdpgd/log"
	"github.com/starkandwayne/rdpgd/pg"
)

// CleanupUnusedDatabases - Identify Databases that should be decommissioned and decommission them.
func (t *Task) CleanupUnusedDatabases() (err error) {
	// eg. Look for databases that that should have been decommissioned and insert
	// a CleanupUnusedDatabases task to target each database found.

	log.Trace(fmt.Sprintf("tasks.CleanupUnusedDatabases(%s)...", t.Data))

	//SELECT - Identify the databases which should have been dropped.
	address := `127.0.0.1`
	sq := `SELECT dbname FROM cfsb.instances WHERE effective_at IS NOT NULL AND ineffective_at IS NOT NULL AND dbname IN (SELECT datname FROM pg_database WHERE datname LIKE 'd%');`
	log.Trace(fmt.Sprintf("tasks.CleanupUnusedDatabases() > getList(%s, %s", address, sq))
	listCleanupDatabases, err := getList(address, sq)
	log.Trace(fmt.Sprintf("tasks.CleanupUnusedDatabases() - listCleanupDatabases=%s and err=%s", listCleanupDatabases, err))
	if err != nil {
		log.Error(fmt.Sprintf("tasks.Task<%d>#CleanupUnusedDatabases() Failed to load list of databases ! %s", t.ID, err))
		return err
	}

	for _, databaseName := range listCleanupDatabases {
		log.Trace(fmt.Sprintf("tasks.CleanupUnusedDatabases() > Database Name to Cleanup: %s", databaseName))

		err := CleanupDatabase(databaseName, t.ClusterService)
		if err != nil {
			log.Error(fmt.Sprintf("tasks.CleanUpUnusedDatabases() > tasks.LoopThruDBs(): %s", err))
			return err
		}
	}
	return
}

// CleanupDatabase - Decommission the database sent as a paramenter.
func CleanupDatabase(dbname string, clusterService string) (err error) {
	i, err := instances.FindByDatabase(dbname)
	if err != nil {
		log.Error(fmt.Sprintf("tasks.CleanupUnusedDatabases(%s) instances.FindByDatabase() ! %s", i.Database, err))
		return err
	}

	ips, err := i.ClusterIPs()
	if err != nil {
		log.Error(fmt.Sprintf(`tasks.Task#DecommissionDatabase(%s) i.ClusterIPs() ! %s`, i.Database, err))
		return err
	}
	if len(ips) == 0 {
		return fmt.Errorf("tasks.Task#DecommissionDatabase(%s) ! No service cluster nodes found in Consul", i.Database)
	}
	p := pg.NewPG(`127.0.0.1`, pbPort, `rdpg`, `rdpg`, pgPass)
	db, err := p.Connect()
	if err != nil {
		log.Error(fmt.Sprintf("tasks.Task#DecommissionDatabase(%s) p.Connect(%s) ! %s", dbname, p.URI, err))
		return err
	}
	defer db.Close()

	if globals.ServiceRole == "service" {
		// In here we must do everything necessary to physically delete and clean up
		// the database from all service cluster nodes.
		for _, ip := range ips { // Schedule pgbouncer reconfigure on each cluster node.
			newTask := Task{ClusterID: ClusterID, Node: ip, Role: "all", Action: "Reconfigure", Data: "pgbouncer", NodeType: "any"}
			err = newTask.Enqueue()
			if err != nil {
				log.Error(fmt.Sprintf(`tasks.Task#CleanupUnusedDatabases(%s) Reconfigure PGBouncer! %s`, i.Database, err))
			}
		}
		log.Trace(fmt.Sprintf(`tasks.CleanupUnusedDatabases(%s) - Here is where we finally decommission on the service cluster...`, i.Database))

		sq := fmt.Sprintf(`DELETE FROM tasks.tasks WHERE action='BackupDatabase' AND data='%s'`, i.Database)
		_, err = db.Exec(sq)
		if err != nil {
			log.Error(fmt.Sprintf("tasks.Task#CleanupUnusedDatabases(%s) ! %s", i.Database, err))
		}
		sq = fmt.Sprintf(`UPDATE tasks.schedules SET enabled = false WHERE action='BackupDatabase' AND data='%s'`, i.Database)
		_, err = db.Exec(sq)
		if err != nil {
			log.Error(fmt.Sprintf("tasks.Task#CleanupUnusedDatabases(%s) ! %s", i.Database, err))
		}

