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Why are people coming to our site and leaving without buying?
How much should we budget for design and UX?
Can changing 3 words on a landing page unlock millions of dollars?
Is everything that we think we know about the customer all wrong?
Are we chasing the wrong metrics or KPIs?
Did we ruin our own website?
Should I Hire a Design/ UX Agency or Handle It In-House?
Does a good User Experience (UX) really make a difference? Forrester Research reported that a 10% improvement in a UX score at the enterprise level can translate into more than $1 billion.
Having a website with a good user experience is an unfair advantage. You have psychic powers and know what your client wants and exactly how to give it to them. Your "Buy" button magically shows up exactly where they need it to be, so they click it without a second thought.
Having a website with a bad UX is like not being able to take "Yes" for an answer. This visitor has already decided they want to buy from you. That hard work should be done. Yet, you're standing in their way. So they get frustrated and they leave.
A bad UX gets abandoned by your customers. A good UX gets copied by your competition. This guide will teach exactly how to craft an intuitive UX, starting from the moment you begin to plan and budget, to the moment a customer arrives at your Thank You page.
We'll use genius insights from UX experts and industry trends to show you how to give your users exactly what they want, without putting any barriers in their way. You will also learn how to spot simple UX mistakes that cost businesses millions of dollars in missed chances.
This guide is for Chief Marketing Officers or other senior marketers who want to convert the maximum number of leads or sales. Maybe you're frustrated by lots of traffic, but mysteriously low conversions. Or maybe you're in a hyper-competitive market, and you're looking for every single advantage you can get.
This guide is also for people who are ready to scrap their entire website because it's not producing any leads. You're ready to throw it all out. But before you do, maybe try some simple fixes.
Or maybe you're looking to hire a creative/ UX agency. You don't want to waste any time or money on the wrong firm, so you want to know the red flags to look for during the selection process. We can help you with that too.
This guide is not for anybody who is looking for advice on search engine optimization. We have a guide for that, and we would love you to read it. But you won't find any of that information here.This guide is also not for companies who have little or no traffic on their website.You can download our SEO playbook by clicking here.
Visitors are not doing what you want them to do. That is essentially the same problem everyone has. People come to your website, but they don't do what you want them to do—even though you've paid a lot of money to get them there.
The median conversion rate across all industries is 2.38% .That means that 97% of all websites are losing 97% of their money to a bad UX.
It's maddening. Maybe users are arriving on your website, but leaving to go somewhere else. Or maybe they make it all the way to your online store, but suddenly drop off when they get to the payment screen.
Finding out what went wrong during the above problems is what good UX is all about. It's about doing the work to understand and balance your business goals versus your user's goals. We need to understand the user's journey and build for that. And find the happy place.
The more people you have approving your website's design, the more chances you have to ruin it. They say that a camel is a horse designed by committee. Don't build a camel.
Enterprise level businesses throw hundreds of thousands of dollars at a website, so the stakeholders have a big say. You have to please them. All the important people offer feedback in every meeting and every email string, adding their view of what they think this site should be. This will murder your UX.
These companies want to accomplish everything and be everything to everyone. You can't. The focus is blurred and lost. And the user suffers because of it.
Unclear navigation remains one of the biggest issues that causes a bad experience for your user.
Breakdowns or gaps in information architecture and hierarchy will cause your customers to search too long for what they need to do next. And if they search too long, their next step will be to leave.
Again, you hurt your UX by trying to be everything to everyone. A personalized experience is huge. Don't offer a one-size-fits-all approach when you know for a fact you have different markets with different needs.
A lot of companies don't believe in UX. It's too theoretical to them. They want hard data. So it can be hard to budget based on hypothesis. It's the struggle of the industry. If you don't see the ROI in your UX, look no further than the cost of every lost customer.
Ignoring UX sets you up to fail. But investing in it sends your conversion rate skyward, and gives you new insights into how customers want to use your website.
Understanding your customer's real needs also helps you with ALL messaging and ALL communications, both offline and online. It helps with: creative, billboards, website conversions, net promoter scores, content, SEO, and PPC.
Let's look at this another way. Catching and fixing an error during Development will cost you 4 times more to fix it, versus catching it in the preliminary UX testing phase.
Yes, we know. We just told you that approval-by-committee ruins a UX. But that's not what we're talking about here.
We're talking about the value in stakeholder interviews at the very start of a project. There's tremendous value in having everyone in the room at the same time. This is your chance to prioritize business goals, and catch any discrepancies now before you move forward.
You can create a priority matrix and sort out the website's must-haves, nice-to-haves, and don't-really-needs.
If you have high traffic and low conversions, you're losing a lot of people along the journey. If you're not invested in your UX, you will have no idea why you're losing people. You will just watch your sales funnel leak uncontrollably.
If your form doesn't accept Canadian postal codes, tell users that when they try to enter one. Don't just give them a nebulous error message that will cause them to second-guess everything on the form.
Don't make them give you all their information AGAIN.
Focus on checking out. That's it. Now is not the time to give them any new information or options that won't help them buy.
You might be losing people if the words (or microcopy) on your button seem too committal. If someone comes to just download something or buy something, don't put the word "Register" or "Sign Up." They don't want to sign up. They just want to buy the thing, and move on with their day.
Address any fears or hesitations that would keep someone from buying from you. Does your company only collect their email address to create an account? Tell them that when you ask for it. Do you let people register without using a credit card? Tell them that too.
You can handle your industry's most common customer objections with one sentence of microcopy. Five words can save you millions of dollars in lost customers.
How Much Is Everyone Else Budgeting for UX?
A survey of leaders in the digital ad space revealed some interesting insights into how enterprise level companies are spending their UX budgets.
What Should I Budget for UX?
Ask yourself: What is a lost customer worth to you?
Start by knowing what a customer is worth to you. A bad UX will cost you customers. So take your conversion rate, subtract one minus your conversion rate, and multiply it by the conversion rate you should have. That is precisely what you should be budgeting for UX.
In today's marketplace, for every $92.00 that companies spend on acquisition, only $1.00 goes to nurturing. That's not nearly enough.
70% of your budget should be spent leading the horse to your water (which is PPC or traffic), and at least 30% should be spent making sure the customer's experience is well aligned.
In the old days, you used to spend 10% on the ad and 90% on promoting it. But because the customer experience now is multi-touch, you need to bulk that up to 70% and 30%. Some people will say 50-50, but that's not the world we live in.
Still not sure what to budget? Try using our free Digital Marketing ROI calculator.
We're seeing enterprise companies give customers a warmer and more interactive greeting when they arrive. This includes welcome screens that overlay when someone arrives on your site for the first time, or signs into their account. Other companies are using guided tours of the site and all its functions to provide a pleasant experience for visitors.
We're seeing a real shift towards keeping users entertained while something loads. A few cool companies offer games while you wait for something to load, or funny little jokes that scroll by.
Meanwhile, MailChimp gives you a high five when your campaign is sent into queue. These things go the extra mile in making your website feel more human. Users respond to a human experience and some personality.
This is a bot that talks to you within the content you're reading, like a friend sending you IMs.
The jury is still out on the fate of this trend. Some see it as an interruption while they're trying to read an article (but you can opt out of it right away). Others are seeing it as a welcome interaction, as the bot adds little quips and offerings of related materials.
If you don't think a minimalistic design is good for attracting and keeping users, take a look at the search engine that gets 80% of the world's traffic and the one that gets 5%.
You need to maintain the SCENT from the intent of the user, into the actual paid search experience, into the ad, to the landing page, and to the post landing page experience. A breakdown in any of these phases will hurt your user's journey and drill a giant hole in your sales funnel.
What you need to remember is the SCENT needs to match the INTENT. You can learn more about how to match them up by watching this video.
What are the most important KPIs that you should be looking at? What metrics should you be chasing?
To simplify things, we've defined what we feel are enterprise UX's most valuable metrics, which will give you a real representation of how your webpage is doing. At the same time, we've listed the most overrated metrics, which may mislead you or even tell you nothing at all.
What are the must-have skills that the person in charge of your website's UX needs to possess? According to Workopolis, here are some of today's most in-demand skills for UX experts.
This is a question that countless companies wrestle with. And an argument can certainly be made for either hiring a design/UX agency, or hiring your own designer.
What are the red flags you need to look out for when shortlisting design/ UX agencies?
Here's what to look for in your next partnership, broken down into three subcategories: Experience, Methodology, and Culture.
Look for the agency to tell you success stories with similar enterprise-sized clients. Their website should be full of lots of logos from other enterprise clients. You should also check to see if your could-be partners are thought of as leaders in their industry, or quoted in respected marketing blogs and publications?
Find an agency with specialties and specialists. If they don't have a speciality, they're trying to be really good at everything, but they're masters of nothing.
Don't trust a designer who claims to also be a great developer, and a great strategist, and a great researcher. Those are separate fields and specialities for a reason.
Don't hire an agency that's fixated on billable hours. Work with one that's focused on results.
You want an incentive based system to ensure you're not spending money for the sake of spending money. The agency incentives should be aligned with client incentives. They should charge a flat fee that is value based, and also based on tiered outcomes for you.
THAT is truly putting the client's needs first.
Also, make sure the agency has an eye to the future and working with things like the Apple Watch or Virtual Reality (VR) technology.
First and foremost, make sure the agency is empathic and human. They can't be afraid to talk to people, because people are at the very core of UX.
They also need to be invested in educating you, the enterprise clients, and your staff. Too often we see agencies delivering minimally effective results because the client isn't knowledgeable enough to know what to ask for.
When they speak, make sure they're talking about your KPIs, not their own.
There needs to be accountability at the team level and leadership level. If something goes wrong, or you have a question, will the agency be there to answer it?
Articulate every single point of friction on the customer's journey to conversion. It's not just about knowing that people aren't doing what you want them to do, it's knowing why.
Marketers need to match their wording to the customer's intent, which rarely happens.
The minute you get too many stakeholders involved, you get a very watered-down product.
Everybody wants their logo on the page, or their business need met. And OMIGOD, what will happen if we don't add this association badge? But you can't try to please everyone, or you will actually accomplish nothing. Worrying about bruised egos will kill your UX.
As we said earlier, get stakeholders involved in the very early phases of planning to make sure everyone can agree on the same objective. But when it comes to approving the creative and UX components, shortlist the approvers to as few as humanly possible.
Also, trust your agency or UX expert to do what's right for your webpage—even if it makes you slightly uncomfortable. Discomfort is good! Discomfort means you're disrupting the norm, and the norm is what got you here in the first place.
Follow the principles of attention ratio.
If there's too much going on, no one thing is important. Let's say you have one thing that you want people to do on the page. Let's say it's click "Get a Quote." But you add 15 – 20 other elements (buttons, banners, images, counters) to the page as well. Your "Get a Quote" button has 1/20th of the attention that you want it to have.
Vigorously remove things that aren't important on that page. Ruthlessly! Every page has to have a purpose. One. And if the purpose is not defined, your customers won't know what to do, so they'll do nothing. Besides leave.
A sign-up page should serve the purpose of signing up. Contact Us pages should help people contact you. Nobody wants to add anything to their cart from the Contact Us page, even though that may be something that ecommerce sites do. Nobody goes to your Contact Us page to follow you on Twitter.
When you start taking elements away from the page, ask yourself if the main purpose is still intact. If the reason the page exists in the first place is still intact, you're going to see an increase in conversions.
On an ecommerce site, if you're a man, you're probably shopping for men's clothing. If you're a woman, you're probably shopping for women's clothing.
That's why the most intuitive user path on the Home Page is: "Shop Men's" or "Shop Women's." That's a clear segmentation. So then the rest of the site (the imagery, the colours, the copy) can be tuned for that specific audience.
Figure out what forks in the road and what paths your users can take based on what their intrinsic interests are.
Marketers think they know what the customer wants. But the marketer is not the customer.
Typically, marketers have a lot of trouble placing themselves in the customer's shoes. Most of the time they're unable to, which is why they have poor conversion rates.
The best way around this is not to assemble a focus group. Because a focus group is giving you only a small sample size, with a lot of qualitative data, and many extrapolations.
And these "insights" are open to too many interpretations. First, there's the market research company hired to do the focus group. They process and pass the findings onto the Analytics team, who then presents to the brand team. And the brand team presents the findings to a strategy team, who presents to an executive team. You get a game of broken telephone.
Instead, focus on the voice of customers' studies, which are always on, on every page. At minimum, they ask every user if this page was useful to them. And if not, why. That way you get a real feedback loop from the people who have real intent to interact with your pages. Ask them why they do the things they do or why they don't do other things.
Reality: You can unlock millions of dollars in lost revenue by changing two small words in your form. That's free.
Reality: Traffic and leads are not something you achieve, they're something you maintain. And you have to keep testing and making changes to your site to keep those leads.
Reality: You need a good mobile site.
Yes, Google has switched to mobile-first indexing. BUT, in the absence of a mobile site, they will index the desktop site. So it's better to have a rock-solid desktop site than a rushed mobile site with a terrible UX. Because Google will punish you if your users pogo stick off your site.
Just because the mobile site fits their phone, doesn't mean it will fit their needs.
Reality: Enterprise level businesses have more than one target market, so they need a segmentation of messaging for various target groups.
Deploying a broad, one-size-fits-all creative and marketing strategy is not enough.
It's getting easier to get into digital marketing, but it's getting harder to master the space.
Successful companies used to ask, "What do we have to do to get there?" Now they're asking, "What do we have to do to deserve to be there?" Investing in your UX is one of the things you have to do to earn success.
If you lose customers, don't lose the lesson. Treat each lost lead as a teachable moment. Learn why you lost that customer and take that feedback to improve the next customer's journey. Then take that success and build on it. That's what a good UX is made of.
If you would like to have a deeper discussion about UX and your company's goals, you can click here to book a free 25-minute consultation with one of our experts.


