Hallmark of Walmart

From horsemeat to Ryanair’s rethink: an eventful year for consumers - Consumer News & Advice | Pricewatch, Money Advice | The Irish Time - Mon, Dec 30, 2013: "l WalMart came under fire after a store in Ohio launched a campaign looking for food donations for its own employees in order to help them enjoy Thanksgiving. Walmart is the biggest retailer in the world with recorded profits of $15.7 billion last year."

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Shanghai - air of the matter

Shanghai Warns Children to Stay Indoors on ‘Heavy Pollution’ - Bloomberg: "Shanghai warned children and the elderly to stay indoors as PM2.5 levels reached almost six times that recommended by the World Health Organization for safe breathing.

The air quality index was 201 as of 7 a.m., indicating “heavy pollution,” second worst in a six-tier system, according to the website of the city’s environmental monitoring center.

The level of particles that are smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter was 141.6 micrograms per cubic meter. The pollutants are more hazardous than other particulate matter, according to WHO.

Shanghai saw record levels of smog earlier this month, forcing flight cancellations and prompting the government to issue warnings to keep children indoors and order vehicles off the road. The pollution index surged to a record 482 on Dec. 6, reaching the highest “severe” level, according to the China Daily."

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Sales Hype- of Amazonian Proportions

Amazon Media Room: Press Releases:

More than one million customers become new Prime members in third week of December

On Christmas Day, Mayday response time on Kindle Fire HDX was just 9 seconds on average, better than the 15 second response time goal

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 26, 2013-- (NASDAQ: AMZN)—Amazon today announced a record-setting holiday season for Amazon Prime, the annual membership program offering unlimited Free Two-Day Shipping on millions of items. More than one million customers around the world became new Prime members in the third week of December. On Amazon’s peak shipping day, more Prime items were shipped worldwide than ever before. The entire 2013 holiday season was the best ever for Amazon, with more than 36.8 million items ordered worldwide on Cyber Monday, which is a record-breaking 426 items per second, and millions of customers unwrapped Kindle e-readers and Kindle Fire tablets this holiday season.

“Amazon Prime membership continues to grow, and we now have tens of millions of members worldwide. They benefit from all-you-can-eat free two-day shipping on millions of eligible items and our members have a voracious appetite,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO ofAmazon.com. “We are extremely grateful to our customers around the world and wish everyone the very best for the coming year."

Kindle and Amazon Digital Media Facts:

• Cyber Monday holiday shopping weekend was the best ever for Kindle Fire tablets and Kindle e-readers.
• With thousands of Tech Advisors on call Christmas Day, Amazon beat its goal for the Mayday button response time—the average response time was just 9 seconds.
• Amazon’s digital media selection grew to more than 27 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, books, audiobooks, and popular apps and games in 2013.
• Prime Instant Video selection increased from 33,000 to more than 40,000 movies and TV episodes in 2013. Amazon Instant Video now includes more than 150,000 movies and TV episodes.
• Prime Instant Video is the exclusive online-only subscription home for hundreds of TV seasons including PBS series “Downton Abbey” and “Mr. Selfridge,” the CBS summer blockbuster series “Under the Dome” and other hit TV shows including “Justified,” “Falling Skies,” “Grimm,” “Vikings,” “Workaholics,” “Suits” and “Covert Affairs.” Prime Instant Video also offers an exclusive collection of kids shows from Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. that customers won’t find on any other online-only subscription service, including favorites like “SpongeBob SquarePants,” “Dora the Explorer,” “Team Umizoomi,” “Blue’s Clues,” and “The Bubble Guppies.”
• Amazon’s first original series “Alpha House” and “Betas” can also be found exclusively on Prime Instant Video.
• Selection in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library in 2013 grew from 250,000 books to more than 475,000 books—books that Kindle owners with a Prime membership can borrow for free with no due dates.
• More than 200,000 exclusive books were added to the Kindle store in 2013.
• The most gifted Kindle book during the holiday season was “Sycamore Row” by John Grisham.
• 150 Kindle Direct Publishing authors each sold more than 100,000 copies of their books in 2013. Top sellers this year include “Hopeless” by Colleen Hoover and “Wait for Me” by Elisabeth Naughton.
• The best-selling Kindle Direct Publishing author during the holiday season was H.M. Ward.
• Kindle Direct Publishing authors sold hundreds of thousands of books in November through the new Kindle Countdown Deals.
• Amazon Appstore selection worldwide more than doubled in 2013 – there are now more than 100,000 apps and games in the Amazon Appstore and on Kindle Fire devices.

Holiday Fun Facts:

Shipping:

• Amazon shipped to 185 countries this holiday.
• The last Prime One-Day Shipping order that was delivered in time for Christmas was placed on Dec. 23 at 10:22 p.m. PST and shipped to Carlsbad, California. The item was a Beautyrest Cotton Top Mattress Pad.
• The last Local Express Delivery order that was delivered in time for Christmas went to Everett, Washington. It was a Plantronics Audio 655 USB Multimedia Headset in Frustration Free Packaging ordered at 12:26 p.m. PST on Christmas Eve and delivered at3:56 p.m. PST that same day.
• Amazon.com shipped enough items with Prime this holiday to deliver at least one gift to every household in America.
• Prime was so popular this holiday, that Amazon limited new Prime membership signups during peak periods to ensure service to current members was not impacted by the surge in new membership.

Customer Purchases:

• On Cyber Monday, customers ordered more than 36.8 million items worldwide, which is a record-breaking 426 items per second.
• More than half of Amazon customers shopped using a mobile device this holiday.
• Between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, Amazon customers ordered more than five toys per second from a mobile device.
• Amazon customers purchased enough Crayola Marker Makers to be able to draw a line around the world four times.
• The new Xbox One and PlayStation 4 gaming consoles were so popular that at the peak of sales for each console, customers bought more than 1,000 units per minute.
• Amazon customers purchased enough Rainbow Looms from third-party sellers that the bands can stretch around the circumference of the Earth.
• Amazon customers purchased enough Hot Wheels from third-party sellers to stretch around the Daytona International Speedwayracetrack.
• Amazon customers purchased enough miniature flashlights to satisfactorily light four collegiate football fields in accordance withNCAA standards.
• Amazon customers purchased enough running shoes to provide a pair to every participant in the top 10 largest marathons in the world.
• Amazon customers purchased enough winter boots to keep everyone living in three of the coldest cities in America – Duluth, Minnesota, Butte, Montana, and Watertown, South Dakota – warm for the winter.
• Amazon customers purchased enough cross-body purses to outfit every attendee at a typical Taylor Swift concert.
• If you stacked every Himalayan Crystal Lamp purchased by Amazon customers this holiday season, the height would reach the top of Himalaya’s highest peak - Mt. Everest.
• Amazon customers bought enough books in the Divergent Series – “Divergent,” “Insurgent,” “Allegiant,” and the complete box set – to wrap around Chicago’s Pier Park Ferris Wheel 263 times.
• If you placed every upright vacuum purchased by Amazon customers end-to-end, they would reach 15 times the depth of the Marianas Trench, the deepest point in Earth's oceans.
• If the Nylabone Dinosaur Chew Toys purchased during this holiday season were stacked on top of each other, they would be the height of more than 950 T-Rex dinosaurs.
• The number of “Star Trek Into Darkness” Blu-ray combo packs purchased would span the distance of 25 Star Trek Enterprise space ships.
• If you had a single plain M&M for each Eminem album purchased on the Amazon MP3 Store over the holidays, you’d have nearly 100 lbs. of candy-coated chocolate.
• Amazon customers purchased enough youth archery kits to outfit every resident of Katniss Everdeen's hometown, District 12, four times over.
• Amazon customers purchased enough Tovolo Sphere Ice Molds to fill Don Draper’s (of “Mad Men”) whiskey glasses for 251 years.
• Amazon customers purchased enough Cuisinart Griddlers to place one in every McDonald’s restaurant in the world.

