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Snake of Rainbow Quartz
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Somewhere Spoopy
Posts: 1,614
*Sigh* Y'know, it's kinda annoying to see so many scrubs register and be unable to help the along their ways. So I'm gonna go ahead and try to fix that issue here, and maybe earn a few star shards as I go~! Using ol' Kamen's starting post, if he doesn't mind!
- - -
Having gathered up his new gear, Cameron had little time to place it in his bag before he had to chase down the clearly excited doduo. Thankfully, Mystia already knew where to go, so the walk was a lot less stressful than it could have been. Sure enough, the pair soon see the log cabin that served as the 'town center' despite being on the fringes of the village: the one and only Viridian Gym!
"Ah, hello!" a voice calls out to Cameron as he walks into the building. The source was a rather unimpressive-looking young man, with plain brown hair and a t-shirt with the gym's insignia emblazoned on the front. "Welcome to the Viridian Gym- I'm sure you knew what this place was already, though." He gave a small cough, clearly biding a few seconds to remember what he was supposed to say next. "Anyways, most of our staff are a bit busy with their own business, so we can't offer any training hours for the time being. May we interest you in a quest?" he motioned to the billboard further in the room. "We do have a few today, but it's fine if you don't want to!"
- - -
Cameron has a couple of small 'quests' he could potentially take at this time:
-A) The first is a plea for help removing a small weedle infestation in one of the flower beds. However, because the weedle run off at the first sign of conflict, none of them will be catchable. It will take a while to clear out the entire field, though it ultimately won't be too difficult to do on it's own.
-B) The second is a bit of a fetch quest, requiring Cameron to to deliver berries from the same field to the marketplace and a bundle of equipment back to the it. Again, it's little more than busy work, however it gives Mystia fewer opportunities to gain experience.
He can, of course, opt not to take either quest, thus creating route C).
Regardless of what path he decides to take, he will witness a group of flabebe, one for each color, being harassed by a pair of pidgey. The whole group will disperse if approached, though the white flabebe will linger for a second longer than the rest once the birds flee before following it's brethren. !) If he ignores the scene, the whole group will make it's way in the direction of the berry field. ?)
-A!) The weedle elimination process will go smoothly at first, but the pidgey will eventually show back up and start scaring the weedle back towards the field. Cameron then has to choose between continuing as things are (which will ultimately fail) or challenging the pidgey. This time, they won't fly away immediately- rather, one will take on the challenge head on. Once it takes too much damage, however, it's partner will try to join in, only to be attacked by two of the flabebe. Both pidgey should go down easily from there, though the white flabebe will be heavily injured in the process. Should Cameron give it an oran berry, it will decide to join him but refuse to help with the weedle (for obvious reasons). Once it's partner is sure the white'll be alright, it will meet back up with the other three and disappear into the night. Once he signs out, he will receive $200, 2 star shards, and a basic berry of his choice for his efforts.
-B!) Delivering the berries will go by without incident, but the should the pidgey will steal the tool package as the Cameron is about to take it. Even if he were to try to ride Mystia to catch up to them, they'd quickly lose him. A young woman with a growlithe will see the encounter and introduce herself as Anne, offering to help track the birds by means of scent. If he accepts the offer, they will track the pidgey to their nest, where quite a few other stolen goods will be found, though the pidgey themselves have already moved on to what ever dastardly deeds they may be attempting to do next. Anne will suggest that Cameron finish his delivery and let her call up the authorities. Upon arriving to the field, he will find one of the pidgey waiting for him, eager to fight. This time, the battle will be uninterrupted and it will be catchable. From there, all he has to do is finally turn in the package and check out to finish the quest, earning $200, a star shard, and two basic berries of his choice. Declining Anne's initial offer will cause the quest to fail.
-C!) Once the pokemon have gone their separate ways, Cameron can either try to chase the birds or go his own way, since the little pixies have already faded from view. Should he chase the birds, he will eventually run into Anne, who will explain that they have been causing a lot of trouble recently and she'd been hunting them down as part of a quest of her own. He can offer to help her, perhaps explaining what he had witnessed in the process, at which point she'll accept the offer and have her growlithe lead them both to the nest. This will corner the birds, who will go into 'cornered animal' mode and attack the two trainers. Like last time, the pidgey Cameron faces off against is capturable. Once both birds are incapacitated, be it through capture or otherwise, He can help her gather up the stolen goods and turn them in to the police, earning $100 and a star shard for helping Anne with her quest.
Both the pidgey and the flabebe are level 4 with no egg moves.
Should he, for whatever
Tangled Feet- "Only I have the right to hit me!"
Oh, hello
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 926
I have a few comments before I divulge my verdict. I'd like to start off by saying that while your update is a tad short, it is very well written and I enjoyed reading it. I like how the Gym Trainer had to pause and remember what to say. That bit did a good job of giving a seemingly insignificant character a bit of personality and maybe something to go off of later. Like I said before, the update was a little short, but not unacceptably so. Maybe in the future you could describe the gym a little bit more? What does the inside of the gym look like? Are there other trainers milling about doing stuff or is it just Cameron and the Gym Trainer? Again, just something to think about.
As for your quests, I think they're very cute, great for a starting trainer. We're giving a bit more money than that for quests, and I think we're giving new captures egg moves? At least, we have been at the early levels, which is where pretty much everyone is. But all in all, I think they were good. So....
Approved 1/3! Congrats! Good luck!
Yup yup!
Echoing Sav's statements on most things here. Though with egg moves on new captures it tends to depend on the 'mon and how much they worked for it.
That said... Approved 2/3
Wild Future - FizzBy
Daisy wins at life for making this Battle Cut
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 2,754
Nothing to say that hasn't been said. Pidgey and Flabebe are both mon that could probably do with an Egg Move, though.
Either way, nice work 3/3 Approved.
League President
Well At Least I'll Get Critique
Dave's Intro Post
With the port on your mind your mind you take a general look around you, but before can take in much info you notice a small toddler aged girl with blonde pigtails in what appears to be a tattered pink dress. Noticing you the girl runs towards you, with now apparent tears running down her face. Upon reaching you the girl looks up teary eyed, before frantically saying:
"Sir Help! A thug is having his pokemon hurt my mommy, I don't know why he's doing it but please you gotta help! Please I don't want to lose her too!" But before you can reply she takes your hand and pulls you along, the abruptness of the situation leaving you with little choice but to go along with things. Before you know it the girl has lead you past a number of buildings and lead you into an alley, where in you hear a hard thud, followed by what sounds like a pain induced grunt, the source of these sounds becoming clear once you've reached the end of the alley, a large man wearing a leather jacket and his Machop towering above the crumpled form of a humanoid. This form is soon revealed to be the girl's mother as she screams out "MOMMY!", this causing the man and his pokemon to turn around and look your way, seeing you, your pokemon and the girl the man says "Hah, looks like the runt found a little helper 'hmm, well not to so little. Anyway, Machop let's kick their ass too, then we can make sure that little shit that brought him here never runs again."
Quest Outline:
If Dave agrees to help the girl she will lead him down a nearby alley where he will encounter a large man and his Machop who will turn from the girl's injured mother and engage him in a battle.
If he beats the Machop the thug will make a run for it, pushing past him and running off into the distance. If Dave loses the sound of police sirens will scare off the thug instead. Regardless of outcome Dave will notice a Machoke fist insignia on the thug's jacket.
Once the thug has fled Dave will be called over by the mother who will give him the number of a local doctor before passing out from her injuries, calling the doctor will have him come over in a van, which he will use to transport Dave, the mother and the child to his home where he will take care of the injuries and give Dave a rundown of the gang and their history with the daughter's family as well as explaining that the police are offering a reward to anyone who can put a stop to gang's activities. The daughter pleads for Dave to help as well.
If Dave agrees to help the doctor will tell him a location that members of the gang are known to target, upon reaching this location Dave will overhear a bunch of gang members talking about a warehouse as well as the time an item of special importance to their boss will be transported there as well as when it will be picked up.
Should Dave decide to go to the warehouse when the item is being transported to it he will overhear one of the transporters say the location of where the item will be in the warehouse as well as what it will be held in, allowing him to get to it with ease. If Dave opts to go between the time after the item has been dropped and picked up, he will wander around inside, encountering up to 2 weak trainers depending on his choices.
Upon finding the item he will find out what it is, something capable of bringing the gang's leadership down. He will be given the option to either give the item to the family he previously helped out, allowing them to collect the reward from the police and achieve a better financial situation, or keep it and collect the reward himself.
