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Sonoco Products Company (NYSE:SON)
Q4 2011 Earnings Call
February 09, 2012 08:30 AM ET
Roger Schrum - IR
Barry Saunders - CFO, VP
Harris DeLoach - Chairman and CEO
Jack Sanders - President and COO
George Staphos - Merrill Lynch
Philip Ng - Jefferies
Ghansham Panjabi - Robert W. Baird
Phil Gresh - JPMorgan
Chris Manuel - Wells Fargo
Mark Wilde - Deutsche Bank
Alex Ovshey - Goldman Sachs
Good day, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Q4 2011 Sonoco Earnings Conference Call. My name is Greta, and I'll be your operator for today. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions). As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes.
I would now like to turn the conference over to your host for today, Roger Schrum, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please proceed.
Roger Schrum
Thank you, Greta. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our Fourth Quarter and Full-Year Results Investor Call. This call is being conducted on February 9, 2012.
Joining me today are Harris DeLoach, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Jack Sanders, President and Chief Operating Officer; and Barry Saunders, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
The news release reviewing the company's financial results was released before the market opened today, and is available on the Investor Relations section of our website at sonoco.com. In addition, we will refer to a presentation that is posted on the investor site during this call.
I'll briefly remind you that today's call may contain a number of forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations, estimates, and projections. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. Therefore, actual results may differ materially. Additional information about factors that could cause different results and information about the use by the company of non-GAAP financial measures is available in today's news release and on the company's website.
With that introduction, I'll now turn it over to Barry.
Barry Saunders
Thank you, Roger. Before getting into the numbers, I will mention that as a result of the Tegrant acquisition, we have reevaluated our segment reporting which is very prescribed by generally accepted accounting principles. And we've concluded that we will change our segments beginning with this fourth quarter. If you have access to the quarterly update slides, you see on chart three that we will have four segments going forward, Consumer Packaging; Paper and Industrial Converted Products; Packaging Services; and Protective Packaging. The most significant change from our previous structure is that given the significant sub-Tegrant we've added Protective Packaging as a recordable segment, which includes our Legacy Protective Packaging business and of course Tegrant as well.
Prior to this change, we also had a group of businesses, which was referred to with all-other Sonoco that was not considered a segment. But after pulling out our Legacy Protective Packaging business and putting it into Protective Packaging, we've determined that our Wheels business can be aggregated with the other businesses in the new Paper and Industrial Converted Products segment and our injection molded plastics business could become part of the Consumer Packaging segment, which already included our other plastics businesses.
Moving on to slide 4, you can see that this morning we reported earnings under generally accepted accounting principles for the quarter of $0.29 per diluted share and base EPS of $0.46 per share. The difference between GAAP and base is due to pre-tax restructuring expenses of $13 million or $0.10 per share after tax. These related primarily to additional charges of previously announced actions, including several plant closures.
Acquisition related costs of $9.3 million were related to $6.3 million of fees most of which were directly related to the Tegrant acquisition and $3 million associated with the impact of purchase accounting on the inventory step-up. Under U.S. GAAP, inventory at the time of acquisition is written up to fair value with selling costs, so very little is earned by the purchaser on the acquired inventory. Given this is a one-time cost and distorts the operational run rate, as we have previously disclosed, we have excluded this impact from base earning, but the after-tax impact of the fees and inventory write-off was $0.06 per share.
We had a $3 million write-off of a deferred tax asset related to a legal entity in Canada association with the decision to close a plant and transfer some of the business into the U.S. But we also had 4 million in insurance recovery, or $0.03 after tax, related to fixed assets that were destroyed by a fire in 2010, and we've excluded this from base earnings. So base ETFs of $0.46 per share is in the middle of the range we communicated with our preliminary earnings release two weeks ago, but short of the guidance we had originally provided for the quarter of $0.59 to $0.63, prior to our preliminary release. The shortfall, as compared to the original guidance was due to a significant falloff in activity in the industrial businesses in the latter part of the quarter, and the higher effective tax rate. The results were also below last year's $0.59.
I will now walk through our base P&L summary found on slide 5, but before I go any further through the numbers, I will mention that the 2011 fourth quarter included six fewer accounting days than that of 2010, simply offsetting the six additional days we had in the first quarter of this year.
In terms of the base P&L compared to last year, sales were 1.129 billion, which was essentially flat with last year, before the impact of the six fewer days and lower volumes was offset by higher selling prices and the impact of the Tegrant acquisition.
Gross profit was $184.7 million, down $15 million, which you'll see in the EBIT bridge was due to numerous things including the impact of the six fewer accounting days, lower volume in the industrial businesses, even after factoring out the six fewer days, and essentially no manufacturing productivity to offset inflation. Price cost was the most positive story but even it was not as favorable as expected given the drop off in OCC prices during the fourth quarter.
This resulted in a gross profit margin of 16.4%. S&A was $100.6 million, lower year-over-year by $6 million due to fewer days in the quarter and lower management incentives partially offset by the addition of Tegrant's estimated cost. But this did not offset the lower gross profit thus base EBIT was $84.1 million, down $8.9 million and EBIT percent to sales was 7.4% versus 8.2% for the same quarter last year. The lower EBIT accounted for $0.05 of the lower year-over-year earnings per share but more than half of that shortfall at the EBIT level was due to the fewer days.
To round out the income statement, net interest expense of $12.8 million was $3.2 million higher due to the debt issued to finance the Tegrant acquisition and impacted results by $0.02 per share. Income tax expense was $27.8 million based on an effective tax rate on base earnings of 39% which is much higher than last year's rate of 31.6% and our full-year rate of 32.5%. Given the significance of the increase in the effective tax rate, I want to spend just a minute talking about taxes. On slide six, you see our base effective tax rates have been running in the 31% to 32% range in the first two quarters. It dropped to 29.1% in the third quarter which is often lower due to the release of reserves upon exploration of statute of limitations. In the fourth quarter, it jumped to 39%, bringing our full-year rate to 32.5%. The increase to 39% was driven by four discrete items in the quarter. We always have tax items but it's unusual when they are all one direction on this quarter, they were all negative.
Two of the items are related to accelerated items for determining taxes payable that impact the manufacturing deduction for qualified manufacturers and are somewhat counterintuitive. The manufacturing deduction is based on taxable income from a tax return perspective and not by booked tax expense. Therefore, if you have any accelerated tax deductions, your taxable income goes down so your manufacturing deduction is worth less.
For example, as a result of the fourth quarter decision to make a $30 million pension contribution in early 2012, we were able to consider this as a tax deduction in 2011 and therefore reduced cash taxes payable by roughly $11 million. But it also reduced our taxable income subject to the manufacturing deduction by $30 million. So, our manufacturing deduction which at a 9% deduction rate came down with the tax impact being right at the $1 million. Unfortunately, the pension contribution did not lower booked tax expense but the manufacturing deduction is recognized in our books at the same time and in the same amount as it affects our taxes payable.
A similar impact occurred when much greater than expected accelerated depreciation adjustments were recognized or we were able to get more than expected capital jobs closed and put in service which allowed us to take the 100% accelerated depreciation and notably reduce taxes payable. But again, did not have the same impact on book expense.
Over time, assuming the manufacturing deduction is available, cash and book tax will be the same but cash taxes will be much lower in the early years because of the accelerated deduction for pension and depreciation.
We also had some impact just from the true up of the mix of both domestic and international and state issues and some other items in the quarter that increased expense.
So now back to slide 5 to round out the income statement. You do see the higher income taxes and the year-over-year impact of the higher effective tax rate for the quarter negatively impacted EPS by $0.05. Equity and affiliates in minority interest was pretty comparable than last year. Thus, base net income attributable to Sonoco was $47.1 million or $0.46 per share, $0.13 below last year's $0.59. Again, $0.05 from EBIT, most of which was due to the fewer days, $0.02 from interest and $0.05 from taxes and there's about a penny of rounding just to make up the difference.
So, looking at the change in sales more closely on the sales bridge on slide seven, you see the 2010 sales were $1.127 billion. Volume and mix was negative on the top line by $21.8 million. Selling prices were higher which increased sales by $37.1 million. Acquisitions added $61.7 million in sales and exchange in other lowered sales by $74.5 million, bringing 2011 sales to 1.130 billion. As previously mentioned, the fourth quarter 2011 did include six less accounting days than the same quarter last year, offsetting six more days we have in the first quarter. So to eliminate the confusion on volume trends, we've included the full impact of the fewer days and all other on the sales and EBIT bridges.
For the company as a whole, trade volume was down modestly. Trade volume was flat for the overall consumer segment, as roughly a 2% decline in composite can volume in North America, a 1% decline in flexibles volume, and a 1% decline in thermoforming and injection-molded plastics was offset by another strong quarter in blow-molded plastics, where sales were up 23% year-over-year. This was in the blow-molded plastics group, this is driven by more than 100% increase in the food segment. Total trade volume was down only 2% in paper and converted industrial products, as higher trade sales volumes in paper, recycling and reels, notably offset lower trade sales in tubes and cores.
More specifically, on slide eight, you see the volume trends for North America and Europe. Tubes and core average daily volume was running at 1,384 tons per day in North America, and this includes U.S., Canada and Mexico, in the fourth quarter of 2010. Although volume fell off to 1,297 tons per day in the fourth quarter of 2011, representing a 6.4% decrease. In terms of serve market segments, paper mill packaging was flat, film and tape and specialty segments were each down 11% and textile was down 12%. Of the total decrease, less than 1% with any share changed, the balance was all due to the demand by customers in those serve segments.
Tube and core volume was also down 7% from the prior year in Europe, with the Legacy business in the West down 8% while the frontier region was down by 3%.
But just to kind of round up the volume discussion, tubes and core volume in Asia, which obviously is a much smaller operation for us, was down 16%. But that was due almost entirely to a flood that affected our plant in Thailand. The tube and core volume in South America was up 3%.
Paper in North America had higher trade sales which almost offset the notably lower inter-company sales, thus their total volume was down about 2% year-over-year.
Recycling volume was up 7% due to the increase in trade sales. Paper Europe total tons were down by 13% due to a similar decline in both inter-company and in our trade activity.
On the bright side, volume in reels was up 24% due to strong demand for steel reels for the utility industry. Volume and packaging services was down as the loss of a pack center contract packaging customer was partially offset by more activity in our core flex business. And in protective packaging, volume in our legacy protected packaging business was down 4% due to exiting one plant in China. As a slight weakness in some of the U.S.-based businesses was offset by a much better quarter this year in Mexico.
So, now back on the sales bridge on slide seven, you can see that prices were higher year-over-year by $37 million with favorable variances in all segments. But since most of the price increases were related to higher input cost, it's really easier to discuss these when we review the price cost on the EBIT bridge in just a moment.
Acquisitions accounted for $62 million of the increase in sales, with essentially all attributable to the Tegrant acquisition, partially offset by the impact of disposition of our small injection molded plastics business in South America.
All other was negative by $74.5 million, roughly $67 million due to the six fewer days in the fourth quarter, with the balance associated with the translation of sales in foreign currency associated with the overall slight strengthening of the dollar compared to the same period a year earlier.
So, moving on to the EBIT bridge on slide nine, as a starting point, 2010 base EBIT was right at $93 million. Volume and mix was negative and lowered EBIT by $9.1 million. Selling price increases, net of increases for material, energy and freight was positive by $6.6 million. Manufacturing productivity added $1.2 million. The all other category was negative by $12 million and pension expense was lower year-over-year by $4.6 million, all of which resulted in this year's base EBIT of $84.1 million.
I will again point out that the impact of the six fewer days is included down in all other on the bridge, so the impact of the volume short fall here is just the comparison on a same day basis. Most of the 9.1 million EBIT impact from lower volume is driven by the industrial businesses as I previously described. Higher selling prices more than offset higher material, energy and freight cost with most of the favorable variance in the industrial businesses associated with the timing of OCC movement.
Flipping to slide 10, for just a few seconds, looking just at the yellow sheet pricing for OCC in the Southeast, you see that many contracts in tubes and cores and trade paper sales in North America reset in September 2011 based on $175 per ton OCC price. And then OCC actually moved lower through the quarter averaging $127 per ton creating a favorable price cost spread compared to last year in 2010 when prices reset at 130 then moved to 155 on average in the fourth quarter.
Although price cost was favorable it was really not nearly as favorable as expected for three key reasons. The first being that with the slowdown in volume, we used higher price paper in inventory for a longer period of time. Pricing in regions outside the Southeast were also not as favorable as what we saw in the Southeast. And lastly, some grades of recovered paper did not move as well as the change in OCC.
Going back to the EBIT bridge on slide nine, productivity was really negligible across all segments. And the drivers were pretty consistent with some of the issues we've experienced throughout the year and further exacerbated by the significant drop off in volume in the fourth quarter. The most significant impact was associated with paper mill capacity utilization which in North America was only 92% in the fourth quarter of 2011 versus a 100% in the fourth quarter of 2010 due to a 124 more machine days down this year. European utilization deteriorated even more as the mills there were only 78% utilized in the fourth quarter of 2011 versus 95% a year earlier.
The all other category was unfavorable by 12 million, roughly 6 million of which was the EBIT impact of the six fewer days in the fourth quarter of 2011. The balance of the variants was associated with higher inflation other than on the material energies and freight partially offset by lower selling general and administrative cost due to lower incentives and the Tegrant earnings which were generally in line with our expectations. The impact of translation on that income was insignificant for the quarter going about $400,000. And finally, pension expense as mentioned was favorable by 4.6 million.