Holiday Best Sellers (Amazon.com only):

• Tablets: Kindle Fire HD; Kindle Fire HDX 7”; Kindle Fire HDX 8.9”
• TVs: Samsung 32” Smart LED HTDV; Samsung 40” LED HDTV; Samsung 22” Slim LED HDTV
• Laptops: Samsung Chromebook; ASUS Transformer Book; Acer Chromebook
• Cameras: Canon EOS Rebel T3i; Canon PowerShot A2500; Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 Instant Film Camera
• Video Games: Call of Duty: Ghosts - Xbox 360; Just Dance 2014 - Nintendo Wii; Grand Theft Auto V - Xbox 360
• Toys: Snap Circuits Jr. SC-100 Kit; Spot It; LEGO Green Building Plate
• Baby: Baby Einstein Take Along Tunes; Lamaze Cloth Book; Baby Einstein Bendy Ball
• Books: “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck, Book 8” by Jeff Kinney; “Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics” by Charles Krauthammer; “Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims: Time-Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans” byRush Limbaugh
• Kindle Books: “Sycamore Row” by John Grisham; “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak; “The Goldfinch” by Donna Tartt
• Music: "Artpop" by Lady Gaga; "Wrapped in Red" by Kelly Clarkson; “The Marshall Mathers LP2 (Deluxe)” by Eminem
• Amazon MP3: “The Marshall Mathers LP2” by Eminem; “Artpop” by Lady Gaga; “Pure Heroine” by Lorde
• Movies & TV: “Despicable Me 2” (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy); “Star Trek Into Darkness” (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy); “Man of Steel” (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy)
• Amazon Instant Video: “We’re the Millers”; “Man of Steel”; “Monsters University”
• Prime Instant Video: “Alpha House” Season 1; “Downton Abbey” Season 3; “Falling Skies” Season 3
• Home: Darice 80-Piece Deluxe Art Set; Black & Decker Dustbuster 15.6-Volt Cordless Cyclonic Hand Vacuum; Swarovski 2013 Annual Edition Crystal Star Ornament
• Kitchen: Tovolo Ice Molds; Artisan Metal Works Silicone Non-Stick Baking Mat Sets; Cuisinart GR-4N 5-in-1 Griddle
• Jewelry: Sterling Silver and Amethyst Flower Earrings; Sterling Silver "I Love You To The Moon and Back" Two Piece Pendant Necklace; Alex and Ani Bangle Bar "Tree of Life" Russian-Silver Expandable Bracelet
• Women’s Clothing: Columbia Women's Benton Springs Full-Zip Fleece Jacket; Carhartt Women's Sandstone Duck Quilt Flannel Lined Active Jacket; Columbia Women's Arcadia Rain Jacket
• Men’s Clothing: Levi's Men's 501 Jean; Levi's Men's 505 Straight Fit Jean; Levi's Men's 550 Relaxed Fit Jean
• Shoes: Clarks Originals Men's Desert Boot; Tamarac Men's Camper Moccasin; Bearpaw Women's Emma 10" Shearling Boot
• Beauty: Infiniti Pro by Conair Curl Secret; D & G Light Blue By Dolce & Gabbana For Women Eau De Toilette Spray; Olay Pro-X Advanced Cleansing System
• Health & Personal Care: Fitbit Flex Wireless Activity + Sleep Wristband; Philips Sonicare Essence 5600 Rechargeable ElectricToothbrush; Braun Series Pulsonic Shaver System
• Tools & Home Improvement: Mini CREE Led Flashlight Torch Adjustable Zoom Light Lamp; O'Keeffe's Working Hands Cream; WBM Himalayan Natural Crystal Salt Lamp with Bulb and Cord
• Pets: KONG Cozie Marvin the Moose Dog Toy; Nylabone Durable Dental Dinosaur Chew Toy; Greenies Treat-Pak for Dogs, Original
• Sports & Outdoors: LifeStraw Personal Water Filter; Magnesium Fire Starter; SKLZ Pro Mini Basketball Hoop
• Grocery: Miracle-Gro AeroGarden 7-Pod Indoor Garden by AeroGrow; Donut Shop K-Cup for Keurig Brewers; Keurig My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter Set

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Kindle Paperwhite is the world’s best-selling and most advanced e-reader. It features new display technology with higher contrast, the next generation built-in light, a faster processor, the latest touch technology, and exclusive new features designed from the ground up for readers. Kindle, the lightest and smallest Kindle, features improved fonts and faster page turns. The new Kindle Fire HDX features a stunning exclusive 7” or 8.9” HDX display, a quad-core 2.2 GHz processor, 2x more memory, and 11 hours of battery life, as well as exclusive new features of Fire OS 3.0 including X-Ray for Music, Second Screen, Prime Instant Video downloads, and the revolutionary new Mayday button. The all-new Kindle Fire HD includes an HD display, high-performance processor and dual speakers at a breakthrough price.

Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp,www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.cn, www.amazon.it, www.amazon.es, www.amazon.com.br, www.amazon.in,www.amazon.com.mx, and www.amazon.com.au. As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

Forward-Looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management’s expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment and data center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com’s financial results is included in Amazon.com’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.

Source: Amazon.com, Inc.

Amazon.com, Inc.
Media Hotline, 206-266-7180
www.amazon.com/prHYpe

Big Mac - eat in small pieces to feel full, per McD

McDonald’s Takes Down Resources Website After Scrutiny - Bloomberg: "McDonald’s Corp. (MCD), under pressure to increase pay for its workers, is removing a resources website for employees, after critics pummeled the burger maker for such tips as breaking food into small pieces to feel more full.

“A combination of factors has led us to re-evaluate,” the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company said in a statement on its website. “Between links to irrelevant or outdated information, along with outside groups taking elements out of context, this created unwarranted scrutiny and inappropriate commentary.”"

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Oil-y research, and grease-y researchers

Academics Who Defend Wall St. Reap Reward - NYTimes.com: "But interviews with dozens of academics and traders, and a review of hundreds of emails and other documents involving two highly visible professors in the commodities field — Mr. Pirrong and Professor Scott H. Irwin at the University of Illinois — show how major players on Wall Street and elsewhere have been aggressive in underwriting and promoting academic work.

The efforts by the financial players, the interviews show, are part of a sweeping campaign to beat back regulation and shape policies that affect the prices that people around the world pay for essentials like food, fuel and cotton.

Professors Pirrong and Irwin say that industry backing did not color their opinions.

Mr. Pirrong’s research was cited extensively by the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by Wall Street interests in 2011 that for two years has blocked the limits on speculation that had been approved by Congress as part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. During that same time period, Mr. Pirrong has worked as a paid research consultant for one of the lead plaintiffs in the case, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, according to his disclosure form."