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[The 800-pound gorilla confronting the U.S. geo-politically, economically, and in terms of hydrocarbon energy is China. As India increasingly takes the stage, that nation becomes strategic in agreements made with her by the neo-cons, China being the ultimate target of American diplomatic maneuvering. While the approach of neo-liberals has been more chaotic, the neo-cons insist on tighter control through domestic population control and the militarization of foreign policy—CB]
INDIA TAKES THE STAGE - PART V
Stan Goff
FTW Military/Veterans Affairs Editor
© Copyright 2006, From The Wilderness Publications, www.fromthewilderness.com. All Rights Reserved. This story may NOT be posted on any Internet web site without express written permission. Contact admin@copvcia.com. May be circulated, distributed or transmitted for non-profit purposes only.
The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue.
September 15th 2006, 1:26PM [PST] - After 9-11, Vice Admiral Cebrowski told the Bush administration that "the dangers against which US forces must be arrayed derive precisely from countries and regions that are 'disconnected' from the prevailing trends of globalization."
Michael Hudson writes in Super Imperialism -- the Origins and Fundamentals of U.S. World Dominance (Pluto Press, 2003) that…
The sense of shock at the United States' rising trade and payments deficit has been lost as the deficit has been built into the world economic system. The upshot is that almost without anyone really recognizing what has been happening, America's shift into debtor status turned the postwar into an exploitative double standard. Since the nation went off gold in 1971, the Treasury bill standard has enabled the United States to draw on the resources of the rest of the world without reciprocation, governing financially through its debtor position, not through its creditor status. As dollar debts have replaced gold as the backing for central bank reserves, and hence the world's credit supply, the entire system would be threatened if questions into its intrinsic unfairness were reopened.
No nation before has ever been able to invert the classical rules of international finance. Economies that have fallen into deficit have lost not only their world power, but usually also their autonomy to manage their own domestic politics and retain ownership of their public resources and their central bank's financial policy. This is still the financial and political principle that they must follow. Yet U.S. diplomats have been able to convince Europe, Asia, and the Third World -- and since 1991 even the former Soviet Union -- to reorient their economies to facilitate America's evolution from payments-surplus to payments-deficit status.
How has America been able to achieve this quid without the quo, something for nothing, a free subsidy from the world's payments-surplus nations? For one thing, the rationale for acquiescence has shifted from an early postwar faith in American moral leadership and the rhetoric of free markets to the fear that the United States will plunge the world into crisis if it does not get its way.
With the Bush administration's employment of pre-emptive war doctrine, it has gotten the opposite result of its original plan in Southwest Asia. Instead of compliant nations happily hosting US military "lily pad" bases, the US has sunk into a terrific military stalemate in Iraq, and Iran has emerged as the new regional power broker. The war itself is thoroughly financed by the system of "free lunch" loans (the Treasury bill standard) described by Hudson, and the plunge into crisis appears a result of reckless miscalculation as a form of cynical calculation. The neo-con global strategy has been one not of stabilization, but of destabilization, carried by the notion that the US was in a unique position to pick up the pieces afterward and reorder them to suit its own purposes.
Members of the administration have displayed more than a little of the logic associated with macho adolescent boys. In that way, they have taken a baton to a hornets' nest as part of their destabilization strategy, convincing themselves that somehow they themselves would be immune to the wrath of its residents.
This has not increased, as many believe, interstate rivalry between the developed nations of North America, Western Europe, and Japan. For them, the acceleration of the shift from manufactured consent to naked force as the instruments of empire -- all of them implicated in neo-liberalism as a collaborative system of parasitism upon the global South -- was not a moral disturbance, but a crisis of legitimacy. They are all too closely-identified with the United States, and too densely networked within the US-directed world system, to actually challenge the system. Their crises are domestic and political, because they themselves, following the lead of past US administrations (especially the Clinton administration), had so mystified their own constituents with regard to both economic and foreign policy with "multilateralism" and "human rights" as the cover for their own complicity in accumulation by dispossession, that the macho belligerence of the Bush administration threatens to give the game away by raising embarrassing questions.
Those who were most alerted, and less surprised, by this display of military machismo were the very states which were neither as networked financially, nor as integrated politically, nor as conformed culturally to the US as the overdeveloped metropoles. What has been a surprise, and has altered political calculations around the world, is the depth and breadth of the apparent military defeat of the US in Iraq. This graphic demonstration of the falsehood of the American military-invincibility mystique has created a loss of confidence in American power, and even engendered open opposition among latent rivals, especially Russia and China.
Both of these nations are perfectly cognizant of the fact that they themselves are the ultimate targets of US machinations. And both nations have a rich history of conflict in which weak forces overcame strong ones by guile and patience.
In Mao's articulation of guerrilla strategy he summarized: "The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue."
This is, in many respects, the opposite of the "bring 'em on" machismo of Bush's coterie of Ivy League generalissimos and business-class gangsters wielding their power like a kid who just found his dad's gun.
China has not been engaged in the project of modernization for 200 years. Modernization began only after the overthrow of feudalism by the Chinese Revolution in 1949… less than 60 years ago. And modernization is the framework through which to understand the actions of the ruling Chinese Communist Party. Chinese realism about relative strength and weakness in the world system has, so far, served China very well, once the empirical evidence is examined. Since the Revolutions, Chinese life expectancy has gone from 35 to 70. The under-5 mortality rate has dropped from 209 to 45. Adult literacy had jumped from under 20% to 99%. But there have been tremendous setbacks and challenges as well.
The shift to "market socialism," the euphemism employed by Deng Xiaoping for selective integration of China into the emerging neo-liberal world system, has brought with a phenomenal growth rate, an unhealthy dependence on export, increasing social stratification, social service collapses, local bureaucratic corruption, and serious environmental problems. The details of that process, as well as any interpretation of events in China today, are poorly understood, if at all, in the West, that embraces instead a monumentally silly caricature of China as a pure and obedient autocracy run by a tightly disciplined, robot-like Communist Party. It is only plain Western racism that supports such a simplistic account of a nation of 1.3 billion people that manages to maintain a viable, unitary state.
The Communist Party of China is the single largest political organization in the world, with 70 million members, nearly matching the number of men, women, and children in California, Texas, and New York. It is also the most complex political organization in the world. It is rife with factions, and during the 60s, in a period called the Great Cultural Revolution, the struggle within the Party (and that is what it was, contrary to the impressions predominating in the West) over its direction between Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, and Deng Xiaoping led to devastating organizational wreckage and social chaos. The party was subsequently reorganized, with Deng's faction in control.
Henry C.K. Liu notes ("The lame duck and the greenhorn," Asia Times, June 23, 2006):
Learning lessons from the damaging experience of the Cultural Revolution, in which the winner-takes-all struggle for the correct ideological line ended with unimaginable chaos and violence that threatened the very future of the party, the CCP has since adopted ways and means to smooth out the leadership transition process and to reach orderly resolutions of inevitable ideological and material conflicts in a complex socio-economic-political system that leave room for constructive disagreement and operational compromise.
It is in this milieu of complex political struggle that Chinese leadership is formed, as well as in the administration of a nation four times the size of the United States. The single most important point of unification within the Party leadership is the preservation and strengthening of Chinese independence. The shared understanding of the Party leadership is that -- while alliances of convenience have existed and do exist -- their vast natural and human wealth is coveted, and the capacity inhering in those assets is feared… by the United States. Development is seen by many as a way to become part of the modern world, but more importantly, and probably more accurately, it is seen as a prerequisite to their survival.
Two years after Mao's death in 1976, Deng Xiaoping implemented a reform agenda that cautiously opened China's economy to what was then a very nascent neo-liberalism. Internationally, this meant limited access by outsiders to China's market (mostly limited to Guangdong); domestically, it began a very real devolution of political and economic power from Beijing toward the localities. Among the main goals of market liberalization were technology transfers. This required a strategy of state-mediated investment from abroad. While capitalist incursions into the Chinese market have been substantial, the Chinese state has maintained tight control over central banking, as a way of both insulating itself from speculative depredations and, as Harvey puts it, "preventing the formation of any coherent capitalist power bloc within China itself…"
The barriers erected by foreign portfolio investment effectively limit the powers of international finance capital over the Chinese state. The reluctance to permit forms of financial intermediation other than the state-owned banks -- such as stock markets and capital markets -- deprives capital of one of its key weapons vis-à-vis state power. (A Brief History of Neo-liberalism, Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 123)
As part of that survival strategy, China has cynically used its most abundant asset to attract foreign investment: a sea of dirt-cheap human labor. This has attracted more than 20,000 American joint ventures. More than 100 US-based multinational corporations have invested $48 billion in China. China has used this strategy to hollow out huge sectors of US manufacturing, and the cheap commodities produced there are now the lifeblood of giant US-based box-store retailers like Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Target. By locking sections of the US ruling class into an economic Gordian knot, China has placed a protective shield around itself vis-à-vis the political-military establishment. The other way that China has established defensive leverage against the US is by buying US debt, and now holds almost $324 billion in US Treasury securities.
This is not an advantage or disadvantage for China, but a case, in the Cold War nuclear vocabulary, of a standoff of "mutually assured destruction."
Along with Japan, that now owns $639 billion in US debt, these two Asian giants are effectively financing the war in Iraq. At this point, though they would be loath to admit it aloud, the US entrapment in the Iraq debacle must be seen, from a Realpolitik perspective, as a net positive, and not from an economic standpoint. China knows as well as everyone else that the US will never pay off its T-bill debts; it can't. The US entrapment in Iraq is creating the conditions for what China has most wanted since the collapse of the Soviet Union: an Asian bloc, with China piloting, that will create what the Chinese call global multi-polarity.
While the trend, for now, is a decline in American power and the rise of China as a regional power, the economic and military disparity is still so great that China sees itself playing for time for several decades more. China's so-called arsenal of nuclear weapons -- one of the only assurances in Bush World that prevents pre-emption in the eyes of many -- is a meager 24 nuclear missiles deliverable to the US, compared to the 10,330 in US possession with the combined destructive power of 125,000 Hiroshima bombs. China's conventional military is suitable strictly for home defense, and its Navy is pitiable. The US has the capacity right now to conduct a devastating blockade of China, and its string of new bases in Southwest Asia have actually tightened US encirclement. China has good reason to fear recent developments.
Before 9-11, after having been briefed by the outgoing Clinton administration on the growing threat of political Islam, the Bush administration ignored those warnings, stating their belief that the real challenge to US power in the world was China, and began the build-up of a US-Japan-Taiwan theater missile defense system. This program was implicit before the Bush administration, but on April 24, 2001 -- a mere three months after having taken office by judicial fiat -- Bush announced it would do "whatever it takes" to defend Taiwan from Chinese attack. While many have the impression that post-Hiroshima/Nagasaki Japan is nuclear-phobic, the fact is, Japan has prepared a nuclear arsenal -- with China as its only possible target -- that is one final step from assembly… a task that could be accomplished in mere weeks.
This goes a long way toward explaining China's hesitancy to provoke the US, even as China moves cautiously forward with its own development agenda. When the US was attacked on September 11th, China made an instant and visible show of solidarity. The left sects of the West castigated China and Russia for this support, demanding they step directly before the raging bull of a post-9-11 US. A friend of mine, himself a leftist, said recently: "A weakness on the left is that we often despise complexity."
The Chinese provided intelligence support to the US, and Russia green-lighted bases in the former Soviet states. Both offered support for an occupation of Afghanistan; and both had real concerns in their own fields of operations about political Islam. But when Bush attended the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Conference in October 2001, where Bush was face to face with both Jiang Zemin and Vladimir Putin, both continued to offer support, but qualified that support by saying that the United Nations was the appropriate occupation force; wondering then no doubt whether the US would install a compliant force… which it eventually did: NATO. Bush, at the same conference, between the usual platitudes, threw red meat to his own right wing at home by again committing to the "defense" of Taiwan. It was at the same conference that Bush convinced Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to abrogate his own Constitution by sending troops abroad for the first time since World War II -- yet another indication to the Chinese and the world of the resurgence of militarism in Japan.
Both the Russians and the Chinese were alerted early to US intentions when Iraq emerged as a military target, made blazingly clear in 2002. Political Islam was to be a foil for Cheney's energy team to make a bold play to put the imperial hand directly on the Southwest Asian oil tap. China was also aware that it was the principle long-range target of such a strategy.
Maintaining the Chinese growth locomotive would require what all growth does since the emergence of hydrocarbon capitalism: fossil energy. Oil. It was the same year, 2002, that China became the world's second-largest oil importer.
In 1997, China National Petroleum Corporation, the state oil company, had signed a deal to develop the Rumailah oil field in Iraq, and Russia's Lukoil had signed on for Iraq's West Qurna field. Now both were faced with the apparent attempt by the United States to seize the country as a future lever against all comers.
With steep demand-increase trend-lines from both industrializing China and profligate America, there is an inevitable point that will be reached where the material antagonisms between the two nations will reach a breaking point. China wants to postpone this conflict as long as possible and has been aggressively diversifying its oil import sources. As it expands its domestic refining capacity and establishes a strategic petroleum reserve, China is investing overseas, pursuing interests in pipelines, and developing its own natural gas industry. As it stands now, however, China has one great Achilles heel. The sea-lanes that ensure its oil imports are still controlled and protected by the United States Navy.
There has been no more powerful recognition of China's success within neo-liberalism, including its ability to employ a strong, even authoritarian, state to avoid the lethal "shock treatment" afforded Russia, or the ability of a culture steeped in Confucian respect for hierarchy and order, to exercise control over the anarchic and most self-destructive tendencies of the so-called free market… than the people some have come to call the neo-conservatives. Their anxiety about China as a potential competitor is matched only by their envy of the Chinese state apparatus to exercise control over its vast domestic population.
There are many who emphasize the Straussian roots of neo-conservatism, its elitist conviction that societies must be welded together by some shared mytho-heroic narrative of conquest and destiny. But that is only one face of the neo-cons. The objectives that unite them are held in common with a singular conviction that liberal society, though capitalist, has gone too far in the direction of chaos, and that more autocratic social control is required to ensure domestic population control, as foreign policy is militarized. This explains the neo-con affinity for hyper-patriarchal evangelists and their need for an amorphous external enemy. This same tendency for the exertion of greater social control through obscurantist narratives and the "othering" of some generalized enemy is reflected in the Hindutva politics of India.
In more particular terms, and going to the actual -- yet unstated -- goals behind all their blather about democracy, the neo-cons have a manifold plan: gain control of Southwest Asia; restore US global hegemony, by force if necessary, and prevent the rise of an Asian bloc.
The key to the latter item in this strategy, in the view of the US, is India. And when, on July 8, 2005, India and the US signed the India-US Joint Statement (IUSJS), the final nail in the coffin of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was situated under the hammer. The true target of this policy is China.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The Illinois Back Institute strives to educate everyone as much as possible about their back, neck, and sciatica pain. That's why each week we send out some of our best tips and informational articles about back pain, because it's proven that the more you understand about your back pain, the more likely you are to eliminate it!
Spring Is Officially Here, So Now Is The Perfect Time To Schedule A Free Consultation And Finally Get Rid Of Your Back, Neck, And Sciatica Pain!
Our sciatica stretch for this week is the Calf Stretch! The Sciatic Nerve is the largest nerve in the human body and is about as wide as a thumb. It travels from the lower spine down through the legs and all the way down to the foot. Because of that, Sciatica pain can cause numbness or even soreness in the calf. The Calf Stretch can help relieve the pain present in the calf due to Sciatica.
Back Pain Relief Tip Of The Week: Is The Way You Breathe Making Your Back Pain Worse?
When people have back pain, they almost never consider that the way they are breathing could have any kind of impact on it. Most people don't even realize that they can breathe in different ways. And surprisingly, breathing the wrong way can actually make your back pain worse!
Russ was doing a favor for his daughter by building a deck for her wedding shower. However, while working on the deck he ended up rupturing a disc in his back. The pain was severe, and got so bad that he could barely work. He was taking painkillers constantly and tried other treatments to relieve the pain but nothing seemed to work. He feared he would have to resort to surgery to help relieve his pain. Fortunately, he found out about the Illinois Back Institute and came to see us for treatment instead.
Want To Hear Russ's Story? Watch His Testimonial by Clicking Here or On The Picture Above!
Click Here or on the Picture Above to Learn What These Gardening Tips Are!


