According to the Wisconsin news, TAG Center in Mayville is set to buy 3 new boilers after it has experienced 2 boiler failures. In November 17, 2014, one of the three boilers of TAG Center failed due to problems with the heat exchanger. Shortly after
Everybody wants their homes to look trendy for 2015. Matching furniture with the color of walls is one of the fads you can forget. Experts at Zillow Digs say that a more sophisticated look can be expected for 2015. This will incorporate gold hardware, natural
Forbes and Naren Gursahaney, CEO of ADT, announced the incoming partnership of the famous Google’s Nest and the biggest security firm ever known in the world, the ADT. According to reports, both parties are now handling their own personnel in making a mobile application that
Good news to come in Durham City Homes! They are getting the budget and the go signal to make driveways and parking areas in each of the houses contained in the DCH. S officer patrols stroll around the areas occupied by the Durham City Homes;
The original cowardly lion costume worn by Bert Lahr in the 1989 hit movie, Wizard of Oz, was sold for around 3.1 million dollars. While the piano used in the movie Casablanca also sold for around 3.4 million dollars. These two movie memorabilia are considered
According to the Wisconsin news, TAG Center in Mayville is set to buy 3 new boilers after it has experienced 2 boiler failures. In November 17, 2014, one of the three boilers of TAG Center failed due to problems with the heat exchanger. Shortly after the failure of the first boiler, a second boiler stopped working. According to Dave Pieper, the maintenance director of the Center, the current boilers have been operating for 12 and half years for 365 days a year. The boilers provide the heat for the facility as well as all the hot water at 195 degrees every day.
Bids were sought for boiler repairs so that the heat exchanger can be fixed. The bids totaled $17,229 however; the city decided that instead of boiler repairs, they are going to purchase new and more efficient boilers. As per requirement, the new boilers will not exceed $120,000 and this amount should include new piping as well as electrical equipment and pumps. The council approved the purchase for 3 new boilers to avoid emergency situations from recurring. If the TAG center does not get a new boiler, it might have to be shutdown.
One of the boilers has been replaced at the center with the second shortly after Christmas. The third boiler will be installed when the weather starts to get warmer and this boiler will only be used exclusively during the summer months. The other two boilers will be shut off in order to minimize energy costs.
The money that will be used to purchase the 3 boilers will come from Bachhuber Foundation’s donation for the improvement of the TAG Center. The donation with a total amount of $820,000 is for improvements that include additional classrooms and storage space as well other related improvements that will enhance the center so that its revenue will be maximized.
A plan must be developed for the improvement of the TAG Center and it must be jointly approved by the Bachhuber Foundation and the common council. Alderman Vince Longo was volunteered as project manager who will work with the foundation so that the goals of improving TAG Center will be realized by 2015.
Everybody wants their homes to look trendy for 2015. Matching furniture with the color of walls is one of the fads you can forget. Experts at Zillow Digs say that a more sophisticated look can be expected for 2015. This will incorporate gold hardware, natural textures and modern undertone with a mid-century theme. Zillow Digs design experts are announcing the 5 trends for 2015 so you better get ready to call your painters/interior decorators to do a home makeover.
Gold fixtures
Homeowners can mix and match silver and stainless steel fixtures with gold fixtures. You can even go bold with an all gold design. Bathrooms can be enhanced with gold faucets. A gold and bronze gryphon lamp can be used as the focal point in the living room. You can always look for ideas from the boudoir room of St. Petersburg’s Hermitage with all its impressive features.
Cowhide
Cowhides have been processed to make different items which can enhance the aesthetics of your home. Zillow Digs designers say that cowhide will find its way into pillow, rugs, throw blankets and artwork. A few pieces of pillows and throws in cowhide can make a perhaps accent to bedroom design.
Wallpaper
You should expect an increase in available colors and designs including textures in wallpapers. Home improvement stores certainly anticipate that everyone will be trying to spruce up the home for 2015. You can say goodbye to plain white walls. You have lots of choices from bold light blue mixed with yellow or a combination of purple and white flowers. If you want to be demure, you can always choose a lime green option.
Blue accent colors
Blue is an ideal complement to Marsala, the Pantone color for 2015. Blue is an attractive accent for interior decorating and their deep natural hues will add extra vibrancy to the warm earth tone of Marsala. You can always spruce up a room with a bold blue chair or a blue and gold accent chair.
Modern/Mid-century modern elements
While this trend will be popular for 2015, make sure to take extra care when integrating this trend so that it won’t take over your home. If you want to bring back the 70’s, make it subtle by simply adding a slight touch.