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RIch, but not wealthy, commentary

Brainwashed by the cult of the super-rich | Priyamvada Gopal | Comment is free | The Guardian: "Last week, Tory MP Esther McVey, Iain Duncan Smith's deputy, insisted it was "right" that half a million Britons be dependent on food banks in "tough times". Around the same time, the motor racing heiress Tamara Ecclestone totted up a champagne bill of £30,000 in one evening. A rich teenager in Texas has just got away with probation for drunkenly running over and killing four people because his lawyers argued successfully that he suffered from "affluenza", which rendered him unable to handle a car responsibly. What we've been realising for some time now is that, for all the team sport rhetoric, only two sides are really at play in Britain and beyond: Team Super-Rich and Team Everyone Else."
The rich are not merely different: they've become a cult which drafts us as members. We are invited to deceive ourselves into believing we are playing for the same stakes while worshipping the same ideals, a process labelled "aspiration". Reaching its zenith at this time of year, our participation in cult rituals – buy, consume, accumulate beyond need – helps mute our criticism and diffuse anger at systemic exploitation. That's why we buy into the notion that a £20 Zara necklace worn by the Duchess of Cambridge on a designer gown costing thousands of pounds is evidence that she is like us. We hear that the monarch begrudges police officers who guard her family and her palaces a handful of cashew nuts and interpret it as eccentricity rather than an apt metaphor for the Dickensian meanness of spirit that underlies the selective concentration of wealth. The adulation of royalty is not a harmless anachronism; it i
...s calculated totem worship that only entrenches the bizarre notion that some people are rich simply because they are more deserving but somehow they are still just like us.

McSUpression of Big Mac Truth

McDonald's removes worker site in fast food flap: "After yet another PR headache, McDonald's has taken down its employee resources website following what it deemed "unwarranted scrutiny and inappropriate commentary."

On Monday, CNBC reported the McResource Line site included multiple posts bashing fast food, the industry that McDonald's has spent decades spreading throughout the world.

Several excerpts from the posts, which were created from a third-party vendor, warned against the negative effects of fast food, even going so far as labeling a cheeseburger and fries, core items on its menu, as an "unhealthy choice.""

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Toys R Us's Stockholm superstore - can the de-gender-alization of toys be transferred to all countries?

Toys R Us's Stockholm superstore goes gender neutral | World news | The Guardian: "In a huge Toys R Us warehouse on the Kungens Kurva retail estate in south-west Stockholm, cute and cuddly rubs shoulders with cool and crazy – closer in layout to the jumble of a child's bedroom than a normal store.

In Sweden's largest toy store, play kitchens stand opposite train sets; baby strollers are piled beside a stack of toy guns; My Little Pony stares at swords and ninja costumes; princess dresses brush up against firefighter outfits. Even the Barbie house – that last redoubt of the candy-pink – is under pressure from a Lego display. "Children are not coded to blue for boys and pink for girls – they should be free to choose what they want to play with," said Jan Nyberg, sales director in Sweden for Top-Toy, which owns the franchise for Toys R Us in Nordic countries. Top-Toy is the largest toy retailer in northern Europe.

The gender debate in Sweden has intensified in the last few years, he says, and retailers have had to move with the times. The firm is also changing packaging on its own brands, and will gradually spread the gender-neutral concept to stores across the country."

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Political posturing, or holding the no-national firms accountable?

Starbucks to Audi Face China Clampdown on Foreign Firms - Bloomberg: "This month, after China’s ruling Communist Party promised to make markets “decisive” in shaping the world’s second-largest economy, carmakers Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Plc, Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (7270)’s Subaru division and Audi AG became the latest targets when state media accused them of charging “unfair” prices for spare parts.

The automakers joined foreign companies from Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) to Burberry Group Plc (BRBY), Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) and Apple Inc. (AAPL) in the roll of those with deepening challenges in China even as the year-old leadership team headed by President Xi Jinping seeks to elevate the private sector. Rising scrutiny of overseas firms by regulators and state media follows a jump in labor costs that may diminish the lure of investing in the $8.2 trillion economy."

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Air travel... not yet grounded in reality

Many complaints about air travel these days...

1. Nickel-and-diming customers to a painful state even before boarding the plane
2. Packed like sardines, crude fellow passengers, etc. 
3.  Devaluation of frequent flier miles

Air travel still has quite a way to go...fares also have quite a way to go.
A government that has approved mergers among giants is not expected to interfere and protect/enforce basic customer rights.

Drunk, and loost...

Court overrules Diageo’s Indian share purchase - FT.com: "However, the deal has faced complications as a result of Mr Mallya’s troubles with the creditors of Kingfisher. The airline was once one of India’s most popular carriers, but was forced to stop flying after protests from staff, who had not been paid.
“This judgment is not the end of the saga – but sure, it does raise the question ‘when will Diageo start to loose patience,’” said Mr Mathur.
If the judgment stands – leaving Diageo with just 16 per cent of the company, shareholders could question Diageo’s management control of the firm."

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G2G (Governments to Google) = Delete chunks of the web

Google: Surge in pressure from govts to ERASE CHUNKS of the web • The Register: "Governments, judges, cops and politicians are continuing to lobby Google to tear down online material critical of their operations, we're told.

Today, the advertising giant said that, in the first six months of 2013, it received 3,846 demands from public officials to remove 24,737 personal blog posts, YouTube videos and other pieces of content it hosts. That's up 68 per cent on the second half of 2012.



And according to the web giant, which has just published its latest transparency report, 93 requests focused on content that was critical of people in public office. Defamation and copyright infringement were often cited, but less than one third of the highlighted material was removed in the first half of 2013."

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Big Tax Avoiders- Too Big to Tax

HMRC 'lost nerve' over big tax avoiders, say MPs | Politics | The Guardian: "British officials have "lost their nerve" in tackling tax avoidance by global corporations and have presided over a £35bn tax gap as they pursue easy prey such as small businesses and individuals, a committee of MPs says.

In a report that highlighted how the Treasury is owed missing tax payments of £35bn, the public accounts committee added that HM Revenue and Customs has left the state with another multibillion pound shortfall by failing to gather £2.6bn of an expected windfall from Swiss banks.

The findings follow a series of damning reports into HMRC by the committee which have addressed its failings over taking on tax-avoiding corporations such as Google, Starbucks, Vodafone and Amazon.

On Wednesday Vodafone, one of Britain's leading multinationals, made a rare gesture of tax transparency by breaking down its payments on a country-by-country basis."

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Harleys and an even bigger problem for India: Big sized Noise Pollution

Harley-Davidson Pushes Slimmer Model for India’s Gridlock - Bloomberg: "Harley will start building the new Street next year in India, the world’s second-biggest motorbike market, targeting young urbanites who want a nimbler ride more suited to Mumbai

gridlock and potholes than U.S. highways. With 750-cc and 500-cc variants, the liquid-cooled Street will be the smallest in a lineup that includes the 1.5 million-rupee ($24,500), 1,688-cc Fatboy -- and will cost about one-third as much."

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e-waste of rich nations, pollution of poor nations

Toxic 'e-waste' dumped in poor nations, says United Nations | Global development | The Observer: "Millions of mobile phones, laptops, tablets, toys, digital cameras and other electronic devices bought this Christmas are destined to create a flood of dangerous "e-waste" that is being dumped illegally in developing countries, the UN has warned.