Quest Rewards:
If Dave opts to give it to the family he will receive a Rare Candy
If Dave opts to turn the item into the police, he will receive 1 Star Shard and $600
Life, but a series of paths and flows
Down many one can go
May yours run smoothly and be soft to your feet
Last edited by Zelphon; 08-16-2016 at 08:00 PM.
Oh, hello
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 926
Okay, I'm trying not to judge you too heavily based on this alone, but your update feels rushed. I get the vibe that you didn't put much thought into writing it, and that you may not have even proofread it. Or even put it through a spellchecker or something. Definitely spend more time on your updates, as it's a service you are providing your updatee. Personally, I recommend reading each update out loud before posting it, with the phrasing your punctuation indicates. It makes it ridiculously simple to find typos, run-on sentences, spelling errors, and other odd grammatical hiccups. Unfortunately, I have some other qualms with your application.
I'm not sure I like how the girl just grabs Dave's arm and launches him into the quest. In the outline you said, "If Dave agrees to help the girl she will lead him down a nearby alley where he will encounter a large man and his Machop who will turn from the girl's injured mother and engage him in a battle." However, your update doesn't actually give Dave a choice. And I think that choice of whether or not to take on a quest is important. I've rejected a quest before, purely on the basis that I didn't like the Pokemon that I was likely to capture. Which actually brings me to my next point.
Earlier I said that I personally don't put too much stock in the quest outline provided it shows you have some sort of plot worked out that makes sense. You did that, and it leaves you with flexibility to roll with whatever your updatee sends your way, maybe resulting in something different than you originally planned. And the quest is a good one, it's a good mixture of a few quests that I've seen or am currently in the process of giving right now. The issue here is that you don't seem to have planned for a capture. First quests always have a capture opportunity. As an adventure gets on in length, capture opportunities become more sparse, but the first two or three quests will typically provide a budding trainer with a beginning squad.
Unfortunately, I think I'm going to say Rejected for now. I think this app was pretty close, but that lack of capture kind of put me over the edge. If other updaters feel that I'm wrong they should feel free to call me out, though.
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 2,754
Agree with pretty much everything Savvy said. Don't get discouraged by the rejection though, Zelphy- I'm sure there are several updaters who would be more than happy to help you get better, myself included!
A New and Original Person
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 949
Lack of capture aside, the reward is still way too small.
WF Main Adventure Thread
Cade Morton
Problematic Fave
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: VA
Posts: 3,197
I'll be using Snorby's intro post!
Super simple quest but it's fun for the whole family.
It's a beautiful afternoon for adventuring - the morning still hasn't quite shaken the dew off, and you look back a few times with a little bemusement at the sizeable footprints in the sparkling, pale grass that track your progress. It feels good to move again, and as you wander down the path, a little reminiscence about your time in the military catches you off guard. Though it's slightly bittersweet, there are many reasons to smile. So you do.
You find your feet turning to the East, where a shimmering field of gold catches your eye. You heard from travelers and visitors that Ecruteak was protected from disaster by magical guardian spirits who planted trees of shining gold, but had never actually been to see such a thing. Well, you think, chuckling with just the barest hint of defiance, now's my chance. As you continue, however, with a slight spring in your step, you suddenly become aware of footsteps behind you. Cautiously, you turn your head to glance behind you, senses tingling, only to see a small redheaded boy shyly walking after you. He sniffles quickly.
"E-excuse me, mister? You're really tall. My Meowth climbed up a tree and got stuck...can you help me get her down please?"
I'm a bad person.
If Snorby chooses to ignore the kid, nothing happens and he'll make it to the outskirts of Ecruteak more or less uneventfully. Once he reaches the outskirts, he will randomly encounter a wild level 3 Pidgey with the egg move Pursuit.
If Snorby helps out the kid (because he is a Good person, which I am not), he will follow him into the forest. The kid will loudly chatter about his name and Meowth's name, this and that and the other, skipping along in a good mood. Then he will point to a Meowth with a chipped coin in a tree.
It's pretty much up to Snorby how he decides to get the Meowth out of the tree. I imagine 3 options:
1. He climbs the tree personally to get the cat out.
2. He uses Machop to get the cat down.
3. He uses Machop (and maybe himself in combination, he has MUSCLES) to attack the tree and destroy it, retrieving the (shaken) cat.
Three older redheaded ruffians will sneak up behind him while he is busy with the cat and try to attack him, demanding money and items.
1. If he fights the ruffians, they will use Meowths of their own. All of their Meowths have chipped and cracked coins. All Meowths are level 3, and know the moves Scratch and Growl. The boys are not exactly master tacticians, and will only send their Meowths in one at a time.
2. He may try diplomacy/intimidation. Depends on how well he writes the dialogue, tbh. It's almost never going to work, but he may put up a convincing argument.
Once the older boys are gone, the original boy will sneak out from behind a tree, awestruck, and wordlessly hand Snorby a Star Piece and three Oran Berries. Mouthing a "You rock," he will disappear into the forest. On his way back to the path, Snorby will also encounter a level 2 Meowth with a healthy, shiny coin and the Egg move Punishment. He may capture, defeat, or pet it. It is holding $500 in a pouch around its neck. Even if Snorby decides not to capture it, it will still drop its money.
3. He can just book it I guess! In this case he gets nothing for his troubles, but when he reaches Ecruteak, he will meet that level 3 wild Pidgey with Pursuit.
[Wild Future] | [ASB]
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 2,754
The update itself is a little short and bunnies just a little bit- that's fine, bunnying is natural for new updaters. If you need to fill out an update but don't want to bunny, focus on the characters surroundings and characters you have control over (everyone other than the MC and his/her pokemon). You could describe the boy in more detail, perhaps, or have him do more than simply run up and talk.
As for the quest, don't give them anything if they just ditch the quest. No need to have them encounter a Pidgey. Just give them a new quest.
Additionally, I'd recommend having the Meowth the character captures play a more significant role. In WF, a pokemon just strolling up and getting captured doesn't really make much sense. Perhaps you could rework it so the Meowth stuck in the tree is the wrong Meowth, the one you have the character catch, and after you get that Meowth down the boy realizes the redheaded ruffians actually have his Meowth held hostage. Then the Meowth the character helped will fight alongside Machop against the ruffians' Meowth, 2v3. You could do that, or do something else entirely, but the important thing is that the Meowth Ted eventually captures isn't just some stray he happens upon and captures willy-nilly. Reward seems fine a little small, though the quest is fairly simple so it's not a dealbreaker.
There's a few problems, but they're honestly easily fixable ones imo so I wouldn't feel comfortable rejecting this. Another update is welcome to disagree, though.
Approved 1/3
Yup yup!
Snorby pretty much hit the nail on the head on this one but I really have to stress the difference between outright bunnying and nudging a character along for the sake of story. Getting a character to move a certain direction instinctively or because those around them are doing so is usually fine for the sake of not making things take forever, outright stating their thoughts, however, is pretty much the biggest no-no in the book. So just try not to do that sort of thing and you'll be fine.
Approved 3/3
Wild Future - FizzBy
Daisy wins at life for making this Battle Cut
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Accenture Strategy's most recent Global Consumer Pulse Research has found that customer experiences (CX) improved in several areas last year. Unfortunately, these modest gains were offset by falling or stagnant performance in other areas—from customer frustrations and trust to their propensity to switch providers.
Customer expectations continue to soar. This puts companies in a tough position. Many are simply perpetuating an endless game of catch-up, trying to satisfy a customer base that may never be satisfied.
Competitive advantage will no longer come from meeting customer demands. To thrive in the years ahead, companies must exceed those demands by a significant margin. Three areas of opportunity will help them do just that.
Accenture Strategy's most recent Global Consumer Pulse Research found that customer satisfaction and participation in loyalty programs has increased by one or two percentage points over the past year in all industries. The effectiveness of loyalty programs is also on the rise. Unfortunately, the modest gains in these areas were offset by falling or stagnant performance in other areas. For example:
61 percent of customers globally switched companies due to poor service in 2017.
This figure is consistent with reports of switching in 2016. But it is 2 percentage points higher than what we found when we launched our Global Consumer Pulse Research 10 years ago.
Customer frustration with marketing and sales practices increased by an average of 2.8 percent across every category.
Failing to deliver on promises, being difficult to work with, and mishandling personal information are the top three sources of discontent.
Perhaps most tellingly, 23 percent of customers trust companies much less today than they did five years ago.
In the US alone, 41 percent of customers who switched providers did so because of an issue of trust.
Despite these findings, we believe investments in virtually all areas of CX are worthwhile. That's because even if CX investments are not translating into revenue gains, they are likely helping to prevent further erosion of customer satisfaction and loyalty.
