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|French majors Sam Gripka, Cecily Robertson and Courtney Colley in the Tuileries Garden.
Being monolingual offers no more advantage today than it did in twelfth- and thirteenth- century England, where French was both a written and spoken vernacular. French was already an international language in the Middle Ages, so it is not surprising to hear French in more than fifty countries on five continents today.
Beginning students of French at Drury gain communicative competence through their study of the French language and French and Francophone culture. French majors and minors at Drury engage even more deeply with the culture, literature, and history of the more than 200 million people who make up the French-speaking world. The French minor and major curricula at Drury offer students the opportunity to attain a higher level of mastery of the French language in preparation for participation in today's multilingual world.
The department of languages offers a French Major and a French Minor. Additionally, Drury University Study Abroad offers a semester study abroad program in Poitiers, France.


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Summer Movie Season 2013 – June – The 2nd QuarterJune 5th, 2013 at 12:52 pm by Marcus Jackson under The Movie Guru, Uncategorized
Hello Blog Readers. This is Marcus Jackson, the FOX 10 / CW 55 Resident Movie Guru here.
To paraphrase an old saying … "If the movie's nice, go see it twice …"; Well, I guess that would explain why Fast & Furious 6 was at the top of the Box Office once again for a second week in a row. Only Iron Man 3 has done this earlier in May. Also, some of you may have checked out my last blog entry because Now You See Me came in 2nd place. Now that's the power of Studio 10 for you. The Jaden Smith / Will Smith "Father & Son" Sci-Fi Action flick After Earth came in 3rd place – which was a little bit disappointing with Will Smith's track record of hitting No#1 at the box office during this particular movie season; when he is known as "Mr. Box Office".
With all of these Summer Blockbusters coming to a theater near you there are two rules they all apply to; 1) Make Money at The Box Office … and 2) Make More Money The Following Week at The Box Office. If a movie can make over a Billion dollars within the timeframe that it is in theaters, or at a plateau of $500 Million – the studio that fork out the Big Bucks to make the movie and pay the talent in front and behind the camera lens WILL WIN!
We are now in the month of June. This is the 2nd month of the 2013 Summer Blockbuster Movie Season. We are about to see the gauntlet be thrown down … especially in the realm of the Superhero Genre. Basically it's Iron vs. Steel, when Iron Man 3, now a month in theaters already, will a go up against Man of Steel – which could be the "savior" of the DC Comics Movie Universe. I'll get into the "Return of Superman" on the Big Screen in my next blog entry. We have some other movies that will be coming out this month that are worthy of your consideration.
We have two comedies that are getting the funny bone a tingling – The Internship, Much Ado About Nothing, & This Is The End. For a family outing, Disney has you covered with Monsters University, which is somewhat a "prequel" to the Big Hit Movie, Monsters, Inc. And if you are looking for some Action we got The Purge, World War Z, and White House Down. All three of these movies have been lighting up the "Buzz-o-meter" right now with stars like Ethan Hawke, Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, and Brad Pitt in the mix. And Yes, Man of Steel!
That's June for you in the world of the Summer Blockbuster Movies of 2013. This is just the Second Quarter of this particular movie season but I think that on June 14th the "Halftime Show" will come a little sooner and it is going to be "SUPER" – but we'll get into that on my next blog entry.
Keep checking out my Movie Guru Blog Entries in the coming weeks. We got some Awesome movies coming out this Summer Movie Season. By the way, you might have a chance to see some of these movies for FREE if they come along with Advance Screening Movie Passes. If My Friend and Colleague, Dani Dials, The Face of CW, get any Free Movie Passes for Any Movie You Bet Your Last Drop Of Buttered Popcorn That I'll Let You Know.
This is Marcus Jackson, The FOX 10 / CW 55 Resident Movie Guru. Enjoy The Month Of June at The Movies & Get Ready …. There Is MORE TO COME at a Box Office Near You.

subset: commoncrawl


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But what about ["Making New Jason Allers To Mess With Wanted Pages"]?! --["Users/PhilipNeustrom"]
Upload new image "ensenada.jpg"
|E-mail: <tmgarberson AT gmail DOT com>
Tom Garberson has lived in Davis since 2002, getting a degree in Sociology (it was a BA, but Soc is all about the BS) and a J.D. from King Hall. He currently (intermittently) practices private criminal defense as a contractor for Blackmon & Associates and loves the work. He met his wife, Bekka, through Integrated Studies in 2004, and they got married in 2009. They have an obnoxiously cute cat named Robin.
|NOT Recommended
|Useful Stuff
|Great place to live
|Worst service on earth
|Site Organization
|Great place to relax
|Advertising on the Wiki
|To Do
|Great food
|Being a jackass
|Great humor
|Reading Lost Pets
|Help with Macros
|Great service
|(It makes me sad)
|Help with Tables
|Great beer selection
|Great wiki art
Things to work on
Velociraptors page - it needs to be done. Anyone with a dinosaur costume want to dress up for a picture to go on the page?
How about A Tour of the Wiki? —bh
Things to think about
"Imagine the Wiki without JabberWokky's calm guidance." — Jason Aller, of Users/JasonAller fame
Kind of scary to think about, wouldn't you say? Am I the only one who thinks the Wiki would pretty quickly begin a downward spiral?
The wiki would definitely be in trouble without JW around to give his wise input and to smooth over troubled situations. The wiki is also in need of more committed editors. —cp
¿ɹɐq ʇuǝɯɯoɔ ʎɯ oʇ pǝuǝddɐɥ ʇɐɥʍ
Note: You must be logged in to add comments
2011-03-31 12:55:23 Your count (4) of West Davis restaurants is correct if you do not include The Marketplace—which, being east of 113, it should not be. There is also prepared food (sandwiches/pastries/coffee) available at Stonegate Video and the grocery store. —JudithTruman
2011-03-31 16:10:29 I thought the Happy Thursday at Rominger West Winery was suitable. I've heard of it, and thought of going. Good musical occasion. —BruceHansen
2011-03-31 17:06:04 Thanks, TG! Seems like I missed a controversy or two. :-) —CovertProfessor
2011-03-31 17:58:15 OH NO! I may truly regret the expansion of the page if that happens! —ScottMeehleib
2011-03-31 18:22:16 Did someone say tentacle porn video? Hold on, let me look through my hard drive. —hankim
2011-04-01 09:31:51 The Korean language actually does have an "l" sound while the Japanese language does not, so I am sort of pulling a Wallace. It's okay though, because Japan has persecuted my people for so long. It's like when black people make fun of white people. —hankim
2011-04-01 10:05:04 I would post the entire thing, but pretty sure I'd piss a few people off. —hankim
2011-04-01 16:30:30 Yeah, Mr. Edwards didn't fare too well in the Battle of the Gnomes, I'm afraid. :'( —ScottMeehleib
2011-04-01 17:33:54 Hello! How do you link to an external website with a title that's not "http:// www.....".... I'm not very computer literate... —NikiRose
2011-04-01 19:54:09 I'm a douche. —hankim
2011-04-02 17:13:44 Still-her comment looks fishy when she doesn't sign it and is clearly shown as doing "management updates" in the past. I rephrased on her page.—Users/PeterBoulay
2011-04-06 09:32:59 Is there a living room in that den unit? —CovertProfessor
2011-04-06 09:40:37 Yup! Clarified it, thanks. —TomGarberson
2011-04-06 09:52:26 Ah, ok. There wouldn't be much benefit to the extra den without one! —CovertProfessor
2011-04-06 19:23:06 When I was on my non-cutting maintenance diet, I would treat myself to their hot wing entree at least once a week. I miss them so much right now =( —hankim
2011-04-06 23:11:08 I believe your comment on my profile was about what I said on the UCC page. Its quite alright Mr.Garberson. I have forgiven those involved and wish them well. I also hold no ill feelings towards UCC or any of its members. I was doing as I was told and staying out of church till I graduated. But when I found out that another person was put in the same situation I was, I felt I needed to say something. I prayed for many months and rewrote it several times in hopes it would not be seen as an act of revenge. This isn't intended as a personal attack, but just an attempt to help other who might be in the same spot I was in. Thank you very much for your concern. —Dozer
2011-04-07 17:14:45 Mr. Garberson, I appreciate your concern. But I do not want this to turn into gossip. —Dozer
2011-04-14 09:48:24 They have phones in booths now? Finally, now I don't have to lug this cell phone around! —hankim
2011-04-14 16:14:55 Like. —CovertProfessor
2011-04-14 19:09:19 Wow! What a fancy site! —TianxiaZhou
2011-04-15 13:00:51 Thank you for fixing my snakes' pictures. I was just researching how to make them a little less gigantic! —DanielleC
2011-04-19 23:38:14 Sorry for the late reply about the calpirg thing! Anyway, I spoke with the current chair, and she sayid that she would handle the situation herself, file my unpledge, and issue a refund check for all the quarters I've been pledged. The only problem is that she never specified a date, and hasn't gotten back to me on this. This may be another losing battle. I'm running out of nice things to do! —Jennyfish
Hey man, I think you have me figured all wrong...If you ever wanna hang out and drink some Kool-Aid, maybe talk about Bruce Lee movies or whatever, you'd see that I'm probably the nicest hardcore conservative you've ever met! I know, we could go out to the range and squeeze a couple off!! Now that's always a blast!! All I have is love in my heart these days and I want to share it with all of you good folks!! Love and kisses, XOXO!! —JoshLawson
2011-04-20 15:22:01 Yeah, the whole thing is effed up, that's for sure. One thing that really gets my goat is that my health insurance more than doubled this year because of, you guessed it, Sutter. (My insurance company offered a non-Sutter version at the old price). Both sides were pointing fingers as to whose fault it was that rates had gone up. Well, now... hmm... assuming these allegations are correct, it seems pretty clear whose fault it is... —CovertProfessor
2011-04-20 21:02:15 I don't think there's a conspiracy, I just think people work hard to maintain their organization's image so I take whatever they say with a dose of skepticism. I also don't know about past allegations about violations of standards not panning out since I'm new here, but I would think if the USDA is anything like the FDA, the number of inspectors/inspections has dropped drastically in the past couple decades so it wouldn't require a conspiracy or even malicious intent for there to be some blind spots in the system. I'm also guessing you're right, animal rights groups might interpret something as violating a standard when the enforcers are a bit more lax. I guess we'll see what comes of it. —MeggoWaffle
2011-04-21 17:51:18 Re Taco Bell, I know there were several things to edit besides my mass. Are you going to turn your comment bar upside down? —BruceHansen
2011-04-22 11:42:32 i see. with that, where is the bar where I can add my own commentary to the talk page? —DavidPlacencia