Turning to slide 11, you see a recap of the results by segment for the quarter with the prior year 2010 restated to reflect the current segment structure. Just as a reminder, absent in the other drivers, sales and EBIT would have been down 6% due to the six fewer days. Consumer packaging sales were down 2% while EBIT was down 6% resulting in an EBIT margin of 9.8%. Much of the margin percent decline has just stood at the calculation where absent to change in days sales are increasing due to higher prices but profits are not affected if the higher prices are just recovering related cost increases.
Paper and Industrial Converted Product trade sales were down 5% while EBIT was down 17.5% with the EBIT margin following 6.5%. The lower margin was driven by the lower volume and the related impact on productivity and the impact of a higher percentage of trade sales versus intercompany sales, particularly in our paper operations which increases reported trade sales really has no impact on profits. Sales and Packaging Services were down 18% due to the loss of the previously announced contract manufacturing customer and the unfavorable mix while earnings were down but only 600,000 in dollar terms. Protective Packaging last year just included our legacy results while this year included 55 days of results for Tegrant.
Moving on to the balance sheet which you can find on slide 12, the most notable drivers of the change in many accounts was the Tegrant acquisition. And also as expected, we did record an actuarial loss on our US qualified pension plan of 153 million pre-tax, resulting from lower discount rates and lower than assumed return on investment. The increase in liability did not impact 2011 earnings as the after-tax impact of this actuarial loss was recorded in equity as an increase in accumulated other comprehensive loss. That is the primary reason that pension expense will be higher in 2012.
With the debt related to Tegrant acquisition, as expected, our debt-to-total capital increased to 47.4% at the end of the year.
To spend just another minute talking about pensions, on slide 13, you see that the direction and the magnitude of the change in both the liability and projected expense for the 2012 are in line with what we described in December. As you might recall, we split the US qualified plan into an active and inactive plan at end of 2010, but for simplicity, I'll just speak to the blended information.
At the end of 2010, our funded status for the domestic qualified plans was 83%. But immediately following the 85 million contribution in early 2011, it would have increased to about 92%. But due to the actuarial losses, we're down to 80% funded status at year end. In terms of the discount rates, rates are down for the two plans on average 75 basis points. And you can also see that the other part of the actuarial loss is coming from investment returns where we had actual returns of only 4.5% in 2011 versus a weighted assumed rate of return of 7.8% on average between the two plans.
But to complete the update on pension, I'll just point out the pension expense is expected to increase by 14 million in 2012 due primarily to the amortization part of the additional actuarial loss that I just described, which creates $0.10 per share headwind we we'll be facing. And we are expecting pension contributions to be right at 76 million including a 30 million payment made to our domestic qualified plans in early January.
In terms of cash flow, on slide 14, you see that we had cash from operations of 113 million for the quarter, bringing our full-year cash from operations to 245 million which was about 15 million below what we had projected for the year simply due to the lower earnings in the fourth quarter.
This compares to 375 million in 2010 but pension and post retirement plan contributions were 141 million in 2011 versus 29 million in 2010 which accounts for much of the year-over-year difference in cash from operations.
For the year, capital spending net of asset sales was 162 million which has trended up as a result of growth projects in the consumer businesses most notably in our plastics. Investments to lower cost in our paper mills, including some initial spending for the biomass boiler project in Hartsville and IT related spending for systems upgrades. We paid out 115 million in dividends and acquired net shares of $28 million. And finally, we spent 566 million on acquisitions in the year, most of which was related to Tegrant.
In terms of our outlook for 2012, based on the updated earnings outlook, we are projecting cash from operation to be around 385 million including the impact of expecting to make approximately 75 million in contributions to our pension and post retirement plans globally. Capital spending should be in the 185 million range and after paying dividends, would expect to have approximately 80 million in free cash flow which could be used for debt repayment.
And lastly, turning to our forward-looking guidance for 2012, we are now projecting that base earnings per share will be between $2.32 to $2.42 per share for the full year. At the midpoint of $2.37, this is $0.15 lower than the preliminary outlook we provided in early December due to a lower run-rate in our industrial businesses particularly in Europe, and due to a higher effective tax rate.
We have used a 32% effective tax rate for 2012 for the earlier projection and we are now expecting our blended rate to be 33.6% based on the projected mix of business.
In terms of guidance for the first quarter, we're projecting base earnings per share to be between $0.45 and $0.50. As you might know, we do experience some seasonality in some of our businesses and our first quarter is generally the lightest. In terms of the year-over-year comparison, it is down due to the headwinds we're facing related to higher pension cost, the higher effective tax rate, a slight negative impact from foreign exchange and the number of shares outstanding, as well as the headwinds we're facing from a lower run rate in our industrial businesses particularly in Europe, and the fact that our Packaging Services business was particularly strong in the first and in fact the second quarter as well in 2011, due to the activity leading up to the closure of the contract packaging account.
That concludes my overview of the quarter and our updated outlook, and we will now open it up for questions. Q&A
Question-and-Answer Session
(Operator Instructions). Your first question comes from George Staphos of Merrill Lynch. Please, proceed.
George Staphos - Merrill Lynch
Maybe a bigger picture question to start. Obviously, volume didn't transpire as you'd expect that you were not alone in that regard in the fourth quarter and maybe periods during 2011 and that was a big factor in terms of your productivity being perhaps not where you'd want it to be. Having said that, do you think that 2011 was also impacted by just the fact and here I mean related to productivity the fact that there were so much going on at Sonoco with the Tegrant acquisition with some of the capital initiatives. And I guess to some degree given that the company itself has grown in its scale and diversity do you think that at all is having any impact in terms of management stability, the folks reporting to you, their ability to get productivity out of the business, is there too much going on at Sonoco do you think or was that the case perhaps in 2011?
Harris DeLoach
George, clearly volume impacted 2011 which you acknowledge and I would say that the acquisition activity last year probably took some focus off of productivity more so than we realized at that time it was not only Tegrant but there was a lot of all the acquisition activity in the year that actually didn't come to fruition. So yeah I would clearly say there was some disruption to color some of that lack of productivity.
I don't think Sonoco is any more complex today than it was in 2010 and 2009 and 2008 and 2007 so I think we have certainly the management team to handle the productivity and drive the productivity back at our historical levels and that's what I would expect in 2012. Jack, do you want to comment?
Jack Sanders
The only thing I would add is that I think it's also true that 2011 was a year of unusual inflation, especially during the first half of the year, it's extremely strong. And that creeps in to our productivity calculations in ways that we can actually see and calculate, but that definitely was a factor. As well as if you'll recall the winter of 2011 was quite severe versus this nice weather that we're having now, and it had an impact on our operations throughout the North and Northeast in the first quarter.
George Staphos - Merrill Lynch
Okay, I appreciate the details. There are two quick questions and I'll turn it over. You mentioned in your press release and commentary that you don't anticipate further reductions in industrial volumes from the fourth quarter level. If I paraphrase that correctly, could you provide us some details? And you mentioned energy inflation within the consumer segment, could you remind us why there would be unusual energy impact in consumer in the quarter if I captured that correctly given packaging and converting business don't generally consume a lot of energy. Thanks, guys.
Jack Sanders
Specifically, George, I guess, to run rate situation not being lower than fourth quarter, I would tell you that the US run rates today are better than December, and actually, have probably rebounded a little bit more, maybe a little bit stronger than we actually anticipated, so we feel good that our projection forward now is pretty stable, at least for the foreseeable future.
Europe, certainly, also saw improvement from December, but it's probably not as strong as we would like. Again, we've kind of factored in all of that into our guide is going forward. Our mill utilization is certainly better during the first part of this year. So everything seems to indicate that what we've factored into our re-forecast for now seems to be realistic for what we expect. As far as energy on the consumer side, I would tell you that freight is a part of it but also there is energy consumed in blow molding which is a little bit different than our portfolio has been in the past as well as in flexibles.
And your next question comes from the line of Philip Ng with Jefferies. Please proceed.
Philip Ng - Jefferies
Just from a very high level standpoint, the macro data coming out of the US, you're probably suggesting to have improved a little bit on the margin but it seems like in relation to your tube and core business, things have softened so I'm just trying to get a sense of what's the disconnect. Are you seeing more leakage in your business into other forms of packaging?
Barry Saunders
How about you repeat that question, I'm sorry. We didn't get the whole thing. It broke up on us.
Philip Ng - Jefferies
Yes, sure. Just with the latest macro data coming out of the U.S. which suggests that things have actually been picking up a little bit, but your tube and core business has obviously softened. So I just want to get a sense of what's the disconnect there and have you been seeing any leakage in your business into other forms of packaging?
Jack Sanders
Phil, no. this is Jack. I think that what would explain that is that the GDP isn't an exact barometer for our business. It's more the markets we serve and when we look at textiles, when we look at tape, film, and specialty, all of those markets were down year-over-year and even quarter-over-quarter. And that's really what drives our tube and core volume. I think we said earlier that paper mill was flat but the others were down and that's really what drives the volume. So I don't see leakage into other forms of packaging. It's just a matter of our served markets really being down.
Philip Ng - Jefferies
Okay. And then I noticed you guys have announced some price increases particularly in your Paperboard business in Europe. Is that more of a reflection that demand is coming back a little bit or just simply a cost for this year?
Jack Sanders
It's a reflection of cost.
Philip Ng - Jefferies
And are you getting more abnormal pushback I guess, just the macros has been challenging out there?
Jack Sanders
Well, certainly we're very early in the process and I would tell you I expect pushback but it is an increase in cost and we're going to push hard.
Philip Ng - Jefferies
Okay, and just lastly on your Consumer Packaging business, order patterns were a bit choppy last year and part of that I would imagine, bonds were depressed by food inflation. Have you seen promotional activity take up a bid for your customers and just thoughts on the demand profile from your customers on the Consumer business?
Jack Sanders
No, it's really too early for us in any type of promotional type of activities, but I will tell you that coming out of the box, we are pleased with consumer. I think that the projections that we've got in our reforecast are solid. And I feel good about that as well as our Protective Packaging business, both of those we feel good about.
And your next question comes from the line of Ghansham Panjabi with Robert W. Baird. Please proceed.
Ghansham Panjabi - Robert W. Baird
Hey, just curious on how Tegrant performed inter-quarter on a volume basis, perhaps relative to your internal plan?
Harris DeLoach
If I were to look back in the October, November timeframe, it was probably lighter than they had anticipated in our original plan. They told us that there was probably some destocking in their customers. As Jack was alluding to just a moment ago, January was much better and actually was over what our expectations were for January in terms of volume. So I would say on balance is probably doing as we expected, perhaps a tad better.
Ghansham Panjabi - Robert W. Baird
Harris, how'd you qualify the visibility in that business? How much lead time do you have just based on what your customers are saying and how that flows through to you guys?
Harris DeLoach
You are talking about Tegrant?
Ghansham Panjabi - Robert W. Baird
Yeah, exactly.
Harris DeLoach
I'm not sure I have a good feel for that. You Jack, about visibility into customers. I think it's too early for us to really know that count to be perfectly honest.
Ghansham Panjabi - Robert W. Baird
Okay, okay.
Jack Sanders
And I would also add to that when we picked up Tegrant, we were fortunate I guess. We got them over the New Years, I mean the Thanksgiving holiday and the Christmas holiday and certainly, that's a period all businesses have to deal with.
Ghansham Panjabi - Robert W. Baird
Okay and then the consumer business, your comments on volume being roughly flat in that business. How is the ownership news flow on Pringles affected volumes in that category?
Harris DeLoach
Actually, Pringles volume year-over-over was up nicely and we were managing Pringles like we always manage Pringles. We are very close to team at P&G that runs the Pringles business. We have nice expansion plans with them and a lot of productivity and initiatives with them. So business as usual with Pringles with us and whatever happens with the proposed acquisition, it is what it is and we'll manage it accordingly.
Ghansham Panjabi - Robert W. Baird
Okay, and just one final clarification question, on '12 quarterly variances, on accounting days, is there anything that we should keep in mind as we kind of think through the quarterly progression?
Harris DeLoach
I don't think there's anything on a day basis. I think there's one day add in one quarter or the other.
Ghansham Panjabi - Robert W. Baird
Harris DeLoach
But I would remind what Jack said, bear one or the other. There's a certain amount of seasonality in that business where the first quarter's always the lightest quarter of the year. And that we would expect that obviously in 2012 as well.
And your next question comes from the line of Phil Gresh with JPMorgan. Please proceed.
Phil Gresh - JPMorgan
So I mean, obviously, 2011 was a challenging year from both the volume standpoint and otherwise. So, Harris, as we think about your guidance for 2012, could you share with us what you would see as perhaps the biggest non-macro related upside or downside opportunities available?
Harris DeLoach
Well, I think the biggest opportunity, obviously, Phil, is macro and we have baked in to our guidance basically the run rate that we anticipated coming out of December on the industrial side of the business. And I think that's the real wildcard and we were reasonably cautious and I think with good reason with Europe and we still don't anticipate a strong rebound in Europe at least in the first half of the year.
But we've got a lot of things going, and obviously execution is critical to them. We've got a lot of consumer products coming on. We've got the completion of the new blow-molded plan in Columbus, Ohio coming on and we've got the new products coming on as well.
So I think the real key is going to be getting back at historical levels of productivity. And I can tell you that Jack and his team are very well appropriately focused on that and I have high confidence that that will in fact happen.
The other thing I think is I don't know what we're going to see on raw material costs and inflation that Jack referenced but we will see something. But given our historical market position, historically the way we manage the business, I would expect us to manage price costs in a positive fashion as we always do. So when I come back to it, it probably is the macro that probably gives us the most upside and perhaps downside, as we go forward in the year.
Phil Gresh - JPMorgan