After a summer of much action within the club, but none at Charlton Athletic Online, it's time to preview the coming season, starting with the players who will be representing the Addicks in 2011/2012.
Despite Robbie Elliot (left) being rumoured to be on his way (to Newcastle - Did Pards really like him that much?), he remains at The Valley, and will no doubt retain the number 1 jersey. The start of last year was a bad one for Robbie, as a good pre-season was hampered by an early elbow injury that saw him miss quite a few games. Another couple picked up around Xmas and Easter saw him miss lots more games, and with Ross Worner no longer at the club, this year it looks like John Sullivan will be the bench-warmer and stand-in if Robbie gets hurt. Sullivan came in on loan from Millwall last March and did OK, but it was enough for him to get offered a contract and he is reasonable back-up. With a clutch of younger 'keepers on the books, the third and fourth choice positions are up for grabs, and either Nick Pope or Conor Gough can expect to go out on loan I suspect.
Much changed in the middle of defence, as is most of the squad, with Miguel Llera, Christian Dailly (at present), and Jon Fortune all released after their contracts ended. In have come two centre-backs, Michael Morrison (from Sheffield Wednesday) and Matt Taylor (from Exeter), and they look like taking the starting positions leaving Gary Doherty as a reserve. Young Yado Mambo is at last being given an opportunity to stake a claim, and is fourth choice at present. Both Morrison and Taylor have form in this league, with the ex-Leicester man winning promotion a couple of years ago. Taylor had very good reports from Devon, but did have a bad back injury last year which prevented him finishing the season and which may re-appear at times this year. Adequate cover is therefore required.
At full back, Chris Solly (left) and Simon Francis are still with the club though Francis turned down a move to Bournemouth (after prolonged transfer fee negotiations) to try to stay near his Essex mates. On the left side, Rhys Wiggins came up from Bournemouth, not long after ex-Arsenal youngster Cedric Evina arrived. Evina has talent but may be raw, while Wiggins has not had that long in league football and may be a bit of a gamble, despite the hefty transfer fee. Their arrival probably puts paid to any hope Kelly Youga may have had of signing a new contract with Charlton, and actually news of him since he came back to the club on trial in early July has been sparse. Hopefully he is now recovered and can find a club that will play him.
Unless players leave (and Francis is the only one likely to) not much more will change with the defence, although another centre back is rumoured to and probably will arrive before the end of the transfer window. This may be a loan signing...or possibly Christian Dailly coming back on a much reduced salary.
Chris Powell has overseen a complete re-vamp in central midfield, with current Player-of-the -Year Jose Semedo, Therry Racon, and Alan McCormack all leaving the club for pastures new. In have come Danny Green (from Dagenham and Redbridge), Dale Stephens (from Oldham), Danny Hollands (also from Bournemouth), and Mikel Alonso (from Majorca) plus last-chance hopeful Bradley Pritchard. With Scott Wagstaff and Johnnie Jackson (left) retained, supposedly to fill the wide berths, the midfield looks entirely different, but (on paper) stronger, with much more goal threat. Green has a terrific scoring record over recent seasons (scoring twice against Charlton last season), and has many assists too, while Stephens looked a very talented player during Oldham's unbeaten start to last year. Both cost substantial amounts but could get better and play at higher levels. Hollands arrived on a free transfer and is more solid, though he did also score against the Addicks last season. Alonso has pedigree, but will be a bit of an unknown quantity until he gets up to speed (his season in Spain only finished in early July, so his pre-season has just started (about a month late) in order to give him a rest). With Charlton having wide players like Wagstaff, Green, and Jackson all capable of getting more then ten goals a season, the pressure is taken off others, and should bode well.
The arrival of Bradley Wright-Phillips (left) in January was the start of the player upheaval under the new ownership, and BWP will be looked upon to deliver at least as many goals as he combined to score for Plymouth and Charlton last year (21). His dodgy knees will need managing, and Pedro45 presumed that Paul Benson would provide adequate support when BWP needed a rest. The acceptance of a bid from Notts County recently for Benson suggests that other options are in train, but there has been confusion over why the transfer failed to proceed. Did Charlton withdraw their acceptance of the £150,000 offer, or did Benson demand a three year contract only for County to pull out? Who knows? One arrival was Paul Hayes, some years after his name was first linked with a move to south London, from Preston. Hayes should provide the support and service that BWP requires, and should chip in with a few goals of his own, though he is hardly prolific. I suggest that there may yet be another forward arriving at The Valley to supplement those in situe, and a loan option may be utilised here. Without BWP, Hayes and Benson, the current options look thin with only youngster Tosan Popo and triallist Jason Euell being out-and-out strikers still at the club. Euell is looking for a deal, and in the same way Jon Fortune did last year, may decide that it's better to stay with those you know. If he does sign a contract, he could yet be the trump card we need in this league.
With other triallists and a few signings made for the development squad too, the club have been busy putting the building blocks in place not only for this season, but for the future too.
Subs: Sullivan, Evina, Doherty, Wagstaff, Benson.
Coming soon, a look at the opposition for the season and a rating of the Addicks chances.