		if clusterService == "pgbdr" {
			log.Error(fmt.Sprintf("tasks.Task#CleanupUnusedDatabases(%s) ! Cannot cleanup BDR Servers", i.Database))
		} else {
			p.DisableDatabase(i.Database)
			p.DropDatabase(i.Database)

			dbuser := ""
			sq = fmt.Sprintf(`SELECT dbuser FROM cfsb.instances WHERE dbname='%s' LIMIT 1`, i.Database)
			err = db.Get(&dbuser, sq)
			if err != nil {
				log.Error(fmt.Sprintf("tasks.Task#CleanupUnusedDatabases(%s) ! %s", i.Database, err))
			}
			p.DropUser(dbuser)

			sq = fmt.Sprintf(`UPDATE cfsb.instances SET decommissioned_at=CURRENT_TIMESTAMP WHERE dbname='%s'`, i.Database)
			_, err = db.Exec(sq)
			if err != nil {
				log.Error(fmt.Sprintf("tasks.Task#CleanupUnusedDatabases(%s) ! %s", i.Database, err))
			}
		}

		// Notify management cluster that the instance has been decommissioned
		// Find management cluster API address

		client, err := consulapi.NewClient(consulapi.DefaultConfig())
		if err != nil {
			log.Error(fmt.Sprintf("tasks.Task#CleanupUnusedDatabases(%s) consulapi.NewClient() ! %s", i.Database, err))
			return err
		}

		catalog := client.Catalog()
		svcs, _, err := catalog.Service(`rdpgmc`, "", nil)
		if err != nil {
			log.Error(fmt.Sprintf("tasks.Task#CleanupUnusedDatabases(%s) consulapi.Client.Catalog() ! %s", i.Database, err))
			return err
		}
		if len(svcs) == 0 {
			log.Error(fmt.Sprintf("tasks.Task#CleanupUnusedDatabases(%s) ! No services found, no known nodes?!", i.Database))
			return err
		}
		//mgtAPIIPAddress := svcs[0].Address
	}
	return nil
}


text:
Molefe says smear campaign is attempt to crush state capture fightback
Politics / 31 July 2019, 07:19am / ANA Reporter
Transnet has been made aware of an alleged smear campaign launched in an attempt to "discredit the ongoing clean-up of corrupt activities", Transnet Chairperson Popo Molefe said. Picture: Nhlanhla Phillips/ African News Agency (ANA)
Johannesburg - Transnet has been made aware of an alleged smear campaign launched in an attempt to "discredit the ongoing clean-up of corrupt activities" at the state-owned company, Transnet Chairperson Popo Molefe said on Tuesday.
"These attempts to smear my character follow a similar pattern to the one pursued when I was chairman of [the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa] Prasa – all of which turned out to have no substance and did nothing to deter me from completing a massive clean-out of corrupt activity," Molefe said in a statement.
"Now, it seems, when the Transnet board is having similar success in cleaning up Transnet, baseless and defamatory allegations are floated by those clearly involved in a fight-back against state capture. We can expect similar attacks of this nature going forward, given the environment in which we are working.
"They are unsubstantiated and unfounded allegations and should be treated with extreme circumspection. I reject them with the contempt they deserve – and, if published, they will result in legal action."
Molefe said the smear campaign hinged on a "supposed conflict of interest" with the legal firm that is assisting Transnet with forensic investigations, prosecutions and recovery of monies.
In a statement, Molefe said the law firm, MNS, was one of many corporates that sponsored a golf day run by the Popo Molefe Foundation to raise funds for disadvantaged young South Africans.
"There is absolutely no conflict of interest in this. MNS publicly declared its support for the event and announced it in line with its corporate social investment programme. Its support is listed on the Popo Molefe Foundation's website, along with other supporters," he said.
In the statement, he placed on the record that MNS was appointed by Transnet in 2017, while he was only appointed as in May 2018, adding that this made the suggestion of an untoward motive "completely ridiculous".
Molefe said that those behind the alleged smear campaign also tried to suggest that the board was directly involved in managing the MNS contract. Refuting this, he said that it was the legal team's work while invoicing and payment was handled by Transnet management.
"It is deeply irresponsible, yet not surprising, that these insinuations will be put into the public domain in a bid to cast aspersions on the leadership of Transnet, which has taken firm action against those involved in state capture. These typically involve allegations of bribery and/or corruption, and are completely false," the statement read.
"Clearly, there is a broader "fight back" campaign underway by those who have been unseated by the revelations of state capture at the Zondo Commission, where MNS' work formed the basis for four weeks of disclosure in relation to the state capture project."
Transnet put on record that it had no involvement in the affairs of the Popo Molefe Foundation, saying that the foundation was above board, had been declared as required, and there were no conflicts in its operation.
"The Foundation has been doing charitable work for more than 20 years, during which a lot of young people acquired access to education they would otherwise have been denied. It is registered with the Department of Social Development and its finances are audited on an annual basis," Molefe said.
"The beneficiaries of this Foundation do not include the Molefe family – it is purely targeted at children from disadvantaged points – and it is an insult to the Foundation and all its beneficiaries to suggest there has been any impropriety."
African News Agency (ANA)