2011-04-22 12:28:11 mr garberson, doesnt it seem unbalanced that a comment made by a former editor with her own name is taken more seriously than a local business with 7 years history behind it? If you all (career ediotrs) are more concerned with the primacy of your own words rather than what the truth is, then your "community" isn't representative of the very real world from which the Wiki first sprung...i mean, can we not agree there was a REAL tangible world BEFORE the fledgling Wiki was born? I honestly feel most people in this "community" are well meaning and quite accomplished and astute in their oxygen-based worlds. But this Wiki as far as this issue ia concerned, is suffering from a lack of humility and common sense. It seems quite a desparate act to defend words from someone who has left the conversation. I find
it further perplexing that not a one of the editors stood behind a business' right to conduct its work without such a Mar, given
its 7 years on the Wiki without any kind of accusation CLoSe to what was made. I could see if we had a
string of SHady comments in regard to the safety of ladies in Village Cabs. Frankly, I dont see why any business would want to be on the Wiki if they get no consideration for the time and
history they have on its erasable and surreal pages. Did any editor check with Davis PD for any complaints against us ? Has anyone checked DUN & Bradstreet for our fiduciary creditworthiness as a business? No. everyone is myopically worried about how the Wiki should handle this or that. I submit to you kind
sir, that Its quite heavy to my business in this ecomomy. This is my only livelihood. Some of
the drivers as well. Please consider that we had 60,000 hours plus of active service ( 24 hours in operation since 2004) and not one insinuation from our lady riders that we gave them any reason to feel unsafe. My wife was a customer for almost 3 years before we even dated. When we dated, we got engaged 3 weeks afterward. We have many many lady regulars. I really think the Wiki and its career editors should exercise more real-world analysis of accusations whether or not the person gives their REAL NAME. A real name van
have just as much a reason or chance to be untrue or incorrect as a pseudonym or ghost writer can. A business should be given
the benefit of the doubt when it comes to such seriously economic matters. After all, the truth will bear itself out, right? 7 years weighed against lesser years of editorial experience on the accuser's part? I am not too sure this is a balanced appraisal of how long a publication should allow sidelong glances and second thoughts to trump the effects of what may have actually gone on...i mean the story was an Afterthought, the writer didnt seem to think it was crucial enough to report in the "real world". Is Village Cabs history on the wiki indicative or suggestive even
of this behavior by any of its drivers? Nothing to even conjecture. One editor with less history, makes a factless (no day, no descriptions only a business name) writes a
shocking story, and then under criticism (much inappropriate criticism) she leaves
the Wiki. We are taking security of customers even more seriously because of it, but we in no way shape or form acknowledge or accept her story as fact, just as a reminder to us that we habe been to naive to think we wouldnt need to go so far as to have cameras to protect ourselves from stories written without any real world followup or clarification. And now an editor says I am
whitewashing this whole thing by removing the reference to the story. No, I am just removing the doubt from our established reputation as a
trustworthy micro cab company. I think 7 years if hard work gives me the right to take that step.
2011-04-22 12:30:01 thanks for those edit tips btw. im usually driving days so not so much time to learn that stuff —DavidPlacencia
2011-04-22 12:54:00 ...excuse my series of typos... —DavidPlacencia
2011-04-22 17:32:23 Absolutely not a fan of "requiring" off-wiki actions as a prelude to wiki comments. Especially when reporting actions for certain things are so unevenly taken. —EdWins
2011-04-24 21:38:35 That might be better on a different entry, as the core point may be clouded with specifics (on the other hand, it's good there too). It's a VERY good point. Personally, I try to support tact, compassion and a strong voice. That is, express negatives in a manner in which they are not hostile, and be aware that one's actions have consequences for others, so do not speak in a way that needlessly hurts others. After that, speak up and voice your views with as much clarity as possible. Alas, in this particular instance the original story may have met all of those criteria from her perspective (relating a situation in which she saw a victim). —JabberWokky
2011-04-24 22:04:40 I already replied to your fairness point. I'd say that a good example where the wiki community comes into play is technical issues like account names, as they are not an intrinsic part of Davis. Accusations — both because of their source and ramifications — seem to be to be more relevant to the Davis community as a whole than just the subset of the wiki community, and so it is within that larger context that things like fairness should be judged. Or maybe I'm putting too fine a point on it. —JabberWokky
2011-04-25 09:56:53 I know it wasn't your intent, but your comment on VC ends up reading as: 'sweep it under the rug.' 'Something happened, but it got dealt with in some fashion, so in the end the original comment is irrelevant.' If anything, you're advocating, unintentionally, integrating Ashley's comment into the page if there's any mention of security cameras — because what led to cameras being installed in every cab?
To set up an awful analogy, it'd be somewhat like if I said your restaurant had a cook that was rumored/heard to/seen spiting into food or not washing hands...so the restaurant installs cameras in the kitchen. That's nice, and then you can go on to tell your patrons that the food is totally hygienic and trustworthy because hey, we even have cameras and do a background check on our chefs. But...what again led to the cameras? The comment/allegation is completely swept under the rug, when in fact it's actually now much more relevant as a point of history.
X was alleged, so the company changed by doing Y. I honestly think you're overestimating what you're referring to harm that comes out of a mention when put into the proper context on the page (such as the compromise comment and David's followup rebuttal). Having mentioning of X doesn't equate to endorsement of content or admission of guilt to X, and I doubt that many people generally see it that way. Usually, a company/group is lauded for stepping up and doing Y. It's not about Removing all mention of X seems to do it injustice, and it puts a fake spin on Y. It would be an incomplete story with a murky history. I wonder if it'd be worse down the line in a few years (Sigma Chi rumor style? Isn't that the company with the cameras?) to not simply address it up front, in the open and immediately have the rebuttal to squash concerns. —EdWins
2011-04-25 10:03:00 I hate to pick apart tidbits and be a stickler for little things, but just trying to get my point on the "First X, then Y" thing across.
You had written, "On the matter of safety, David is going to install (already has installed?) video cameras in all of the Village cabs. Are we all more or less in agreement that once that's complete, the safety issue is pretty much resolved? It's hard to imagine a man, knowing he's on film, molesting someone. Thus it seems that the safety concern will be largely resolved once the cameras in place. Sure, it's conceivable there's a serial molester who's going to go way out of his way to continue molesting women... but if that's the case, neither the comment nor the video cameras are going to do much about it. On other words, while horrifying, it's not really within the scope of the safety benefit offered by the comment—it's irrelevant."
I think that line makes the restaurant analogy fit a bit better. We should remove all posts with concern or alleged unhygienic practices or spitting into food, because....
"Are we all more or less in agreement that once [camera installation is] complete, the safety issue is pretty much resolved? It's hard to imagine a cook, knowing he's on film, spitting into food. Thus it seems that the safety concern will be largely resolved once the cameras in place. Sure, it's conceivable there's a serial unhygienic jerk who's going to go way out of his way to continue being gross with food... but if that's the case, neither the comment nor the video cameras are going to do much about it. On other words, while horrifying, it's not really within the scope of the safety benefit offered by the comment—it's irrelevant."
And so the original comment about the cook not washing his hands and spitting into the food is wiped. We can write up about Y on the page, but it seems just wrong to completely delete X from the history, whether it's false or not, — when X is the entire reason everything changed. Isn't it? —EdWins
Point well taken. From the perspective of examining why something happened, it's certainly relevant. To my mind, though, that's a relatively minor consideration compared to the magnitude of impact from the second point in the proposal. The extent of the assumptions necessary to reach the conclusion that "this isn't the kind of company I want to do business with" frankly horrifies me. That's what differentiates it from an issue of sanitation (which, from what I've heard, happens in most food establishments): the magnitude of the benefit and the harm. When 99% (or 95%, or whatever you think is reasonable) of the benefit to the community has already been realized once the cameras are installed, there's only very limited continued good emanating from the account. On the flip side, 100% of the harm continues. It's a massively disproportionate effect. And just to be clear, my objection isn't that the business is harmed, but that the business is harmed unjustly because of assumptions necessary to get to that point.
It'd be interesting to know if David has some figures for average numbers of calls before and after the comment. Just based on the fact that multiple drivers have come and said they've been getting fewer calls, it seems like the impact is very real.
Would it alleviate your concern at all if we limited mention of the cameras in the vehicles to a simple factual statement ("All VC taxis have video cameras installed.")? That is, add in a proviso that it can't be used to promote the company here on the wiki, due to the way it came about. —TomGarberson
2011-04-25 13:40:01 i responded on my page, tg —DavidPlacencia
2011-04-25 20:33:48 I see. Does it only update daily? —BruceHansen Oh I see what I was looking forr in the 1's - way below Making New Wanted Pages To Mess With Jason Aller.—bh Also it looks like a wanted page is only listed once per page that it's on.
2011-04-26 09:14:30 They should totally serve breakfast. I won't even care if they don't have a breakfast menu. —hankim
But what about Making New Jason Allers To Mess With Wanted Pages?! —PhilipNeustrom


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William J. Ihlenfeld, II
1125 Chapline Street, Federal Building, Suite 3000 ● Wheeling, WV 26003
(304) 234-0100 ● Contact: Fawn E. Thomas, Public Affairs Specialist
March 24, 2011
Wheeling Resident Enters Guilty Pleas on Drug Charges
WHEELING, WEST VIRGINIA - A 35 year old Wheeling, West Virginia, resident entered guilty pleas today (March 24, 2011), in United States District Court in Wheeling before Judge Frederick P. Stamp, Jr.