The global volume of electronic waste is expected to grow by 33% in the next four years, when it will weigh the equivalent of eight of the great Egyptian pyramids, according to the UN's Step initiative, which was set up to tackle the world's growing e-waste crisis. Last year nearly 50m tonnes of e-waste was generated worldwide – or about 7kg for every person on the planet. These are electronic goods made up of hundreds of different materials and containing toxic substances such as lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic and flame retardants. An old-style CRT computer screen can contain up to 3kg of lead, for example."

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You've got mail, and ADHD

That’s Men: Staying in touch while missing out on life - Family News & Advice | Parenting, Marriage & Kids | The Irish Tim - Tue, Dec 03, 2013: "I was stopped in my tracks though by the statement by Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, that in the US, corporate executives are getting prescriptions for anti-ADHD drugs to help them focus on their work.
These executives don’t have ADHD. What they have is an addiction to the distractions offered by smartphones and tablets. Writing in the December issue of Mindful magazine, Goleman states that teenagers are also pretending to have ADHD so that they can get drugs to help them to focus on their studies. And it’s not just the students: a college professor confessed that when reading a book on his speciality, he is overwhelmed after every two pages by the urge to check his emails."

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The next star of Irish tourism marketing is the landscape - Marketing News | Daily Media Trends & More | The Irish Times - Thu, Dec 05, 2013

The next star of Irish tourism marketing is the landscape - Marketing News | Daily Media Trends & More | The Irish Times - Thu, Dec 05, 2013: "Tourism Ireland will feel like pouring relief-champagne after visitor numbers rose 7 per cent this year and revenue climbed 6 per cent. But resources are tight, the agency says, meaning it must concentrate its investment on the markets that deliver the best return (North America and mainland Europe) and target the consumers that represent the industry’s “best prospects”. In glorious marketing-speak, it has segmented these into “Social Energisers”, the “Culturally Curious” and “Great Escapers”."

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Facebook- Likes Cayman, Rips off Ireland

Facebook paid €1.9m in Irish tax on €1.7bn turnover - Technology Industry News | Market & Trends | The Irish Times - Thu, Dec 05, 2013: "Facebook Ireland, the Dublin-based company that forms a key part of its global corporate structure, grew its turnover by €737 million last year to €1.78 billion, but only generated an Irish corporation tax charge of €1.9 million.
The company recorded a pre-tax loss of €626,000, according to the accounts, which show how the gross profit made by the company was turned into a loss when administrative expenses, paid to other group companies, were taken into account.
These expenses included royalty payments of €770 million to its immediate parent, Facebook Ireland Holdings, an unlimited company registered in Ireland but not believed to be tax-resident here. Its shareholders include a number of Facebook companies based in the Cayman Islands, where there is no corporation tax."

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Almost-instant Amazonian Gratification with Octocopterization

Amazon testing drones for parcel delivery - UK News | Online Newspaper | The Irish Times - Tue, Dec 03, 2013: "Amazon is testing delivering its parcels using drones, the company’s chief executive has revealed. The company hopes to have the scheme up and running within five years.
Jeff Bezos unveiled the idea, which would be known as Amazon Prime Air, on the American news programme 60 Minutes on Sunday night.
“The big idea is half-hour delivery,” he said. “You order something and within half an hour you can have a drone land on your front porch, drop off a little box and off it goes.”"

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No marathon in the park- Shanghai'd indoors

Shanghai Warns Children to Stay Indoors on Severe Air Pollution - Bloomberg: "Shanghai warned children and the elderly to stay indoors as the level of the most harmful pollutants exceeded more than 10 times the level deemed safe by the World Health Organization.
The air pollution index in the nation’s commercial hub exceeded 300 as of 10 a.m., placing it in the “severe” range and the highest of six levels, the Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Center said on its website today. PM2.5 pollutants -- particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter that pose the biggest health risk -- reached 288.9 as of 8:27 a.m., more than 10 times the WHO threshold.
Heavy pollution may undermine Shanghai’s plans to attract foreign investment and multinational firms, as the city implements a free-trade zone as part of a broader goal to become a global financial and logistics center by 2020. Today’s smog warning comes a day after about 35,000 runners from 84 countries turned out for the 2013 Shanghai International Marathon, according to the People’s Daily newspaper."

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Questions to ask of any institution

The Minister for Education is not going the right way about implementing change - Education News | Primary, Secondary & Third Level | The Irish Time - Sun, Dec 01, 2013: "Would you do it when your workforce are weary, undermined and demoralised, having had several years of seeing vital supports for the people they serve disappear, and also having suffered wage cuts and increased hours and responsibilities? Would you demand it after piling new iniative after new initiative on them, while job security for new workers virtually disappears?"

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Food-ishequilibrium

A goddess falls to Earth - Heritage News | The Irish Times - Sat, Nov 30, 2013: "According to Russell’s History of Western Philosophy, he ate bread and water, mostly, “with a little cheese on feast days”. He avoided rich food, for fear of indigestion; alcohol, for fear of hangovers; and sex, for fear of fatherhood.
He wasn’t opposed to luxuries on principle: only because of the “inconveniences” that followed. And this risk-free approach seems to have worked for him. In the final hours of his life, despite pain, he could write placidly of his feelings on this “truly happy day”.
Interestingly, Epicurus did not expect an afterlife. But – and again this might interest Nigella – he did believe in gods and goddesses (non-domestic). He just presumed that, being sensible, they didn’t involve themselves in human affairs. As Russell put it, Epicurus’s gods were “rational hedonists, who followed his precepts and abstained from public life”."

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The craze to shop

Wal-Mart Uses Wristbands to Deter Holiday Shopper Melees - Bloomberg: "With an estimated 140 million Americans predicted to shop this weekend, retailers are bolstering security, deploying Segway patrols and putting on live music to distract shoppers and avoid the deal-hunting scrums that can foster Black Friday tramplings.
Malls are beefing up patrols with off-duty cops. Chains including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) are using quota systems for popular doorbusters from iPads to jewelry. The National Retail Federation issued crowd management guidelines, urging stores to prepare for flash mobs, long lines of angry customers and crowded washrooms. The Washington-based trade group has sent out the memo annually since a Wal-Mart worker was trampled to death in 2008 during a Black Friday melee."

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Apprenticeships and University education- both are needed

Change One Thing: Apprenticeships need to be in the education mix - Education News | Primary, Secondary & Third Level | The Irish Time - Tue, Nov 26, 2013: "The one change to our existing educational system I would like to see is that we would value high-skills vocational training for the 20 per cent of students who are not particularly interested in, or suited to, a curriculum with an academic focus.
Industry could support such a radical change by providing a comprehensive apprenticeship structure for interested students from the age of 14. As part of the programme, students would continue to progress alongside their peers in core subjects such as English, maths and a European language.
Having provided for the needs of our practically minded students through an apprenticeship programme, we should maintain the current range of Junior Cert subjects for the 80 per cent who have no difficulty in studying them, thus preserving subjects such as history and geography as core to our curriculum.
Germany, Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands have a fraction of the youth unemployment when compared to Ireland and we need to ask why this is the case. The answer, I believe, lies in educational structures that value vocational education."