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Now I have a billfold bursting with point cards for every restaurant, every grocery store, gas pumps and everything in between.
The first time I was asked if I wanted a senior citizen discount was when I visited the Churchill War Rooms in London some years ago. Rather annoyed and indignant, I blurted "What … do … you … mean?" I almost asked if she wanted an ID.
Entitled. I liked it. I was entitled in England, not to royalty, but to the royal discount of 15 percent! I was feeling a connection to the Queen.
"Why, uh, sure. OK," I replied. From that point on, I was hooked, a consummate crafty consumer, a seeker of THE discount.
"That will be $12," the young lady answered.
We laughed. A clever young lady. Diane wished she owned a company, so she could offer her a job.
My discount story did not end there. I went from senior indignant to older embarrassed the day I took my grandson golfing. I approached the gentleman in the pro shop. "Two of us, 18 holes with a cart. How much?" I asked.
"Harrumph," I muttered under my breath. With cocksure certainty, I asked, "Is there a senior citizen discount?" I was no longer indignant, shy, nor embarrassed; just a bona fide senior.
He glanced over his glasses, an annoyed look on his bored face. Brusquely, he stammered, "Whoa, whoa Buddy. Gimme a break here. Thirty-two dollars for two people with a cart! Are you kiddin' me? I need to make a coupla bucks, ya know."
I was grateful that he did not raise his voice.
I leave it alone now, taking what I get with appreciation, never asking, never indignant. I'll take the freebie when I can and appreciate it. I know, I know, I should ask. But I don't have to. My white hair gives me the privilege.
—Ed Iannuccilli, a retired physician and now a writer, can be reached at edwritesri@gmail.com.


Our CNY goodies are now available for sale and advance order.
For product details and pricing info, please refer to the sections on our website titled "Chinese New Year Cookie Gifts Galore" and "2019 CNY Gourmet Festive Cookies".
To place orders, you may send your written order details or submit an order form (form is available upon request) via email.
(ii) 15% early bird discount for orders placed with 50% advance deposit during Black Friday sale promotion period from 13 Nov 2018 to 26 Nov 2018.
Please send your order details in writing to our email: enquiries@cookie-culture.com or citycity@singnet.com.sg, and we will reply with our payment instructions.
For any enquiries, please call or whatsapp tel: 97979577 or contact us via the aforesaid email addresses.
Our Christmas goodies are now available for sale and advance order.
For product details and pricing info, please refer to the 3 Christmas sections on our website titled "Glorious Christmas (1): Assorted Cookie Designs", "Glorious Christmas (2): Other Cookie / Gift Ideas" and "Glorious Christmas (3): Log Cakes & Desserts".
From 26 Dec 2018 to 6 Feb 2019, our production is focused entirely on orders for Chinese New Year goodies. As such, we are generally unable to take in orders for cookies / cakes / cupcakes / other desserts which involve icing decoration or 3D design during the aforesaid period, unless they are for required dates after 6 Feb 2019. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
With effect from 1 Nov 2018, our delivery charge is revised to $18 per location. A free delivery is provided for orders >$150 during non-peak non-festive season period, and for orders >$300 during the peak season period from 1 Nov 2018 to 19 Feb 2019.
Please be informed that our halal kitchen operations are undergoing a restructuring process. As such, we are only able to cater for orders of certain halal goodies as at now, but we are temporarily unable to produce our full range of halal cookies and cupcakes. For those with halal requirement, please check with us at time of ordering. Our apologies for any inconvenience caused.