United States Attorney William J. Ihlenfeld, II, announced that CORNELL WADE, another co-conspirator to Robert "RJ" Saunders, entered pleas of guilty to one count of a drug conspiracy involving over 500 grams of cocaine and a quantity of marijuana; one count of aiding and abetting Saunders in the illegal use of a telephone to facilitate the distribution of cocaine on July 24, 2009, in Wheeling; and one count of aiding and abetting Saunders in the possession with intent to distribute cocaine within 1,000 feet of Madison Elementary School on July 24, 2009, in Wheeling. As part of his plea, WADE has agreed to the forfeiture of his interest in money seized from his residence on August 27, 2009.
According to the investigation, shortly after WADE's release from federal prison in late 2006, he began supplying Saunders with cocaine, which Saunders then resold. Saunders typically received between one and two ounces of cocaine every two to three weeks from WADE, up until August, 2009.
In Court proceedings today, the United States reported that during the course of the investigation of Saunders and his associates, agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Ohio Valley Drug & Violent Crimes Task Force intercepted several communications between Saunders and the defendant WADE, indicating that WADE was supplying Saunders with cocaine for redistribution. In July 2009, Saunders, WADE, and co-conspirator Kim Marshall arranged for Marshall to pick up cocaine from WADE at his residence on Washington Avenue and deliver it to one of Saunders' regular customers. Officers arrested Marshall, who admitted she had received the cocaine from WADE at the direction of Saunders.
The investigation revealed that WADE was responsible for supplying between 500-2,000 grams of cocaine to Saunders during the course of the conspiracy.
WADE, who is on bond pending sentencing, faces a maximum penalty of five to 40 years imprisonment and a fine of $2,000,000 on the conspiracy charge; a maximum penalty of four years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000 on the telephone count; and a maximum penalty of 40 years imprisonment and a fine of $2,000,000 on the distribution count.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney John C. Parr and was investigated by the Ohio Valley Drug & Violent Crimes Task Force. The Task Force consists of officers from the Wheeling Police Department, the Ohio County Sheriff's Department, and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Call 1-855-WVA-FEDS or Email firstname.lastname@example.com if you have information about public corruption in your community.


text:
Product Description
This true miniature is the smallest water lily available with only a 2-3 foot spread. The leaves are heavily mottled with dark purple and the diminutive yellow flowers float on the surface of the water. Excellent for small water gardens and will perform best after 2-3 seasons. Hybridized by Marliac in 1879. Very free flowering. Must ship 3-day. Ships on Monday and Tuesdays only.
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text:
Since joining the BFI in 2005, Simon has worked closely on the launch and programming of Mediatheques around the UK. He has overseen a series of national touring programmes including The Big Smoke: Films from a Lost London and Brit Chic: Fashion on Film, and manages the BFI Films channel on YouTube.
Simon is a graduate of the University of East Anglia's Film Archiving MA, during which he was the first archive intern at Francis Ford Coppola's production company American Zoetrope in San Francisco, and wrote a history of the film studio at Welwyn Garden City. More recently he worked on the 20-part BBC2 series Reel History of Britain (2011), and contributed to the BFI Compendiums 39 Steps to the Genius of Hitchcock (BFI, 2012) and Gothic (BFI, forthcoming). He is a former programme consultant for the UK Jewish Film Festival and is a programme contributor to the BFI London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival.
Articles by Simon McCallum
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Asia News Update
China: Japanese Itochu and Thai CP Group in talks to acquire major stake in China's Citic
Source: The Wall Street Journal, 04 December 2014
Japan's Itochu Corp. and Thai Charoen Pokphand Group have shown interest in buying a significant stake in the state-owned Chinese Citic. Citic previously traded assets from its unlisted Beijing parent company to its Hong Kong-listing that funded the USD 37 billion transaction by placing shares with 27 new investors, where they could purchase into entire operations. This is unusual for state-owned enterprises, making it a breakthrough for reforms and an example for boosting transparency and financial discipline in the state sector in China.
The potential investment in the Chinese state-owned company by Itochu is unusual for Japanese firms, and may therefore mark a further improvement of the relationship between the two nations. The three companies are among the largest in their respective countries and they all have aims of intensifying their operations across different sectors in Asia. The investment could strengthen the three companies as partners since they all have different core business – Citic in financial services, Itochu in natural resources and energy, and CP Group in food and retail services across the region. There is already a cross-shareholding agreement between two of the partners, where CP group owns 4.9% stake in Itochu and Itochu owns 25% of CP Group's CP Pokphand Co.
India: Leading car manufacturers record higher November sales
Source: The Wall Street Journal, 01 December 2014
Some of India's top car manufacturers recorded improved sales for November 2014, marking a sign for revival in the country's demand. The biggest carmaker by volume, Maruti Suzuki showed an increase in sales in November 2014 by almost 20% to 110,147 vehicles year-on-year, while the second largest producer Hyundai surged 8.7% to 54,011 vehicles year-on-year in its November 2014 sales. The surge in demand has been boosted by the companies' latest models: Maruti Suzuki's Ciaz, Alto and Celerio hatchbacks, and Hyundai's Excent compact sedan and i20 Elite hatchback. Additionally, the improved consumer sentiments and falling prices in local fuel and global crude oil have also driven demand.
Over the past fiscal years in India, sales have dropped due to stagnating economic growth, high prices of fuel and expensive loans, but the November 2014 sales have shown a changing outlook for the market. Furthermore, sales for Honda and Toyota in India for vehicles rose 64% to 15,263 and 11% to 14.134 vehicles year-on-year respectively. In addition, Tata Motors passenger vehicle sales also increased by 16% to 12,021 autos. Meanwhile, India's biggest sport-utility vehicle maker recorded a drop in sales by 18% to 13,765 vehicles.
Thailand: Eco-car scheme to revive automobile industry in 2015
Source: The Bangkok Post, 02 November 2014
Thailand's industry minister Chakramon Phasukvanich announced that the country's automotive industry is to go through a transitional phase in the beginning of 2016 following the new excise tax and car manufacturers starting the production under the second stage of the eco-car scheme. The output in 2015 is expected to record 2.2 million vehicles, improving significantly from the forecast in 2014 of 1.9 million. Moreover, as farmers will be aided with a THB 1,000 handout and novel projects will be implemented, economic growth in 2015 is expected to range from 3-3.5%.
Once the new excise tax for vehicles begins in 2016, the retail prices will be cheaper for environment friendly vehicles such as hybrids and eco-cars. The new tax regime will be based on CO2 emissions, fuel efficiency and E85 compatibility, where eco-cars with CO2 emissions below 100 mg/km will be taxed 12-14% instead of the current 17%. Hybrids on the other hand will still be taxed 10%. The nation's car output is expected by Thailand Automotive Institute to grow by 500,000 vehicles in 2015. Furthermore, for 2014 it is projected that Thailand will produce 2.1 million vehicles regardless of the slow local sales and exports. The output for 10M/2014 recorded a fall by 25.9% to 1.57 million, while domestic sales fell by 36% to 719.171 autos year-on-year and exports dropped 1.25% to 932,365 vehicles.
China: Nissan, Honda report further sales drops, but Toyota bucks the trend
Source: The Wall Street Journal, 02 December 2014
Nissan Motor and Honda Motor recorded a fall in China sales in November 2014 for the fifth straight month, indicating a decelerating Chinese car market following a sluggish economy and intensified competition. The carmakers' sales in the period dropped 12% year-on-year, representing 116,200 cars for Nissan and 72,973 autos for Honda. Nissan claims the sales were hit by increased competition and slow light commercial vehicle sales amid the weakening Chinese economy. Meanwhile, Toyota Motor experienced an increase by 2.9% to 92,300 autos following the launch of its two improved compact sedans.
According to analysts the sluggish car market in the country has been affected by the tighter credit conditions and economic uncertainties. In October and September 2014, new passenger vehicles sales experienced the lowest year-on-year growth since February 2013 with 6.4%. Japanese carmakers are especially having a challenging outlook, as their retail sales have shown a slower growth than the overall industry since April 2014. Japanese car sales in China started to drop two years ago due to the territorial dispute between the countries, but it improved after the Japanese automakers introduced models adapted to Chinese tastes and giving compensation to owners for damage caused by anti-Japanese demonstrations. Furthermore, the Japanese labels recorded a decrease in passenger vehicle market share from 15.6% to 15.2% year-on-year, while German and US manufacturers experienced growth of 21.1% and 12.8%, respectively. In addition, Nissan and Honda had to reduce their 2014 sales forecasts for China to 1.27 million cars and 900,000 cars, respectively.
South Korea: Hanwha acquires Samsung's chemicals and defense units for USD 1.7 billion
Source: Chemicals-technology.com, 26 November 2014
Samsung Group signed a USD 1.7 billion agreement with Hanwha to sell its chemical and defense operations. Hanwha will acquire a 57.6% stake in Samsung General Chemicals for USD 900.8 million, and a 32.4% stake in Samsung Technwin for USD 756.6 million, from Samsung Electronics and Samsung Corporation. Additionally, Samsung will sell its interest in the joint ventures of Samsung Thales and Samsung Total Petrochemicals to Hanwha. Samsung Electronics announced that around USD 685.5 million of the sale is to be used to fund new businesses.
Hanwha's purchases are part of the company's plans to facilitate the structure of its shareholding and to increase its focus on technology financial services, shipbuilding and construction. Further, Hanwha's petrochemical and defense units will be strengthened and contribute with sales worth around USD 10.8 billion. The transactions of the deal are to be concluded in the middle of 2015, due to regulatory approvals and some closing conditions. Moreover, Samsung will still run its operations that manufacture parts for rechargeable batteries and liquefied crystal displays.