Forbes and Naren Gursahaney, CEO of ADT, announced the incoming partnership of the famous Google’s Nest and the biggest security firm ever known in the world, the ADT. According to reports, both parties are now handling their own personnel in making a mobile application that will enable their customers to get a hold of their security; alarm that sets off for carbon monoxide detection and internet related security connection. This whole setup is very advantageous to ADT for a fact that it will enhance its chances of being availed and used by more people. So as an overall view, both ADT and Google Nest will be able to get acquire benefits form this merger.
The IFTTT or what is known as If This Then That will also be a part of the whole process since it is already in connection with the ADT security firm. Its niche is about the interlinking of devices and web pages to hardware. Even though there is no direct understanding between the brands Google and IFTTT, it is already established that a relationship will eventually grow along the way.
Dropcam, a product of Google Nest is said to have a high budget for maintenance. In collaboration of both companies, ADT will offer a lesser price for the security maintenance such as systems that involve in monitoring of any fixable damages in the Nest which will enable the directory to save a backup for all the loaded videos in the Cloud. With this, customers will be able to save more money and keep the services. Also with the connections that the ADT has; from fire departments to numerous emergency services; it is expected that a safer hub will be established.
In this merger, more people will be given chances for job employments since both parties will need more people to accommodate questioning customers. It is said that this will have a great impact for those who have been working in call center companies. Furthermore, lesser expenses for their products and services will be felt by many avid customers thus increasing their chances to get more commission and benefits in terms of profitable gains.
Good news to come in Durham City Homes! They are getting the budget and the go signal to make driveways and parking areas in each of the houses contained in the DCH.
S officer patrols stroll around the areas occupied by the Durham City Homes; Framwell Moor and Pity Me; they found out about the uncomfortable parking positions of vehicles beside the streets and in used pavements. The council designated for the improvement of the DCH driveways has been battling for the allocation of funds that will fix this issue. They claimed to have constantly reminded the higher ranked personnel about this matter. And now they are assured about the finality of the positive outcome.
The houses located in Lilac and Kirby Avenue that is found in Framwell Moor together with those that are located in Pity Me; Hudspeth Crescent and The Avenue; will get the compensation for the installation of driveways and parking areas. There will be a total of 52 houses to get this project benefit that will commence soon. For particularity, the Hudspeth Crescent will have two parking areas that are four spaced.
Liberal Democrat head of offices, Mark Wilkes, Amanda Hopgood and Mamie Simmons, donated to the whole project. They got the approval of the public to contribute some of their community money so that it the whole venture will not lack money and will continue until everything is done. Mr. Wilkes shared their concern about their area not getting the rightful share of funding. They said to have always looked for ways to improve this aspect of their community and with the allocated budget now they are expecting betterment of the parking ways.
The exact amount given for the whole installment of parking areas and driveways is £125,000; and the council donated £10,000. All in all they have £135,000 for the project. It is said to start in January and will be in the process of finishing for a few months. They will get their funds in the Housing Revenue Account in Durham. Everyone is expecting to see further positive changes in their community in the years to come.
The original cowardly lion costume worn by Bert Lahr in the 1989 hit movie, Wizard of Oz, was sold for around 3.1 million dollars. While the piano used in the movie Casablanca also sold for around 3.4 million dollars. These two movie memorabilia are considered as iconic pieces. They were sold at Bonham’s auction for Turner Classic Movies.
The two memorabilia sold for more than $3 million with buyer’s premium. Though they neither broke the record, the sale price still exceeded the presale estimates.
James Comisar, museum founder of the Los Angeles TV, owned the Cowardly Lion costume and was auctiond for exactly $3,077,000 with a buyer’s premium worth $477,000. The costume was found by a junk dealer after it has been left in an abandoned MGM building and Comisar bought it. The Cowardly Lion is made up of real lion’s fur and professional museum curators preserved the costume. Though there were several costumes made for the film, it is said that the auctioned one is the most used in the screen.
The Casablanca piano, on the other hand, has been with a Los Angeles collector for a decade. It was auctioned for $3,413,000 and the buyer’s premium is worth $513,000. In the movie Casablanca, the piano was played by Dooley Wilson in Rick’s Cafe Americain. It was built in 1927 and was then used in several productions. The piano was modified; it could be open from the rear so anyone can hide papers.
The record holder for auction’s highest priced movie prop is the Maltese Falcon. It was paid for $4,085,000 at Bonham-Turner Classic Movies auction last year. While the overall record holder for a piece of movie memorabilia is the Aston Martin worth $4.6 million. It was used by James Bond, played by Sean Connery, in the James Bond movie Goldfinger. The piece of TV memorabilia that holds the record is the 1960s TV Batmobile which was sold for $4.6 million.