text:
Use This WINNERS MINDSET Everyday To CHANGE YOUR LIFE | Candace Parker & Kobe Bryant
The SECRET Behind Getting What You WANT From OTHERS! | Tony Robbins | #Entspresso
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How Many Links You Actually Need To Rank Page One On Google
December 3, 2020 Matthew Brewin
You see all these people and all these websites that have thousands and thousands of links and they're ranking on page one of Google. And you ask yourself, hmm, if I want to rank on page one of Google, do I really need thousands of links?
RESOURCES & LINKS:
Ubersuggest: https://neilpatel.com/ubersuggest/
As you can see on my screen here, I have the key word, web hosting Google. It's getting roughly 18,100 searches a month in the United States. I'm using the Ubersuggest Chrome extension which gives me all this data. As well, it tells me how many times it's searched on mobile devices versus desktop devices, the volume over time, cost per click, the demographic information, the searchers age range. Gives me all of that as well as a handful of other key word suggestions on the right side and more metrics on the right side on how much traffic websites getting, their overall domain authority or domain score and as you keep going on and on, you'll get more key word data.
But when you look at these sites that are ranking on page one, and if I look at the first four, they're ads, GoDaddy, Bluehost, DreamHost, HostGator, all well known brands, then you got PCMag, Hostinger, TechRadar, Bluehost, CNET, GoDaddy, SiteGround, Network Solutions and QuickSprout. Those are the pages that are ranking in the top ten.
So you have to look at how many links are actually follow, not just the total link count.
The point I'm tryna make is, the more lower you go, the more these scraper sites and junk links that you'll see. So typically what we're seeing is, whatever the number that you're seeing in Referring Domain names, usually, if you end up building a third to a fourth, even a fifth of the links that are reported, you can do quite well.
And the key if you want to rank is, you don't have to build a lot of links, you want to build legitimate links, you don't want to pay for 'em, you don't want to use anything that's black at, you want natural, good links.
Do your outreach, look for, don't focus too much on domain rating or domain authority or anything like that, just focus on building legitimate, high quality links and do it in a very, very slow pace. And I know that may sound crazy, you're thinking, slow pace? If I need all these links, don't I have to keep building? Well if you build too fast, what you'll find is you're going to have to build too many links like some of these sites, right?
It's like those social profiles that have hundreds and thousands of followers but no one really engages, it's because they have a lot of fake followers. If you build quote, unquote unnatural links or you're buying 'em, what you'll find is your rankings won't be as great compared to if you just focus on highly relevant articles that are slow and steady.
The other thing that most people don't talk about is click through rate. The reason that some of the sites that rank up at top, that are higher, is because they have a way higher click through rate.
You're going to get way more clicks if you have the best web hosting services of 2020, which reviews a lot of the websites that are ranking in the top ten, right?
So when you're pitching one solution, versus something that's a review, more educational, you'll find that it tends to be easier to rank and you don't have to build as many links. So you don't just need to focus on how many links you're getting, but you also need to optimize for click throughs and anything that is resourceful, educational, helpful, tends to also rank better.
So when you're doing your back link research, whether using Ubersuggest or whether using Moz, or Ahrefs, or SEMrush to look up link counts, remember, whatever people have, a lot of those links are scraper sites, spammy links, it's not that these sites are building spammy links, it's that you naturally get spammy links coming to you when you've been on the web for so long.
If you build one third to one fifth of the links that you're seeing and you do it slow and steady and you optimize for click through rate, you can outrank many other people as well.
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Matthew Brewin
Hey, name's Matt. I'm a blogger on LikesInternetMarketing.com, Certified Digital Marketer, and Partner at Internet Profits Ltd.
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I went to a birthday party for a friend at a restaurant called M.Y. China.
At first I was sketpical as the restaurant is inside a mall in San Francisco.
Martin Yan is a famous Chinese chef who's hosted cooking shows for the last 30 years. He's also written cookbooks, one of which I've bought in the past.
I got even more excited once we got in the restaurant because apparently the birthday girl's dad is Martin Yan's dentist. She is the dental hygienist who cleans his kid's teeth when they go to the dentist.
Because of that we got a personal visit to our table from Martin Yan and some pictures! And when he talked to the table he put his hand on my back. I got touched by a famous person! Oh Boy!
The food was obviously excellent. We got a bunch of different dishes to share.