India: Hyderabad Chemical sells significant stake to Japan's Nihon Nohyaku
Source: Chemicals-technology.com, 28 November 2014
Nihon Nohyaku, a Japanese fine chemicals producer, signed a deal to buy a 74% stake in Hyderabad Chemical, where promoters of the company will own the remaining 26% stake. The companies chose to not disclose the sum of the acquisition. Hyderabad Chemical is an Indian agrochemical company that makes products for crop protection and chemical intermediates for agrochemical production. The company recorded revenues of USD 65 million for the fiscal year ending on 31 March 2014.
The Japanese chemicals maker believes that Hyderabad Chemical's production is cost competitive. The purchase is part of Nihon Nohyaku's plans of boosting its businesses across its markets, as it has been looking for direct sales and production operations in India for its two products Applaud (buprofezin) and Phoenix (flubendiamide). Furthermore, the latest transaction is estimated by experts to be worth USD 72.9 million and be concluded by the end of January 2015. The Indian agrochemical market is estimated to be worth USD 1.7 billion, according to Nihon Nohyaku.
Australia: Axieo acquires Nuplex' distribution and plastic additives units for USD 107.9 million
Source: Chemicals-technology.com, 01 December 2014
Nuplex Industries, a specialty chemical firm, has sold its distribution and plastic additives operations in Australia and New Zealand to Axieo, following an agreement made in October 2014. The Australian Champ Private Equity is the owner Axieo. The sale was worth USD 107.9 million and included units of Nuplex Specialties and Nuplex Masterbatch, where the transaction for the Vietnam operations of Masterbatch is estimated to be finished in the first six months of 2015.
Nuplex claims that the sale will not downgrade its growth prospects and it is expecting to provide improved returns and growths in earnings in the short to medium term following the company's previous strategic initiatives. Furthermore, personnel from Nuplex Specialties and Nuplex Masterbatch will be transferred to Axieo. The proceeds from the deal will be reported in Nuplex' financial results in February 2015, and is planned to be used to pay down debt. The specialty chemicals firm declared that it is currently looking to improve its strategy for maximizing shareholder value, which will be finished in late 2015.
Construction & Property Development
China: Real estate investors avoid Chinese cities amid weakening economy and excess supply
Source: The Wall Street Journal, 04 December 2014
Investors that are searching for real estate deals in the Asia-Pacific region prefer countries such as Japan and Australia, to most Chinese cities. Investors are avoiding China following its sluggish economy, poor returns and its property surplus, according to Urban Land Institute's survey. The cities Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and 'secondary Chinese cities' were ranked in the bottom for investment prospects among the 22 Asian cities that were included in the survey. Investors were concerned about the growing supply of office space and failed land auctions in the Chinese cities. Japan's Tokyo and Osaka came at the top following the country's stimulus package that has contributed to the boost of investment and interest.
The property market in China has contributed to the weakening of the economy, yet there has been indications that the slow market is restraining subsequently, with some mortgage regulations alleviating and interest-rate reductions. For the seventh month in a row in November the average price of new homes in China have dropped, and housing sales declined 9.9% year-on-year in the first 10 months of 2014. In addition, Hong Kong's policy restrictions in lending and decreasing prices have also made its property market unattractive. Furthermore, second-tier cities in China that used to have cheap land prices have now been excluded in the survey following its worsened prospects as local governments sold too much land too fast causing excess supply. The report states that these cities are currently struggling with dried up liquidity and countless developers that are undercapitalized trying to pay debts by selling off properties.
Malaysia/Taiwan: IOI Properties to acquire USD 790 million stake in Taipei Financial Center
Source: Reuters, 05 December 2014
Malaysia's IOI Properties Group announced that it is to purchase a 37% stake in Taipei Financial Center Corporation, which is the owner of the Taipei 101 skyscraper. The stake in the deal is valued at USD 789.74 million. The purchase will provide IOI Properties with a steady rental income from the iconic Taipei 101 skyscraper, according to Lee Shin Cheng, who is controlling the company. The transaction is predicted to be finished in the first quarter of 2015.
The company also believes that since the building is in a strategic location, there are possibilities for capital appreciation. The Taipei 101 skyscraper rents office space to large companies including Google Taiwan, KPMG, BNP Paribas and Taiwan Stock Exchange. It is also one of the tallest buildings in the world. IOI properties announced that it would finance the stake acquisition with funds that are generated internally and/or with bank loans. Furthermore, the Malaysian real estate firm has an estimated market value of USD 2.25 billion.
Singapore: Country places 9th in Asia-Pacific for development prospects and property investment
Source: Channel NewsAsia, 06 December 2014
According to Urban Land Institute and PwC's report 'Emerging Trends in Real Estate Asia Pacific 2015', Singapore is the ninth most attractive city for real-estate investors for 2015. The Republic lost two places from the ranking for 2014 where it was number seven, indicating that it is becoming less attractive for investments in real estate and development prospects. The decline in residential and commercial transactions in Singapore is due to the combination of the government's efforts in restricting price increases and the growing attractiveness of overseas markets. However, Singapore's real estate industry still has essentials that maintain the sector attractive and strong, according to PwC.
The report also found that the Singaporean investors are still investing greatly in properties in foreign markets, especially in the UK, US, Japan and Australia. This is due to the fact that the wealthy Singaporeans can afford to invest beyond Singapore and use a wait-and-see approach, says PwC Singapore's Real Estate and Hospitality Leader Yeow Chee Keong. He adds that they expect that there will be a re-calibration in terms of Singapore's general cooling measures and in the anticipations of the sellers.
Consumer & Retail
Southeast Asia: Indonesia leads the region's ecommerce boom
Source: The Bangkok Post, 04 December 2014
There is an online shopping boom in Southeast Asia, with Indonesia coming out on top, with increased Internet access and high levels of investments to larger amounts of new e-tailers. The growing web access and the availability of inexpensive smartphones in the region are changing the emerging middle class' consumer habits. The consumer online shopping in Southeast Asia is projected to grow at a minimum fivefold by 2020 to USD 35 billion annually, says UBS' latest report. While Thailand and the Philippines are also expecting strong growth, Indonesia is the most promising following its projections of a sharp increase in Internet users from 55 million in 2012 to 125 million by the end of 2015 along with the growing middle class.
Indonesians have over the past two years begun to increase their online purchasing, as they are less concerned about fraud and opt ecommerce, says the head of Indonesian ecommerce association Daniel Tumiwa. The nation's current ecommerce leader is the marketplace Tokopedia that permits users to start online shops and control the transactions. Other popular ecommerce sites include Kaskus and Olx, as well as e-tailer Lazada, which recently secured an USD 250 million investment. Meanwhile, analysts believe the ecommerce sector in the region still has a long way as it is currently representing 0.2% of retail sales, compared to China's 8% and 8.7% in the US. In addition, other challenges that face the Indonesian ecommerce sector are the government's recent decision to hinder foreigners from doing investments in ecommerce, and difficulties for startups to secure funding in an underdeveloped market.
Indonesia: Lazada Group secures USD 249 million funding from Temasek and current investors
Source: The Wall Street Journal, 01 December 2014
Lazada Group, the ecommerce startup that started in 2012 and operates across six countries in Southeast Asia, has secured a USD 249 million investment. The company is looking to become the biggest e-tailer in Southeast Asia. Moreover, Temasek Holdings led the funding, followed by Lazada's current investors including Rocket Internet, Investment AB Kinnevik and Verlinvest that contributed to the new funding round. Lazada Group has now raised total funding worth USD 647 million. The CEO of Lazada Group, Maximilian Bittner said that the money will be used to improve its IT, logistics and payment infrastructures.
Temasek, a Singapore state investment firm, chose not to unveil the sum of its investment or the aim of the funding. The company's portfolio is worth USD 178 billion and has a wide range of industries such as consumer goods, transportation and financial services. Furthermore, analysts project the Southeast Asian ecommerce sector to experience rapid growth over the next couple of years, following the nation's emerging middle classes and the increase in smartphone users.
Thailand: Weakened consumer sentiment in November 2014, recent survey shows
Source: The Wall Street Journal, 04 December 2014
Thailand's consumer confidence index for November 2014 has decreased to 79.4 from 80.1 in October 2014, following anticipations of deteriorated growth and concerns over high costs of living, shows a survey by the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce. Also, Thailand's changed projection of the GDP for 2014 from 1.5%-2.0% to 1.0%, as well as lowered farm income following low agricultural prices, have contributed to the decay.
The decline in confidence is a sign of the country's economic revival coupled with a military-run government maintaining weakness after months of slowdown. Thailand's economy was close to recession earlier in 2014, before a military coup in May 2014, and since then the government has tried to revive the economy with a USD 11.2 billion stimulus package, reducing prices in retail fuel and cooking gas and the capping of prices of consumer goods. Furthermore, the GDP for Q3/2014 increased 0.6% year-on-year, while exports experienced its largest growth in almost two years by 3.97% in October 2014. However, the nation's economic growth is not on a one-way upward trend yet, states TISCO Financial group economist Sarun Sunansathaporn.
Energy, Resources & Environment
Asia: Russia to increase crude oil supply to Asia
Source: The Wall Street Journal, 04 December 2014
Russia has plans to continue its increase of oil exports to Asia, despite the declining oil prices, Western sanctions, shortage of sufficient supply infrastructure and investment, and reaching record levels of oil exports (820,000 barrel a day) to the region in 2014. The strategic pump up follows the recent deteriorating demand from European markets due to strained relationships following Russia's role in the Ukraine conflict. Furthermore, the surge in Russian crude oil exports to Asia helps reduce the dependence on Middle Eastern oil providers and contributes to Russia reaching its goal of distributing a third of its crude exports to the region by 2020. The oil exports are being supplied through the East-Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline that feeds directly into northern China and to the port of Kozmino in Eastern Russia where the rest of Asia is supplied. This pipeline system toward Kozmino is being expanded to increase its capacity from 50 million tons a year to 80 million tons by 2018.