And just looking at the bridges, I noticed if I look at the full year, the contribution from volumes was about $16 million but the hit to profit was about $18 million and I would assume you would get volume leverage so therefore the majority of that is mix-related. And if I do the math on it it's somewhere around $0.10 to $0.15 or about 5% of EPS. So it's not that small. So I was just wondering if you could maybe share what you think the biggest drivers of that are and whether that's something that we're neutralizing at this point as we head into 2012?
Jack Sanders
Certainly. We didn't mention and there is a big issue in this quarter but in previous quarters we have talked about mix being a pretty significant part of the reason that volume was off in many businesses, whether it was in our paper operations and more export sales or in our consumer business, where there was a change in mix of composite cans, et cetera. So most of that difference that you're looking at is due to mix and again primarily more of what we were seeing earlier in the year versus what we saw in the fourth quarter.
Phil Gresh - JPMorgan
Okay. And then I guess the final question is as you think about capital allocation priorities, as you're working through the integration of Tegrant, how are you thinking about the uses of cash this year?
Harris DeLoach
Most of our cash really hasn't changed that much, Phil. We'll generate good cash flow. We've got a higher CapEx in 2012 driven somewhat by the Hartsville Master Plan project of the biomass bawler that we talked about the New York in December as well as some systems cost of our Oracle implementation.
And then we've got the dividend that is very important to our shareholders. It will be there. And the cash flow, we will use our free cash flow probably this year to pay down some debt that we acquired with the Tegrant acquisition and position ourselves to move forward on that probably in 2013.
And your next question comes from the line of Chris Manuel with Wells Fargo. Please proceed.
Chris Manuel - Wells Fargo
I just wanted follow up, I think the direction George was going earlier with respect to what volumes are going to look like in 2012 versus 2011 and partly versus maybe where expectations were, I think what you indicated was you would reforecast based on where things were in December and I'm just trying to understand what that necessarily implies for full year as I think through some of the segments.
If memory serves you had originally expected that your consumer business overall would be roughly flat. So if you could give us a sense of where that would be now embedded into your numbers versus your expectation previously and I think tube and core might have been kind of flattish for global as well. So could you help us, maybe update us on where you are on your current numbers for those post December?
Harris DeLoach
First of all, no, we did not base them on the December run rate. The consumer basically, yes, we see that that is going to be flat year-over-year. I think that what we did was revised based upon what we saw in the December, I think that tube and core North America, we're saying it will be down about 3% year-over-year, and Europe down about 6% now year-over-year which was not what we originally rolled out, but based upon what we saw in the fourth quarter, and our best estimates looking forward, that's where we see volumes.
Chris Manuel - Wells Fargo
Okay that's actually very helpful. And if I could dig into a few of those components, I mean, certainly all the data that we look at from Europe and from other regions is clearly more negative now than where it was recently, I would say. How much of the reduction do you think is maybe permanent? How much is maybe temporary with respect to some destocking going on, given tougher credit conditions for your customers over in Europe? At what point do you take a step back and maybe reassess for potential restructuring for sizing your business?
Harris DeLoach
Chris, I guess my crystal ball is not quite as accurate as you'd probably like but obviously some destocking went on in November, December and early January but I think it was just pure demand in that European business that drove that down. And I would say to you that Jack and his team have already looked at contingency plans in Europe and we'll probably pull a couple of triggers and prepare to pull a couple of more if it's a permanent change, but frankly I think it's more temporary than it is permanent.
And your next question comes from the line of Chip Dillon with Vertical. Please proceed.
Chip Dillon - Vertical
First question is sort of just as we look at 2012. I was noticing that if you take a bird's eye view, the 45 to 50 would basically represent I believe the lowest first quarter probably since going back to 2006, so six years ago. And yet when I look at the last three quarters, so let's say you hit them, let's call 47 since the midpoint. So if you do, the midpoint of the year to call it 237, that would be an incremental $1.90 in the back nine months, which is a number you've never done before.
So we're kind of going from a quarter that would be kind of a six-year low point to an all-time sort of best in that last nine months. And I guess maybe you haven't specifically looked at it from that high of a level, maybe you have, but it would seem that you're being fairly optimistic in terms of how much a lot of the business snaps back, and I just want to know if you could give us a little viewpoint on how you see that unfolding as we go through the back nine months of the year?
Harris DeLoach
I'll be happy to and actually we have looked at it from that level as well. I want to start off reminding everybody for the second time that there is a certain amount of seasonality in our business and the first quarter is traditionally the lowest business. And to a various point, in this year we've got a fairly significant headwind on pension and tax compared to other years. But as I look out for the balance of the year and we're quite comfortable at least at this point with our guidance for the full year, we've got a fair amount of consumer growth that is baked in, that is already in the pipeline that will come on in the balance of the, probably the second half of the year.
One of the pieces of it is the completion of the blow molded operation in Columbus, Ohio which I previously have mentioned to serve health and beauty customers. We've also got in the pipeline, about $150 million or so of new products that I expect to come on at various stages in the year. We also, in response to someone's question, I guess it was George's, about the productivity getting back to historical levels which I've a couple of plans in place to do that and I also think in the year, we were chasing margins with higher raw material costs through the year, through 2011, and I expect that not to be the case this year, and then we obviously are controlling cost pretty tightly in the company so, we're quite comfortable with the guidance that we've given.
Chip Dillon - Vertical
And just one follow-up, as you look at the…
Harris DeLoach
Before you go there Jack has a comment, I think…
Jack Sanders
Well, I'd also say obviously Tegrant is in the mix now and the contribution we expect from Tegrant is a part of that increase.
Chip Dillon - Vertical
And we look at the blow molded business which obviously had a big jump last year. How do you think about the growth rate there? So that stays sort of significantly above the company average, more than say, couple of years? Do you sort of see a run rate where that can happen, and then I guess to reverse gears, do you think in the industrial business, I don't know, maybe you can update this for us, but I know a number of your tubes and cores, I think do find their way into the Paper business where they wind the paper on the reels, on the cores, and with lower demand in some of the printing grades, is that's something that you feel might continue to push that volume down on the tube and cores side gradually over time?
Jack Sanders
Let me first talk to the blow molding piece. We have experienced some solid growth in blow molding. We'll experience it again this year with the opening of the Beauty Park operations in Columbus, and we continue to work on numerous projects with our customers to continue to expand our presence there. Now, a lot of that is conversion from other packaging formats, many times glass, et cetera, so we expect to continue to try to drive growth in blow molding and look forward to doing so.
On the tube and core side, as relative to paper, certainly, there's been a decline in the coated printing and writing, and newsprint, and that does impact our volumes. I will say that the volumes on the brown boards side, however have remained pretty solid. I have not seen that type of decline, and working to gain share and position ourselves to be the best supplier of cores, into the brown board segment, is on our radar screens, as well as growth in film, is helping offset some of that decline which has been historical over the last several years. So yes, high end paper down, but there are other opportunities on the tube and core side to offset that.
Your next question comes from the line of Mark Wilde with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed.
Mark Wilde - Deutsche Bank
So I wondered, if you or Jack could just give a little more color on this weakness in industrial packaging, maybe draw some comparisons or some contrast between North America and Europe?
And also, just as an observation, it seems like some of the public and private companies that I deal with in industrial packaging saw this a little bit earlier in the year than you guys did, like starting to crop up sometime mid to late summer. Maybe you could speak to that?
Jack Sanders
Well, Mark, I think the story of the fourth quarter was December. Certainly, we saw the traditional slowdown in August in Europe and then had the normal return to volumes that we see. To give you a little bit of color in the picture, we had 143 down days in our mill system in the U.S. in 2011, 143 more in 2011 versus 2010. 124 of those were in the fourth quarter and the bulk of that pushed into December.
In Europe, we had 100 more down days in the fourth quarter than we did in the fourth quarter of 2010, and prior to that it was basically flat on a year-over-year down day basis. So for us it just occurred, that's the way it occurred to us. And again I go back, it has to do with the end markets we serve. To date, we just didn't see the drops in those markets until the fourth quarter, and then in the fourth quarter it was well into December before we saw those significant falloffs.
Mark Wilde - Deutsche Bank
Okay. And just on the cost idea, is it possible, Jack, to get a little of your perspective on this balance that we're seeing in both Europe and North America and the OCC prices, and thoughts about how that will affect you in the first and second quarter?
Jack Sanders
Well, we certainly see OCC drifting up in Europe and that's why we're out with a price increase. OCC has remained flat now for two or three months, if I'm not mistaken, actually four months. And my expectation is it's going to follow its traditional pattern and will begin to rise here shortly and if it does we'll be out to push price. I'm not expecting a run-away year, I'm kind of expecting that same type of flow that we had in 2011.
Mark Wilde - Deutsche Bank
Okay. And then finally, Barry, can you tell us what you're assuming in terms of FX in 2012?
Barry Saunders
I think CapEx is $185 million in 2012
Mark Wilde - Deutsche Bank
Sorry. Wrong Ex there. I'm interested at the kind of your foreign exchange assumptions.
Barry Saunders
I'm sorry. I thought you said CapEx.
Mark Wilde - Deutsche Bank
No OpEx?
Barry Saunders
Yes. Mark, our outlook was put together around at dollar being slightly stronger on average but again impacting our earnings for the full year by about $0.04 or so compared to 2011.
And your next question comes from the line of Alex Ovshey with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed.
Alex Ovshey - Goldman Sachs
A couple of questions. Can you just remind us the company's top line exposure to Europe and just the breakout of that exposure by each of the segments?
Harris DeLoach
We've got about 17% of our total sales, maybe a little bit less than that now with Tegrant in the mix and Europe in total, and most of that is in the paper and industrial converted businesses.
Alex Ovshey - Goldman Sachs
Can you talk about the competitive landscape in composite cans, just in the trade. I'm hearing that companies in some of the other paper packaging substrates are targeting some of the end markets that would overlap with composite cans. Are you seeing any incremental competitive pressure in any of the composite can end markets?
Jack Sanders
Alex, I would simply say that we have a very strong position in composite cans. Our technology in composite cans is significantly advanced and we feel very good about that. And we think the composite can has a lot of strengths against other formats, and we're going to continue to push and pursue that. So we feel good about our position in the composite can.
Alex Ovshey - Goldman Sachs
Maybe one last question just to talk about what you see as the biggest upside and downside risk to OCC price of this year?
Harris DeLoach
I think the biggest upside and downside is going to be macroeconomic conditions and that's going to drive demand and that will be the biggest driver of OCC.
At this time, there are no more questions.
Roger Schrum
Thank you very much, Greta. As a reminder, Sonoco's annual shareholder's meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 18, starting at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time at the Center Theater which is located at 212 North 5th Street here in Hartsville, South Carolina. For those of you that are unable to attend the meeting in person, it will be webcast on our Investor Relations website.
In addition, our first quarter 2012 earnings conference call will be conducted 11:00 am on Thursday, April 19, and our earnings release will be issued before the market opens that day.
Again, let me thank you all for joining us today and we appreciate your interest in the company and as always, if you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact us. Thank you very much.
Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes the presentation. You may now disconnect. Good day.
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text:
User needs to add manually every single track, no integration with native media functions.
User needs to add manually every single track, no integration with native media functions.
Is your easy-playlist jetpack working? I can't get mine working.
This is a forum for reviews... if you're after support or have questions you can post your own thread here
A plugin can't do everything, and at no point does it claim to do bulk import of tracks. The description and screenshots clearly show how tracks are entered manually so it seems a bit harsh to give such a poor review when it is clear what features it does and does not have don't you think? As for 'no support for native media functions' - are you referring to the new media elements scripts in the WordPress core 3.6? If so, this plugin was developed long before that was even under discussion and even now there is HTML5 <audio> support in the core, this plugin still performs a very different functionality from that. I don't see how you can criticise a plugin for not being a totally different product?
On a sidenote, an import/export function is forthcoming in next major release. Hopefully this will resolve this frustration for power-users in the future. :-)
Thanks, and I hope you will reconsider your review.
This topic has been closed to new replies.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
- News
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- Buyers Guide
- Multimedia
- Magazine
Military Microwaves Supplement
Space Fence Radar
Characterization of Single-Shot Large-Signal Phenomena
Device and PA Circuit Level Validations
Alcatel and Intel Corp. have announced that both companies have expanded their strategic alliance on WiMAX, entering into a new joint development agreement. Both companies have committed to work closely together to expedite the delivery of end-to-end residential, nomadic and ultimately mobile WiMAX solutions based on the IEEE 802.16e standard. The companies expect to begin field trials in the first half of 2006, with commercial network deployments starting mid-2006.
Under the agreement, the companies will share engineering and customer lab resources to develop, integrate and conduct interoperability testing for Alcatel's WiMAX network infrastructure solutions and Intel's next-generation WiMAX client silicon meant for wireless devices. Both companies will also actively cooperate to influence and accelerate the standardisation, development, implementation and the promotion of the IEEE 802.16e standard.
"In the past, the broadband wireless industry has struggled to gain widespread adoption, due in large part to its dependence on incompatible solutions from multiple vendors and the lack of sponsorship from leading silicon and infrastructure suppliers," commented Michael Thelander, Signals Research Group LLC. "The advent of WiMAX and the strategic relationship between Alcatel and Intel addresses these issues and lays the foundation for broadband wireless to succeed."
Get access to premium content and e-newsletters by registering on the web site. You can also subscribe to Microwave Journal magazine.