For the past five years, approximately one-third of customers have indicated that their expectations for service and support are greater than they were the prior year. The specific experiences customers expect have remained fairly consistent for years. Topping the list is speed, followed by convenience.
The fact that so many customers place higher expectations on companies year after year makes it tremendously challenging for individual companies to get ahead. Companies invest in CX initiatives to engage customers, strengthen relationships and ultimately grow their businesses. The problem is not that companies are investing in the wrong things. More likely, it is that their CX improvements are simply not keeping pace with customer expectations.
Our research suggests that three large, distinct and relatively untapped pockets of CX value exist.
In 2017, more than half (53 percent) of customers in mature markets switched away from at least one of their providers. In emerging markets, the figure is 25 percent higher. Poor experiences are one of the main reasons customers leave. After having a bad customer experience, 46 percent of customers shifted a portion of their spending to another provider. And 47 percent immediately stopped doing business with that company.
Digging deeper into the characteristics of poor experiences, we found that the top three sources of customer frustration included having to contact the company multiple times for the same reason (cited by 60 percent of respondents), dealing with unfriendly or impolite employees (56 percent), and failure to deliver on promises made at the time of purchase (55 percent). Interestingly, there is remarkably little change over the past three years in terms of the things companies do to frustrate their customers with regard to customer service. Mitigating these and other frustrations will go far to create the CX consumers now demand.
Success today calls for hyper-relevance, or the ability to meet customers' needs and expectations in real time and in response to their changing circumstances. Hyper-relevance requires two things:
Personalized & contextual data. Nearly 30 percent of customers now expect companies with which they engage to know more about them than ever before. Further, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and extended ecosystems of partners make it possible for companies to capture real-time snapshots of customers and achieve new levels of insight to keep them engaged.
Digital trust. Our research found that personalization that is built on trust is critically important to 43 percent of customers. Further, 88 percent of customers find a company that can personalize their experience without compromising trust to be much more appealing and relevant to their needs.
By eliminating trust barriers with new practices, controls and governance structures, companies can use data in new and exciting ways to deliver the experiences that customers demand—and even some they don't yet realize they desire.
Customers see AI technologies as valuable tools through which answers, support or more convenient transactions can be delivered. Half of customers no longer care if they are interacting with humans or AI-enabled technologies. And 44 percent of consumers use some type of virtual assistant—22 percent do so daily.
Companies can seize upon customers' growing AI acceptance to transform CX with fast, highly relevant virtual support. This will involve combining human skills, AI capabilities and analytics to enable proactive consultation and decision-making. Where can AI add the most value? Our research revealed some of the possibilities, including the monitoring of home energy use, home security and consumers' health.
Breaking through the CX stagnation requires more than meeting customers' expectations. It calls for exceeding customer demands by a significant margin. We believe a focus on switching mitigation, hyper-relevance and AI can re-energize CX and set companies on a course to sustainable competitive advantage and growth.

subset: commoncrawl


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Produce Results LLC necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 73 diseños de 14 diseñadores freelance.
Force Home Services
We have an existing logo from the company (formerly called "Air Force Heating and Air Conditioning"), file attached. We are looking for consistency, and a refinement and transition in this logo. A better logo, but not necessarily a new direction.
The red/ blue combo and the snowflake/ sun icons are pretty cliche, it's up to the designer whether to keep colors or elements, or find a new way to display them. If so, you'll need a new color and/or icon for plumbing. But really we're looking to be a little more classy than the typical pipe wrench icon. Some type of unique icon or "bug" that incorporates the 3 services might be a good solution.
It needs to say the words "Force Home Services", and should have a optional tag line that reads "Heating - Air Conditioning - Plumbing".
The typeface for the word "Force" definitely needs to be lightened up, and be less masculine and "forceful".
Needs to have the values of: reliable, safe, secure, strong work ethic, fast, professional, clean.
Current colors that have been used are inconsistent, but feel free to incorporate any. Again, they are cliche, but if the logo is refined and unique enough I think we can leave the colors. Here's what has been used in current marketing efforts:
Red - PMS 185 C, PMS 1788 C, CMYK 0-95-98-0
Blue - PMS Process Cyan, CMYK 100-0-0-0, CMYK 75-23-0-0
Homeowners, more women then men, but not exclusive to women. Usually they've found that women shop for Heating/ AC/ Plumbing repair, and the men make the final financial decision.
Ideal target is upper/middle-class families, educated, greater than $80,000 income, greater than $125,000 home value. Looking for customers for life, not just one repair or installation.
They need to feel like this is a company that is reliable, will answer phone calls and show up for appointments, won't take their money and run, won't overcharge or rip them off.
All files must vector files, designed in Adobe Illustrator. Provide in ".AI" format.
If you are the winner, we require full copyright release on logo artwork.
Designer must supply font(s) used in the artwork, in addition to outlining fonts in the file. Ideal font format is True Type ".TTF"
Present logos in color and black/grayscale (it must work for both). For color, use Pantone (PMS) ink colors from the solid/coated color book.
Don't use any stock images or clip art - original artwork only.
Some examples of refined, slightly feminine, unique classy logos:
Industry/Competition logos - what NOT to do:
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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A photo below, courtesy of Cris Moffitt, shows a sliver of the thousands of bikes at the yard in North Carolina. Keaks (Kirsten Korosec) has been working on a big(ish) story about JUMP for the last week. Meanwhile, we noticed Superpedestrian, the startup that makes self-diagnosing electric scooters, has teamed up with Zagster.
Nissan (NSANY) incurs fiscal 2019 loss of 671.2 billion yen, which marks the worst in two decades. Meanwhile, AutoZone (AZO) tops fiscal Q3 earnings estimates despite coronavirus woes.
Since even before its IPO, top electric-car maker Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) has faced tough questions about its future. After that, they were skeptical about the economics of manufacturing a mass-market electric car. Throughout it all, Tesla's reputation, its footprint, and -- for the most part, anyway -- its share price grew and grew and grew (as did its debt load; more on that later).
The mission is a milestone in Musk's drive to make space travel less expensive, marking the first time a commercially developed spaceship will have carried Americans into orbit.
The Tesla CEO's aggressive criticism of stay-at-home orders could alienate wealthy coastal liberals, who make up the brand's core demographic.
Tesla (TSLA) reported earnings 30 days ago. What's next for the stock? We take a look at earnings estimates for some clues.
The Tesla CEO meets milestones to earn his first tranche of performance pay, but not all shareholders approve.
If you think Zoom Video Communications is overvalued, has no moat, and has security issues, just remember that these are all issues Tesla had to overcome as well to deliver amazing shareholder returns.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Stocks were supposed to be mired in a bear market after they plunged in March as the coronavirus pandemic shuttered business and sent U.S. unemployment to its highest rate since the Great Depression.Even a 62% recovery by the S&P 500 Index by the middle of May failed to comfort experts like billionaire money managers Stan Druckenmiller and David Tepper , who characterized stocks as the worst investments of their careers. They weren't alone; amid an estimated 47% collapse in gross domestic product, fewer than a quarter of respondents to an Evercore ISI survey said they expected the next 10% move in the market to be higher.So far, though, stocks have held their own as economic indicators sagged, regaining 37% of their value from the low point in mid-March. "The stock market looks increasingly divorced from economic reality," a New York Times article on the phenomenon proclaimed.Or maybe not — not if you think of it as the Microsoft market. No company has defied the pessimism more than Microsoft Corp., and for a lot of sensible reasons. The Seattle-based maker of global business and consumer software led all publicly traded companies most of the year with a $1.4 trillion market valuation, exceeded only by Saudi Arabian Oil Co. which isn't yet freely traded.Unlike the largest fossil fuel company, which lost 13% since its December $1.9 trillion initial public offering, Microsoft is within 5% of its Feb. 11 record high and appreciated $947 billion since 2015, more than any of the 10 largest companies, including Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. The gap between Microsoft and Aramco narrowed to $229 billion from $840 billion, a trend likely to continue amid weak global growth in the months ahead.That's because Microsoft, unlike Aramco, is a mainstay of the global economy, developing and supplying 75% of the operating systems used by computers and servers worldwide, according to the market-analysis company IDC.Microsoft's vast infrastructure and productivity applications enable companies, governments and individuals to navigate increasing social and workforce disruption caused by the pandemic and other disasters stoked by global warming and climate change.As one of the anchors of the Nasdaq 100 Index (more than 80% are technology firms) Microsoft signifies the growing dependence of the economy on these companies, which this year outperformed the Dow Jones Industrial Average by the most since 2000 (Nasdaq 100 gained 8% as the DJIA lost 10%), according to data compiled by Bloomberg."Microsoft could emerge stronger than most of its rivals once the Covid-19 crisis subsides, in our view, as enterprises spend more to upgrade their infrastructure and applications, translating into above-consensus, double-digit sales growth from fiscal 2022-2021," said Anurag Rana, a senior analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence in a May 15 report. "Its deep portfolio of cloud products, client relationships and security spending are differentiators."Such confidence is prompted by the past five quarters, when Microsoft earnings for the first time exceeded forecasts by at least 10% after beating the average of analyst estimates in all but one of the 23 quarters since 2015, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Unlike its five more glamorous peers — Facebook Inc., Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google (Alphabet) — Microsoft has an uninterrupted growth rate with the least volatility, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.To be sure, the Faang companies and similar technology marvels retained much of their value during the Coronavirus pandemic. Netflix has gained 28% since the end of 2019; Amazon is up 30%, Apple 9%, Facebook 10%. Tesla Inc., the maker of electric, battery-powered vehicles, rallied 93% since the end of 2019 and is worth just $59 billion less than No. 1 Toyota Motor Corp.Tesla anticipated the remotely engaged economy by selling its vehicles online and improving the customer experience with periodic, automatic software upgrades. The traditional auto companies haven't fared well. Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, is down 24% since the end of 2019 and General Motors Co., the largest U.S. auto maker, declined 28% and is worth only 26% of Tesla's current market capitalization of $149 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.That's why the Dow, once the benchmark of corporate America, is a shadow of its former self as industrial companies represent just 9% of the average, down from 16% in 2000, according to data compiled by Bloomberg."Microsoft already had a great relationship with Fortune 2000 tech departments because of its dominance in Windows and Office software products," said Bloomberg's Rana in a recent interview. "As these legacy companies look to invest more digitally transforming their business post Covid-19, Microsoft should get its fair share of work" — lifting the stock market as it helps transform the economy.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Matthew Winkler, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of Bloomberg News, writes about markets.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Tesla (TSLA) closed the most recent trading day at $805.81, moving -1.76% from the previous trading session.