Alexander Gladkov, director at the oil and gas production and distribution arm of Russia's energy ministry, claims that that the oil prices should not affect the production output as the oil exports from Russia were based on a price much lower than USD 100 a barrel. He adds that the expansion plans are related to the readiness of a range of oil fields that is feeding or will possibly feed into the system. The reserves in western Siberia are slowly draining and the country's main oil producing region is now east Siberia, where energy supply is aimed at Asia. Most recently, Russian oil-producer Rosneft signed a USD 270 billion agreement with China National Petroleum Corp. to raise the oil supply twofold by 600,000 barrels a day by 2018 for 25 years.
Australia: Breakthrough makes it possible to achieve 40% efficiency for converting sunlight into electricity
Source: Business Insider, 08 December 2014
Solar energy researchers in Australia have discovered how to convert over 40% of sunlight touching a solar system into electricity. The 40% mark is the highest reported efficiency and was accomplished in tests in Sydney and then confirmed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the US independently. The research was financed by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and supported by the Australia-US Institute for Advanced Photovoltaics. This breakthrough makes it possible to transform this level of solar light at a commercial level in the field subjected to normal conditions.
Focused sunlight is the foundation for the new findings, which is especially relevant to photovoltaic power towers that are being developed by ReyGen Resources in Australia. The company contributed to design and technical support for the high efficiency prototype. In addition, US-based Spectrolab supplied some of the project's cells. The prototype's fundamental part is a custom optical filter to seize sunlight that is usually lost by commercial solar cells and transforms it into electricity at a greater efficiency than the solar cells normally do. These filters reflect specific wavelengths of light and transmit others. CEO of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency Ivor Frischknecht hopes that the next step of the new results will be to expand it into pilot scale demonstrations, which will end in more efficient commercial solar plants that make renewable energy more inexpensive, thus increasing its competitiveness.
Singapore: BW Pavilion LNG to launch two new eco-friendly LNG vessels following growing demand in the region
Source: Channel NewsAsia, 03 December 2014
On 03 December 2014, the joint venture between BW Group and Temasek's Pavilion Energy, BW Pavilion LNG, held a ship naming ceremony for the two additions of Singaporean liquefied natural gas (LNG) newbuildings, BW Pavilion Vanda and BW Pavilion Energy Leeara. The event took place at the Hyundai Heavy Industries Shipyard in Busan, South Korea. The new environmentally friendly additions will join BW Pavilion's current fleet on water and is part of the company's plans of becoming an LNG integrated and support optimizing procurement and trading operation across the world.
BW Pavilion Vanda will be launched on 15 December 2014, while BW Pavilion Leeara will begin commercial activity by the end of March 2015. The vessels will be able to carry LNG of nearly 162,000 tons around the region. BW Group Chairman Andreas Sohmen-Pao states that the vessels will cater to Sinopec for a few years. They will also ensure the energy security of Singapore's future, enabling the Republic becoming an important hub for worldwide LNG as it currently has 50% of LNG cargos in the world passing through. Moreover, the vessels are to meet the growing LNG demand in Asia as it now represents around two-thirds in the world and is anticipated to surge, coupled with economic development and shifting to clean energy. This causes new trade flows and markets where industry players aim to construct an Asian LNG Hub to facilitate the trading of LNG in Asia.
Financial Services
South Korea: Financial Services Commission to launch independent consumer financial protection agency
Source: Yonhap New Agency, 04 December 2014
South Korean financial regulator, Financial Services Commission (FSC) has announced that an independent state-run agency for consumer financial protection will be launched in 2015. This follows the government's strategy to refurbish the financial regulatory system and strengthen the consumer protection functions by building an open and trustworthy financial environment. The new agency will enforce rules for the whole process of financial consumption, consisting of the sale of financial products to compensations for financial losses. FSC acknowledges that consumers are seeing increasingly more complex financial institutions.
The consumer financial protection agency will assess and monitor banks and non-banks, and gather and track consumer complaints to outline an assessment test of consumer protection for financial businesses. While the new consumer protection law is still pending in parliament, it is expected to be passed in the near future. There have been discussions for a long time about separating the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) that has until now been supervising the financial institutions as well as been in a peripheral role in protecting the consumers' rights. However, the FSS has been criticized for preventing irregularities and corruption in financial institutions that have caused great losses for smaller investors. For instance, Tong Yang group sold nonperforming debts to more than 40,000 individuals in 2008, resulted in them loosing investments worth USD 1.8 billion.
China: Hong Kong IPOs are losing bets as the majority keep underperforming
Source: The Wall Street Journal, 30 November 2014
Hong Kong's IPOs have in recent years become a losing bet for investors in a market place that used to be one of the top IPO venues thanks to its Chinese listings. Investors over USD 300 million did worse than the benchmark index in the first year they listed, according to S&P IQ. Hong Kong is now ranked as fourth among global IPOs in 2014, where in the first 12 months, 67% of IPOs underachieved. In addition, 77% of 2013's IPOs and 75% in 2014 caused losses for investors. The Hang Seng Index, which is Hong Kong's benchmark, increased 2.9% in 2014, following a 2.9% increase in 2013. Andy Mantel, founder and CEO of Pacific Sun Advisors, says that purchasing companies after being Hong Kong listed and then waiting for a good entry point is better, since there are excess Chinese stocks resulting in less of a novelty factor.
Bad bets of Hong Kong IPOs include YuanShengTai Dairy Farm and China Huishan Dairy Holdings Co., which plummeted 65% and 33% respectively in the 12 months since 2013. Moreover, China's recent weakened economy has made investors more cautious as they favor companies that are direct recipients of China's policies, adds David Suen head of equity capital markets for Asia (excluding Japan) at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Meanwhile, clean-energy and health-care firms are recognized among fund managers to benefit from Beijing's efforts in reducing pollution or cater to the aging population. Alex Au, managing director of Alphalex Capital Management says that most Chinese sectors have experienced overcapacity or are listing when their days of high growth are over. On the other hand, successful IPOs in Hong Kong are often those that benefit from China's emerging middle class or the nation's efforts to enhance health care, such as Luye Pharma Group, which had shares growing 80% after being listed in July 2014.
Japan: Citigroup offered joint bid for its credit card business from three companies
Source: Reuters, 05 December 2014
Shinsei Bank, together with the department store operator Shinsei Bank Ltd and the credit card service provider JCB CO Ltd, have shown interest in acquiring Citigroup's credit card operations in Japan. The main purchaser will be Shinsei, followed by JCB providing account settlements and Isetan Mitsubishi assisting with department store services to cardholders. The sum of the bid has not been set yet, but the price of the sale is estimated to be around USD 247.2-411.9 million. Citigroup is expected to sign a deal with a buyer for the Japanese operations in December 2014.
The auction is part of Citigroup's plans to discard retail businesses in 11 markets where Japan is included. The group is withdrawing its consumer banking in Japan after 100 years, as it has been experiencing weak loan demands and declining interest margins. There were previously four banks that were anticipated to partake in the second bid round, including Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp (SMBC) and Shinsei. Citi's consumer banking operations are estimated to have USD 9 billion worth of dollar-denominated deposits.
Logistics & Transportation
Australia: SingPost's Quantium Solutions to acquire CouriersPlease for AUD 95 million
Source: Channel NewsAsia, 03 December 2014
On 03 December 2014, Singapore Post announced that is has entered into an agreement with the New Zealand Post Group. Singapore Post's wholly owned Australia-based company Quantium Solutions will acquire New Zealand Post Group's parcel delivery firm CouriersPlease Holdings. The acquisition is worth AUD 95 million and is part of the group's strategy to expand its ecommerce logistics operations across the Australian region.
The national mail carrier Singapore Post sees CouriersPlease as one of the top players of the metropolitan small parcel delivery companies in Australia. Furthermore, CourierPlease has a widespread countrywide network consisting of 575 franchisees with depots situated largely in the south and east of Australia, which cover most of the nation's delivery market. The group CEO of SingPost, Dr Wolfgang Baier believes that the acquisition agrees with the company's ambitions of becoming the top regional company in ecommerce logistics. He further says that the company has improved its capabilities in a wide array of areas including warehousing and fulfillment, customs and regulatory management, freight-forwarding, front-end web-solutions, and last-mile delivery and returns.
China: Biggest auto logistics provider enters into strategic partnership with UTi Worldwide
Source: JOC.com, 03 December 2014
UTi Worldwide and the biggest provider of auto logistics in China, Beijing Changjiu Logistics, have entered into a strategic partnership to position them for an anticipated surge in the exporting of completed vehicles to foreign markets. The agreement will support the global automotive OEMs' supply chain requirements and suppliers in the growing Chinese automotive market. The two companies will provide end-to-end services for automotive customers comprising of customs brokerage, freight forwarding, production logistics, inland transportation, and order management.
Each company will enjoy the cross selling of each other's core capabilities to worldwide automotive clients, which will allow them to be a service provider leader in Asia-Pacific. On the one hand, UTi will benefit from the deal with the increased presence in the Chinese market, access to Changjiu's customer base, cultural understanding and governmental connections. On the other hand, Changjiu will achieve a more rapid entry into foreign markets via UTi's global network of transportation services and supply chain. Moreover, Changjiu expects to obtain value for global corporations importing into China, but that may not be easy. Chinese logistics provider profit margins recorded around 4% in 2013, which is below average compared to other sectors. Meanwhile, the nation's increasing costs for labor and transport make profit levels and OEM demands of price reductions unmaintainable. The rapidly growing size of the market is also generating new opportunities for auto logistics providers, creating a need for the expansion of production facilities in production hubs.
Indonesia: Maritime program to reduce national logistics costs, increasing competitiveness of domestic companies
Source: Indonesia Investments, 30 November 2014
Indonesia's maritime program 'the sea toll road' may decrease the nation's logistics costs by 10-15%, according to Nofrisel, the Secretary of the Expert Team of the National Logistics System. The logistics costs in Indonesia currently constitute 18-22% of the firms' production costs, making the domestic companies less competitive compared to other countries in the region with less than 10% costs. The national logistics costs represent 26% of Indonesia's GDP, hence putting the nation as 53rd in the 'Logistics Performance Index', compiled by the World Bank.