There was an amazing tofu dish in a thick soy sauce. There was sweet and sour pork. The pork was breaded like usual, but with something with the texture of bacon included in the breading.
There were scissor cut noodles with soy sauce covering them.
There was rice with soy sauce. That really pointed out to me how good the soy sauce was. It included peppers in it or something to make it taste way better than the normal Kikkoman soy sauce that everyone else uses.
There were sea food dumplings with peppers on top of them as well.
My mouth is watering while writing this. Unfortunately, I'm not a food critic so I can't do the restaurant justice in this post. The food was amazing.
There were plenty of other dishes, but sadly not very many vegetarian ones. My wife got to eat some rice with spicy green beans. The green beans were good, but not as extraordinary as everything else at the restaurant.
Overall a great restaurant with great food!
I finally convinced my wife to see one of "my movies" at the movie theaters!
My wife usually picks every movie we go out to see so it was exciting to finally see something that I wanted to see more than she did.
We saw The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, finally concluding Peter Jackson's movies in Middle Earth and tying to the two trilogies together.
The movie contained a lot of the scenes I was waiting to see. Thorin's last speech, Bard slaying Smaug with the black arrow, the arrival of the eagles once again. Awesome stuff!
The movie starts off with Smaug coming to burn Laketown. Everyone evacuates. Bard makes a last stand on the bell tower and shoots Smaug with the black arrow.
Smaug's death is satisfying, but it feels like too big of a scene for the start of the movie. It would probably feel much better if the three movies were watched in sequence instead of just starting off with Part 3.
The next section of the movie concerns Thorin slipping into a greed-fueled madness called "dragon sickness" by the other characters.
The madness plays very similar to the corrupting power of the Ring in the Lord of the Rings movies. Thorin hears echoey voices, the camera rotates to oblique angles, and the soft whisper of Sauron can be heard just below the surface. It adds a supernatural element to Thorin's madness and makes it more believable when he eventually shakes off the greed and returns to his former self.
The rest of the movie is almost exclusively what it says in the title, The Battle of the Five Armies. Tons of action scenes and no character development beyond some characters feeling sorry for the death of other characters.
Bard riding a wagon down a flight of stairs into an ogre and stabbing the ogre with a spear.
Legolas fighting one of the orcs on a stone tower that has fallen over to construct a bridge between two cliffs. Every missed blow by the orc causes a chunk of the tower to collapse!
Thorin and Azog the White Orc's final showdown on a frozen river.
The elf king riding on a elk mount that picks six orcs up by its antlers at once and tosses them all aside after the elf king decapitates them with one stroke.
The hilarity of the ogres in general. They're used as battering rams by having them wear stone hats and then running into walls. They climb over shorter walls and the walls collapse under the ogres' weight. I started to feel sorry for all the poor little ogres by the end.
Elrond, Saruman, and Galadriel take on the nine ring wraiths and win.
Dain, Thorin's cousin, riding a pig and talking in an exaggerated accent while he headbutts orcs.
One of the more heartwarming parts is when Bilbo returns to the Shire. He hangs on to the Ring and within a few shots we see him slowly age until it's his 111th birthday party and Gandalf is coming to see him once more.
Of course there are some things that the movie left out. Probably not necessary given how much time was devoted to action scenes, but it happened (or didn't happen depending on your outlook).
The missing scene that I noted was how the eagles affected the battle. They showed up and that was about it. We still got to see Legolas and Thorin fighting the orc generals, but the actual soldiers were never seen again.
I also remember more of the 13 dwarves dying in the battle, but its been a long time since I've read the book. Perhaps my memory is just faulty.
Great action movie! Still felt true to the books as I remembered them. Almost a complete lack of character development and social drama though.
Thorin's madness is supernatural and thus hard to sympathize with.
Bard slowly turns into a king, rejecting it at first, but accepting it later. Unfortunately this is a neglected side plot (accurately reflects its importance in the book though).
Bilbo's desire for home is the only other social plot that had any realism in it. The other conflicts were predictable and bland.
But the epic fighting was why I went to the movie and it deliver on that count all the way!
I saw the movie Paddington with my wife last weekend.
The movie is based off the Paddington Bear book series. I read a few of the books when I was a kid but remember almost nothing about them.
The movie starts off with old black and white news reel describing Paddington's home in Peru. Soon Paddington must leave his home and travel to London where he plans to be adopted by waiting at a railroad station.