The fortified alliance among Renault (RNLSY), Nissan (NSANY) and Mitsubishi focuses more on efficiency and competitiveness than on volumes.
In a surprise move, electric-car maker Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) cut the prices of some of vehicles by as much as 6% this week. While investors can't know for sure exactly what spurred the decision for the price decrease, it almost certainly reflected an effort to increase demand for its vehicles. Further, it's possible that price cuts also reflected improved manufacturing costs.
As we've seen recently, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) had larger gains than the broader market, but the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) and Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) also managed to pick up ground. Among individual stocks, Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) shares were surprisingly little changed, even after the electric automaker announced a move that made some fear that vehicle demand could be weaker than previously believed. Tesla shares were up a fraction of a percent Wednesday following news overnight that the automaker had chosen to cut prices of some its vehicles.
What happened Shares of Chinese electric-vehicle maker NIO (NYSE: NIO) were trading higher amid a broad-based rally on Wednesday afternoon, after a JPMorgan analyst upgraded the stock ahead of Thursday's earnings report.
(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc.'s overnight price cuts suggest the coronavirus is putting a bigger damper on demand than has been reflected in the electric-car maker's share price.The $5,000 reductions for the Model S and X and $2,000 cut for the Model 3 were an "acknowledgment that Tesla isn't immune to material North American demand weakness," Craig Irwin, an analyst at Roth Capital Partners, said in a report Wednesday."With the stock trading in the stratosphere," Irwin wrote, "the key question is, 'Can Tesla continue to deliver an interesting growth rate in the U.S.?'"Credit Suisse's Dan Levy said the discounts change the narrative around the company's volume this quarter. Prior to the price cuts, investors were concerned demand would be limited by tight inventory. The company shut down production at its lone U.S. auto plant on March 23 and rushed to reopen the facility -- initially without local authorities' permission -- in mid May.Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted at the beginning of the month that Tesla's shares were trading too high in his view. While the tweet dragged down the stock on May 1, it advanced another 18% through Tuesday's close. While analysts have speculated the company's sales will hold up better than the broader industry, forecaster IHS Markit is projecting at least a 22% contraction in global auto deliveries this year."Price cuts are likely tactical and aimed at supporting demand in the U.S. in the context of today's pandemic," Pierre Ferragu, the New Street Research analyst whose $1,100 price target for Tesla's stock is the highest on Wall Street, wrote in a report. He said the Model 3, X and S "all have reached their full potential in the U.S."Tesla erased earlier declines to trade up 0.2% to $820.66 as of 3 p.m. in New York. The stock has almost doubled this year.Read more: Costly Electric Vehicles Confront a Harsh Coronavirus Reality(Updates with New Street Research report in sixth paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Amazon.com Inc.'s interest in acquiring a self-driving car pioneer is the prime example (pun intended) of how expectations for driverless vehicles have been recalibrated.The e-commerce giant is in advanced talks to buy Zoox Inc. for less than the $3.2 billion at which it was valued in 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Given the California-based startup's approach to autonomous cars, its fate is particularly instructive.In a very crowded field, Zoox was practically alone in aiming to build a whole new kind of electric-powered vehicle, and to operate the fleet itself. Peers such as Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo, General Motors Co.'s Cruise unit, Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG's joint venture Argo AI, and Aurora Innovations Inc. have focused solely on developing the self-driving technology that could subsequently be fitted into vehicles.Zoox wanted to be Tesla Inc., Waymo and Uber Technologies Inc. all rolled into one.Back in 2015, that seemed like an attractive proposition. If the triple threat to the automotive industry was autonomous technology, electric drivetrains and ride-hailing, why not embrace all three? After all, there were expectations that by 2020 robotaxis would ferry you around the world's metropolises. Capital flowed into self-driving car startups, typified by the $1 billion GM spent acquiring Cruise in 2016.Those dreams, needless to say, have failed to materialize. Companies that had aimed to jump straight to the fourth of five levels of autonomy have quietly downshifted. (The first level of self-driving encompasses driver-assistance functions such as cruise control, and the fifth is full automation.) Bloomberg New Energy Finance doesn't expect vehicles with Level Four automation to start gaining traction until 2034. Even then, they will likely represent just 831,000 of the 95 million-unit global car market that year.What's more, the expense of developing, building and operating a fleet of self-driving cars would be considerable. Even deep-pocketed Alphabet and GM have sought outside investment for their efforts. Established carmakers are meanwhile focusing their capital on electric cars, a more imminent threat. And owning and operating a fleet is expensive too. Zoox had a tough sell to investors: In 15 years' time, it might have been an attractive business.Which brings us to Amazon. Even if robotaxis aren't coming any time soon, there are alternative applications for autonomous technology that fall squarely in the Seattle-based firm's wheelhouse, namely, logistics. Given Amazon's shipping costs are set to hit $90 billion a year, tech from Zoox could help save $20 billion in shipping costs, according to Morgan Stanley analysts. Its solutions could be used across warehousing and distribution. Buying Zoox could take Amazon's other moves in this field — an existing investment in Aurora and experiments with self-driving truck specialist Embark and electric vanmaker Rivian — to a whole new level.Amazon has become the fantasy acquirer for any number of companies seeking a soft landing: theater chains, brick-and-mortar retailers, food deliverers, mobile carriers, real estate brokers, dental suppliers, film studios and plenty more besides.Sometimes, just sometimes, those deals make sense. Zoox is one of them.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Alex Webb is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Europe's technology, media and communications industries. He previously covered Apple and other technology companies for Bloomberg News in San Francisco.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
The electric vehicle company had strong first-quarter results, but COVID-19 related lockdowns have put a damper on North American car sales.
(Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc.'s talks to buy driverless vehicle startup Zoox Inc. has analysts speculating the deal could save the e-commerce giant tens of billions a year and put auto, parcel and ride-hailing companies on their heels.Shipping costs are one of Amazon's largest expenses and may reach $90 billion in the coming years, Morgan Stanley's internet, auto and transport analysts wrote in a report Wednesday. An autonomous offering could save the company more than $20 billion annually, they estimate."Autonomous technology is a natural extension of Amazon's efforts to build its own third party logistics network," Morgan Stanley's analysts wrote. They see the company being a "clear" competitor to the likes of Tesla Inc. and General Motors Co. and the potential for Amazon to compete in ride-sharing and food delivery. United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp. also "will have to respond to keep up."Other companies in the automotive and chip industries have also held talks with Zoox about a potential investment, according to people familiar with the matter. At least one other business besides Amazon has offered to buy the company, they added. Zoox is unlikely to sell for less than the more than $1 billion that it has raised, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private negotiations."Zoox has been receiving interest in a strategic transaction from multiple parties and has been working with Qatalyst Partners to evaluate such interest," the startup said Tuesday. It declined to comment on Amazon's interest. A spokeswoman for Amazon declined to comment.Zoox had outsize ambition and financial backing. The startup wanted to build a fully driverless car by this year. However, after a 2018 funding round that valued Zoox at $3.2 billion, the startup's board voted to oust Chief Executive Officer Tim Kentley-Klay. The executive criticized the move, saying the directors were "optimizing for a little money in hand at the expense of profound progress."Dow Jones reported that Amazon is in advanced talks to buy Zoox for less than the $3.2 billion valuation from 2018.Amazon is willing to spend heavily to automate its e-commerce business. The online retail giant purchased warehouse robot-maker Kiva Systems Inc. in 2012 for $775 million and now has tens of thousands of robots in warehouses around the world.But paying drivers to deliver packages is still one of the biggest costs in the company's operation. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos announced plans for drone delivery in 2013, though they have yet to materialize at scale. Last year, Amazon revealed an experimental delivery robot called Scout in the Seattle area that rolls on sidewalks like a shopping cart.Last year, Amazon invested along with Silicon Valley venture firm Sequoia Capital in self-driving startup Aurora Innovation Inc., a startup led by the former heads of Google's driverless car project and Tesla's Autopilot team. Amazon also backed Rivian Automotive Inc., the electric pickup and SUV maker. Those bets left Morgan Stanley's auto analyst questioning earlier this month whether Tesla's rich valuation is warranted given the competitive threats the company faces."We often hear from investors that Tesla could potentially be the Amazon of transportation," Adam Jonas, who rates Tesla the equivalent of a hold, wrote in a May 17 report. "But what if Amazon is the Amazon of transportation?"For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Tesla's Model S and X are now priced at $74,990 and $79,990, respectively in North America.
(Bloomberg) -- At a factory near Germany's border with the Czech Republic, Volkswagen AG's ambitious strategy to become the global leader in electric vehicles is coming up against the reality of manufacturing during a pandemic.The Zwickau assembly lines, which produce the soon-to-be released ID.3 electric hatchback, are the centerpiece of a plan by the world's biggest automaker to spend 33 billion euros ($36 billion) by 2024 developing and building EVs. At the site, where an East German automaker built the diminutive Trabant during the Cold War, VW eventually wants to churn out as many as 330,000 cars annually. That would make Zwickau one of Europe's largest electric-car factories—and help the company overtake Tesla Inc. in selling next-generation vehicles.But Covid-19 is putting VW's and other automakers' electric ambitions at risk. The economic crisis triggered by the pandemic has pushed the auto industry, among others, to near-collapse, emptying showrooms and shutting factories. As job losses mount, big-ticket purchases are firmly out of reach—in the U.S., where Tesla is cutting prices, more than 36 million people have filed for unemployment since mid-March. Also, the plunge in oil prices is making gasoline-powered vehicles more attractive, and some cash-strapped governments are less able to offer subsidies to promote new technologies.Even before the crisis, automakers had to contend with an extended downturn in China, the world's biggest auto market, where about half of all passenger EVs are sold. Total auto sales in China declined the past two years amid a slowing economy, escalating trade tensions, and stricter emission regulations. EV sales are forecast to fall to 932,000 this year, down 14% from 2019, according to BloombergNEF. The drop-off is expected to stretch into a third year as China's leaders have abandoned their traditional practice of setting an annual target for economic growth, citing uncertainties. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect just 1.8% GDP growth this year.The global market contraction raises the prospect of casualties. French finance minister Bruno Le Maire has warned that Renault SA, an early adopter of electric cars with models like the Zoe, could "disappear" without state aid. Even Toyota Motor Corp., a hybrid pioneer when it first introduced the Prius hatchback in 1997, is under pressure. The Japanese manufacturer expects profits to tumble to the lowest level in almost a decade.Automakers who for years have invested heavily in a shift to a high-tech future—including autonomous vehicles and other alternative energy-based forms of transportation such as hydrogen—now face a grim test. Do their pre-pandemic plans to build and sell electric cars at a profit have any chance of succeeding in a vastly changed economic climate? Even as Covid-19 has obliterated demand, for the car makers most committed to electric, there's no turning back."We all have a historic task to accomplish," Thomas Ulbrich, who runs Volkswagen's EV business, said when assembly lines restarted on April 23, "to protect the health of our employees—and at the same time get business back on track responsibly."Volkswagen Pushes AheadGlobal EV sales will shrink this year, falling 18% to about 1.7 million units, according to BloombergNEF, although they're likely to return to growth over the next four years, topping 6.9 million by 2024. "The general trend toward electric vehicles is set to continue, but the economic conditions of the next two to three years will be tough," said Marcus Berret, managing director at consultancy Roland Berger.Volkswagen's Zwickau facility became the first auto plant in Germany to resume production after a nationwide lockdown started in March. Before restarting, the company crafted a detailed list of about 100 safety measures for employees, requiring them to, among other things, wear masks and protective gear if they can't adhere to social-distancing rules.The cautious approach has reduced capacity—50 cars per day initially rolled off the Zwickau assembly line, roughly a third of what the plant manufactured before the coronavirus crisis. (VW said Wednesday that daily output had risen to 150 vehicles, with a plan to reach 225 next month.) Persistent software problems also have plagued development of the ID.3, one of 70 new electric models VW group is looking to bring to market in the coming years. Still, Ulbrich and VW CEO Herbert Diess over the past three months have reaffirmed Volkswagen's commitment to electrification. "My new working week starts together with Thomas Ulbrich at the wheel of a Volkswagen ID.3 - our most important project to meet the European CO2-targets in 2020 and 2021," Diess wrote in a post on LinkedIn in April. "We are fighting hard to keep our timeline for the launches to come."Diess has described the ID.3 as "an electric car for the people that will move electric mobility from niche to mainstream." Pre-Covid, the company had anticipated that 2020 would be the year it would prove its massive investments and years of planning for electric and hybrid models would start to pay off.A more pressing worry that could hamper VW's ability to scale up production is its existing inventory of unsold vehicles. The cars need to move to make room for new releases, but sales are down as consumers are tightening their spending. One response has been to offer improved financing in Germany, including optional rate protection should buyers lose their jobs. VW also has adopted new sales strategies first used by its Chinese operations, such as delivering disinfected cars to customer homes for test drives, and expanding online commerce.Other German automakers are similarly pushing ahead with EV plans. Daimler AG is sticking to a plan to flank an electric SUV with a battery-powered van and a compact later this year. BMW AG plans to introduce the SUV-size iNEXT in 2021 as well as the i4, a sedan seeking to challenge Tesla's best-selling Model 3.A potential obstacle for all these companies—apart from still patchy charging infrastructure in many markets—is the availability of batteries. Supply bottlenecks appear inevitable given that the number of electric car projects across the industry outstrip global battery production capacity. And boosting cell manufacturing is a complicated task.China's (Weakened) EV Dominance For VW and others, the first big test of EVs' appeal in a Covid-19 world will come in China. Diess has referred to China as "the engine of success for Volkswagen AG." VW group deliveries returned to growth year-on-year last month in China, while all other major markets declined.Not long ago, China appeared to be leading the world toward an electric future. As part of President Xi Jinping's goal to make the country an industrial superpower by 2025, the government implemented policies that would boost sales of EVs and help domestic automakers become globally competitive, not just in electric passenger cars but buses, too.With the outbreak seemingly under control in much of the country, China is seeing some buyers return to the showrooms, but demand for passenger cars is likely to fall for the third year in a row, putting startups like NIO Inc. at risk and hurting more-established players like Warren Buffett-backed BYD Co., which suffered from a 40% year-on-year vehicle sales decline in the first four months of 2020.The Chinese auto market may shrink as much as 25% this year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, which before the pandemic had been expecting a 2% decline. EV sales fell by more than one-third in the second half of 2019.NIO, the Shanghai-based startup that raised about $1 billion from a New York Stock Exchange initial public offering in 2018 but lost more than 11 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) last year, was thrown a much-needed lifeline when a group of investors, including a local government in China's Anhui Province, offered 7 billion yuan last month.Other Chinese manufacturers are counting on support from the government, too, including tax breaks and an extension to 2022 of subsidies, originally scheduled to end this year, to make EVs more affordable.For now, the government will also look to help makers of internal combustion engine vehicles, at least during the worst of the crisis, said Jing Yang, director of corporate research in Shanghai with Fitch Ratings. But, she said, "over the medium-to-long term, the focus will still be on the EV side."America is Tesla CountryCompanies can't count on that same level of support from President Donald Trump in the U.S., where consumers who love their SUVs and pickup