Indonesia's President Widodo wants to establish a global hub for sea trade in country, as it has a strategic location, with large vessels currently only passing its waters to get to major hubs in Japan, Australia or Singapore. Indonesia therefore has potential to become a global maritime player, as the government is planning to develop or update 24 seaports to improve the domestic maritime connectivity. Also, industrial development close to these ports need to be implemented. Furthermore, the Indonesian products have to become more competitive internationally before 2015 when the trade bloc ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) will take effect.
Manufacturing & Industrial
India: Country records its highest manufacturing activity in 21 months for November 2014
Source: The Wall Street Journal, 01 December 2014
India's Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index improved from 51.6 in October 2014 to 53.3 in November 2014, which is the highest number in 21 months, according to a survey conducted by Markit. The price pressures have also increased, which have enforced the Indian central bank to cease its lowering of interest rates. The Indian manufacturers have been receiving more orders than expected from domestic and foreign customers, with 'consumer goods being the best performer of the surveyed subsectors', says HSBC. In addition, the strengthened demand made it possible to pass on increased costs for raw materials to the customers.
The high manufacturing activity in November 2014 indicates optimism among businesses as well as an increase in consumer spending, which ought to help boost the growth of the south Asian economy. In addition, India's GDP increased 5.3% for Q3/2014, which is better than expected as it passed 5%, two months in a row. However, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may not reduce interest rates following concerns over inflation still not being in control. RBI has been pressured by the government and industry lobbyist to lower the rates, but has refrained to do so until it there is more evidence that inflation will keep falling.
Singapore: Country should keep manufacturing as key sector and continue overseas investments, says analyst
Source: Channel NewsAsia, 03 December 2014
Singapore must keep manufacturing as a key industry and increase its productivity in order to be able to compete with its regional peers, acknowledges economic commentator David Pilling at the Future50 talks organized by the Singapore Institute of International Affairs in conjunction with SG50. Singapore is leading in GDP per capital where it records USD 55,000, and it is one of the world's most manufacturing-intense economies. Pilling therefore believes that manufacturing is very important and often underestimated, as countries that give away their manufacturing will likely not get it back again. The Republic needs to keep moving upwards in the value chain to stay ahead of countries with low labor costs.
Singapore currently has a manufacturing sector that represents 20% of its entire economy. Moreover, Pilling defined Singapore's threats and trends that may affect its prospects including the low birth rate, the rise of technology, the financial market's condition, and environmental restrictions. Since Singapore is dependent on trade, it will be dependent on the functioning of trade routes notwithstanding tension from territorial disputes. The economist commentator also expects the Republic to invest more as it has a wealthy economy with plenty of know-how to place bets on other companies and technologies in overseas markets. He stresses that this hedging process of turning savings into a stream of income will become increasingly important.
China: Manufacturing activity at an eight-month low for November 2014
Source: Channel NewsAsia, 01 December 2014
The National Bureau of Statistics has released China's Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) that measures manufacturing activity, which showed that the index has decreased from 50.8 in October 2014 to 50.3 in November 2014. The findings showed a manufacturing growth that had slid to an eight-month low, indicating that authorities might take further actions to simulate the nation's economy. The PMI drop was caused by new orders and output. The growth decline helps explain the People's Bank of China's decision to reduce the benchmark interest rates in November 2014, which may have been an effort to shore up weakening growth and help complications such as weak exports and the slowdown in the huge property market.
On the other hand, HSBC's PMI figure for November 2014 came at 50.0, lower than October 2014's 50.4, which was the weakest since May 2014 figure by 49.4. There was sluggish growth in demand and new export order, where further monetary and fiscal easing measures are predicted to counterbalance downside risks to growth, says HSCBC's chief China economist Qu Hongbin. Moreover, it is expected by Nomura analysts that there will be more measures in 2015, including further interest rates reductions and cuts in reserve requirement ratios. However, the China economist at Capital Economics Julian Evans-Pritchard claims that overconfidence in the cuts in benchmark rates will underpin growth, unless other measures will be followed such as loosening of quantitative lending controls.
Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare
India: CRAMS expected to grow to USD 8 billion next year
Source: Pharmatech, 04 December 2014
CPhl, together with Global Business Reports (GBR), has issued a report on pharmaceutical sector trends in India. In volume terms, the nation contributes nearly 10% to the pharmaceutical market worldwide and ranks among the top two to three pharmaceutical producers, notably when it comes to genetic drugs. Outside the US, India is said to have the most number of FDA-approved sites. Currently, there are 10,500 manufacturing plants, including 1400 GMP approved output facilities, and over 3,000 pharmaceutical enterprises growing at an notable rate. The big domestic players are set to experience growth in contract research and manufacturing services (CRAMS) for patented products.
India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) has forecasted that the nation's CRAMS sector will grow from USD 4 billion in 2012 to USD 8 billion next year. It is forecasted that more collaborations between big pharmaceutical companies and Indian CDMOs will be formed. Even though growth has primarily been driven by generic drug output, the larger local companies are now starting to take on R&D projects principally focused on advanced drug delivery systems, formulation and manufacturing technology, and biosimilars. Interest in creating new chemical entities (NCEs) is also rising. Daara Patel, secretary general of the Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association (IDMA) believes India could come up with new molecules in the short-term as pipelines are drying up and enterprises are now investing more in R&D.
Malaysia: Asian Healthcare Group pursues USD 219 million IPO
Source: Reuters, 02 December 2014
The Asian Healthcare Group Bhd in Malaysia announced it seeks to raise up to MYR 750 million (USD 219.17 million) with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) to meet the increasing demand for private healthcare from Asia's rising middle class. According to the draft prospectus filed with the Securities Commission, the SPAC will utilize at least 95% of funds raised from the IPO to purchase at least one hospital offering secondary or tertiary care with a capacity of 100 to 500 beds.
Asian Healthcare Group reported it seeks to retain Malaysia as its main focus in the forthcoming years, before looking for venture partners in Indonesia, Thailand, and Singapore. The group will offer 80% of its shares on the open market, while the remaining 20% will de held by Chia, Beh, Negrita Holdings – a firm in which Chevy Beh, BP Healthcare's executive director, is the majority shareholder.
Australia: Estia Health shares debut at AUD 4.98, 13% discount to issue price
Source: Reuters, 04 December 2014
Estia Health's shares debuted at a 13% discount to their issue price on 5 December after it raised AUD 725 million (USD 608 million) in Australia's fourth-largest IPO in 2014. Estia shares first traded at AUD 4.98, in comparison to their AUD 5.75 issue price. The shares dropped as low as AUD 4.73 before recovering slightly to AUD 4.88 – the larger market was 0.7% lower.
Evan Lucas, IG markets strategist, said: "It looked fairly fully valued, the question you've got to ask yourself is where's the growth. It's also a down market and there's low liquidity in the market so that's not helping either." The performance hints demand for the domestic health listings may be easing after the industry accounted for nearly 66% of the total value of the country's IPOs this year. The listing gives the firm a market capitalization of AUD 860 million. Its owners, Quadrant Private Equity and the firm's founders, sold 70% of the Enterprise in the IPO.
Private Equity
India: Private equity funds await for a chance to sell
Source: The Wall Street Journal, 03 December 2014
Even though Indian stock investors are highly optimistic about Modi's administration, private-equity funds, who have invested in India, don't feel the same way yet. Various are still having difficulty getting out investments they made five to eight years ago. Prateek Dhawan, managing director at Everstone Capital, said: " The biggest issue we've had is, return of capital has been really, really slow." Due to an economy that slowed to its worst pace in 10 years and a severe drop in the rupee, Indian private equity firms haven't had high returns as global investors anticipated.
Investors have noted they expect that as the domestic economy gains strength and firms sell new shares, private equity firms will be able to sell their stakes, return money to their investors, recover their confidence and raise capital for new investments. As the new government that came to power in May has placed the country back on investors' map, they are not rushing to commit new money. Renuka Ramnath, founder of Multiples Alternate Asset Management Pvt, said that if the domestic private equity firms learned from their previous mistakes and the local economy started to grow again, the private-equity sector in India could grow to USD 100 billion by 2020.
Australia: Pacific Equity and Bain Capital offer AUD 872 million for Bradken
Source: The Wall Street Journal, 04 December 2014
Pacific Equity Partners and Bain Capital LLC have offered nearly AUD 872 million (USD 731 million) for Australia's Bradken Ltd – a manufacturer that has been greatly affected by a decline in miner's spending. On 28 November, Bradken stated the two private-equity firms made a nonbinding offer for 100% of the company at AUD 5.10 a share – a premium to the previous day's AUD 3.32 closing price. Yet, that was well lower than the AUD 6 Bradken said the firms had announced in August they were willing to pay. The confidential bid lead the way for the private equity firms to conduct due diligence, however no company offer followed.
Bradken's shares have dropped nearly 45% in 2014 as declining demand, especially from the mining sector, affected revenues. Bradken makes different products for the mining, energy, and freight-rail sector, such as ingot molds, and the large buckets and blades on mining trucks and diggers. From January to June, Bradken's profits declined 68% due to the one-off costs for restructuring and a drop in sales, primarily to the local hard-hit coal sector. Nearly 50% of Bradken's revenue comes from Australia and New Zealand, yet it also sells to North America, Europe, Africa, and parts of Asia.
Asia: Private equity receives less following insurers seeking diversification, says recent survey
Source: The Wall Street Journal, 02 December 2014
Blackrock's survey showed that private equity firms received less as Asia-Pacific insurers diversified their portfolios and drove returns to increase their exposure to short-term private assets. These insurers seek to grab real estate and infrastructure, but private equity will experience a slowdown in allocations over the coming three years. Of the surveyed investors, 40% reported an allocation to private equity, a lesser number had equity investments and infrastructure debt, and almost 50% had an allocation to real estate senior debt investments. A little bit more than 30% stated that they planned to invest or increase their private equity investment over the coming three years. A bigger portion would invest in other private assets, such as energy and power investments, commercial real estate mezzanine debt or infrastructure debt.