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Top Four Stars Rumoured To Be Cheating On Their Spouses
4 stars surrounded by cheating allegations. [Image Credit:The Graham Norton Show/YouTube]
Some Hollywood celebrities have scandals following them every while, some of them are cheating allegations
by Jesse N.
October 5, 2017 at 11:22 AM October 5, 2017 at 11:22 AM
The world has been watching the celebrities fall in love, and get married, but some of those marriages hit the rocks hard. Most of these unions end in bitter divorces. It's almost certain that we cant live without celebrity Cheating scandals and the gritty details of how some were caught cheating can be hilarious. Here are celebrities who were found cheating on their spouses.
1. Kevin Hart with Monique
Kevin is super funny and makes people laugh with his crazy utterances. According to the Hollywood Life, the comedian is alleged to have cheated on his wife when she was six months pregnant with their first baby, with a Latin singer.
Photos of Kevin getting cozy with the singer, who is believed To Be Monique, surfaced on July 19. It's not yet confirmed if it the rumor was actually true. Kevin addressed the accusations while Eniko and Monique didn't utter a word. The comedian laughed off the story and denied the allegations a day after the photos surfaced.
2. Arnold Schwarzenegger with Mildred Baena
The actor and former governor of California and Maria Shriver got married over 25 years ago, and their marriage had one major scandal. According to Cheat Sheet, it was revealed that the Schwarzenegger sired a son with Mildred Baena who was their maid. Apparently, the boy looked so much like the actor that his wife became suspicious and she began asking Baena if she had something to say but Baena would say no.
One day, she confronted her and asked her point blank if Joseph was Schwarzenegger's son. Mildred broke into tears, dropped on her knees, admitted that it was indeed true and apologized. Maria and Arnold separated in 2011, but are still married.
3. Brad Pitt with Angelina Jolie
According to the Talk, Pitt and Jolie starred in the blockbuster movie, "Mr.
and Mrs. Smith" and that's where they fell in love. At that time, Pitt was the husband to Jennifer Aniston, and things were getting out of hand. Jolie and Pitt had denied that they were having an affair, but people didn't buy that story. Pitt and Aniston separated a while later then Pitt got married to Jolie. But to everyone's disbelief, the marriage wasn't to last forever as the power couple separated recently following issues within their family.
Some might argue that what goes around comes around, and karma is a "bit*h."
4. Jay-Z with Rachel Roy
This is one of the popular ones reported by the Hollywood Life. Even though cheating rumors have surrounded JAY and Beyonce since 2005, the most dramatic one was in 2016 after Bey dropped her sixth studio album,"Lemonade," which was like a storybook about her marriage. The album featured lyrics about betrayal and infidelity and brought out a character named Becky with good hair. She was rumored to be Rachel Roy who was the couple's former friend. In 2014, Bey's sister Solange Knowles, attacked JAY in an elevator alleging that he was in an affair with Rachel. However, it has not been proven that Jay cheated.
Jesse N.
Pete is an excellent news writer who had been writing articles for content mills. As a news writer, Pete has been able to discover what's happening around him.
Read more on the same topic from Jesse N.:
The basics of taking care of a hamster 4 African Countries You Need To Visit 4 Of The Top Mysterious Celebrity Deaths
Alvin Albaciete
Follow alvin on Facebook Follow alvin on Twitter Follow alvin on Linkedin
Blasting News recommends Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey calls Tom Brady 'great leader', expects TB12 to 'bring it' 10-year-old cancer survivor on Tom Brady: 'He's kind of been my hero all along' Von Miller knows what Tom Brady is all about in the playoffs: 'He's incredible' Julian Edelman now roots for Tom Brady, celebrates Bucs win over Eagles as he wins bet 5 celebrities married to ordinary people 4 Amazing Films Based on Real Events