text:
- Report: #183001
Report - Rebuttal - Arbitrate
Complaint Review: Direcway - Hughes Network System
Direcway - Hughes Network System223 State Street Ellsworth,, Maine U.S.A.
Direcway - Hughes Network System Ripoff Total disregard for customer service No one will respond Ellsworth Maine
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My system was down more than it was up. One failure after another and hours on the phone.The last phone contact with Direcway the account manager listened to my frustrations and excused her self for several minutes when she returned she explained that she would be able to terminate my account now. I did not feel good about the time lapse, so I checked my credit card which they had charge on during our conversation. I called the credit card and cancelled the account.
To my suprise I received a letter in the mail several months later explaining that my service will be discontinued if I do not send $263.00. My service has been shut down for several months. I responded to the email address supplied and they told me to contact tech support.What a suprise again customer no service.
Does anyone in the Hughes Network system want to talk about this?
This is a total rip off.
Evanston, Wyoming
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 03/23/2006 08:37 PM and is a permanent record located here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Direcway-Hughes-Network-System/Ellsworth-Maine-04605/Direcway-Hughes-Network-System-Ripoff-Total-disregard-for-customer-service-No-one-will-r-183001. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year.
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text:
The Pocono Record asked members of the community what advice they could give to college graduates headed into the real world.
This is the fifth in a series of the pearls of wisdom offered by community leaders.
The series concludes Saturday, the day of East Stroudsburg University's graduation ceremonies.
Q: What do you wish you had known back then and now do know?
A: A strong cover letter conveys skills and experience. You may not have work experience (since you just graduated) so it is important to show how your skill set bridges that gap. It proves beneficial to have others critique your cover letter and resume.
Q: What other advice do you have to offer the newly minted college graduates?
A: Get involved! Volunteer and become a part of the community you are working in. Show that you care.
Q: What one thing should they buy with their graduation money that will make a difference?
A: With graduation money, an interviewing suit and nice shoes. Shoes are key, trust me. Make sure you match your shoes to your belt.
Michael Tukeva
executive director,
Pocono Alliance, Stroudsburg
Location, ST | website.com