It was reported that private equity firms in July 2014 had a record of total capital worth USD 1.16 trillion, indicating that there is a lot to be invested in different sectors. However in Asia, Chinese and Indian general partners have been slow to invest earlier in 2014 due to weak IPOs that made exits complicated hence putting managers off from investing. Insurers in the region also worry about the risks from slow economic growth and inflation. Moreover, the report found that 44 of the Asia-Pacific insurers had a total of around USD 1.3 trillion in assets under management. David Lomas, global head of Blackrock's financial institutions group says that private equity may benefit from long-term contractual cash flow streams bound to a particular asset, which may offer some degree of return certainty.
Technology, Media & Telecommunications
South Korea: Corning Inc to aquire Samsung's fiber optics business
Source: Reuters, 02 December 2014
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd has reached an agreement with US specialty glass maker Corning Inc to sell its fiber optics operations. Samsung has abandoned another non-core business to concentrate on bolstering underperforming key areas like smartphones. The firm has been struggling to keep a competitive advantage – its share of the global smartphone sector has diminished year-on-year for the first nine months of 2014.
On October, the firm also announced it will stop its light emitting diode lighting business outside Korea, which is also considered a non-core business. Corning, which provides glass for Samsung and Apple Inc smartphones, reported the transaction will enhance its fiber optics business in the Asian market. No further information of the sale has been disclosed.
Southeast Asia: Uber faces review from government officials
Source: Wall Street Journal, 03 December 2014
Uber Technologies is facing new regulatory barriers, highlighting the extent to which its services are festering governments at home and abroad. In the past few weeks, Uber has come under review in Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore - officials are investigating the service legality. On 2 December, Prajin Juntong, transport minister in Thailand, announced the government would ask Uber to stop its operations in the country because it utilizes private vehicles that lack fare meters, among other issues. In Vietnam, the media noted that officials began fining Uber drivers in the week ended 30 November.
Vietnam's Transport Minister Dinh La Thang reported regulators will study ways to possibly legalize Uber, according to an announcement posted on a government website. It is uncertain if the service will be permitted to operate in the meantime. A spokesman of Uber mentioned the company continues to operate normally in Thailand and Vietnam. The San Francisco-based startup has operated in Ho Chi Minh City since June and in Hanoi since October. The service was launched in Bangkok in February and in Phuket since November. In Singapore, new laws will be implemented next year, requiring third-party taxi booking enterprises to utilize only licensed drivers and cars and specify fares up front. However, Uber has reported it is already in compliance with such regulations.
Southeast Asia: GrabTaxi secures USD 250 million investment from Japanese telecom giant SoftBank
Source: Techcrunch, 03 December 2014
Japan's major telecom firm SoftBank has made a USD 250 million investment into GrabTaxi, which is an archrival to Uber. The investment makes SoftBank the biggest investor in the company, which is probably worth more than USD 1 billion. This was the fourth round in 2014 and also the highest funding for a startup in Southeast Asia, totaling a funding capital of USD 320 million, with investors including Tiger Global (USD 65 million), and GGV Capital (USD 15 million). GrabTaxi has been present since 2012 and operates in 17 cities in the Southeast Asia region: Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia. It provides an app that connects registered taxis with potential passengers, and claims to have 500,000 active users a month with 2.5 million downloads, which is an increase of 800% year-on-year. Other competitors include Hailo in Singapore and Easy Taxi in a handful Southeast Asian markets.
Kakao was launched in March 2010 and has been earning its revenue by offering additional services such as games. Although the games are free, virtual items and optional features within them are not. Users can also pay for some of the emoticons and cartoon images they can send to each other through the app. After Kakao, China-based green technology firm Telison ranks second with a growth rate of 9,793% while Technology Group, a Chinese company in the semiconductor, components and electronics sector, ranks third with a growth rate of 9,710%.


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U.S. Steel Corp. reached a tentative three-year contract with the United Steelworkers union for about two-thirds of its workforce.
The accord would cover 16,000 employees at flat-rolled and iron-ore mining facilities as well as tubular operations in Lorain, Ohio, and Fairfield, Alabama, the company said in a statement. The proposal remains subject to ratification.
"This agreement is in the best interests of our company, our employees and all of our stakeholders," Chief Executive Officer John Surma said in the statement. The Pittsburgh-based company had about 24,000 workers (X:US) at the end of last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
U.S. Steel, the country's largest producer of the metal by volume, negotiated the agreement amid sluggish demand, with sales dropping 2 percent to $5.02 billion (X:US) in the three months through June.
A union spokesman, R.J. Hufnagel, declined to provide details on the contract before it's reviewed and voted on by members. The previous accord was set to expire yesterday, and Surma told analysts in late July that the company expected to reach a "competitive agreement."
One of the key points in negotiations was increasing retiree health-care costs, the union said in a separate statement.
"Both sides worked hard to come up with a solution that continues to provide our current and future retirees with access to high-quality, low-cost medical care," said Steelworkers International Vice President Tom Conway, the lead negotiator.
Separately, the union is "exchanging proposals" with ArcelorMittal (MT) USA on behalf of nearly 14,000 workers at 15 U.S. locations, said USW International President Leo W. Gerard.
USW union members are working under terms of the group's 2008 contract, Gerard said. USW members will continue to operate ArcelorMittal while negotiations continue, the union said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Theo Mullen in New York at firstname.lastname@example.com; Sonja Elmquist in New York at email@example.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Simon Casey at email@example.com


text: WWMT - wwmt.com - Search Results The following is an archived video story. The text content of that video story is available below for reference. The original video has been deleted and is no longer available. Sriracha plant officially declared too hotIRWINDALE, California (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - A Sriracha plant in southern California is now officially declared too hot.The Irwindale, California City Council has voted to declare the hot sauce factory a public nuisance.The company now has 90 days to stop the spicy odors coming from the building.Many residents have complained of burning eyes and upper respiratory issues since last fall.With the declaration, the city now has the ability to come into the factory and make changes if the odor continues after the deadline.The company says it's working on its filtration system.


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October is Fire Prevention month and to celebrate local fire stations are hosting open houses to invite the public to meet the firefighters and learn about fire prevention. This Saturday The Coyote Street station will be welcoming their neighbors to visit and Nevada County Consolidated Fire Chief Tim Fike says in addition to the a free barbecue lunch, a tour of the fire safety trailer, the public will also get to check out the specialized swift water rescue gear at the Coyote Street station.
"Fire Station 84 on Coyote Street houses all of our swift water rescue equipment; high angle rescue, rope rescue, swift water rescue is based out of Station 84 on Coyote Street and that's typically where we have a lot of our calls is the Yuba River Canyon area."
The open house is this coming Saturday October 15th from 10 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon at station 84 at 10135 Coyote street in Nevada City.


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Changes For FAFSA In 2010 | 10.05.09
The good news: The Department of Education has recently announced that the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is getting a facelift. The new FAFSA will be shorter and more intuitive than ever before.
Who will be affected by the changes? Any present or prospective college student who plans on applying for federal financial aid for the 2010 – 2011 school year will be affected by the FAFSA overhaul.
What are the changes? The goal of changing the FAFSA is to make it easier and less time consuming. The current FAFSA contains more than 100 questions. The new FAFSA will be organized more logically and contain fewer questions. It will eliminate some questions across the board and some sections for certain applicants. The online form will automatically adjust which questions to ask based on information that the applicant provides at the beginning of the process.
When are the changes taking place? The FAFSA changes are happening now and they will be seen on the 2010 – 2011 application when it comes out in January.
Why are changes being made? If you have ever filled out the FAFSA before you know that it is not something to look forward to. Filing the FAFSA can be extremely taxing for students and their parents. Changes are being made because authorities are confident that shortening the FAFSA will help families get the aid they need without adding a lot of stress to the process. Additionally, making it easier to apply for federal aid will increase the number of eligible students who submit applications.
How are they doing this? You might wonder how the government can afford to trim down such an important process. The key to the change is eliminating redundancy. Questions about tax data will be eliminated because that information is available through the Internal Revenue Service database. Also, questions that have little affect on aid award will be eliminated. Some students are concerned that if certain questions are eliminated they will not receive as much aid as they should, but according to Caesar Storlazzi, Yale's Director of Student Financial Services, since FAFSA is only one part of the financial aid application process the changes should not impact the amounts of student financial aid awards.
5 Most Recent Student Loans Blog Posts:
The Student Loan Help blog is sponsored in part by:


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A collaborative effort between New Jersey Medical School and Rutgers Business School, this dual degree program provides medical students with a background relating to healthcare management. It provides the opportunity to learn in a unique environment with a diverse community of students, taught by internationally renowned professors while broadening their career perspectives.
Applicants interested in the MD/MBA program are required to apply directly to Rutgers University Business School either prior to matriculation at NJMS or during their first year of medical school. Medical school applicants applying to the MBA program are required to take the GMAT examination, and must apply and be accepted into Rutgers Business School independently of their medical school acceptance.
Credits - 60 (MBA)
Status - Full time
Campus - Newark
Entrance Exam - GMAT
For the program description and additional information please visit: http://business.rutgers.edu/default.aspx?id=100
Rita Galen, Director of Admissions
Rutgers Business School
Phone: 973-353-1234
Fax: 973-353-1592
NJMS sponsors this program in conjunction with the Rutgers - School of Public Health. The Program allows medical students to complete both their MD and MPH degree in five years.
Applicants must have completed an undergraduate program accredited in the United States or the equivalent and must have demonstrated significant academic achievement in an appropriate discipline.
Application to this dual degree program is limited to students who have already been accepted at New Jersey Medical School.
For additional information, visit: http://sph.rutgers.edu/index.html
The Interdisciplinary MD/PhD Program is designed as a seven-year integrated experience. The first two years consist primarily of pre-clinical medical school courses. Laboratory rotations are performed in the summer prior to entering medical school or following the first year. Years 3-5 generally involve full time research towards the PhD degree in a laboratory of your choice. The final two years of the program focus on clinical experience. Coordination between the clinical and research years is designed to facilitate a smooth transition between aspects of the Program.