trucks have largely steered clear of electric vehicles other than Tesla's.The U.S. lags China and Europe in promoting the production and sale of EVs, and that gap may widen now that Americans can buy gas for less than $2 a gallon."When you're digging out of this crisis, you're not going to try to do that with unprofitable and low-volume products, which are EVs," said Kevin Tynan, a senior analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence.Weeks after announcing plans to launch EVs for each of its brands, General Motors Co. delayed the unveiling of the Cadillac Lyriq EV originally planned for April. Then on April 29, the company said it would put off the scheduled May introduction of a new Hummer EV. The models are part of CEO Mary Barra's strategy to spend $20 billion on electrification and autonomous driving by 2025, to try to close the gap with Tesla.In another move aimed at winning over Tesla buyers, Ford Motor Co. unveiled its electric Mustang Mach-E last November at a splashy event ahead of the Los Angeles Auto Show. The highly anticipated model had been scheduled to debut this year. Ford has not officially postponed the release, but the company has said all launches will be delayed by about two months, potentially pushing the Mach-E into 2021.Elon Musk, whose cars dominate the U.S. electric market, cut prices by thousands of dollars overnight. The Model 3 is now $2,000 cheaper, starting at $37,990. The Model S and Model X each dropped $5,000.Musk engaged in a high-profile fight with California officials this month over Tesla's factory in Fremont, California, which had been closed by shutdown orders Musk slammed as "fascist." In a May 11 tweet, he said the company was reopening the plant in defiance of county policy. On May 16, Tesla told employees it had received official approval.During most of the shutdown in California, the company managed to keep producing some cars thanks to better relations with local officials regulating its other factory, in Shanghai. That plant closed as the virus spread from Wuhan in late January, but the local government helped it reopen a few weeks later in early February.First Zwickau, Then the WorldThe ID.3's new electric underpinning, dubbed MEB, is key to VW's strategy to sell battery-powered cars on a global scale at prices that will be competitive with similar combustion-engine vehicles. Automakers typically rely on such platforms to achieve economies of scale and, ultimately, profits. MEB will be applied to purely electric vehicles across all of the company's mass-market brands, including Skoda and Seat.VW said it spent $7 billion developing MEB after Ford last year agreed to use the technology for one of its European models. Separately, the group's Audi and Porsche brands are built on a dedicated EV platform for luxury cars that the company says will be vital in narrowing the gap with Tesla.VW plans to escalate its electric-car push by adding two factories, near Shanghai and Shenzhen, that it says could eventually roll out 600,000 cars annually, more cars than Tesla delivered globally last year.While China is the initial goal, making a dent in Europe and the U.S. is the long-term one. Like China, Europe had been tightening emissions regulations significantly before the pandemic. New rules to reduce fleet emissions will gradually start to take effect this year, effectively forcing most manufacturers to sell plug-in hybrids and purely electric cars to avoid steep fines.Because of the mandates, Europe's commitment to electrification isn't going away, said Aakash Arora, a managing director with Boston Consulting Group. "In the long term, we don't see any relaxation in regulation," he said.For VW, this crisis wouldn't be the first time it started a new chapter in difficult times. Diess saw an opportunity coming off the manufacturer's years-long diesel emissions scandal that cost the company more than $33 billion to win approval for the industry's most aggressive push into EVs. When VW unveiled the ID.3, officials compared its historic role to the iconic Beetle and the Golf, not knowing that this might hold in unintended ways: The Beetle arose from the ashes of World War II, and the Golf was greeted by the oil-price shock in the 1970s."We have a clear commitment to become CO2 neutral by 2050," VW strategy chief Michael Jost said, "and there is no alternative to our electric-car strategy to achieve this."(Updates with Tesla price cut starting in the third paragraph. An earlier version corrected the spelling of Berret in the ninth paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
China's top electric vehicle (EV) battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) is exploring new battery-related services and will expand manufacturing capacity in the next two years, its chairman told Reuters. Ningde-based CATL, which alongside LG Chem and Panasonic is one of the biggest EV battery makers globally, is developing battery-swapping and battery maintenance services, its chairman Zeng Yuqun said on Wednesday. It will also expand recycling capabilities in China and invest in similar businesses overseas, Zeng added in a written response to Reuters questions.
Tesla Inc has cut prices of its electric vehicles by as much as 6% in North America following a decline in auto demand in the region during weeks of lockdown that have now started to ease. Tesla also said its Supercharger quick-charging service will no longer be free to new customers of its Model S sedans and Model X sport utility vehicles (SUVs).
According to a Tuesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), SpaceX's latest funding round was a smashing success. Elon Musk, the CEO of carmaker and solar energy provider Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), founded SpaceX in 2002. In March, SpaceX filings indicated it had raised $221.2 million in funding from 11 investors, in response to a $250 million offering.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Wednesday is looking like a watershed moment in history. The scheduled afternoon launch of a SpaceX Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 4:33 p.m. would mark the first time a privately owned vehicle takes astronauts into orbit.Elon Musk, the billionaire space entrepreneur and chief executive of Tesla Inc., founded SpaceX in 2002. If the launch succeeds — bad weather could push it to Saturday — it would be the company's crowning achievement to date. Musk's hope is to enable the colonization of Mars. Delivering two astronauts to the International Space Station suggests that his grand ambition might be more than a pipe dream.Even if not, it will be a breakthrough moment in the commercialization of space. All of a sudden, space tourism seems plausible. If SpaceX can fly astronauts from Florida to the orbiting laboratory, then why couldn't it fly you and me — soon — to an orbiting restaurant to have dinner above the atmosphere?For years, the U.S. has been buying rides to space from Russia, spending $3.5 billion for 52 rides since 2011. Instead of turning to Russia, NASA will now rely on private-sector spacecraft. For many Americans, this will be a needed boost of pride.A half-century ago, the U.S. sent Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon, in part with the goal of beating the Soviet Union in the space race. At the height of the Cold War, competition with the U.S.S.R. provided an organizing principle for U.S. efforts in space, and a remarkable amount of government resources were brought to bear in the effort. At its peak in the mid-1960s, $7 out of every $1,000 of national income was spent by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.Having beaten the Soviet Union, the U.S. lacked a clear objective, and the space program drifted. In 2011, the space shuttle program was terminated. The SpaceX launch will mark a rebirth, the first time astronauts have flown to space from the U.S. in nearly a decade.In these wilderness years, the U.S. gradually forged a new space exploration relationship between the government and the private sector. In 2004, two years after Musk founded SpaceX, a presidential commission concluded that business should play a larger role than it ever had. "In NASA decisions, the preferred choice for operational activities must be competitively awarded contracts with private and nonprofit organizations," the commission wrote.It also defined a more limited role for the U.S. space agency. "NASA's role must be limited to only those areas where there is irrefutable demonstration that only government can perform the proposed activity," it said.With the reins for much space activity handed over to commercial interests, the past decade has seen an explosion of investment in a profusion of companies. In a 2018 paper, economist Matthew Weinzierl documented the rise of "space access" companies sending people and payloads into space, "remote sensing" companies providing images of the earth, "habitats and space station companies" providing secure facilities for tourism, research and manufacturing, and "beyond low-earth orbit" companies focusing on asteroid mining, space manufacturing and colonizing the moon and Mars. Weinzierl listed several dozen companies, including SpaceX.Weinzierl reported that investment in startup space-sector firms increased to roughly $2.5 billion per year in 2015 and 2016 from less than $500 million annually during the 2000s. Financing often comes from entrepreneurs like Musk, who are wealthy enough to absorb the high fixed costs needed to enter the space-commerce market.This week's launch with a crew will heighten commercial interest in space and strengthen market forces already at work. Information about consumer and industry preferences will need to be aggregated. Willingness to pay for space commerce needs to be determined. Resources and capital need to be allocated to their best uses. Innovation needs to be fostered. Only markets can build a commercial sector in space.Investors and entrepreneurs will be needed. They will be seeking the enormous profits promised by space commerce, but will need to tolerate enormous risk, as well. If Musk succeeds today, the risk they face will go down a notch.Indeed, competition is a back story to today's success. In 2014, NASA awarded contracts both to SpaceX and Boeing. In December, a timing error on its debut flight forced the Boeing Starliner capsule to miss a rendezvous with the International Space Station. Boeing will be scrambling to catch up, keeping the pressure on SpaceX. Blue Origin, founded in 2000 by the billionaire chief executive of Amazon.com Inc., Jeff Bezos, is another notable competitor, working to create reusable launch vehicles to lower the cost of space access.Even as the private sector plays a larger role in space, there are glaring needs for governments to provide basic rules and structure. Public policy in outer space is in its infancy. For example, space debris in earth's orbit could impose significant damage to private property. It needs to be dealt with, perhaps by assigning property rights or by taxing it. And with low-earth orbit in the hands of the private sector, NASA should feel intensifying pressure to achieve goals more plausibly beyond the reach of commerce, like landing on asteroids and colonizing Mars.The sad backdrop to this historic achievement is the coronavirus pandemic that has taken hundreds of thousands of lives around the world and devastated economies in many countries, including the U.S. The end of the decade-long U.S. retreat from space is like a shaft of light piercing that dark cloud. And when that cloud is a distant memory, SpaceX's accomplishment will still be with us.Commerce is bringing the U.S. back to the stars.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Michael R. Strain is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is director of economic policy studies and Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of "The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It)."For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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J-Rab and I got to talking about ET last night which I watched once and only once back when I was about seven.