Paddington meets the Brown family at the Paddington station in London. He goes to live with them until they can find the explorer who previously visited his family in "darkest Peru." It's no surprise that by the end of the movie Paddington has become part of the Brown's family.
I wouldn't want to give more away about the movie, but it struck me as extremely British. There's a flashback where the explorer is describing how civilized the bears in "darkest Peru" are. The people he's talking to respond by saying, "Civilized? Surely they don't play cricket?" I'm paraphrasing, but that is what the movie is like.
The movie is a fun family experience. Although I've read some of the Paddington books, I can't say if a true fan of the books would enjoy the movie or not. I can say that if you liked Stuart Little then you will like Paddington. A talking animal is accepted into a classical nuclear family in both books/movies. What more do you really need to know? Just that description tells you what the movie will be about. It has a few jokes, but is mostly about the warm fuzzy feelings you get from the tender moments in the movie. And having something you can watch with children.
Around Thanksgiving last year I made a bucket list for myself. A bucket list is a list of things you want to do before you die (kick the bucket).
So here's the list along with why I want to do each thing.
1. Finish my Things Fall Apart screenplay and attempt to turn it into a movie.
I read Chinua Achebe's novel, Things Fall Apart, in high school and one of my first thoughts upon finishing it was, "This would make an awesome movie." I set out to find the movie and… there isn't one. There is a TV show, but it was produced in Nigeria and I couldn't find a DVD version available in the USA. I started a screenplay adaption of the book and also seriously considered going to Bard for college where Achebe taught while he was still alive. I'd still like to see a movie of Things Fall Apart and with no one else working on it as far as I know, it's up to me! I would have to get permission from Achebe's family at some point though.
Pretty simple American dream stuff here. I like children a lot. I want to have some of my own.
3. Coach soccer for my kids.
This was one of the big things that my dad and I did together to bound when I was a kid. He coached my AYSO soccer teams so I got to hang out with him a lot over the years. I'd like to have the same sort of bond with my kids.
4. Attend a dance recital for my kids.
While I played soccer as a kid, my wife did dancing. Since I want our kids to play soccer it's only fair that they dance too. I can't teach dancing, but I can still support my kids doing it by going to see them.
People have been telling me how good this musical is ever since it came out and ten years later I still haven't see it or the movie. I should fix that before I die.
6. Go to a secluded ruin in Greece.
I love ancient Greek and Roman culture. I visited Rome and Athens with my sister in high school. I got to see a lot of the still intact buildings while I was there like the Pantheon, Partheon, Colosseum, and the Temple of Olympian Zeus. I'd like to see other ruins that are in more secluded areas instead of being in the downtown tourist places of capital cities. Greece has plenty of secluded islands with ancient ruins in the Aegean, so I'd like to go to one of those. Preferably with my wife coming along.
Part of the whole loving ancient Greek and Roman culture. There wouldn't be much purpose to knowing ancient Greek beyond doing it for its own sake. I might be able to read the Iliad in the original language but I have a feeling that I'd still enjoy the translated version better because I wouldn't need to look up what a word means every five lines. Still! I wanna learn ancient Greek!
8. Have a popular website/attached sites.
This site. The one you're on right now. And/or the Twitch and YouTube channels I've started up.
9. Design something for a video game that is actually used in that video game later on.
I'd like this to be through merit along. Something like designing a champion for League of Legends that Riot Games actually uses in the game. That's unlikely because A) Riot avoids using fan made ideas to avoid copyright issues, and B) I might not be good enough at designing video game concepts to pull this off. If all else fails a few of the larger rewards for video game Kickstarter campaigns allow you to create something for the game. If merit doesn't pan out for whatever reason, I can always use money.
More American dream stuff. Pretty simple. I think most people want a place to live that belongs to them and them alone.
When I was in elementary school I went to a sleepover camp. One night there was a dance where all the kids and the counselors got together, danced, hung out, and watched movies. Two of the counselors did some sort of choreographed routine to Aqua's "Barbie Girl" that amazed me ever since. I'd like to replicate it in some way with my wife.
12. Finish the novel/novel series I've been working on called Light's Shadow.
I had a recurring dream when I was a kid where I inserted myself into various TV shows and comics that I watched/read. I started writing a novel of it and I'd like to finish it before I die. I'd also like to publish it before I die, but given that the premise of the novel includes about a dozen copyrighted works, I doubt that's happening. I might be able to put it on a fan fiction website though.
13. Finish the Gurutama campaign setting and create a PDF of it that I can upload here.