The Turner Classic Movies and Bonhams have collaborated for this auction for two consecutive years. There were other items sold at the auction including the sword of Aragon from the movie Lord of the Rings ($437,000), a test dress of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz ($245,000) and a costume worn by Rita Hayworth from the movie Gilda ($161,000).
December 18, 2014 — Russia’s ongoing economic crisis is affecting many western companies and most are already bracing for bigger blows to their earnings. It is predicted that if the oil prices fail to recover, then Russia’s GDP will be reduced to almost 5% in 2015.
If the Russian economy cannot recover, it would mean bad news for a lot of companies who have a considerable exposure to the Russian market.
Ford is a known automobile manufacturer that had experienced a reduction to 40% in sales on the first 11 months of 2014. Not only that, various carmakers are also experiencing a downgrade in sales up to 12%, says the Association of European Businesses. In fact, Ford was forced to let go of about 950 jobs from its Russian joint venture last April.
Volkswagen is also experiencing the same issues as Ford.
Russia had also forced 12 McDonald chains due to sanitary violations but experts believe that this is just a government ploy. Right now, the restaurants have since been reopened.
Total, the energy entity from France, was also forced to shelve their plans for a shale venture exploration with Russia. Even Siemens, who also has considerable exposure to the Russian market, had admitted that their sales are suffering due to the fall of the Russian ruble.
Some companies have even decided to discontinue their services in Russia until things get better. Companies like Apple, Ikea, and GM had already suspended their business in Russia.
Adidas, which is one of the biggest retail sellers in Russia, had admitted that the continuous downfall of the Russian ruble is hurting their business. Adidas has about 1100 stores.
Russia’s financial crisis are giving Western banks headaches, especially the European lenders who are greatly exposed in the country. Russia has an outstanding loan of about $155.9 billion from European banks alone. Banks from France have loaned Russia mostly with $47.8 billion while Italy and the US have loaned the country $27.7 billion and $26.1 billion respectively.
It would be very difficult for Russia to come back from all of this and it would take great effort for them to do so.
Every year, cities that are in coastal areas often face the anguish of having to contend with constant flooding in some areas.
Miami is one of the cities that try their best to prevent several damages caused by floods as much as possible. Rain often showers all the way through the year around the entire South Florida area and about 62 inches of rainfall pours over annually.
Rainfall pours the heaviest in June and all throughout October, and this is also the time where the teeming of catch basins take place, storm drain cleaning is heavily needed, flooding in streets, sidewalks and parking lots take place.
There are plenty of ways to be able to avoid severe damages in buildings and the like. One way of doing so is to ensure that the drainage systems are functioning as it should be.
Drainage systems should always be scoured and preserved frequently. Catch basin and professional parking lot drain cleaning are key factors in diminishing extreme damage to several properties (private or public) and lessen the chance of having to spend a lot of money for repairs. Time and excessive amounts of money will be spared if parking lot drain cleaning is done regularly.
Because of the constant flooding that occur on a yearly basis, it is highly recommended to do parking lot draining preferably every two years.
The American dollar remained stable in opposition o majority of its chief contemporaries on Friday as a result of the positive trade statistics in the U.S., at the same time as the Canadian dollar hits close to a low of five years because of anxiety of oil prices declining gradually.
For the first time in the last five years, natural oil slipped $59 per drum and as a result it expanded on Thursday an abrupt regression which provoked shock significance toll incise from the Norwegian central bank.
The materialization scaled up even higher than 119.55 yen, springing back from 117.44, a two-week low. This comes following a report that was strictly monitored illustrated that trade statistics in the U.S. increased at an estimated 0.7% percent in November but has flowed back to 118.92 since then.
The statistics showed new confirmation of fundamental thrust in the economy and drew attention to the deviating viewpoints between the U.S. and other developing countries around the world.
The subsequent contribution of loans of about zero-cost by the European central bank, on the other hand, only garnered lukewarm responses, which underscored delicate assurance on the Euro sector and the manufacturing of ECB bills emerge being all but predictable.
The Euro naturally took a plunge back to $1.2370 coming from a close high of $1.2247 for two weeks. It sold at $1.2410, which drifted quite closely to the 38.2% stage of retracement in its increase to $1.2496 from $1.2247 during former gatherings.