NATIONAL STEEL COMPANY'S PLANT AT YOUNGSTOWN, O., THE SCENE OF A GREAT ACCIDENT.
Youngstown, O., Aug. 19. -- An explosion of ten tons of molten metal in the blast furnace department of the Ohio plant of the National Steel Company Sunday resulted in the death of three workingmen and the injury of eleven others.
STAHMA and YACHYKO are in a dying condition and at least six others of the injured are not expected to survive.
The accident was the result of machinery which controlled the ladle, containing the molten mass breaking and letting the metal drop into a vat filled with water.
Youngstown, O., Aug. 19. -- Seven of the fourteen men injured by the explosion of molten metal in the blast furnace department of the Ohio plant of the National Steel Company are dead.
Two others injured are in a serious condition. The accident was caused by the machinery which handled the hot metal not working properly.


In parallel with her main work in ceramics, Vernadaki was also active in the broader field which we are accustomed to calling "applied arts". From the early 1960s until today, she designed hundreds of table-forms of various sizes and innovative designs. In morphological terms, the basis for her table-forms should be sought in the sparse vocabulary of modernism and above all in early geometrical abstraction and Constructivism, though in some instances we encounter more dynamic, aggressive elements in the nature of Futurism. Austere, geometrical forms in ceramic material, wood, marble, terrazzo, steel, cement or iron, unadorned by any additional decoration, dominate the space through their mass and their very materials.
At the same time, she began to create jewellery, using mainly clay as well as metals of various kinds and alloys. Her work in artistic jewellery is founded on the idea of "non-jewellery", otherwise known as "non-decorative" jewellery – jewellery as an artistic object. A common component of Vernadaki's multifarious contributions to artistic jewellery is her attachment to simple and coarse materials, as well as to an imperfect finish, thus leaving the traces of the construction process and the texture of the material visible.
Within her long and arduous exploration of the handmade artistic object, we also find the "Mementoes". Here she experiments with synthetic materials – nylon gauze, plastic flowers and plexiglass – in combination with mirrors to create square object-boxes attached to the wall, as well as a large variety of metal objects made of iron, copper, brass, aluminium and stainless steel.
Her creations in this field are also based on her vision – which bears clear influences from the European Modernist avant-garde – of the importance of linking art and life.


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Vikings recap: Season 4, Episode 13
War on both coasts
By Darren Franich
December 15, 2016 at 04:50 PM EST
Credit: Jonathan Hession
Ragnar Lothbrok's great army of revenge feeds the fish at the bottom of the sea. His boats sink into darkness, never to be seen again by human eyes. Yet Ragnar and Ivar endure. Father and son wash ashore. Some of his men survive, too: A motley crew, not the great warriors of yesteryear, some few desperate Vikings. They know the locals will arrive soon. They must move — but Ivar, little Ivar, cannot walk with his father. "I'm not going to stand around all watching you try to be normal," says the King. "You never will be. Once you realize that, that is when greatness will happen. Now crawl."
Ragnar's first son, Bjorn, isn't normal, either. Alone among his brothers, he remembers a time when his father was a farmer. Alone among his brothers, he remembers the brighter days of Uncle Rollo, the familiar friend, not the eternal traitor. Bjorn sails southward on his journey to the Mediterranean. The ships pass the Normandy coast, which will host unimaginable bloodshed centuries hence when all the dreams of the Vikings are dust and memory.
This land is overseen by a strange man. He came from the North but can never return. Raised with the old gods, he was baptized into Christianity as a joke. See Rollo, the great warrior, now a Frankish noble. He sees his nephew's arrival and smiles. There is gray in his beard. He has three children with his trusting wife, Gisla. He welcomes his old friends and old enemies. "I have to sail along your coastline," says Bjorn. "I need safe passage for my fleet." Rollo has them held captive. "We have 60 ships outside your port," says Floki. "Don't you think they will come knocking soon, if we don't return?"
Every journey these Vikings take, they know there is the possibility they will never return. But it seems the once-great King Ragnar has a unique plan for his current journey. "I didn't come here to go back," he tells Ivar as they cower in the woods, hiding from Prince Aethelwulf and his searchers. "We can no longer travel with our friends. It can only be you and me."
And so, in the night, the great King Ragnar and his last loyal son sneak about like thieves or serpents, slicing the throats of the warriors. They paid the warriors and now the warriors are paying for it. There is no mercy; a shieldmaiden offers herself to Ivar and he kills her. Is the great Lothbrok family a coalition of traitors? How many more people will trust Ragnar, and how much longer can he betray that trust?
One of the first people Ragnar betrayed was Lagertha, once his wife, then his ally. Lagertha has her own plans. She watches as her warriors prepare for battle; her warriors appear to be mostly or entirely shieldmaidens, strong women supporting one of the strongest. What are they preparing for? "I'm taking Kattegat back," Lagertha says, a dream given voice at last. "Aslaug isn't fit to be Queen."
NEXT: What comes next
Lagertha has her reasons. She must justify herself. She says Aslaug was born of a witch. She points out that three of Ragnar's sons are gone, leaving only two behind. She meets Margaret, the slave girl. "She was being used," Lagertha learns, "by the sons of Ragnar." Lagertha hears Margaret's tale. She meets with Torvi and begins to plot in earnest.
In Wessex, the great King Ecbert receives his son, Aethelwulf. Mysterious doings are afoot. There are signs of Ragnar Lothbrok — and yet, they found a small remnant of a Viking force slaughtered in their sleep. Ecbert must leave for a Council meeting. Aethelwulf is concerned. He considers Ragnar to be the eternal wolf, assailing the humble lambs of god. Ecbert knows better. "Whatever my son says," Ecbert notes, "He is, after all, just a man."
And that man is busy. He carries Ivar on the road to Wessex. "I bet you wish you had killed me when I was born, just like you wanted to," says Ivar. "Only when you talk," jokes Ragnar. But then he sets all joking aside:
"I thought your legs were a weakness, and you wouldn't survive. I was wrong. Your legs have given you a strength, a strength that even your brothers don't have. You're like a deaf man whose eyesight is sharper than anyone else. You are special, not in spite of your legs, but because of them."
In Normandy, King Harald and his brother are not happy. Not happy to be imprisoned; not happy Bjorn has so stupidly walked them into a trap; not happy Bjorn ever thought he could do business with a traitor like Rollo. But Rollo surprises his former brethren. He invites Bjorn into his study; he sent for a librarian, who could explain Bjorn's map. He tells Bjorn he will have to sail through Saracen Spain, a Muslim Caliphate, and into the bay of Biscayne. And he will not promise Bjorn safe passage – unless Bjorn allows Rollo to join his quest.
RELATED: The Best and Worst TV of 2016
Gisla is not happy with that plan. Not one bit. "You embraced our world and our God and I have had your children," she tells her husband. "They are not Viking. If I thought they were Viking, I would kill them before killing myself." Rollo tries to tell her the simple truth: He loves her, loves their children, and yet cannot deny himself his Viking heritage. "If you go away, whether you live or die, this will probably be the end of us," says Gisla.
And so, on they move, these warriors and dreamers. Ragnar approaches the great city in Wessex, seemingly prepared to be taken captive, set on a mission whose endpoint only he knows. After Astrid captures the remaining two sons of Ragnar Lothbrok, Lagertha leads her army into Kattegat, an army of invaders helped from within by Torvi, who fires her bow in defiance and unity. Off the coast of Normandy, Rollo sails as a Viking once again, and his brethren tie him up with ropes and toss him into the water. Underneath the ship he is baptized yet again, or perhaps un-baptized, returned to some former state; resurrected, he is pulled back onto the ship and laughs as his lungs fill with air yet again.
In the throne room of Kattegat, where once sat a great earl and then another great earl and then a great King, Aslaug prepares herself for whatever the gods have in store for her. She leaves the great hall with a sword, like the warrior she never was, like the great warrior she has always been.
Episode grade: B+
S5 E10 Recap
Vikings recap: 'Moments of Vision'
S5 E9 Recap
Vikings recap: 'A Simple Story'
Vikings recap: 'The Joke'
Vikings recap: 'Full Moon'
Vikings recap: 'The Prisoner'
Vikings recap: 'The Plan'
Vikings recap: 'Homeland'
Vikings premiere recap: 'The Departed'
Vikings finale recap: 'The Reckoning'
Vikings recap: 'On the Eve'
Vikings recap: 'Revenge'
Vikings recap: 'The Great Army'
Vikings recap: 'Crossings'
Vikings recap: 'All His Angels'
Vikings recap: 'In the Uncertain Hour Before the Morning'
Vikings midseason finale recap: The Last Ship
Vikings recap: Death All 'Round
Vikings recap: Portage
Vikings recap: The Profit and the Loss
Vikings recap: What Might Have Been