text:
New signing Charlie MacDonald made his debut in the 1-1 draw against Crewe on Saturday but he is cup-tied, while fellow striker Kevin Lisbie is facing a spell on the sidelines after tearing his hamstring last week.
Therefore Michael Symes could be handed a rare start up front alongside 10-goal top scorer David Mooney.
Defender Ben Chorley and midfielder Martin Rowlands are hoping to shake off the knocks which kept them out at the weekend.
But midfielder Anthony Griffith serves the second game of a two-match ban after he was shown his second red card of the season against Yeovil in midweek.
- Soccer
- Sports & Recreation
- Kevin Lisbie
- Michael Symes


text:
A NATION AT WAR: NEW YORK; A Security Blanket, but With No Guarantees
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
Published: March 23, 2003
As the United States wages war on Iraq, New Yorkers and others across the region are witnessing an extraordinary state of heightened security. Police officers are armed like assault troops outside prominent buildings, police boats are combing the waterfronts and trucks are being inspected at bridges and tunnels.
Some of these unsettling sights and sounds will cease when the war ends. Many will not. In the 18 months since terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center and killed nearly 2,800 people, significant and lasting changes have been made in the region's security landscape. More are in the works.
No one can live or work in the region without having noticed the proliferation of armed security guards, surveillance cameras, handbag searches, metal detectors, electronic access cards and bomb-sniffing dogs, all of which have multiplied from Pennsylvania Station to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Layered atop those are changes hidden from most eyes, like the detectives paying visits to chemical companies that terrorists might contact, the immigration agents demanding credit card numbers from foreign visitors, or the hospital emergency room stockpiles of nerve gas antidotes.
Yet for all the improvements, no assurances have been given, nor would they be believed; Israel offers bloody proof that no degree of vigilance is a guarantee.
Still, this new security blanket has gaping holes. Some come with promised fixes and some do not. Some defy easy repair in an open society and some seem to be waiting for solutions not yet imagined. With the masses of people pouring, unsearched, into subway trains, Times Square and neighborhood multiplexes, it is easy to have thoughts of recent terror attacks in Jerusalem or Moscow.
People and bags arriving at the international airports are much more carefully screened than they were before 9/11, but cargo arriving at the seaports is not.
Power companies have increased security around their plants, but Consolidated Edison rebuffed Police Department recommendations to install vehicle barriers and new fences at a complex in Queens.
Public schools in New York City have been ordered to develop and revise emergency plans, but many have either not done so, or have failed to show the plans to parents, teachers and safety officers.
The Police Department has significantly increased its commitment to counterterrorism work. Yet its force has 4,000 fewer men and women than it did two years ago, and many of the officers and supervisors who would be first to respond to an incident have not yet received any special equipment, like gas masks, or any specialized training for dealing with unconventional weapons.
At the Indian Point nuclear plant in Westchester County, the Entergy Corporation has increased security. But there is no longer an approved plan to evacuate the surrounding communities in an emergency.
And from every sector, public or private, comes the constant lament that security is expensive, but that budgets are very tight in a lagging economy, and that help from Washington has been too limited.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Washington made a fundamental mistake in approving too little security aid last year, and in distributing it so that New York received less than the national average, per capita. But he said that after meeting with President Bush last Wednesday, he was confident that more aid was on the way.
''I think there's no question that training, equipment, focus, awareness -- all of those things are much improved,'' Mr. Bloomberg said Friday.
There is still considerable room for improvement across the region, he said.
''From a security provider's perspective, there's no downside to having too much,'' he said. ''There's an enormous downside to having too little.''
Airports and Shipping Apply Stricter Rules
In February, new bomb detection equipment at Kennedy International Airport set off an alarm, sensing nitrates -- a common bomb ingredient -- in the luggage of a group of Muslims returning from their pilgrimage to Mecca. The culprit turned out to be 15 gallons of harmless holy water that happened to contain traces of nitrates.
''That's how sharp our screeners are now,'' said William R. Hall, security director at the airport for the federal Transportation Security Administration.
After the Sept. 11 attack, no area of American life was subjected to more intense scrutiny than air travel. The federal government shouldered a far larger role, through the Transportation Security Administration, taking over airport security from a group of widely criticized contractors, and imposing tougher rules for screening employees, passengers and luggage.
It has been an expensive undertaking. The powerful car-size X-ray machines being installed at airports to screen baggage cost about $1 million apiece.
The agency's squat beige building at J.F.K. represents the end product of all the tales of confiscated knitting needles. Two storage rooms overflow with passengers' contraband, from chain saws to perfumes with names like ''Time Bomb,'' whose bottles are shaped like explosives. Officials say the number of guns and knives seized at airport checkpoints nationwide has more than tripled since 9/11.