Retailers have stroked product legal tenders stiff, which has pushed both Australian and Canadian dollars to new low downs at once. The Canadian loonie took a nose-dive towards a five-year low down of C$1.1551 per USD CAD=D4 and was at C$1.1523 most recently.
Australia, on the other hand, reached a 4 ½ year furrow of $0.8214 AUD=D4. The deterioration of the Aussie was downed by the person in command of the Reserve Bank of Australia, who claimed that he wants to see the legal tender to draw back to 75 US cents in an interview with a local news outlet.
However, the governor of RBA Glenn Stevens did not indicate that there was a necessity to slash attention tolls, which saw the eventual scaling back of the Aussie to $0.8266.
According to a recent article of Yahoo! News, Russia’s economy is shrinking. There are different factors attributing to the country’s failing economy: the decrease in oil prices, Western economic sanctions after its invasion of Ukraine, and the collapse of the country’s local currency resulting from the said sanctions.
Based on the World Bank’s GPD ranking last year 2013, Russia is the world’s eighth largest economic power with 2,096,777 billions of US dollars. Now, Russia’s GPD has shrunk so low because of the economic crisis it’s facing that it has forfeited its title and is estimated to be almost the same as Spain’s economic weight.
Last year, Spain was the 13th country with the biggest economy on the planet with 1,358,263 billions of US dollar. Spain has always been considered as one of the country in Europe with a weak economy and the unemployment ratio of 1:4 is evidence to that.
Here is the list of the World Bank’s GPD last year provided by Yahoo! News. These are in billions of US dollars:
(European Union 17,350,853)
1. United States 16,800,000
2. China 9,240,270
3. Japan 4,901,530
4. Germany 3,634,823
5. France 2,734,949
6. UK 2,521,381
7. Brazil 2,245,673
8. Russia 2,096,777
9. Italy 2,071,307
10 . India 1,876,797
11 . Canada 1,826,769
12. Australia 1,560,597
13 . Spain 1,358,263
14 . S Korea 1,304,554
15 . Mexico 1,260,915
Russia’s GPD value is not clear these days because of the sudden changes in its value of currency, the ruble, therefore the need to compute it every day.
According to Forbes, Russia’s economy is expected to fall into a recession next year. Russia is being punished for its involvement in Ukraine therefore affecting some of its projects namely the South Stream gas pipeline project which was cancelled. Russia may be winning more in the field of real estate but it is costing them other things
especially their standing in the economy.
Russia’s economy is oil-dependent so this may not be permanent. As soon as the price of oil goes back up, Russia will again regain its rank in the GPD ranking.
Since early 2000, Black Friday has always been considered as the start of Christmas season shopping. Retailers start to offer their stuff with low, low prices and unbelievable discounts. However, Black Friday is not the only busiest time for shoppers with Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. These monikers are now household names and it means that people can now start shopping early. It is expected that you are now starting to promote your business and this is crucial to create awareness among online customers. Remember that competition is stiff and you have to put your best foot forward so that you can gain the benefits of holiday shopping.
Stay active on social media platforms – it is for your best interests to spread your brand through social media. According to John Oechsle, the president and CEO of SwiftPage, social media provides businesses with an opportunity to interact with prospective customers who are looking at holiday recommendations on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Promote early and make use of holiday incentives to increase conversions.
Offer in-store pickup – with the recent results of Black Friday where a greater portion of sales were generated through mobile shopping, brick and mortar shops are starting to get worried that physical sales might be eclipsed by online shopping. One example of a smart strategy is in-store pickup option for online purchases. This option creates a better connection between online and in-store customer experience.
Ensure you have mobile presence – your business website must be accessible from any platform. Customers have their preferences and you need to make it easy and simple for them to shop online through their desktop computers, laptops, tablets and mobile phones. It is not a secret that almost all individuals have their mobile phones and businesses should not overlook this opportunity to interact with their customers.
Freebies offer additional value – nothing can gain a customer’s attention more than the offer of a freebie. Freebies do not necessarily have to be expensive, you can offer free gift wrapping or an extended guarantee on electronic items. This will help mitigate the impact of customers comparing prices across different ecommerce sites.
With the approaching holiday season, it is expected that online shopping will increase and so with the amount of packaging like shipping boxes. According to eMarketer the projected growth in online sales is expected at 20.1% or $1.5 trillion. Aside from the shipping boxes, there is plastic and cellophane wrapping as well as paper wrapping or foam packaging meant as protection for the contents. It is not unusual for all these packaging products to end up in the landfills which according to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reached a staggering 75.2 million tons of total solid waste generated by the United States alone in 2012.