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WTBU
In September 2014 as a college freshman, I started as an intern at WTBU, Boston University's student-run radio station. I learned how to work the equipment and the board, curate playlists and conduct interviews. After that, I proceeded to have my own show — two over the years, and eventually joined the executive board as the station's Promotions Director for a year.
I also put together the station's history page. I conducted and edited interviews with notable WTBU alumni from over the decades, who told their stories about the station to create an accurate and colorful collection of WTBU history.
Shrug Emoji (Sept. 2015 to May 2018)
DJ on Shrug Emoji from 10 pm to 12 am every Sunday. We discuss internet culture, television, social media, and trends. We play electronic, pop and alternative music from curated playlists that we make every week.
I run all of our show's social media — mainly Twitter.
Recorded episodes can be found on our mixcloud and in WTBU's official archives.
Promotions Director (Dec. 2015 to Dec. 2016)
Pitched and edited all content for the WTBU blog and official website. This included interviews, previews, reviews and playlists.
Ran a student-run promotions team of about sixty students.
Coordinated on-air interviews with artists — local and outside Boston.
Organized and held concerts and events.
Weast Coast (Jan. 2015 to May 2015)
DJ on Weast Coast from 8 am to 10 am every Sunday. We played music from our respective parts of the country and discussed new up and coming artists. Our genres ranged from pop punk to house music.
Ran all of our social media including Twitter and Facebook.
Recorded episodes can be found on our mixcloud.


Oru Thuli Punnagai is a Tamil drama movie, directed by Raajarishi starring Sanjai,Devika.
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Buy Oru Thuli Punnagai Coupons to get discounts on Movie Tickets.
Make use of the mKoop coupon code at BookMyShow to book Oru Thuli Punnagai movie tickets.


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Here are the 2023 Dogs of the Dow
by MarketArmor | Jan 6, 2023 | Featured | 0 comments
The 2022 Dogs of the Dow beat the major indices again.
While the Dogs of the Dow stocks fell 1.6% on the year, once you add in the dividend payouts, the Dogs returned 2% on the year.
And while 2% may not sound like a big win, consider this.
In 2022, one of the worst years on record since 2008, the NASDAQ lost 33%. The S&P 500 lost 19%. The Dow Jones lost about 9%. That 2% doesn't look so bad now, does it?
Now, as we head into 2023, we expect for the Dogs to do even better. To participate, you simply buy the top 10 highest-yielding stocks on the most beaten-down stocks on the Dow Jones. A year from now, you close them out – hopefully for wins – and repeat with a new batch.
For some history: In 2021, the Dogs of the Dow returned about 16.3%. While 2020 wasn't a great year for the Dogs, most other years have done very well. In 2019, the Dogs were up 20%. In 2018, they were up about 1%, but still beat the Dow, which fell close to 6%. In 2017, the dogs were up 19%. In 2016, they were up 16%.
For 2023, the top Dogs include:
Verizon (VZ) – which has a current yield of 6.62%
Dow Inc. (DOW) – with a yield of 5.56%
Intel (INTC) – with a yield of 5.52%
Walgreens (WBA) – with a yield of 5.14%
3M (MMM) – with a yield of 4.97%
IBM (IBM) – with a yield of 4.68%
Amgen (AMGN) – with a yield of 3.24%
Cisco (CSCO) – with a yield of 3.19%
Chevron (CVX) – with a yield of 3.16%
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) – with a yield of 2.98%
Here's hoping for another solid year for the Dogs of the Dow.


Gold Evening Clutch Purse with Knuckles – A Clutch Purse that will make you stand apart in a crowd!
This Gold Knuckle Duster Clutch Purse with Rhinestones is a piece of beauty that will not just add to your lovely outfit, but also make you stand out in a crowd. Pair it with a black dress to make a bold yet beautiful statement. Take it to a cocktail party, or a wedding party.
Come to Chicastic now to buy one for yourself!


Rechargeable products are becoming more and more popular for various reasons. It is better for the environment to recharge the product instead of disposing of a lot of batteries. In addition it is saving the user quiet a bit of money. No need to take batteries out when the product is stored for a longer period of time and no danger of flat of leaked batteries.
From the performance the Starlight 1000RC offers many advantages. With the highest output of 1000 lumen the Starlight lights up a large area, great when putting up your tent or doing other work in the dark. When ready to put your feet up – just switch to the warm white colour for atmospheric light. All 3 light colours have a stepless dimmer function to get exactly the right light output. It also saves energy to run the light on lower output. The Starlight has a built in hanger hook at the base to make it easy to to place the lantern where you want it.
The handle has an anti slip coating and the lantern is protected against knocks and bumps all around. The switch has a green blinking function that you can locate the light in the darkness.
Which is enough to charge most phones fully and a lot of phones more than once.
All in all the Starlight is a top performing lantern with many different uses.
Operating modes: Cool white > warm white > bright white. All light colours with stepless dimmer function.


Vijayendra Prasad, the writer of Manikarnika, has also penned Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Baahubali. He had revealed in an interview that the war scenes in the film will be class apart. The film will also be Ankita Lokhande's debut in Bollywood which is one more reason to look forward to it.