text:
American English: /ˈeɪlmənt/ British English: /ˈeɪlm(ə)nt/
Translation of ailment in Spanish:
- dolencia (feminine) [formal]achaque (masculine) [colloquial]Example sentences
- Along the way, minor ailments were treated and hypochondria dispelled, with adept matter of factness.
- He may be successful without other ailments like fever, common cold and whatever.
- A man hunched over with pain and troubled by a lengthy list of illnesses and ailments.
Definition of ailment in:
What do you find interesting about this word or phrase?
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Grammar and usage help for Spanish:
= trending


text:
ISV Atera Rides Wave of SaaS MSP Tools
The story of Atera highlights important questions about disruption to MSPs from the proliferation of SaaS products. Read More
The story of Atera highlights important questions about disruption to MSPs from the proliferation of SaaS products. Read More
The Open Container Initiative (OCI) welcomed four new member companies this week at ContainerCon in Toronto. Read More
CloudFlare is not backing down from a group of companies who want it to stop providing services to pirate websites. Read More
DreamHost is making HTTPS a default for customers of its managed WordPress offering with Let's Encrypt. Read More
Tom Moore, co-founder of satellite-based broadband service provider WildBlue Communications Inc., starts as a vice president at X and general manager of Project Loon in mid-September. Read More
AWS has expanded its cloud-hosted virtual desktop service Amazon WorkSpaces with an hourly billing plan to attract more use at enterprises with part-time or travelling workforces or short-term projects. Read More
Enterprise encryption and data protection provider Virtru announced Monday that it has raised $29 million in a Series A funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP). Read More
With the addition of OpenStack capabilities the company is going after customers that are building cloud-native applications whose IT teams are more DevOps-oriented. Read More
A dozen supporters from the software industry, including the heads of the Linux Foundation and the Hyperledger Project, will take part in the three-day meeting. Read More
The City of Beijing, one of the world's most polluted cities, recently issued an outright ban on data centers whose Power Usage Effectiveness, or PUE, is above 1.5. Read More
The company said it has invested $97 million in the SY4 facility in Sydney, which already has 20 customers on board, including Servers Australia, one of the country's largest dedicated hosting firms. Read More
What sets a cloud provider apart from just being able to tell the same old "me too" story? Read More
Kingsoft Chief Executive Officer Hongjiang Zhang is banking on new businesses from mobile games to cloud computing to help pull the company out of the red. Read More
The US Department of Defense, possibly the world's largest data center operator, has announced a new approach to data center consolidation. Read More


text:
Margarito Feared Pacquiao Beating Ending His Career
By Keith Idec
NEW YORK — Antonio Margarito admits he thought his career was over.
After having surgery to repair a broken right orbital bone incurred during his lopsided loss to Manny Pacquiao, an eye specialist told him he couldn't fight again. That's how blurry the vision in Margarito's right eye remained several months after Pacquiao pummeled him in Arlington, Texas.
It wasn't until he underwent cataract surgery May 19 at the John A. Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah that Margarito, 33, felt confident he could continue his career.
"I'm physically ready and I'm mentally ready," said Margarito, who'll face Miguel Cotto in a highly anticipated rematch Dec. 3 at Madison Square Garden. "I've had some time off to rest. I'm actually back in the gym. I've been sparring, I've been training, and I'm going to be mentally and physically prepared for this fight."
Sergio Diaz, Margarito's co-manager, senses his fighter is much more at ease because his checkups with Dr. Alan S. Crandalll have gone well since Margarito resumed boxing activities.
"He's not concerned anymore," Diaz said. "At first, yes, he was concerned. But we've been going back and forth to Utah, to Dr. Crandall. We go every three weeks and he's been giving us nothing but positive news.
"Antonio did consider retirement for a while. If the doctor was to say, 'I don't recommend you fighting,' he would not be fighting. But the doctor fixed his eye and he said, 'I don't see why you can't go on with your career.' And that's why he's going on with his career."
Mexico's Margarito (38-7, 27 KOs, 1 NC) will have been off for more than a year by the time he encounters Cotto again. His trainer, Robert Garcia, isn't worried about Margarito's long layoff, nor whether Margarito will be the same after undergoing two serious surgeries.
"I train my fighters to win, so that's what I'm going to do," Garcia said. "If I felt that he wasn't ready or that he wasn't OK, then I would've told him, 'You know what? Please don't do it,' or, 'I don't want to be part of it.' But I know that he's ready and he's hungry to do it, and I know that he will do it again."
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, NJ., and BoxingScene.com.
Mayweather vs De La Hoya/Hatton/JMM/Mosley/Ortiz > Pac vs Hoya/Cotto/Hatton/Clottey/Margarito/Mosley = This is funny! No matter what angle you see this. Lol, when or who! One blinded floydiot! Hope that floyd signs the contract after Pac Demolishes JMM! The next thread…Comment by WESS on 09-24-2011
[QUOTE=komandante;11198425]What's two things common with Margs and Cotto. Both fighters Floyd avoid. Both fighters Pac destroyed.:boxing:[/QUOTE] Hardly the case but what ever makes you feel better at night. I see that your comparing pac to Floyd, good on ya. One…Comment by [email protected] on 09-24-2011
come on, robert, even if cheato is not fit to fight again you will still insist to keep cheato fighting because of the cut you have in cheato's purse... cheato is just too lucky to have arum on his back...Comment by komandante on 09-23-2011
What's two things common with Margs and Cotto. Both fighters Floyd avoid. Both fighters Pac destroyed.:boxing:Comment by ippo_miyata on 09-23-2011
[QUOTE=POMPANOJOHNNY;11194635]Paciou hit ricky hatton 5 times and k.o.d him. He hit cotto maybe 20 times clean before cotto went down the first time. He hit margarito 448 time with clean power punches. He never went down, never quit, wanted to…Post a Comment - View More User Comments (50)


text:
On Tap for Today: An enlightened Wednesday
So, we're going to get some answers today -- about world peace, the future, the meaning of art and how to use LinkedIn.
First, consider that Palestinian novelist Samier El-Youssef will talk about the prospect of peace tonight at the Boswell Book Company. A Palestinian refugee now living in London, he will discuss one the most vexing political questions of the age: Is it possible to find a middle ground in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? »Read Full Blog Post
At Hinterland, a tasting menu for diners who love vegetables
Hinterland, 222 E. Erie St., has begun serving a four-course, $40 vegetarian tasting menu.
It's to take advantage of summer's bounty, and will continue as long as the restaurant's farmers who supply the kitchen are harvesting, said chef Dan Van Rite. »Read Full Blog Post
Music, singing shine in 'Phantom of the Opera' at Marcus Center
In any production of "The Phantom of the Opera," things first really kick into gear when Christine descends into the Phantom's lair, lured by that intoxicating voice that's already firmly lodged inside her mind.
It's still more thrilling — in the revamped and lavishly designed touring "Phantom" now at the Marcus Center — to watch Christine take that precarious, vertigo-inducing plunge along a series of seemingly free-floating stairs, which emerge one by one from a revolving, two-story turret. »Read Full Article
RiverMill Foods opens in its new location, in Elm Grove
With its remodeling of the former Nora B's in Elm Grove complete, RiverMill Foods opened in its new, larger home late this week.
The restaurant moved from downtown Waukesha to be more centrally located to its catering clients, owner Laurie Runyan said. It's open to the public for sandwiches, wraps, salads, soups, breads and cheesecake, and has added breakfast items at its new place, at 890 Elm Grove Road in the Village Court plaza. »Read Full Blog Post


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Top 20 Funny Dog Signs
38 Adorable Puppy Bed Hogs
24 Of The Most Hilarious Moments Captured At The Perfect Time
10 Rad Inventions You're Gonna Want to Buy Right This Second
17 Rare Animals You Had No Idea Existed
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Friday, 9 September 2011
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Labels: Islamic
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Hi All,
I am building a site using WordPress as a CMS (it only has pages, no posts). It's in development now at http://nugonutrition.com/wp/. I've got a few questions:
1) If you go to "nutrition info" or "about us" on the site, you'll see a left-hand column that's currently empty; this will be populated with sub-nav links which will change depending what area of the site you're looking at. I know one way to do this would be to make several different page templates and hard-code the appropriate sub-nav items into the left column of each one; however, is there a way to do this dynamically, such that if I add a page to a section or change a page's title, the sub-nav will automatically update to reflect this? Is there a specific plug-in that might do this?
2) How do I change the URL strings for pages, so that instead of, for instance, having "page_id=2" or something like that, I can use customized page name rather than an ID number?
3) What is the code to call a specific page to a particular place on your site's Index template page? On my site's homepage (Index template), I want to have 2-3 sections that can be updated automatically, but how do I get the template to call those pages to the right spots?