In the process of doing this one on here already. The end goal is to have something that resembles an official D&D campaign setting in one document. Illustrations, borders, page numbers, etc. The whole thing.
14. Invent a cool biology thing.
One of my idols is Sir William Lawrence Bragg, the youngest scientist to ever win the Nobel prize at 25 years old. He, along with his father, invented X-ray crystallography which was used to discover the double-helix structure of DNA and many other molecular structures. Unfortunately it is virtually impossible to get the Nobel prize at that age today. Nobel prizes in the sciences are often given ten years after an initial experiment as the Nobel committee waits for others to replicate the work of the original discoverer. Most people don't have amazing scientific discoveries until they're at least 25 years old which would make it difficult to copy Sir William Lawrence Bragg. I'd still like to do something of scientific significance. Hopefully something to do with endosymbiosis, but I'll take whatever the world ends up giving me.
15. Go camping in Yosemite with my wife and kids.
My family did this a lot when I was a kid and I really liked it. Got to keep the tradition alive!
And there you have it. My bucket list objectives as of January 2015.
I got started on one of my New Year's Resolutions by setting up a Kiva account.
For those of you who don't know, Kiva is a website where you can loan money to people in developing countries that are starting businesses, or buying some new furniture, or getting medicine for their kids. Basically anything that someone could want money for.
The loan amounts are quite small, often less than $1000, but that can mean a lot of buying power when its changed into the local currency.
The person or group who received the loan uses it for whatever they said and then pays it back over a year or two. The loan usually helps them to pay it back by funding an expansion of their small business or allowing their kids to go to school to get higher paying jobs.
Every potential loan on Kiva has a picture of the person or group of people receiving the loan and a translated statement describing what they'll be doing with the money.
When you select a loan you give a multiple of $25 that will be repaid. The people receiving loans do pay interest, but the profit on the loan is kept by the company that manages the loan.
Kiva isn't the bank that manages the loans. They're just a middleman between the funder and the bank. There are hundreds of microfinance banks that work with Kiva to find people to fund the loans.
Strangely, in most cases the bank has already funded the loan before the loan is posted on Kiva. The people who fund the loan (me) are covering the costs of the loan after the fact. That way if the group receiving the money defaults, the bank hasn't lost anything and can continue offering microfinance loans without worrying about turning a profit.
So far I've made eight loans. One to a group of men in Burkina Faso to buy some sheep and chickens. One to a teacher in Haiti to connect his house to a solar power grid. A woman in Costa Rica for her to buy carpentry tools. Two groups of women in India and a woman in Timor-Leste to buy supplies for their stores. A man in Mongolia to keep his taxi running in the winter. Lastly, a man in the Dominican Republic to buy some meat for his butcher shop.
If you take a look at the links you can see that some of the information statements aren't translated as well as you'd like. It's still great to see the face of the person I'm loaning the money to regardless!
I'd encourage you to check out Kiva for yourself. Click on this link to sign up today!
There are a lot of Hearthstone communities on the web. Blizzard's forums, Hearthpwn, Gamepedia, and Liquid Hearth to name a few. I spend my time talking about Hearthstone at the Order of the Stick Forums.
Why the OOTS Forums? Because the forum rules there not only encourage people to be nice to each other, they demand it.
Blizzard's forums are filled with petty disagreements and foul language. While it is an entire forum devoted to the game with many different sub-sections it's actually quite difficult to find a thread worth posting in. Most of the threads are childish complaints of some kind followed up by a bunch of other posters making fun of the original poster.
Hearthpwn, Gamepedia, and Liquid Hearth are good for occasional visits, but I find the atmosphere there too heavily focused on "winning" instead of fooling around. While that approach to Hearthstone and really any game is legitimate, it's not the way I play games.
OOTS has a nice aura of casual play that attracts me. But occasionally they have tournaments to spice things up!
There have been two OOTS Hearthstone tournaments before. I participated in the second one. Now I'm in the third one and providing my services as a stream commentator for the games when I am available.
If you've read my other posts on GVG since it came out you may have noticed my love affair with Mal'Ganis. That love affair has been actualized in my new Demon Warlock deck. It's performed quite nicely in ranked play and I'm looking forward to using it in the tournament.
The tournament started yesterday. I'll be streaming as many games of the tournament as I can on my Twitch account and uploading the replays to Youtube as well.
Here's my decklist if you're interested and I hope to see you on the stream!