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Greatest Inventions
As a part of the September 2002 issue of National Geographic, the editors compiled a list of the 10 greatest inventions of all time. As a result of the list, the September 2002 issue of National Geographic was one of the most controversial issues ever published. The magazine defined greatness as a combination of how much they have changed the way we live, what colour they are, and how many deaths have been attributed to the use of the invention.
10. The Electric Toothbrush
The electric toothbrush out-sells propane toothbrushes 10:1
The electric toothbrush, invented by Dr. Van Gnot in 1973, was a big strike against dentists. The fact that people now had the power to brush their teeth in their own home meant fewer visits to the dentists. The electric toothbrush was more influential than the invention of the non-electric toothbrush because people were not interested in brushing their teeth if they had to move the brush under their own power, or trying to plug a normal toothbrush. Even dentists have admitted that, thanks to the electric toothbrush, they are pretty much useless. Many have now found that they can only survive by living on the street and collecting donations from people who give them money because they don't realize that they are a dentist.
9. License Plates
A license plate
Anyone who has ever been in a car knows that one of the biggest problems with being in a car is wondering which cars you've seen before and which ones you haven't. Thanks to license plates, this is no longer a problem.
8. TV remote control
I am in control...
The TV remote control was the first invention that put us on our way to being able to live from a chair. Scientists estimate that within 10 years, everyone will live in a chair and never stand up. They have already invented chairs that can move by themselves, and you can often see them being beta tested by old people. The TV remote control has reshaped the American dream of freedom and democracy into being able to live from a chair.
7. Car Hoods
The hood of a car, and someone who wasn't ready to have her picture taken
Early car manufacturers faced a huge problem. They had developed working cars, complete with lights and horns, only to realize that they had nothing to put over the engine. Ford engineer Pete Monro found an ingenious solution: a sheet of metal. He named his invention the 'car hood'. Car hoods protect the car from layers of dust, smoke, moisture, and dirt. Today, when you were looking at a car, you might say 'Let's see what's under the hood'. Before the invention of the car hood, your only choice was to say 'Let's see what's under the layers of dust, smoke, moisture, and dirt'.
6. Soap
A lifetime supply of soap
Sæbe/såpe/soap was invented in 1982 by Dubya. It had immediate success in North America, and eventually caught on in Europe, where people were less interested in personal hygiene. Although it has yet to be successfully marketed to the french. Soap lost some of its market share in the 90s as it was boycotted by hippies who thought hygiene was a waste of time. When personal hygiene became obsolete with the invention of the Internet in the late 90s, soap was discontinued because of lack of interest. Despite its lack of use today, soap is still considered by many as the most influential invention ever.
5. Da Ca'
A new hybrid car
Main article: Car
Before the automobile, hippies did not have anything to complain about other than fur and meat. It was obvious by this time that whining about fur and meat wasn't doing anything, so instead the hippies turned to drugs and playing bad acoustic guitar. It was the invention of the automobile that changed things. When automobiles became popular, hippies created a new hobby of making up lies about the ozone layer. Hippies also protested imported cars, and created the slogan 'Every time you buy an import, god kills a kitten'. The slogan can still be seen as a bumper sticker on cars today, but mostly just on imports with the intention to make the hippies angry.
4. Pooper-Scooper
A pooper-scooper
The pooper scooper is possibly the most politically influential invention of all time. The invention of the pooper scooper led to the fall of the German forces in the Second World War. History professor Kyle Hant of Berlin University is convinced that without the invention of the pooper scooper, we would all be speaking German, although he can't explain how he knows this.
3. Record Player
Record player reading a 12" hard disk
Invented in 1993, the record player picked up where the CD player stopped. Because of the larger size and density of records, they could hold much more audio than a CD ever could. Despite their slightly larger size, records were still small enough to fit in a pocket. When used with MP3 or WMA encoding, records could hold even more music, so that you could fit your entire CD collection onto a single record. This discovery broke all previous records.
2. George Bush Jr.
George Bush exercising his robotic arm
Contrary to popular belief, George Bush Jr. is not actually the son of the other guy named George Bush, but actually a robot created by George Bush with some help from NASA. George Bush Jr. is programmed for progressive world domination. Although his speech engine often makes mistakes, these are taken humorously and called 'Bushisms'. The robot is so successful that only the hippies can actually tell that he is a robot, and since nobody listens to the hippies, his secret is safe. Michael Moore made a documentary about him called Bush Exposed: The Naked Truth, but it was unsuccessful because it was often confused with an adult film with the same name. According to IMDB users, the Michael Moore film is the worse of the two.
1. Segway
A man using the Segway at work.
The Segway has now become so commonplace that you hardly even notice when someone is using one, and in some places there are more people on Segway than on foot, such as Italy and Africa. A 1989 survey that compared the Segway to the Jetpack concluded that almost as many people had Segways as Jetpacks.
Worst 100 Inventions of All Time
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Welcome to the World of Painting with a Visual Impairment.
It may seem that the two elements, painting and visual impairment don't really go together.
Over many years I have witnessed first hand how much pleasure and sense of satisfaction has been achieved by people whose sight is severely impaired especially those who have had to come to terms with sight loss in later life.
Special thanks to Leraz Shutkever for all her expert help in creating this website.
I must stress that the website puts forward my personal view and is not validated by any official organisation or sponsored by any commercial interests.
Find a space to work, with access to a window, natural light is best especially when painting. A conservatory can also be a good place to set up your art equipment. If there is glare from direct sunlight fit a thin roller blind to filter this out. A Velux Window/Sky Tunnel above the work area is an excellent way to boost the amount of light. If the room could be painted white and a white laminate floor fitted these will also make the work space more appropriate for improving what you can see. A comfortable space which helps your particular eye condition is the most important starting point.
If the work space can be dedicated to practical activities a bank of strip lights are a cheap and very effective way of lighting it.
A sloping surface to work on means you don't need to bend over in an uncomfortable way and stops your head blockng out the natural light.
If this all sounds rather forbidding AND expensive really the window is the main element the rest can be added on later when you have caught the painting bug.
I am dividing the rest of the advice into distinct chapter headings.


text:
HGST's helium-filled HDD offers a world-first 10 TB of storage
By Nick Lavars
HGST's Ultrastar Archive Ha10 is aimed at enterprise users
HGST's Ultrastar Archive Ha10 uses shingled magnetic recording (SMR), a hard drive technology that records data on overlapping rather than parallel tracks
To begin with, the Ultrastar Archive Ha10 will be available to cloud and OEM storage clients
We first caught wind of HGST's high capacity hard drives in 2012, when the company claimed it could boost storage capacities by 40 percent by replacing regular old air inside the drive enclosure with helium. The Western Digital subsidiary stayed the course, producing a helium-based 6 TB HDD in 2013 and 8 TB model in 2014, and has now continued the upward trend with the world's first 10 TB hard drive.
Aimed squarely at enterprise and data centers, the Ultrastar Archive Ha10 is the company's latest take on a helium-based HDD. The apparent benefits of helium when it comes to HDD storage is its markedly lower density of around one-seventh that of regular air. This means less friction with internal moving parts, resulting in less power needed to drive the device and increased data density of the individual disks.
HGST calls its version of this HelioSeal and has combined it with shingled magnetic recording (SMR), a hard drive technology that records data on overlapping rather than parallel tracks, much like roof shingles (hence the name). The company says this results in an industry-leading storage density, low power consumption and ever-reliable storage solution. However, since SMR requires the writing of entire tracks, the drive is suited for active archive duties rather than frequent update workloads.
Further to its mammoth storage capacity, the 3.5-in drive is rated at two million hours mean time between failure (MTBF) and a 10-15 unrecoverable reduced bit error rate with 600k load-unload cycles. It comes in SATA 6 Gbps and SAS Gbps varieties and HGST claims a 20 percent improvement inWatts per TB over the preceding Ultrastar He8.
To begin with, the Ultrastar Archive Ha10 will be available to cloud and OEM storage clients with the software capabilities to harness the density of the device.
Source: HGST
ComputersWestern DigitalData StorageHdd
Nick Lavars
Nick has been writing and editing at New Atlas for over six years, where he has covered everything from distant space probes to self-driving cars to oddball animal science. He previously spent time at The Conversation, Mashable and The Santiago Times, earning a Masters degree in communications from Melbourne's RMIT University along the way.
Whitezb June 10, 2015 09:54 AM
They problem with this is that there is limited quantity of helium, and the cost of it is kept artificially low. Much He is going to waste supporting the party balloon industry. Now we are going to waste it with the computer industry. Use of what in reality is a valuable and precious gas should be reserved only for those industries where it is absolutely necessary and vital. We need to stop using it for non-critical applications.
4Freedom June 10, 2015 11:13 AM
Agreed Chris, I was going to say the same thing. In light of the helium shortages that are affecting medical scanning machines, this seems quite unnecessary.
BenC June 10, 2015 12:18 PM
As size per drive goes up and transfer speeds to/from the drive remain constant, it becomes harder/slower to get at the data on that disk.
Douglas Bennett Rogers June 10, 2015 05:36 PM
Product of nuclear fusion but at very low rate.
mystixa June 10, 2015 06:03 PM
While we do need to stop wasting helium these old cliche examples are not valid. Party balloon helium is recycled helium with massive amounts of contaminant gas, almost exclusively from MRIs which need to change out their helium supply on a regular basis.
How about going after all the lighter then air craft that uses massive quantities of the stuff. Beyond that why not fill weather balloons with hydrogen instead? The hindenberg excuse cant be used for those when they carry disposable instruments up everyday anyway.
DonGateley June 10, 2015 06:30 PM
I rather doubt that the volume of Helium used in one of these times the number of devices that may ultimately use it makes much of a dent in supply. That is merely a guess, however.
Helium has a nasty habit of finding it's way out of things that try mightily to enclose it for any length of time and I wonder what their solution to that is.
EH June 10, 2015 08:17 PM
The amount of helium used in a hard disk is negligible compared to a single party balloon - we're talking a few cents of helium in a device that costs hundreds of dollars.
What I think is exiting is that, unlike older drives that have breather ports to equalize pressure between the inside and outside of the drive, this is a sealed unit. That means there shouldn't be any altitude limit for operating the drive, which has been a problem in observatories and other high-altitude areas, as well as in aerospace.
I checked how much helium is used - HGST says 10,000 drives per tank of helium. The biggest standard tank is 300 cubic feet, so that's 0.03 cu. ft. In contrast, an 11in. balloon uses 0.53 cubic feet, nearly 18 times as much. (1 cu. ft. = 28.3 liters, 0.03cu. ft. = 0.85 liter)
Craig Jennings June 10, 2015 10:30 PM
I wonder how they keep the helium in there? It would be fantastically sealed, at low pressure I suppose they don't need to worry about diffusion.
artmez June 13, 2015 12:55 AM
Ignoring the issue of Helium (He) containment which was already commented upon, so WHY was Helium chosen over air? Or H2 (are He atoms smaller than H2 molecules?)? Is it He's inertness (i.e. it's not an oxidizer)? Or that He's thin and has less fluidic resistance between the flying head and disk surface?
It is the presence of O2 as an oxidizer that's bad? I guess that depends on the drive's oxide coating -- is it iron, cobalt, an alloy, or ferrite ceramic? Iron oxide comes in two flavors: ferric (+3) and ferrous (+2), and the later can oxidize to the former. I don't think it's the oxidizing properties that are the main reason He is used. Otherwise dry N2 would be use like in tires.
If it is oxidation and "wind" resistance, then why not use a vacuum which won't cause either? The problem with the vacuum is that an HD needs fluid between its "flying" head and disk surface to prevent damage to both. I'm guessing that since He is the smallest inert gas, it lets the disk ride closest to the disk surface than any of the other inert gases, reducing the amount of energy needed to flip magnetic poles at the disk surface and also has the smallest magnetic pole size due to the reduced smearing of the magnetic field's lines of flux.
If the seals effectively contain the Helium, then that will also prevent air from getting inside since the molecules of N2 and O2 are so much larger than He atoms. And if He does escape, then that would create a vacuum inside the HD relative to the outside air pressure. So how do they seal it in?
The older articles claims the hermetic seals allow liquid cooling for enhanced electrical efficiency. I'll have to think about that one some more. Maybe that helps to seal the Helium in better?