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on November 10, 2013 - 12:01 AM
Ashley E. Kast and Justin P. Stolinski were married at 2 p.m. Sept. 28 in St. Vincent De Paul Catholic Church, Spring Brook. Guests gathered for a reception at Samuel's Grande Manor, Clarence. The Rev. James Walter of St. Vincent De Paul Church heard the couple's vows. The bride's parents are Denise L. and the late Mark Kast of Elma. The bridegroom's parents are Bruce M. and Denise L. Stolinski of Cheektowaga. The bride was escorted down the aisle by her brother Matthew. The bride is a graduate of Iroquois High School and is a cocktail waitress at the Hamburg casino. The groom is a graduate of Cheektowaga High School and attended Erie Community College. The groom is a security officer at Rosina Food Products. After a trip to Florida, the couple will make their home in West Seneca.


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Order Reprints
Journal: Molecules, 2012
Volume: 17
Number: 5724
Article: Synthesis of a 2,2'-Bipyridyl Functionalized Oligovinylene-Phenylene Using Heck and Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons Reactions and X-ray Crystal Structure of E-(4-(4-Bromostyryl)phenyl)(methyl)sulfane
Authors: Orsolya Karácsony, Jeffrey R. Deschamps, Scott A. Trammell, Rafaela Nita and D. Andrew Knight
Link: http://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/17/5/5724
MDPI provides reprints in high quality with convenient shipping to destinations worldwide. The articles are printed in on premium paper with high-resolution figures. Our covers are customized to your article and designed to be complimentary to the journal. These reprints are ideal additions to your portfolio. Copy details: 135g/m2 paper, 2x stitched, full colour and glossy finish, orderable in quantities from 10 to 1000.
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- Report: #1154995
Report - Rebuttal - Arbitrate
Complaint Review: Wesley Berry Flower Delivery
Wesley Berry Flower DeliveryNationwide USA
Wesley Berry Flower Delivery Flower Delivery Express THIS COMPANY IS A SCAM. RUN RUN RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN FROM THEM Walled Lake Michigan. 48390 Nationwide
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I ordered flowers on Saturday June 14th to be delivered on Saturday for Fathers DAy. I paid the express fee for a 4 hour delivery. Here it is 28 hours later on Sunday, Fathers Day and no flowers have been delivered to my Dad. After many many attempts I got a human to speak with. I wanted to cancel my order since nothing was deliverd and the rep said they can cancel and refund my payment less the handling fees. I said what fee's, nothing was handled because nothing was delivered. They must keep a fee to pay their staff st the customer service department to handle all the complaints! This company is a total scam. The customer service is non existant. I should have stayed with 1xxxxxxxxx. (((REDACTED)))
Irene Amsterdam, Mo.
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 06/15/2014 03:17 PM and is a permanent record located here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Wesley-Berry-Flower-Delivery/nationwide/Wesley-Berry-Flower-Delivery-Flower-Delivery-Express-THIS-COMPANY-IS-A-SCAM-RUN-RUN-RUN-1154995. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year.
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text: PHOTOS: Lady Gaga Graces The Cover Of Harper's Bazaar!!! Tweet Posted July 31st, 2014 @ 1:22pm #Monsters of the world, you're going to love the new issue of Harper's Bazaar magazine. Lady Gaga is the cover girl, and she has more awesome photos inside. On the cover she's in a matching pink dress and jacket with her beloved pup Asia, an awesome bag, and long flowing blonde locks. Some of the other photos feature the long dark curly hair she has been sporting recently while working on her jazz album with Tony Bennett. Lady Gaga never disappoints! She always finds a way to reinvent herself, and that's key when it comes to longevity in music! Do you like the Gaga shoot? ox Erica America {"position1":{"name":"Lady Gaga","id":39335,"url":"http:\/\/www.iheart.com\/artist\/lady-gaga-39335","type":"artist","errors":null}}


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Advanced Open Water
The PADI Advanced Open Water Course is designed to:
- Improve your overall diving skills, including navigation and bouyancy
- Give you added confidence in various diving conditions
- Introduce you to multi-level diving, night diving and deep diving
- Unlike the basic open water course, it stresses practical application rather than theory
- 5 open water dives with a certified PADI instructor (not included in Referral Class)
- 1 classroom session and one pool session
- All gear during the Class & Pool Sessions
- Tanks and weights for the open water dives
- Transportation to, accommodations & meals at Homestead or Blue Hole
- Entry Fees for Open Water Dive locations
- BCD and regulator rental for open water dives ($50)
This course is ideal for the diver who has just passed his/her open water course or for those certified divers who wish to further their diving experience.
You must be 12 years of age or older to participate in a PADI Advanced Certification
Course Outline:
CLASSROOM – One classroom session to review the information in the PADI Advanced Open Water manual from the chapters below, and to discuss the upcoming open water dives.
POOL SESSIONS – One workout in the pool to practice skills that will be used during the open water dives.
OPEN WATER DIVING – Students are required to complete 5 open water dives over a minimum period of 2 days. Depending upon location and local dive conditions, your instructor will choose from the following group of dives.
- Deep Dive
- Navigation Dive
- Night Dive
- Search & Recovery
- Multi-Level
- Altitude
- Wreck
Course Materials Required:
- Adventures in Diving Student Manual – $52.95
- Adventures in Diving DVD or Video – $37.60
- High altitude dive tables – $8.95
- PADI Processing Fee – $39.45
All students enrolled in an Underwater Phantaseas course receive a 10% discount on all equipment excluding sale items and course materials. The Advanced Open Water Course is a lot of fun and is a great way to build up your knowledge and confidence under the direct supervision of a PADI instructor. Sign up today and begin broadening you skills and capabilities as an advanced open water scuba diver.
Class & Pool Dates 2016: (6:00pm – 10:00pm)
|January 5th & 7th
February 9th & 11th
March 8th & 10th
April 5th & 7th
|May 10th & 12th
June 7th & 9th
July 12th & 14th
August 9th & 11th
|September 6th & 8th
October 4th & 6th
November 8th & 10th
December 6th & 8th
Advanced Open Water Dive Dates 2016:
|January 9th & 10th
February 6th & 7th
March 5ht & 6th
April 2nd & 3rd
May 7th & 8th
June 11th & 12th
June 25th & 26th
|Homestead Crater, Utah
Homestead Crater, Utah
Homestead Crater, Utah
Homestead Crater, Utah
Homestead Crater, Utah
Aurora Reservoir
Aurora Reservoir
|July 9th & 10th
July 23rd & 24th
August 6th & 7th
August 20th & 21st
September 10th & 11th
October 22nd & 23rd
November 12th & 13th
December 10th & 11th
|Aurora Reservoir
Aurora Reservoir
Aurora Reservoir
Aurora Reservoir
Aurora Reservoir
Homestead Crater, Utah
Homestead Crater, Utah
Homestead Crater, Utah


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I thought you guys would be interested to know that RRAuction (United States autograph auction house) are currently auctioning an extremely rare complete set of the "Lord of the Rings" books hand signed and inscribed by J.R.R. Tolkien (the signature and inscription are located in the "Two Towers" book). The books are also inscribed by Tolkien's daughter, Priscilla. The starting bid for these items is only $500.
The link to the auction is as follows: http://www.rrauction.com/bidtracker_detail.cfm?IN=843