Believe it or not, intention is everything. Having a specific intention whenever working towards any goal is super powerful and can be a deciding factor in whether you achieve that goal or not.
Sometimes when you start out with a goal, you might have the best of intentions to achieve it. For example, your intention might be to start a meaningful business so you can do what you love, make the money you desire and have the freedom to create while inspiring others. Very noteworthy!
Then you start to actually implement your ideas into action steps. You might even sign up for some business training, follow a few business coaches and sign up for a whole bunch of social media accounts.
What often happens next is that you get lost in a sea of "the social media noise", and you start to get sidetracked. You start to follow too many people and listen to too many people's advice on how you "should" run your business.
Before you know it, you're running around like a chicken without a head, months pass by and you suddenly realize you're not sure what you're doing anymore. You haven't seen the results you've been hoping for, and all those people promised you would! Now what?
What was your number one reason for it?
What about your business idea appealed to you the most when you first thought of it?
What do you love to create the most?
What did you envision yourself doing daily?
What did you envision for your future?
Once you regain clarity, you might get surprised that the work you've been doing up till now has not been leading you towards your original intention. You might have lost sight of what your dream business looks like because you got too caught up in comparing yourself to others and following others' ideals a little too closely. Chances are you've been doing too much "busy work" but not enough intentional work.
So this would be a good time to re-evaluate the way you do things every day and why you do them. Every task should also have a specific intention. Instead of signing up for every social media platform under the sun, listening to every free webinar out there and signing up for tons of newsletters, pick what speaks to you the most and what actually gets your closer to achieving your original goal.
What does that look like for you and what busy tasks can you eliminate now in order to free up time for the tasks that actually matter? In other words, the money making tasks. For everything that you do, ask yourself, "How is this helping me get closer to my goal?" And if you can't come up with any answers, it's time to ditch that task and move onto something else.
Have you been doing too much "busy work" and not seeing enough results? What time-consuming tasks can you eliminate today that don't serve you? Share in the comments section below.


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Alevation actively operates in a broad spectrum of industries, including Power Generation, Renewable Energy, Oil & Gas, Telecom & Information Technology, Agro-Industry and Real Estate Development.
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Our mission is to help build a well-connected and prosperous Eritrea by creating value in the most sustainable and cost-efficient way thus, building bridges between the World and Eritrea.
Alevation actively operates in a broad spectrum of industries, including Oil & Gas, Power Generation, Renewable Energy, Telecommunications and Technology, and Real Estate Development.
Our goal is to change the world's perception on the difficulty of doing business in Eritrea, by helping our partners achieve success. We do this by working under the core values: Ethics, Excellence, & Teamwork.
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Danakali eyes finish line for Eritrea potash project
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Danakali scores Eritrea nod for vast potash mine
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