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text:
Q: Unexpected ouput when trying to find minimum value in an array using x86 assembly I'm a beginner following a book (Programming from the ground up) and this is my first assembly program:
.section .data

data_items: .long 3, 67, 34, 222, 45, 75, 54, 34, 44, 33, 22, 11, 66, 0

.section .text

.globl _start

_start:
    movl $0, %edi
    movl data_items(,%edi,4), %eax
    movl %eax, %ebx

start_loop:
    cmpl $0, %eax
    je loop_exit
    incl %edi
    movl data_items(,%edi,4), %eax
    cmpl %ebx, %eax
    jge start_loop
    movl %eax, %ebx
    jmp start_loop

loop_exit:
    movl $1, %eax
    int $0x80

%edi is used the keep track of the current index, %eax of the current value and %ebx of the current highest value.
This program originally found the highest value by jumping back if %eax was less than %ebx (meaning it didn't have to store the new value as the current highest) and I just changed it to jge instead of jle so it would only store %eax in %ebx if it encountered a smaller value.
My issue is that my program returns 0 instead of 3, which I expect would be the correct output. Shouldn't it exit when it encounters 0 because it checks if %eax is 0 at the start of every start_loop iteration and if so, jumps to loop_exit?
So in short: why is the output of this program 0 instead of 3?
edit: by output I mean the return code of %ebx when I call echo $?

A:
Shouldn't it exit when it encounters 0 because it checks if %eax is 0 at the start of every start_loop iteration

So you want to treat 0 as your list terminating value. This requires you to check for it as soon as you read each value. Your code has 2 instances of such a read and so requires 2 checks for the terminating value:
    ...
    movl data_items(,%edi,4), %eax
    movl %eax, %ebx
    cmpl $0, %eax
    je   loop_exit     ;List is empty, only terminator present
start_loop:
    incl %edi
    movl data_items(,%edi,4), %eax
    cmpl $0, %eax
    je loop_exit       ;End of list reached
    ...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Explore the foodie culture and desert landscapes of Las Vegas on this three day experience.
Explore another side of Vegas – witness the natural beauty of Red Rock Canyon and sample delicious cuisine the ever changing food scene.
Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, only minutes from the Strip, has spectacular scenery, including the Wilson Cliffs and fossilised sand dunes of the brilliantly coloured Calico Hills. Later, enjoy and evening tour in an open-air jeep as the city lightd up.
From bustling cities to breathtaking coastlines, discover the highlights of Southwest USA on this 21 day tailor-made journey.
Experience the vibrant culinary culture and beautiful scenery of Portland and beyond.


text:
Lettershandoney or Lettershendony ( or Leitir Seandomhnaigh meaning "hillside of the old church") is a small village and townland in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, six miles to the southeast of Derry and three miles east of Drumahoe. In the 2001 census it had a population of 506 people. It is situated within Derry and Strabane district.

Lettershandoney has ten recorded spellings of its name, dating back to 1613.

In 2009 Lettershandoney and District Development Group carried out a community audit, highlighting the problems of the Lettershandoney Estate, the main housing area of the village, in terms of high unemployment, poverty and ill health, vandalism and alcohol and drug abuse, as well as lack of community facilities. In August 2011, a Lettershandoney Strategic Vision and Action Plan was produced by consultants on behalf of ARC (Assisting Rural Communities) north west.  The resulting village plan aims to enhance community facilities and services, as well as environmental quality and transport, while protecting the character of the village. The village has some 150 houses and a primary school.

See also
 List of villages in Northern Ireland

References

Villages in County Londonderry
Townlands of County Londonderry
Derry and Strabane district

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Besides, we also grant that the angels pray for us. For there is a testimony in Zech. 1:12, where an angel prays: O Lord of hosts, how long wilt Thou not have mercy on Jerusalem? Although concerning the saints we concede that, just as, when alive, they pray for the Church universal in general, so in heaven they pray for the Church in general, albeit no testimony concerning the praying of the dead is extant in the Scriptures, except the dream taken from the Second Book of Maccabees, 15:14.
So, Melanchthon admits that the Angels and Saints of heaven pray for us (and how could he deny it, cf. Rev. 5:8; 8:3-5). He goes on to say that "even supposing that the saints pray for the Church ever so much, yet it does not follow that they are to be invoked." Here I must disagree with him, especially since the 'invocation' of the saints have been part of the Church since its beginning. We see many drawings of this in the catacombs. But I think Melanchthon can be shown to be wrong. In Rev. 5:8, we see that "the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." The twenty-four elders are probably a representation of the saints of the Old and New Covenant (12 representing the 12 tribes of Israel; 12 representing the Apostles). They offer prayers to God. They are offering "the prayers of the saints." But it seems obvious to me that the saints here are the saints on earth, and the twenty-four elders (along with the four living creatures) are offering their prayers. The saints of heaven are then not only praying for the saints on earth. They are offering the prayers of the saints on earth. What is that, if not the 'invocation' of the saints?
Previous postKva er 'trua sin lydnad'?


Top 10 reasons why you need to replace your existing dumb meter for a full smart meter.
How to replace the meter?
Contact OFGEM or MCS to find out what paperwork needs to be completed to change the meter MPAN. More information on smart meters from the DEC Metrics website.


SYDNEY (Reuters) - A vessel hired to search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 and solve one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries has reached the remote spot in the Indian Ocean where Australian scientists believe the plane went down, Reuters shipping data shows.
Flight MH370 disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014 with 239 people, mostly Chinese, on board.
Debris has been collected from Indian Ocean islands and Africa's east coast and at least three pieces have been confirmed as coming from the missing plane.
Malaysia agreed earlier this month to pay U.S. firm Ocean Infinity up to $70 million if it finds the plane within 90 days. The search vessel, the Seabed Constructor, set off from Durban, South Africa, on Jan. 3.
The vessel is equipped with eight autonomous submersibles that can search a wide area of sea floor much faster than the tethered scanners used in previous searches, Charitha Pattiaratchi, professor of coastal oceanography at the University of Western Australia, told Reuters by phone from Colombo.
"If they don't find anything in the 90 days...I think that would be the end for decades - this is like the final effort, if you like," he said.
Reuters data, which is supplied from an automated tracking system, shows the vessel reached the search zone on Sunday and on Tuesday was tracking towards a spot that Australia's scientific agency believes with "unprecedented precision and certainty" is the most likely location of the aircraft.
Texas-based Ocean Infinity could not be reached outside business hours at offices in Houston and London.
Australia, Malaysia and China called off their two-year search for the plane a year ago after finding nothing in a 120,000-sq-km underwater search zone.


Went to The Mission with Lijen this past weekend and checked out some great street art. Wandering around Valencia and Dolores Park, we found some really cool art. Hope you enjoy!!
After a month of anticipation, I escaped from Alcatraz this past Saturday. The distance swimming in the pool along with the weekly Sunday swims with Pedro and Water World Swim really helped make me more comfortable. I really was impressed by the really young kids doing the swim as well as the relatively old people who were jumping in without a wet suit. Beasts.
1. I touched a sea lion during the swim! I momentarily freaked out and swam as fast as I could after that.
2. A 68 year old guy beat me by 3 minutes!! I hope I'll be in that good shape when I have grandchildren.
3. The importance of Body Glide. This stuff is critical for open water swimming otherwise, you'll be in serious pain.
Anyway, I finished in the middle of the pack at 47 minutes. The full results can be found here (I was number 845). I'll post some pictures from the event when I get a chance to upload them. If anyone is interested in doing the swim with me next year, LET ME KNOW. I'd enjoy having a partner in crime.
Big thanks to Jim who let me borrow his wet suit for the event.
UPDATED: Pictures from the swim are in my gallery.


text:
Jan Lindblads bästa (Shenandoah) är ett samlingsalbum från 2005 med den svenska allkonstnären Jan Lindblad.

Låtförteckning
 Sailing
 På sångens vingar
 En näktergal sjöng på Berkeley Square
 Regnet det bara öser ner
 Shenandoah
 Morgonvandring med fågelsång
 El condor pasa
 Ave Maria
 I en klosterträdgård
 Listen to the Ocean
 Danzante del destino
 Våren
 Tema ur Törnfåglarna
 Entonigt ringer den lilla klockan
 Yellow Bird
 Jungle Fantasy
 Kojo no tsuki
 Annie Laurie's Song
 Ack, Värmeland du sköna
 Around the World
 Cancion de cuna para
 Mera dil ye purgi
 L'ames de poete

Musikalbum 2005


Local lender Piraeus Bank Romania will change its name into First Bank. The rebranding process will begin at the end of this year and will continue in 2019, local Profit.ro reported.
"The bank's business will run normally. All the contractual agreements between the bank and its customers remain active and will not be affected by the adoption of the new brand identity. The bank will announce all the customers when the transition to the new brand will be completed," Piraeus Bank announced.
US investment fund J.C. Flowers completed the takeover of Piraeus Bank Romania at the end of June this year. The bank is a medium-sized lender. Last year, it had assets of RON 6.4 billion (EUR 1.38 billion) and a market share of about 1.5%, ranking 13 among local lenders.