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Unclouding the behavior of clouds

Unclouding the behavior of clouds: "Previously, scientists had thought that pollution causes larger and longer-lasting storm clouds by making thunderheads draftier through convection. But the new research, appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that pollution makes clouds linger by decreasing the size, and increasing the lifespan, of cloud and ice particles.

Most climatologists would agree that the current models that predict weather and climate don't reconstruct the lives of clouds well, especially storm clouds. Usually these models replace storm clouds with simple equations that fail to capture the whole picture. Because of these poor reconstructions, researchers have been faced with a dilemma: pollution causes the anvil-shaped clouds to linger longer than they would in clean skies - but why?"

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Nobel bubbles

Stocktake - The Irish Times - Tue, Nov 26, 2013: "Renowned value investor Jeremy Grantham has harsh words for Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and incoming Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen in his latest letter, describing them as little more than bubble blowers. His real wrath, however, is reserved for efficient market theorists such as Eugene Fama (pictured above).
The recent decision to jointly award the Nobel prize in economics to Fama and Robert Shiller, who have diametrically opposed views, was a “farce”, says Grantham. Fama and his “laughable” efficient market hypothesis says bubbles do not and cannot occur, even though the last 25 years have seen four of the biggest bubbles in history."

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Independent Scotland- Westminster NO-land

Alex Salmond faces Westminster hurdles over independent Scotland | Politics | The Guardian: "Alex Salmond's goal of setting up an independent Scotland in March 2016 could be hard to achieve because of the 2015 general election, UK cabinet sources believe.

Sources in the Westminster government and the anti-independence campaign said the UK government had no mandate to strike a deal with an independent Scotland, unless it won the general election in May 2015 after putting its proposals to voters in the rest of UK.

The alternative would be for the main parties to agree a common position on key issues such as sterling, North Sea oil and debt before the general election, to avoid the uncertainty harming the British economy."

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Scotland- 24 March 2016 is the date of freedom, if....

SNP sets the day for Scottish independence: 24 March 2016 | Politics | The Observer: "If the people of Scotland deliver a Yes vote in next year's referendum, Scotland will have its Independence Day on 24 March 2016. The date is included in the SNP's white paper on independence, due to be revealed at Glasgow Science Centre on the banks of the Clyde on Tuesday.

The chosen date is not without historical significance: on the same day in 1603 the Union of the Crowns occurred, when James VI of Scotland also became James I of England and Ireland after the death of his cousin Elizabeth I, while on 24 March 1707 the Acts of Union – which merged the parliaments of Scotland and England – were signed, making one single country, Great Britain"

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intern- no turn

Interns: all work, no pay | Money | The Guardian: "Too many young people are still doing real jobs for no money, as unpaid interns. But not for much longer. Around the world, young workers expected to toil for months at a time for little or no pay are battling to be rewarded fairly.

For those of us who have been campaigning on this issue for years, it's an exciting time. Former interns who are brave – and angry – enough to challenge their employers are "lawyering up" (often finding a kindly donor to cover the fees). This is a big deal. In many cases, lone twentysomethings are squaring up to huge international firms or high-profile people with deep pockets and legal teams. In the US, intern power has seen Fox Searchlight appealing against a ruling that found that it should have paid interns in its movie, Black Swan. Meanwhile, Condé Nast has ditched its unpaid internship programme, also following lawsuits.

In the UK, Tony Blair agreed to pay all his interns after public pressure and a threatened investigation. X Factor, Arcadia, IPC Media and Sony offered back pay where former interns could prove they'd worked for less than the minimum wage. This is"

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Can land but can't take off-

Boeing cargo jet lands at wrong Wichita airport - CNN.com: "A Boeing Dreamlifter landed at the wrong airport in Wichita, Kansas -- one with a runway apparently too short for the mammoth cargo plane to take off from again.
The Atlas Air 747 Dreamlifter is a beast of a plane. It's a modified 747-400 passenger airplane that can haul more cargo by volume than any airplane in the world.
In fact, it's a plane that carries major assembly parts for other big planes, such as parts for the 787 Dreamliner from suppliers around the world to its assembly plant in Washington.
Late Wednesday night, the plane, which was bound for McConnell Air Force Base from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, missed its mark by about 12 miles.
It ended up at the much at the much-smaller Jabara Airport on Wichita's northeast side."

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Del Monte - paying fruits of Thai workers..

Del Monte to pay $1.2 million to 100 Thai farmworkers - latimes.com: "More than 100 Thai farm workers who alleged that they suffered discrimination working in Hawaii pineapple fields will receive $1.2 million in a settlement with Del Monte Fresh Produce, federal officials announced Monday in Los Angeles.

Del Monte's agreement with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission marks the first in a series of forthcoming settlements in what commission officials have called its largest farm labor trafficking case. The case involves a Los Angeles-based labor contractor, six farms and more than 200 Thai workers."

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The Au- (ra) of Gold- Indian affinity for imported metal

Gold-Laden Brides in India Defying Singh as Culture Wins - Bloomberg: "“In the long term, the fundamentals of gold demand are still intact,” said Haresh Soni, chairman of the All India Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation, which represents 300,000 jewelers and bullion dealers. “For Indians, gold buying is not just a cultural or traditional compulsion but also acts as social security. From birth to death, gold is involved in all aspects of our life and used in our prayers and rituals.”
To lure customers, jewelers are spending more on television and outdoor commercials and signing up Bollywood stars from Amitabh Bachchan to Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Award-winning South Indian actor Mohanlal is a brand ambassador along with actress Kareena Kapoor for Malabar Gold, which has 102 stores in the Middle East, India and Singapore.
The Babus purchased all their wedding gold from Malabar’s flagship store in Kozhikode, a city famous for being the first trade link between India and Europe after Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama landed on its shores.
“It helped that Mohanlal is my mom’s and fiance’s favorite actor,” said Amrita, drawing laughs from those gathered at the henna ceremony"

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State Sponsored Bribes, er..Incentives- making a clean breast of it...

Breastfeeding bribes? What a grubby little idea | Barbara Ellen | Comment is free | The Observer: "In a bid to see whether financial incentive could overcome cultural resistance, researchers at Sheffield University are to offer 130 mothers in Yorkshire and Derbyshire up to £200 (in shopping vouchers) if they breastfeed. This will be piloted in areas where breastfeeding rates are below the national average, involving women (from "young, white, low-income areas") who probably weren't breastfed themselves and are too embarrassed to breastfeed in public or even at home.

Personally, I'm jumpy about the idea that anyone could or should be bribed, sorry, incentivised, into breastfeeding, but first: would it be too much to ask for people to lay off women's breasts generally?"

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Global deforestation: 10 hot spots on Google Earth – in pictures | Environment | theguardian.com

Global deforestation: 10 hot spots on Google Earth – in pictures | Environment | theguardian.com: "Global deforestation: 10 hot spots on Google Earth – in pictures
Earth has lost more than half a million square miles of forest between 2000 and 2012. Analysis of 650,000 satellite images, published in the journal Science, reveal the extent of loss and recovery – Brazil’s success in the Amazon is offset by deforestation in Indonesia, Malaysia, Paraguay, Bolivia, Zambia and Angola. The colour-coded maps here show the changes: green is forest cover, red is lost forest, blue is forest gained and pink is forests both lost and gained in the period"

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Liked versus QUalified

I Like You…You’re Hired: 3 Questions to Answer During The Employee Selection Process - Yahoo Small Business Advisor: "What role does likeability play in the hiring of new employees? According to a recent study by Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management—which looked at the hiring practices among elite investment banks, law firms and management firms—personal likeability seems to play a bigger role in the hiring process than a candidate’s resume. Although the study targeted a narrow range of professions, it served to shed light on an age-old dilemma for hiring managers, namely choosing between the most qualified candidate and the most likeable."