Companies and entrepreneurs are finding ways to tackle the growing problem of packaging waste. One of the options is waste management through recycling which is making progress with 51.5% or 38.75 million tons composted in 2012. This represents a big increase from the figures of previous years. However, the option of recycling will only work if the consumer is willing to do his part. On the other hand, there are types of packaging materials that cannot be recycled effectively like mixed and hybrid products. Metal which is interwoven with fiber and plastic foam have practically no value in the recycling stream since they are intended only for single use. Packaging that includes tulle, baskets, cellophane bags, wine bags and burlap bags are easily recyclable and are suggested for shipping.
Dell is one of the companies that received feedback from social media to reduce its wasteful and excessive packaging using non-recyclable shipping boxes. People care about proper waste management and they are voicing out their criticisms through social media. To address the concerns of consumers, Dell has reduced the sizes of boxes by about 10% and developed bamboo cushioning that can be recycled into paper to replace foam. Bamboo cushioning has eliminated 20 pounds of packaging to save at least $18m on energy, waste, transportation and production costs. By 2020, Dell expects to scale its efforts at sustainable packaging to 100% compared to 60% today. These innovative packaging solutions should be global in scope and not limited to North America and Western Europe since Asia-Pacific is an emerging market for online shopping.
Online sales for Black Friday 2014 were an astounding success with a 20.6% increase over the previous year. This overwhelming success for US ecommerce sites was driven by mobile shopping and marketing campaigns. According to Custora E-commerce Pulse that is tracking the performance of 100 US online retail stores, over $40 billion was generated by ecommerce sites and 30.3% happened through mobile phones and devices. Statistics showed an increase of 22.5% over the 2013 Black Friday mobile sales.
Everyone though that social media will be the driving force behind the astounding success of Black Friday mobile sales with all those tweets and social media sharing but it seemed that social media is not yet the platform for sales. Email marketing was the channel that drove sales up by 27.3% in retail with 18.9% originating from free search and 18.5% from paid search. Email marketing is a strategy that puts a message directly to the target audience. It is highly individualized and costs are relatively low. What emails do is to increase the engagement with potential customers by presenting the benefits that they will likely gain.
Based on the Custora report, 76.8% of mobile shopping was done through iPhone and Apple devices while only 22.7% happened on Android devices. Apple continues to dominate the American market however, the share of Android phones in the Black Friday sales were up by 15.8%. Notwithstanding the fact, that Apple and Android phones will continue to battle it out for supremacy in the mobile market, what seems more important for ecommerce sites is to optimize their sites for any platform so that they do not lose any opportunity to make a sale. Responsive website design ensures a web browsing capability that looks the same across a wide range of devices from desktop computers to mobile phones.
Internet traffic from mobile phones has showed a significant increase and many mobile users are getting comfortable using their mobile devices to browse through sites. It is foolhardy for any ecommerce site not to shift from a conventional website to a responsive web design through Exact Latitude, SEO Los Angeles.
Television was introduced in the late 1940’s, and it became part of everyday life as a source of entertainment, information, and news. However, one serious concern about television is the audience is generally the younger population. On the other hand, a greater portion of adult television audiences have shifted their attention to digital media and spend less time watching TV. Radio is driven largely by the length of commute that consumers have to suffer. Radio listeners have increased positively because mobile phones have FM radio features.
Over the last decade, the number of radio listeners has increased because they have more options to choose from due to the multiple stations that aim to satisfy specific preferences. For advertisers, their radio listeners are fragmented which requires that they buy multiple stations to achieve a relatively large audience reach. While technology has stolen some of radio audiences, radio remains to be a cost effective medium for advertising and promotions compared to buying a few seconds from primetime TV. Besides that radio has a wide geographic share and mobile phone technology has enhanced radio listening. Thousands of radio stations can stream their content online and gain immediate interaction from their listeners.
The benefits of radio
• It has targeting capabilities
• It provides one-on-one connection with audiences
• It builds frequency quickly
• It offers advertisers the opportunity for appealing community involvement
• There is no seasonal listener erosion
The drawbacks of radio
• It lacks visual content
• Advertisers need to buy from multiple radio stations to reach a wider audience
• Peak radio listening is in the morning when people want to catch up on the latest news. There are relatively low audiences during the day, but it peaks during the evening while employees are caught in traffic on their way home.
Radio if combined with OOH has the potential to reach mobile audiences and can easily maintain the market presence of a brand that has been featured on radio after the audience has switched to another station. OOH can increase the reach of a radio advertising campaign by ensuring that there is a broad market appeal to radio listeners.