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Entertainment Photos
Photos: Front Porch Bluegrass Showdown and Contest at Dallas Heritage Village
Photo: Mona Reeder/Staff Photographer
Spanky Neal with the Lonesome Ridge Bluegrass and Bluegrass Gospel band sported overalls to perform in a Dallas competition Saturday. The Front Porch Bluegrass Showdown and Contest was held at Dallas Heritage Village Saturday afternoon, May 31, 2014. The festival was originally scheduled for the front porch, but the steering committee for the event was rained on earlier in the day so it was moved to a pavilion at the Dallas Heritage Village. Ten bands from all over Texas and Louisiana each had 15 minutes to play to compete for cash prizes, with the winners chosen by the audience. (Mona Reeder/The Dallas Morning News)
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text:
Imaginary Heroes
- Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
- Release Date: Dec 17, 2004
User Score
Generally favorable reviews- based on 19 Ratings
User score distribution:
Positive: 15 out of 19
Mixed: 1 out of 19
Negative: 3 out of 19
Review this movie
User Reviews
- User score
- By date
- Most helpful
ChadS.Jul 3, 2006"Imaginary Heroes" is "Ordinary People" with a different brittle, unloving parent, but solid acting trumps originality in this case. In the Robert Redford film, you could imagine that Mary Tyler Moore's character was on valium; here, the subject of drug use is decidedly more blunt. Sigourney Weaver's episode with pot matches Patricia Clarkson's in "Pieces of April" for "Imaginary Heroes" is "Ordinary People" with a different brittle, unloving parent, but solid acting trumps originality in this case. In the Robert Redford film, you could imagine that Mary Tyler Moore's character was on valium; here, the subject of drug use is decidedly more blunt. Sigourney Weaver's episode with pot matches Patricia Clarkson's in "Pieces of April" for laughs. It's a comic highlight along with a priceless self-criticism about minorities and tokenism late in the film. And that's the film's saving grace. It's not a total bummer. "Imaginary Heroes" needs a reevaluation.… Expand
JoshL.Dec 29, 2005I'm amazed at the truly vicious detractors of this movie; I throughly enjoyed it, largely from the great direction, brilliant acting from Weaver, Hirsch, and Daniels, and the engaging story that really compelled me to keep watching. It made me laugh and think and I think a movie that accomplishes that as well as 'Imaginary Heroes' did deserves to be advocated.
TonyB.Dec 28, 2005This is an exceptionally well-acted film, but Emile Hirsch is in danger of being type cast. If you've seen some of his other work, you probably know what I mean. The plot about yet another dysfunctional upper middle class suburban family has more subplots than it can handle and so never really fully realizes any of them.
MichaelB.Jul 30, 2005A refreshingly honest film that doesn't shirk from some of the brutalities of family life. Sigourney Weaver excels in her role as the mother/wife.
RoyT.Jul 19, 2005Slow, drowsy, horrible theme, weird, awkward and very depressing BUT great acting, empathic characters, unique type of comedy and drama, really deep, so in a way a good movie worth your while.
JeffLJun 13, 2005The human emotion and characterization are very well done. The story is unique and always entertaining.
BeauM.Mar 30, 2005How some of you are dissing this movie is just a testament to how people are unable to recognize good efforts. This was a wonderful movie...not a perfect one, mind you, but this was a fantastic effort with great performances and an excellent script. I fully intend on watching it again in theaters, and possibly even buying it on DVD.
MarcD.Feb 20, 2005No doubt, there are many cliches in this one, but there's just enough genuine human emotion to make it worth it. I still don't think that Hirsch has the skills to pull off his character, but Sigourney Weaver more than makes up for it. What a great actress she is.
SarahC.Feb 18, 2005This movie is just so bad it's hard to describe!!! It is guilty of having contempt for the audience. It thinks we are so naive and dumb that all of these unlikely events and cartoony characters will milk sympathy and tears. But instead, all it got from my audience was bunches of sighs and yawns and people walking out early. I regret staying!
MarilynJFeb 11, 2005There is so much melodrama and unrealistic events crammed into two hours, it is almost like a parody of a good drama. i think the only reason we did not see spousal abuse and rape tackled is because they ran out of time. it feels like the filmmakers are holding up a big sign begging for an oscar. thankfully even with miss weaver's casting, i do not think anyone is listening.
[Anonymous]Feb 9, 2005Fantastic script.
JohnK.Jan 26, 2005Well it sucks if MH couldnt relate to it but that doesn't mean it's a bad movie. I thought I was watching a portal into my own life -- I was riveted. Great movie if you care about examining the roots of unhappiness and depression in dysfunctional families.
MHJan 23, 2005A really awful movie becuase it never made a case for why I should care about some upper middle class white family and how depressed and wretched they are.
A sharply observed tragicomedy that draws laughter as genuinely as it coaxes tears, the nicely paced film tempers its themes of loss and sorrow with a cynically witty edge and is graced by a perfectly pitched Sigourney Weaver performance.
The film sways awkwardly back and forth between prickly humor and pathos, rarely ringing true in either register.
The stand-up performance is still that of the mom--Sigourney Weaver, making the most of the meatiest part she's had in years


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Definition of thyrotropin-releasing hormone in English:
thyrotropin-releasing hormone
(also thyrotropin-releasing factor)
A hormone secreted by the hypothalamus that stimulates release of thyrotropin.
Example sentences
- Secretion of TSH (also called thyrotropin), the final member of the glycoprotein hormone family, is stimulated by thyrotropin-releasing hormone, TRH from the hypothalamus.
- In patients with primary hypothyroidism, there is increased production of thyrotropin-releasing hormone, which may stimulate prolactin release.
- Suckling, stress, dehydration, exercise, sexual intercourse and sleep increase the basal secretion rate from the pituitary gland, as do estrogen, thyrotropin-releasing hormone and possibly serotonin.
For editors and proofreaders
Syllabification: thy·ro·tro·pin-re·leas·ing hor·mone
Definition of thyrotropin-releasing hormone in:
What do you find interesting about this word or phrase?
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Monroe County will guarantee repayment of a $4.25 million loan to be used as the local share of an Interstate 80 interchange improvement project in Pocono Township.
County commissioners unanimously agreed Wednesday to throw the weight of county taxpayers behind the repayment, paving the way for officials to secure a $15 million federal earmark for improvements to I-80 exits 298 and 299 and adjacent Route 715.
The loan from Penn Security Bank will be taken out by the Pocono Mountains Industrial Park Authority, an independent industrial development agency.
The Industrial Authority is borrowing the money at 3.36 percent interest with repayment over five years. The bank sought the county guarantee.
Chuck Leonard, the authority's executive director, said his agency expects to repay the loan in less than five years. He said the local match might be less than $4.25 million.
The exact project specifications haven't been finalized. Work might include improving the I-80 interchanges, upgrading the intersection of 715 and Sullivan Trail and widening road shoulders.
"The need for these improvements had been identified at least 30 years ago," Leonard said.
The Pocono Record has spotlighted this intersection as particularly troublesome given its layout. Exit and entrance ramps are side-by-side, separated by a concrete median. But motorists can easily confuse one for the other and end up going the wrong way into exiting traffic.
The project will enable more traffic to move through the area and could lead to hundreds of additional jobs from nearby employers, Leonard said.
Several businesses near the intersections — including Mount Airy Casino, Camelback, the owner of Pocono Summit and Northampton Community College — have made financial commitments to the project, said Leonard, though he wouldn't say how much.
In other business, the commissioners agreed to post online for at least one week a proposed final memorandum of understanding between the county and NCC for a county guarantee of $31 million to be used for a new campus.
The commissioners agreed to the posting after a resident asked for an opportunity for the public to react to the document.
The county's solicitor, John Dunn, is negotiating terms with an NCC attorney. The county loan for NCC is expected to be covered in full by Mount Airy Casino state grant funds, though minority Republican Commissioner Janet Weidensaul and several residents have voiced concerns about the taxpayer guarantee and likelihood that enough casino funds will continue to be generated.
Location, ST | website.com


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Send flowers to your grandparents to let them know you think they are really grand. Hand-delivered by a local florist.
Our bouquets are all hand-arranged and delivered right to their door, so they're the perfect gift for a long-distance grandma and grandpa! If your grandad or nana is elderly and lives in a retirement village or nursing home, take all four generations of the family; children, grandchildren and the great-grandkids, to visit with them.
Did you inherit a green thumb from your grandparents? They'd appreciate a Grandparents Day gift like a plant or a basket of beautiful African violets. Of course, grandparents always love anything that will always remind them of you, so you might want to opt for colorful flowers that arrive in a keepsake vase or reusable mug. When you order flowers for your grandmother/grandfather, they will be personally delivered by a florist, fresh and ready to be enjoyed immediately. Sending flowers for Grandparents Day would mean the world to the people who've always thought the world of you.
They have a wealth of knowledge and experience. The stereotype of an aged, ailing, bald or grey-haired, retired, denture wearing grandparent is out of step with reality. Many grandparents are in their forties, fifties and sixties and still in the workforce and leading active lives. Many offer financial and emotional support for their children and act as a surrogate parent. Whatever their age and role in your life, there's bound to be something that's just right for your Grandparents Day gift. Whether it's a traditional bouquet of roses, or something kind of colorful and jazzy, you're sure to find something that will be a perfect fit for your grandparents. (And for your wallet.)


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2015-2016 Season
by Tom Dudzick
November 6 – 21, 2015
Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 PM
Sunday, November 8 and 15 at 3:00 PM
Andy has a sweet Catholic mother, a sour Catholic father and a severely developmentally disabled younger brother named Mickey. When he brings his Jewish atheist fiancé to meet the folks on Christmas Eve, his worst fears about family blow-ups are realized. But when Mickey, whose entire vocabulary has been limited to "oh boy" and "wow," suddenly spouts the word "Greetings!" the entire family's belief system is turned upside down. For it seems an ancient, wise and witty spirit who is set upon healing the family's wounds has borrowed Mickey's body!
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)
Written by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield
April 22 – May 7, 2016
Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 PM
Sunday, April 24 and May 1 at 3:00 PM
All 37 Plays in 97 Minutes! An irreverent, fast-paced romp through the Bard's plays, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) was London's longest-running comedy having clocked a very palpable nine years in London's West End at the Criterion Theatre! Join these madcap men in tights as they weave their wicked way through all of Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories and Tragedies in one wild ride that will leave you breathless and helpless with laughter.


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MORE THAN A HOTEL ROOM. These smartly appointed Waikiki hotel rooms in Honolulu were thoughtfully designed for maximum comfort and enjoyment in Oahu's only Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star Hotel. Italian marble bathrooms with deep soaking tubs and a washlet, floor-to-ceiling windows, 42" flat screen HDTV, a Sony radio with iPod docking stations and a DVD player are a few of the features of a Studio. Most of these Honolulu accommodations also have a pull out sofa bed and a fully-equipped kitchenette and all come with impeccable service that has garnered the hotel critical acclaim from our guests.
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