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Workplace culture, and lack of trust = Wasted talent!

The workplace culture that is holding women back - Technology Industry News | Market & Trends | The Irish Times - Thu, Nov 14, 2013: "Girls here outperform boys in school and in Ireland, as in many other countries, more women take undergraduate university degrees than men. This has been the case for more than a decade of CSO statistics (in 2011, 53 per cent of third-level graduates were women, while 39 per cent were men). In the US, more women than men also take master’s and PhD degrees.
Yet year after year, women remain poorly represented at senior levels in companies and participate to a lesser degree than men in the workforce. In 2011, 46.7 per cent of Irish women worked –
a considerable fall below the 60 per cent level the EU set as a target for 2010. (That said, Ireland did meet the 60 per cent marker in the final boom years of 2007
and 2008, but not since.)"

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Healt, Sweat, and Body Type

Jennifer Lawrence is striking a blow for healthy, sweaty women | Muireann Carey-Campbell | Comment is free | theguardian.com: "On Newsnight, speaking of playing Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games, Lawrence said that she refused to lose weight for roles, explaining: "We have the ability to control this image that young girls are going to be seeing. They see enough of this body that they will never be able to obtain and it's an amazing opportunity to rid ourselves of that in this industry."

Sure, it's silly that a body type should even need celebrity endorsement, but what Lawrence has done here is a pretty rare thing among her peers. Various female celebrities will trot out similar lines in what come across as weak Kumbaya moments, where womankind should all join hands and rejoice. Rarely though, do we ever hear high-profile women say they want to look healthy."

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Bailout or knock-out?

Real story of bailout exit is how good crisis was wasted - Economic News | Ireland & World Economy Headlines |The Irish Times - Mon, Nov 11, 2013: "There is no such thing as a good bailout – it is an oxymoron – but that has not not stopped us claiming whatever kudos were going over the past three years. To paraphrase the Taoiseach, we have become the best small country in the world in which to do bailouts by 2013.
This is not nearly as pathetic as it seems. Our ability to meet pretty much all the conditions of the bailout has done much to restore international confidence in Ireland and its institutions. Making a virtue out of this necessity was the obvious and correct strategy."

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Dublin and Environment

Car lanes to be given to walkers and cyclists on Dublin’s quays - Environmental News | The Irish Times - Sat, Nov 09, 2013: "A plan to reduce traffic lanes and remove parking spaces from the Liffey quays, and to create a new pedestrian and cycling boulevard, will be presented to Dublin City Council next week.
The 21st Century Liffey Project envisages the creation of two major civic plazas – at O’Connell Bridge, where traffic lanes will be reduced and a diagonal pedestrian crossing created, and at the Custom House, which will be completely pedestrianised with traffic diverted around the back, along Beresford Place.
The project, developed by urban planners and designers Fergus Browne and David Jordan, with the support of the council and the Dublin Civic Trust, seeks “re-orientating the public realm away from the car”, without completely eliminating traffic from the quays, by 2030."

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Food waste: not to be wasted

Food waste: what does the latest report tell us? | News | theguardian.com: "4.2m tonnes of avoidable food and drink waste was thrown away by UK households last year - worth £12.5bn - according to the latest report by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (Wrap).

The annual report by the government's waste advisory body provides estimates of the amount of food and drink wasted in the UK, with detailed data on the types of food and drink wasted, reasons for disposal and the impact on the environment. Rebecca Smithers writes today:

The average UK family is wasting nearly £60 a month by throwing away almost an entire meal a day, according to a new report that reveals the scale of the ongoing challenge to reduce household food waste.

Britons are chucking out the equivalent of 24 meals a month, adding up to 4.2 million tonnes of food and drink every year that could have been consumed. Almost half of this is going straight from fridges or cupboards into the bin. One-fifth of what households buy ends up as waste, and around 60% of that could have been eaten."

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ChocOChips: Salt, Sugar and Starch

Lay's Wavy Potato Chips Dipped in Milk Chocolate only at Target - UPI.com: "DALLAS, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- In a limited time offering, Lay's, the U.S. snack maker, is expected to offer Lay's Wavy Potato Chips Dipped in Milk Chocolate.
Lay's, the nation's largest salty snack maker, is expected to announce on Friday its plans to roll its chocolate covered potato chip that is scheduled to last from post Halloween to New Year's only at Target stores, USA Today reported.

However, Ram Krishnan, vice president of marketing at Frito-Lay, the parent company of Lay's, said if the chocolate potato chip is a major hit, it could become permanent.

"When you try something drastically different, you have to walk before you can run," Krishnan told USA Today. "We wanted to test our way through this before we go big.""

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Coconuts- memories of childhood, may not last long

Coconut Crisis Looms as Postwar Palm Trees Age: Southeast Asia - Bloomberg: "Asia’s coconut palms, which mark the landscape from the Philippines to India, face a crisis as rapidly aging groves become less productive, curbing harvests that are a source of food and income for millions.

The trees, many of which were planted about 50 to 60 years ago after World War II, no longer yield enough to meet rising global demand, according to the Rome-based Food & Agriculture Organization. There’s an urgent need for replanting and rejuvenation, said Hiroyuki Konuma, regional representative for Asia and the Pacific at the United Nations agency, which is seeking to coordinate a response to the challenge.

At stake is the productivity of a core part of the rural economy in the Asia-Pacific, which accounts for about 85 percent of the global supply of the commodity that goes into food, fuel, soaps and cosmetics. In the Philippines, among the three biggest growers, one in five people depends on the crop to some extent, according to the Asian and Pacific Coconut Community. The Jakarta-based group, which represents growers, predicts that harvests could be increased to benefit millions of smallholders."

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Living Wage, U.K.

More than 5 million people in the UK are paid less than the living wage | Society | The Observer: "The number of people who are paid less than a "living wage" has leapt by more than 400,000 in a year to over 5.2 million, amid mounting evidence that the economic recovery is failing to help millions of working families.

A report for the international tax and auditing firm KPMG also shows that nearly three-quarters of 18-to-21-year-olds now earn below this level – a voluntary rate of pay regarded as the minimum to meet the cost of living in the UK. The KPMG findings highlight difficulties for ministers as they try to beat back Labour's claims of a "cost of living crisis"."

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Salt Lake: The climate is changing

Warmer climate, less water for Salt Lake City | The Salt Lake Tribune: ""Our concern is that it is going to get warmer in the Intermountain West and in our particular region," said Laura Briefer, water resources manager for the Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities. "As water managers, a warming climate demands our attention. We anticipate changes to water demands and supply."

Among the most telling results of the report is a finding that every 1 degree Fahrenheit increase could mean an average decrease of 3.8 percent in annual water flow from watersheds tapped by Salt Lake City.

That’s according to the study "Planning for an Uncertain Future: Climate Change Sensitivity Assessment Toward Adaptation Planning for Public Water Supply," published in the journal Earth Interactions."