Requirements for admission to the MD/PhD Program include a strong academic record, letters of recommendation (including at least one from a research mentor), evidence of ability to succeed in a research environment, and competitive MCAT scores (no GRE scores are required). Application should first be made to New Jersey Medical School. During the NJMS application process, a specific application to the MD/PhD Program will be required.
Applicants interested in the Early Decision option for the MD/PhD Dual Degree Program will receive prompt review by both the MD and PhD program committees. MD/PhD Early Decision applicants must complete the AMCAS applications by August 1. Additionally, we require applicants to submit the PhD application and all other required materials including the Secondary Application with fee or fee waiver and letters of recommendation by September 1. Notification is sent out by October 1. MD/PhD Early Decision applicants are either admitted to the entering class or placed in the regular applicant pool for consideration. Those placed in the regular applicant pool for consideration are then able to apply to other medical schools.
The MD/PhD Program was co-founded by the New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS). These schools are strategically located in close proximity to other New York and New Jersey academic and pharmaceutical research institutions, providing a dynamic clinical and research environment. NJMS provides a superb clinical education experience through its facilities at University Hospital and other affiliated hospitals in Essex, Morris and Bergen Counties. In addition, NJMS is associated with a variety of state-of-the-art treatment and research facilities. These include the New Jersey State Trauma Center, the Center for Fertility and Reproductive Medicine, the Center for Human Molecular Genetics, the National Tuberculosis Center, the Center for Emerging and Re-emerging Pathogens, the Informatics Institute, Cancer Center and the International Center for Public Health in Science Park. Laboratory experiences in the Program provide a thorough foundation in the theoretical and practical aspects of biomedical research. Research opportunities are available in a wide range of fields including molecular biology, biochemistry, bioinformatics, cell biology, immunology, molecular genetics, microbial pathogenesis, pathology, physiology, pharmacology and neurosciences. The research programs are well supported by numerous core facilities, including animal care, transgenic mice, mass spectrometry, molecular resource, microscopic imaging and computing services, as well as the George F. Smith library.
MD/PhD Scholarships are available to all accepted applicants to the Program. Scholarships include tuition deferrals/waivers and a stipend during all years in the Program. Stipends, which are effective July 2008, are as follows:
Padmini Salgame, Ph.D.
Director, MD/PhD Program & Graduate Medical Research Program
Professor, Department of Medicine
Centre for Emerging Pathogens
185 South Orange Avenue
Newark, NJ 07103
Email: email@example.com
The M.D. with Thesis Program offers a unique opportunity to NJMS medical students to conduct original research of excellent quality during their Medical School training. The student is expected to devote one year exclusively to independent research that is Laboratory, Clinical or Population based. The additional year of research experience will provide students the opportunity to study a certain subject in depth. The Program is specifically designed for a rigorous development in scientific thinking, including a thorough understanding of research methodology and scientific writing. The program is highly suited to students who plan a career in Academic Medicine. The M.D. with thesis program will be administered through the Office of the Senior Associate Dean for Research in conjunction with the Office of Education. The program will be operated by a Committee consisting of representative Faculty members from basic and clinical sciences departments and overseen by Dr. Salgame, Director of Graduate Medical Research Program.
The overall goal of the program is to provide medical students an opportunity to acquire research skills and foster independent scientific thinking. The specific objectives are:
MD with Thesis - Full Program Details
or contact:
Padmini Salgame, Ph.D.
Director, MD/PhD Program & Graduate Medical Research Program
Professor, Department of Medicine
Centre for Emerging Pathogens
185 South Orange Avenue
Newark, NJ 07103
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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One day Petra
General Information
- Type:
- Historical
- Price from:
- 159 USD /person
- Phone:
- 97225376717
- Payment Types:
- Cash
- Credit Card
- Cheque
- Travellers cheque
- Paypal
- Wire Transfer
- Location Start:
- Araba
- Location Finish:
- Araba
- Start time:
- 07.30 am
- End time:
- 05.00 pm
- We Speak:
- Russian, German, Spanish, French, English
Last updated: 06/13/2008
One day Petra (Araba Araba)
Day 1
One day Petra (Araba : Araba)
Meet assist at Araba, transfer to Petra, visit of Petra, back to Araba at their convenience.
transportation in A/C car/van
English speaking guide through out
Entrance fees
Supplement for lunch in Petra US$ 30 P/P per lunch
Extra Information
- Exclusions -
- $30 lunch
Couldn't find what you're looking for? Check out more tours & excursions in Petra
1-day tours
- Day Tour Around Amman - from 70 USD
- Petra Tour Guide - from 50 USD
- Petra One Day Tour - from 145 USD
- Day Tour To Petra From Taba By Fast Ferry Boat - from 280 EUR
- Petra 1 Day - from 159 USD
Long tours
- Petra Shiekh Hussien Alenby Sheikh Hussein Allenby - 2 days from 259 USD
- Petra Wadi 2 Days Tour - 2 days from 345 USD
- Horseback - 4 days from 219 USD
Email the tour operator - One day Petra
Important Notice : Avoiding Fraud
It's rare, but some helpful hints to watch out for with regards to fraud:
- It is important to NEVER wire funds or use/employ other fund transfer mechanisms such as western union: Always use a credit card to protect yourself against fraud. If owners pressure you into providing a deposit or refuse to accept credit cards, there is a high probability that this is a scam.
- If at all suspicious of fraud, ask to see their website, or any other literature they can provide or send to you. Ask them for contact details for guests who have previously stayed on their property insisting on telephone numbers. Be suspicious of emails that originate from free email services (yahoo, hotmail, gmail, etc)
- Research the property thoroughly on the internet to see if there is any history or mention of scams associated with the property.


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There are different colors, styles and weights of shingles with warranties ranging from 25 - 50 years and shingles that will withstand up to 130 mph of wind.
Tile Roofs:
Clay and concrete tile roofs have begun to gain popularity throughout Florida because of their aesthetic appeal. Available in a broad variety of styles, finishes and colors, you will be sure to find a design to fit your liking.
Clay roof tiles are produced by clay being molded and then baked, whereas concrete tiles are created from cement, sand and water which is poured into molds and left to cure until the desired strength is reached.
Warranties range from 50 years and go all the way up to the life of the structure.
Roof Cleaning:Overtime fungus and algae can begin to grow roofing materials, leaving your roof looking dirty and in need of care. Fungus and algae left untreated on roofs can lead to many problems. Roof cleaning is done using a pressure cleaner armed with specific chemical products used to treat whatever may be growing on your roof.
Quality Roofing & Sheet Metal, Inc. does not use bleach or other harmful chemicals that can destroy roof surfaces and harm the environment. The cleaner we use is a true green product that will improve the appearance of your roof and will lower future maintenance costs. After the roof is cleaned, a sealer can be applied that carries a seven (7) year warranty for the prevention of algae and fungus growth. The Self Cleaning NP Technology utilizes the ultra violet rays of the sun to prevent the growth of algae and fungus. This process works non-stop throughout the day even on cloudy days or in shaded areas. A clean roof improves reflectivity which helps to lower energy costs. Eliminate routine cleaning and save money, time and water.
Energy Star Roofs:
White roofs reflect 86% of solar energy making white roofed buildings cooler and cheaper to air condition. Quality Roofing & Sheet Metal, Inc. can apply a highly reflective roof coating that has an Energy Star rating, is mildew and algae resistant, reduces cooling costs and has up to a seven (7) year warranty. This protective coating can be applied to most existing roofing materials such as metal roofs, tile roofs, built-up roofs, flat roofs, modified roofs, and single ply roofs.
If you are interested in saving on your cooling costs and helping the environment at the same time, please give us a call at 386-437-7700 for a free estimate. Ask about power company rebates as well.


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Disabling showModalDialog
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
The web platform has evolved organically over the past two decades, slowly growing new capabilities and APIs. Many features that are added are great ideas that enable web developers to make even better applications. But some APIs turn out, in retrospect, to be mistakes. Over time, the platform accretes more bad APIs, which makes it harder to add new browser features, confuses web developers, and even introduces security bugs. showModalDialog is a bad API that we deprecated earlier this year, and in Chrome 37 we will disable support for it by default.
showModalDialog was first introduced in Internet Explorer 4 and although it was never formally standardized, over time most other browsers added support for it. It allows applications to show a dialog of HTML content that freezes all other content while showing. showModalDialog is not a commonly used API: based on our usage counters, less than 0.006% of pages use it.
Unfortunately, showModalDialog's unique ability to freeze content is now widely regarded as a mis-feature in terms of user experience, code complexity, and security. From a usability perspective, showModalDialog rudely demands that you interact with it by freezing all of your other tabs—even ones from other sites. showModalDialog also requires complex and hard-to-maintain code scattered throughout the codebase. This complexity complicates the behavior of new web features like Mutation Observers, Object.observe, and Promises. It also makes showModalDialog a source of a disproportionate number of bugs, including serious security vulnerabilities. It is for these reasons that we decided to turn off showModalDialog by default in the next version of Chrome.
Although very few sites use showModalDialog, the small minority that do—disproportionately enterprise sites—have come to rely heavily on it. In order to give these sites more time to update, we have added a temporary Enterprise Policy setting to re-enable showModalDialog. In May 2015 this setting will be removed and showModalDialog will be completely removed from Chromium. Affected sites should begin work to update their sites as soon as possible.
Although it can be difficult, sometimes the only way to go forward is to leave the past behind. Removing bad APIs will help us make the web a more consistent and capable platform for both developers and users.
Posted by Adam Barth, Software Engineer


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jose_luisaka Jose Luis
Member Since: 31 Jan 2006
Status: Registered Member
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Date of birth : 4 Dec 1900
Age : 114 yrs
Region : Spain
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About Me
I am a flute amateur, on my eighth(OMG!) year of private lessons. But I have started this rather late, unfortunately.
Current caption photo is well, you can imagine it.
I always lie a lot or a little on my age in this Forum.
My interests: Music, flute playing, theatre, literature, some sciences (biology, astronomy, cosmology).
I also sing in one choir. Quite busy with it, sometimes.
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