Back then I was easily frightened by anything vaguely weird or scary and so it was with great trepidation that I even watched ET in the first place because let's face it, ET is fucking weird and ugly. He looks like a cross between a turtle without a shell and a turd that's been left in the sun too long.
I didn't trust that little asshole one bit. The minute he appeared on screen I was like, "What the hell IS that thing?! I don't like it. It makes funny sounds and it looks like it's up to something. Also, it's ugly and it's creeping me out."
Of course, I changed my mind somewhat as the movie played out. Drew Barrymore seemed to like the little freakshow so he couldn't have been all bad, except for the bit when they dress him up in drag, that didn't sit well with me either. He looked like that cranky old granny from The Golden Girls with too much self tan and a cheap blonde wig.
Still though, I grudgingly began to like the precocious little scamp once I'd figured out that he was actually pretty harmless and despite his freakish appearance, didn't want to kill / eat the children.
Then it got to the end of the movie and everything started going to hell. The little fucker got all sick and started turning an off-grey colour, EXACTLY like a turd left in the sun too long and right then and there I wanted nothing more to do with him.
They put the little bastard in that giant plastic tent thing and hooked him up to all those machines and he started acting all weird and freaking out so I switched off the TV, completely traumatised, and went off to play Lego and try to put the whole tortured experience behind me.
"You never watched the end of ET?!" J-Rab said as I got to this point of the story.
"Nope. It was traumatising enough watching that shifty-eyed little turd-alien go all grey and sick, actually watching him die would have pushed me straight off the edge."
"ET doesn't die!"
"ET doesn't die, the kid comes back and rescues him and then they ride off on the kid's bike and ET makes it fly and they go over the moon."
"Really? Holy shit."
"And then it ends when the spaceship lands and other little ET-guys come and fetch him and take him back home. ET go home!"
"Huh. And all this time I thought he just up and died and that was that."
"No! Why would they make him the main character in a kid's movie and then just kill him off?"
"I dunno! They killed Bambi didn't they?"
"They killed Bambi's mother!"
"Oh yeah… so ET doesn't die?"
"No, ET doesn't die."
ET doesn't die guys. All these years I've been living under the false pretence that ET snuffed it, 20 years I've been living a lie.
And no, this doesn't mean I'm going to watch it again.
I still think ET's an ugly little cross dressing creep


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Connecticut's athletic director says the Huskies can and will compete for national championships in the American Athletic Conference.
Warde Manuel tells The Associated Press the school is not actively looking to move to one of the so-called five power conferences.
He says he believes the American, which launched this week, provides enough money, TV exposure and competition for UConn to remain a player on the national athletic stage.
UConn won three men's national basketball titles, eight women's basketball championships, and made an appearance in the 2011 Fiesta Bowl as a member of the Big East.
Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco says having UConn, Memphis, Temple and Cincinnati in the re-named American conference means it is already a nationally relevant conference in basketball and he believes it will be competitive in football as well.


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Apple Dumplings with Caramel Sauce
Of all my autumn recipes, apple dumplings are a hands-down favorite. I found this treat years ago in an Amish cookbook. A rich, homemade caramel sauce tops it off. —Lois Stache, Brillion, WI
Total TimePrep: 30 min. + chilling Bake: 50 min.
Makes2 servings
- 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup cold butter, cubed
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 medium apples, peeled and cored
- 4 teaspoons brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 4 teaspoons butter
- 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons butter
- Dash salt
- In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; cut in cold butter until crumbly. Gradually add milk, tossing with a fork until dough forms a ball; divide dough in half. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle.
- On a well-floured surface, roll each portion of dough into an 8-in. square. Cut apples in half horizontally; place an apple bottom on each square. Place brown sugar and cinnamon in the core of each bottom; dot each with 2 teaspoons butter. Replace apple tops.
- Gently bring up corners of pastry to center; pinch edges to seal. Place in a greased 8-in. baking dish. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine flour and water until smooth. Add the sugars, butter and salt. Bring to a boil; cook and stir until smooth and blended. Pour over dumplings.
- Bake 35-40 minutes longer or until apples are tender and pastry is golden brown. Serve warm.


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Generic Tegretol (Carbamazepine)
|Carbamazepine is an anticonvulsant used in the treatment of simple and complex partial seizures. It is used as a mood stabilizing in treatment of epilepsy and bipolar disorder and nerve pain such as trigeminal neuralgia.
Per Pills
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Product DescriptionCommon use
Carbamazepine belongs to a group of anticonvulsant and mood stabilizing drugs. It is applied a treatment of epilepsy and bipolar disorder. It is also used to treat trigeminal neuralgia, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, etc.
Dosage and direction
Take Tegretol by mouth with a glass of water, with or without food. Avoid cutting, crushing or chewing this medicine.
Do not take the medicine more often than it is prescribed. Do not give up taking it except on the advice of your doctor.
It may need time for the medicine to help.
Consult your doctor concerning proper dose for you.
Inform your health care professional if you have any allergies or if you have glaucoma, heart disease or irregular heartbeat kidney or liver problems.
Avoid drinking alcohol and smoking while being treated with this medication.
Aged people can be more sensitive to side effects of the medicine.
Inform your doctor if you have Parkinson's disease, kidney or liver disease, high blood pressure; if you are pregnant or breast-feed.
Tegretol should not be used by patients having demonstrated a reaction of hypersensitivity to it.
Possible side effect
The most common side effects are drowsiness, headaches and migraines, motor coordination impairment and/or upset stomach.
A very serious allergic reaction rarely occurs. Many people using this medicine do not have serious side effects.
Turn to your doctor or pharmacist for more details.
In case you notice the effects not listed here, contact your doctor or pharmacist.
Drug interaction
Carbamazepine has a very high potential for drug interactions, therefore before taking this medication tell your doctor or chemist of all prescription and non-prescription medicines you are taking.
Turn to your doctor or pharmacist for more details.
Missed dose
If you have missed your dose, take it as soon as you remember. If you see that it is near the time for the next dose, skip the missed dose and resume your usual dosing schedule. Do not take your dose twice.
If you think you have used too much of this medicine seek emergency medical attention right away. The symptoms of overdose usually include chest pain, nausea, irregular heartbeat, and feeling light-headed or fainting.
Store your medicines at room temperature between 68-77 degrees F (20-25 degrees C) away from light and moisture. Do not store your drugs in the bathroom. Keep all drugs away from reach of children and pets.
We provide only general information about medications which does not cover all directions, possible drug integrations, or precautions. Information at the site cannot be used for self-treatment and self-diagnosis. Any specific instructions for a particular patient should be agreed with your health care adviser or doctor in charge of the case. We disclaim reliability of this information and mistakes it could contain. We are not responsible for any direct, indirect, special or other indirect damage as a result of any use of the information on this site and also for consequences of self-treatment.


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On D-Day Anniversary, Remembering the Last WWII Comanche Code Talker
Indian Country Today
Fourteen Comanche Code Talkers were part of that massive invasion, including Charles Chibbity. Today, as we remember and honor the sacrifices and efforts of the 160,000 Allied service members who took part in D-Day, we also take a moment to honor Chibbity, who was the last of the World War II Comanche Code Talkers. He walked on in July 2005. The following article was written by Rudi Williams, American Forces Press Service.
When Charles "Charlie" J. Chibitty, the last World War II Comanche Code Talker, was buried July 26, 2005, a friend wrote in the eulogy, "Charlie's life has no foreshadowing or ending. As long as wind blows, his life and legacy will continue to twist and turn along courses only wild horses know.