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Infosys settles visa case; agrees to pay $34 million: just a small cost of doing business the visabuse way

Infosys settles visa case; agrees to pay $34 million - The Hindu: "Leading software services exporter Infosys Ltd. announced on Wednesday that it has agreed to pay $34 million dollars to settle allegations about its alleged violations of U.S. visa regulations. The settlement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas “resolves all issues with the U.S. Department of State, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,” the company said in a statement.

Infosys said allegations and investigations pertaining to I-9 “paperwork errors and visa matters” were the subject of investigation by the U.S. Federal agencies, the company said. The I-9 Form is used to ensure that employers “verify” employees’ identity and eligibility to work in the U.S. The company said the “errors” pertained to 2010-11. It claimed that the company started correcting the “errors” before the investigation commenced in 2011."

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Not Waist-ed, but McSized

Cultural hang-ups about food are making us fatter - Life & Style | Trends, Tips, News & Advice | The Irish Times - Wed, Oct 30, 2013: "Somewhere between the McLibel Trial and Morgan Spurlock’s Supersize Me, McDonald’s became a shorthand for all sorts of societal ills: obesity, bad parenting, food poverty, corporate greed. But while it’s always nice to have a billion dollar company to blame for our children’s expanding waistlines, our obesity crisis isn’t all about fast food.
Yes, it’s hard to make the case for fast food as a nutritious alternative to baby rice. McDonald’s fries contain 15 ingredients, including salt and sugar, which is sprayed on to make the colour look more appetising. Some chicken nuggets are about half muscle, with the rest a mixture of fat, blood vessels and nerves, according to a recent study in the American Journal of Medicine."

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Caterpillar out of the bag

Caterpillar’s unsettling track record in Northern Ireland - Economic News | Ireland & World Economy Headlines |The Irish Times - Tue, Oct 29, 2013: "Forget for a moment that the 100 new jobs may have the potential to generate salaries of around £2.2 million and remember just how hard the loss of 750 jobs has hit local communities such as Larne, Springvale in Belfast and Monkstown.
Because Caterpillar is diversifying its production capabilities in the North into a new line of manufacturing, there is the hope that it will in time bring other new work to Northern Ireland, which will ultimately create more jobs.
But in the meantime, the
fact that Invest NI has offered Caterpillar £1.087 million of financial support and the North’s Department for Employment and Learning has also agreed to give it £220,000 towards the cost of the investment project just doesn’t sit right. Should you reward a global organisation for pulling out manufacturing jobs and relocating them, as Caterpillar moved those Northern jobs
to China?"

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Starbucks- can't buck the Chinese press

Starbucks Is Expensive in China. Who Cares? - Bloomberg: "What did Starbucks Corp. ever do to the Chinese Communist Party?

That’s the question China’s latte-sipping set is asking in the wake of a now-notorious investigation, first aired on national television Sunday, that revealed -- among other examples of allegedly shameless profiteering -- that a tall latte costs about 45 cents more at a Starbucks in Beijing than it does at one in London, and that Starbucks’s profit margins in the Asia-Pacific region exceed those of any other in which the company operates.

The story has dominated China, with major international news media outlets subsequently picking up on it. The global interest is understandable: Starbucks claims to have more than 1,000 stores in China, and the company’s chief executive officer expects China to one day be Starbucks’s second-largest market."

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Rules of the Trade, retail Trade

Call to prevent retailers using Republic as secret ‘honey pot’ - Consumer News & Advice | Pricewatch, Money Advice | The Irish Time - Wed, Oct 23, 2013: "The committee accused large multiples and wholesalers of “exerting undue pressure on pricing” on producers and said that some were being coerced and bullied into funding promotions and discounts but were afraid to reveal how they were being “squeezed out of the market” by big retail chains out of concern that their products would be delisted.
“There are serious concerns that the current imbalance of power between suppliers and retailers is unsustainable in the long term and that the family farm structure and primary producers are being squeezed out of the market,” the reports says.
The committee expressed “serious concern” over “hidden costs arising from additional fees and market support initiatives” and said such practices should “not be tolerated” and called for heavy penalties to be introduced on a statutory basis for retailers “found to be engaging in illegal practices”."

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Let's drink tap water and celebrate this- a law which should have been implemented decades ago

Coalition to introduce minimum alcohol pricing in bid to fight abuse - Political News | Irish & International Politics | The Irish Times - Wed, Oct 23, 2013: "The introduction of a minimum price for alcohol will be the centrepiece of the Government’s national substance misuse strategy to be announced tomorrow.
Minimum pricing is one of a range of measures that will be unveiled by Minister of State at the Department of Health Alex White following agreement at the Cabinet yesterday.
One of the most controversial elements of the plan, a proposed ban on the sponsorship of sporting events by drinks companies from 2020, has been postponed after a battle between Mr White and key Fine Gael Ministers."

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C Class in Brazil

Brazilians prepare to rage against state failures in World Cup summer | World news | The Observer:  "There was a growth of people's income above the growth of GDP. Last year it was 7.9%, and the GDP grew 0.9%," Neri said. "So life inside people's houses is getting better, and outside is not getting better at the same velocity."

Class C now makes up more than half of the Brazilian population. The demographic group once marginalised as "the poor" now plays a confident and central role in Brazilian culture, with its own pop stars, like singer Anitta, and even a hit soap opera on Globo called Brazil Avenue, which for the first time celebrated its brash, colourful suburban style on primetime television and was a nationwide hit.

"Globo soap operas used to be a magic eye, for the poorer people to see the rich," said Antonio Prata, one of the soap's scriptwriters. "Brazil Avenue did the opposite … Class C didn't want to see the rich, they wanted to see themselves reflected."

But what Class C members can buy in terms of consumer goods – often on credit – does not make up for the failing social services around them, particularly in health, education, sanitation and transport. Many live in tiny breezeblock houses, in endless, gritty suburbs, hours away from city centres by bus. Transport was the spark that lit June's protests: an increase in bus fares in São Paulo and Rio.

"These Brazilians are consumers without citizenship, without civil rights. They are not citizens," said celebrated novelist Milton Hatoum. "There is consumerism but no citizenship. The schools for their children are terrible. Education is terrible. Often there is no sanitation.

..."

The Flight of Excess, Cisco Style

The CEO Of Cisco Bills The Company When He Flies In His Own Private Jet - Yahoo Finance: "Many big tech companies, like HP and IBM, keep fleets of private jets to fly their executives around in convenience, safety and style. But at Cisco, CEO John Chambers works it in reverse.
He owns his own jet and then he sends Cisco a bill when he uses it for work, which he presumably does a lot.
In 2013, he billed Cisco $2.8 million in jet expenses, according to forms filed with the SEC. Unlike car mileage, there doesn't seem to be an IRS standard when reimbursing for your private jet. Chambers just has to make sure that his expense rate isn't higher than what it would cost to hire a private chartered jet.
That's not hard to do. It will cost you $21,000 to charter a 4-passenger plane for an hour to fly from San Jose to L.A. on a JetSuite private charter (non-member rate).
Blogger Brad Reese calculates that since 2009, Chambers has billed Cisco $11.1 million in private jet expenses."

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Protesting - is in itself a great value

Do protest films like Project Wild Thing change anything? | Film | The Guardian: "In the past month we've already had films on bees (More Than Honey), the internet and children (InRealLife), and climate change denial (Greedy Lying Bastards), not to mention WikiLeaks dramatisation The Fifth Estate – for those who didn't get enough from recent WikiLeaks documentary We Steal Secrets. Next week's issue doc is Project Wild Thing, in which film-maker David Bond embarks on a crusade to market "nature" to the iPad-fixated, outdoors-phobic youth of Britain. The irony of making a film to encourage kids to get outside more instead of watching films is not lost on Bond, and there is a sense that many other films in this category, in effect, do the same thing with grownups: gluing us to our seats with a pressing issue, then chiding us for not getting out of those seats and doing something. Could it be that documentaries are the problem as much as the solution? Are any of these films actually affecting the issues they're championing? And are any of us really watching them anyway?"

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Boehn(er)-headed definition of a good fight

Congress Set to End Fiscal Impasse as Boehner Concedes - Bloomberg: "House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement that Republicans won’t block the compromise.
“We fought the good fight,” Boehner, a Republican, said today on WLW, a radio station in his home state of Ohio. “We just didn’t win.”"

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English- Irish and American

The war of the words - Book News | Literature & Books Reviews & Headlines |The Irish Time - Wed, Oct 16, 2013: "Proceeding from the premise that Irish was vastly underacknowledged as a source of English words, he mined the mother tongue for a whole quarry-load of derivations: those of “dig”, and even “jazz” (from “teas”, meaning “heat”, he suggested)
included.
He was like a frontiersman, staking claims to the linguistic wilderness. And like many frontiersmen, he was soon under fire from counter claimants, his death in 2008 not entirely ending the conflict.
His book’s premise, at least, was beyond argument. Almost a century earlier, HL Mencken had expressed puzzlement at the paucity of acknowledged Irish loan words in English. “Perhaps shillelah, colleen, spalpeen, smithereens, and poteen exhaust the unmistakably Gaelic list”, Mencken wrote, exaggerating only a little."

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Forced student labour is central to the Chinese economic miracle | Aditya Chakrabortty | Comment is free | The Guardian

Forced student labour is central to the Chinese economic miracle | Aditya Chakrabortty | Comment is free | The Guardian: "You'll hear a lot of pieties about China this week. As George Osborne and Boris Johnson schlep from Shanghai to Shenzhen, they'll give the usual sales spiel about trade and investment and the global race. What they won't talk much about is Zhang Lintong. Yet the 16-year-old's story tells you more about the human collateral in the relationship between China and the west than any number of ministerial platitudes.

In June 2011, Zhang and his teenage classmates were taken out of their family homes and dispatched to a factory making electronic gadgets. The pupils were away for a six-month internship at a giant Foxconn plant in the southern city of Shenzhen, a 20-hour train ride from their home in central China. He had no say in the matter, he told researchers. "Unless we could present a medical report certified by the city hospital that we were very ill, we had to go immediately.""

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Poor Literacy Rates...great article

Are poor literacy rates caused by laziness … or bad film titles? | Bridget Christie | Comment is free | The Guardian: According to a really expensive study carried out by Noel Edmonds' Sky1 quiz programme Are You Smarter Than a 10 Year Old?, millions of English adults cannot read, write or add up better than primary-school children. Furthermore, one in six adults can only just about decipher a menu (the type you find in a greasy-spoon cafe, not one of Heston Blumenthal's – even Heston can't read those). But even if they can order an egg, because it only has three letters in it, they still don't understand quantities. Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, asked Edmonds if this was why we were all so fat and a drain on the NHS, and Noel said it was, yes. Hunt smirked, and then they went off to bounce on the trampoline for a bit because all the swings were taken.

Poverty and social inequality have been blamed for the results of the survey, which – back in the real world – was carried out by the OECD and put England close to the bottom in literacy and numeracy among 16- to 24-year-olds in developed nations. This is despite Michael Gove, the education secretary, and his badminton partner Toby Young doing all they can to improve literacy and numeracy for their own children, and the children of all their friends. But this problem pre‑exists Gove. It doesn't pre-exist Young though, who has been around since the first school opened here in 597. That's why he feels qualified to keep going on Newsnight to talk about education. It also explains why he has a painting of a really old-looking baby in his attic, and his silly, old-fashioned views on women.

Professor Chris Husbands, director of the Institute of Education, said: "Even after 150 years, we still haven't worked out how to educate the masses in this country." How old is Prof Husbands? Perhaps he needs a break, at his age. Anyway, I don't agree with Husbands, in theory. Or the professor, for that matter. I think the elite has worked out exactly how to educate the masses in this country. Don't! Keep us illiterate! Like the pope did in the good old days before that pesky reformer Tyndale ruined everything! Don't dilute the elite! What will we call ourselves if we allow the masses to infiltrate us? The Massite? A fair and equal society? Look at the state of Scandinavia! It will never work. Besides, there are only so many cabinet positions to go round.

Anyway, I'm not convinced we needed an survey to find out how illiterate we all are. Apparently it cost £567,000,231,089,222,785.21 just to get the numeracy figures. Couldn't Edmonds have just popped down the high street and looked at some shop signs that will have presumably been checked by a number of people, including a professional signwriter, and still ended up as "Bobs's Fish and, Chip's"? Edmonds could also have watched something about "real people" on Channel 4 (not the news), read a trendy children's book that includes double negatives to be cool, kooky and cute, or gone to the cinema to see The Pursuit of Happyness, Inglourious Basterds or Biutiful. These Hollywood movies are of course misspelt on purpose to be amusing, but with the US coming out in the lower half of these literacy tables, it's not helpful.

The survey also doesn't tell us how many of these illiterate 16- to 24-year-olds are genuinely illiterate, or how many of them just pretend to be illiterate as an affectation to be more popular, or to give the impression of being less dangerous than they are. Like George W Bush, Katie Price and Boris Johnson do.

Our illiteracy may also be down to laziness generally. I notice it all the time. Drivers don't indicate any more (can't be bothered, I know where I'm going); we drag our heels along the ground when we walk (I'm still getting to where I need to go, why bother picking my feet up?). Perhaps poor grammar is just another part of this general apathy. We're all guilty of this to some degree. I went to France recently and instead of learning how to say "Excuse me, is this fish boneless?" to a lady selling fish, I just pointed at my two children then mimed having a choking fit. She knew immediately what I meant.

I left school at 15 with two CSEs. One in drama and one in typing, in case the acting didn't work out. It didn't, by the way, and I must say the typing has come in very handy for these columns, so I'm not as stupid as all those teachers told me I was after all. Anyway, this was in the mid-1980s, when even a school dropout like me could watch University Challengewithout glazing over, and even manage to get one or two questions right. I don't think this is the case today. But that's more down to Paxman's confidence-sapping impatience than our failing state schools.

The disparity in our education system between the rich and the poor is a national disgrace, and begins even before our children are born – by elective caesarean section in the first week of the month in order to get a place in a top London prep school. (This story ran in the Daily Mail so may or may not be true, but it sounds feasible.)

I took my education for granted, which shames me now, especially when I think of the lengths Pakistani schoolgirls go to for theirs. But this isn't Pakistan. Girls have the same educational rights as boys here. It's not gender that divides our children's opportunities to learn and better themselves here, but their social backgrounds.