Chibitty died July 20 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was 83. He was invited to the Pentagon three times — in 1992, 1999 and 2002 — in honor of his service to the nation as a World War II code talker. He, along with 16 other Comanche Indians, was part of an Army company of code talkers who befuddled the Germans during the invasion of the beaches of Normandy, France.
During his 2002 Pentagon visit, Chibitty said his unit hit Utah Beach in Normandy "the first or second day after D-Day." His first radio message was sent to another code talker on an incoming boat. Translated into English, it said: "Five miles to the right of the designated area and five miles inland, the fighting is fierce and we need help."
"We were trying to let them know where we were so they wouldn't lob no shells on us," he explained with a chuckle. "I was with the 22nd Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division. We talked Indian and sent messages when need be. It was quicker to use telephones and radios to send messages, because Morse code had to be decoded and the Germans could decode them. We used telephones and radios to talk Indian, then wrote it in English and gave it to the commanding officer."
The Comanche Indians frustrated enemy code breakers by translating Army messages into their native language. The enemy never broke the code.
Chibitty enlisted in the Army in January 1941. He earned the World War II Victory Medal, European Theater of Operations Victory Medal with five bronze stars, Europe-African Middle East Campaign Medal and the Good Conduct Medal. In 1989, the French government honored the Comanche code talkers by presenting them the Chavalier of the National Order of Merit.
He was presented the Knowlton Award, created by the Military Intelligence Association, in 1995 to recognize significant contributions to military efforts. In April 2003, Chibitty attended the dedication ceremony for a monument to Choctaw and Comanche code talkers of World War I and World War II at Camp Beuregard in Pineville, La., where he trained during World War II. When he visited the Pentagon in 1992, then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney presented him a certificate of appreciation for his service to the country. Chibitty also received a special proclamation from the governor of Oklahoma, who honored him for his contributions to that state and the nation.
When Chibitty visited the Pentagon in November 2002, he donned his feathered Indian chief's headgear and offered a prayer in the Pentagon Chapel for those killed in the terrorist attack on the building. The aging World War II code talker then went to nearby Arlington National Cemetery and placed a wreath and offered an Indian prayer at the Tomb of the Unknowns. His 2002 visit included a meeting with Defense SecretaryDonald H. Rumsfeld. Before returning home to Tulsa, Chibitty spent some time with researchers at the U.S. Army Center for Military History for oral history sessions.
"Laying the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns really meant a lot to him," Chibitty's adopted daughter, Carrie V. Wilson of Fayetteville, Arizona, said during a telephone interview.
Charles Chibitty, the last surviving World War II Comanche code talker, told Pentagon officials that teachers at the Indian school near Lawton, Okla., became angry with him for speaking the Comanche language in the early 1920s, then the Army wanted Comanches to use their language as a code during World War II. Photo by Rudi Williams.
"When he talked about his code talking days, he always said he wished that all the other code talkers could have gotten the awards, attention and recognition that he did," said Wilson, a cultural resource consultant. "But by the time they really recognized the Comanche code talkers, most of them were dead.
"He never thought about any of the awards without thinking about all the others who had gone before him," Wilson noted. Pointing out that Chibitty was a traditional Comanche speaker, Wilson said his death is a huge loss to the Comanche community. "He tried to teach Comanche to whomever showed an interest in it," she noted.
"He was a big powwow Indian, and he took me into his family more than 35 years ago," said Wilson, a Quapaw Indian, who is a former Miss Indian Oklahoma and a Quapaw tribal princess. "He adopted me, and put his daughter's clothes on me, and took me out to a big powwow in Tulsa. He told everybody that he gave me permission to wear Comanche clothes because he'd taken me into his family as his daughter."
Wilson said she has many fond memories of Chibitty, including going to powwow dances with him and his brother. Both of them were nationally known for their Indian championship dancing. "When he and his brother and other Comanches came out onto the dance floor, they looked like royalty," she said. "They were always recognized in the Indian community as championship dancers.
"We'd laugh and tease, and he was always fun to be around," Wilson said. "But an important thing is that he was always there for anyone who needed help, whether they had problems with drinking or just needed someone to talk to. He was always available to listen to them and give advice, or be a friend.
"Every night before he went to bed, he'd sit on the edge of his bed and pray," she noted. "He was a very sincere person. He knew what war was about and how precious life is. And, he believed that education is one of the most important things."
Chibitty's son, a promising attorney, was killed in a car accident in 1982, and his daughter died about 10 years later, Wilson said. "After that, his wife died," she noted. "So my role as a daughter became more real. Before his wife died, she told me to take care of him – I tried."
In addition to Wilson, Chibitty is survived by two grandsons, Chebon Chibitty and Acey Chibitty, and another adopted daughter, Lacey Chibitty, who reside in Tulsa. He also leaves behind a number of nieces and nephews.
Musical tributes included the Kricket Rhoads Connywerdy, Comanche Sovo drum, Comanche hymns at the graveside. Chibitty was given full military honors, including a 21-gun salute by the Fort Sill Honor Team.
"They sang the Comanche code talkers' song, which is a beautiful song, as they were putting him into the ground," Wilson said. The Comanche Indian Veterans Association, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 577, American Legion Post 1, Masonic Rights and Millennium Lodge 543 attended his funeral.


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#1 "Denver Gives DNC Host Committee A Free Gasoline Tax Ride !"
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- Aug 2005
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City gives DNC host committee pass on gas tax (Denver)
The committee hosting the Democratic National Convention is using the city's gas pumps to fill up on fuel, avoiding state and federal highway taxes, officials said today.
"There's something there that just doesn't seem right to me because, in a sense, you're saying then that the officials who pass the laws are not willing to live by them, and that concerns me," Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz said.
The issue came up during the council's weekly meeting with Mayor John Hickenlooper when the Public Works Department requested authorization to be reimbursed by the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee for use of "fueling facilities, fuel and car washes."
"By doing it this way, by running it through our Fleet Maintenance, that means that that fuel does not pay state or federal highway taxes," Faatz said.
Christine Downs, a public works spokeswoman, said the host committee is not paying the city's locked-in fuel rate but one that's based on the weekly cost of gas. Downs was unable to provide council members an example.
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The DX11 video card battle between NVIDIA and AMD has been getting pretty good in recent months. NVIDIA is getting ready to phase out the GeForce 400 series and has started to trickle out GeForce 500 series cards. The next rumored launch is going to be a video card that might be called the GeForce GTX 560. Pretty much all of the rumors that are on the web are talking about the GTX 560 being a very powerful mainstream single-GPU gaming graphics cards that is going to replace the GeForce GTX 460 that is currently on the market. AMD has publicly announced that they have a Radeon HD 6990 (code-named Antilles) dual-GPU video card in development that is the sequel to the Radeon HD 5970.
It doesn't sound like NVIDIA is going to down without a fight though as they are rumored to be bringing back a dual-GPU video card now that the GF100 core has ended and the fixed improved GF110 has been released. We have heard rumors that NVIDIA is going to be releasing a GTX595 or GTX590 video card, but who knows if there is any truth to that. In fact we even heard people at CES saying that NVIDIA would be bringing back the Ti nomenclature for their cards. That brings back memories of the GeForce4 Ti 4200 days, but would NVIDIA really bring out a new naming system in the middle of a product stack after some cards have already been released? At CES 2011 we stopped by the Wynn Hotel to visit with EVGA and one video card really caught out attention. The dual-slot video card was 11-inches long and was clearly packing the power of two GPU's. EVGA would only let is know that it's an early prototype of an upcoming video card that they have not released.
They also let us know that the card had 2GB of GDDR5 memory on it that was evenly split between each of the GPUs. This means that each core gets a dedicated 1GB of memory. The card obviously has an SLI interconnect on it, so it looks like quad-sli is about to come back! This will be great news for enthusiasts and benchmarking nuts as these will be popular cards to overclock and pound on.
Looking at the I/O panel we can see three DVI ports and a single HDMI header. Since the DVI ports are colored different it could mean that some are dual-link or single-link. Notice that the black metal heat sink cover sticks past the dual-slot bracket meaning that this card is fairly wide and if you wanted to run a pair of them you might have an issue on some motherboards.
When it comes to power connectors the card has two 8-pin PCIe power connectors, so it uses a fair amount of power. A motherboard PCI Express slot can deliver up to 75 Watts and then a regular 6-pin PCI Express power cable is rated at an extremely conservative 75 watts. An 8-pin connection is able to provide up to 150W of power. That means this card should draw under 375W of power, which isn't really that bad for a dual-gpu solution, but then again we aren't 100% certain what GPU's are on this card.
We'll leave you with a quick video that EVGA let us shoot on this new board. They didn't say much, so it's only a minute long!
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