Source: http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/india
yelp stock honda classic news channel 5 nashville weather jason varitek andrew breitbart dead sheriff joe arpaio
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Yahoo! News - Latest News & Headlines
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Things you should know before buying a franchise | moonofthesouth ...
Buying a franchise presents an attractive investment opportunity for entrepreneurs, and can offer various benefits, Jeremy Lang, Business Partners Limited regional GM, said last week in Johannesburg, South Africa.
?Franchises have the advantage of owning an established product or service that is already familiar to the public, as well as a pre-sold consumer base and household brand-name recognition,? Lang explained.
However, he urged entrepreneurs to do in-depth research before investing in a franchise. ?The key to finding a franchise that will generate returns requires insight as to what is being purchased,? he said.
Due diligence should be conducted in the same manner when purchasing a franchise, as when opening any new business, he added.
Lang offers the following tips to potential franchisees:
? Know the industry:
Choose a franchise in an industry that you are familiar with, in which you have some previous experience, and that suits your background and can help you succeed.
? Choose within your budget:
Calculate what you are able to afford, including the finances you are able to raise, save and will be able to borrow. When calculating the budget, keep the following factors in mind: firstly, too much finance can ruin a venture, so be wary of overburdening your business with too much borrowed capital.
Secondly, calculate the entire investment required, including set-up costs and working capital.?Do not limit your funding to include only the franchise fee.
? Review and investigate the franchisor:
Look over the documentation the group provides, but also find out as much as you are able to about the reputation and financial help of the franchise.
? Speak to franchisees and ex-franchisees:
This is probably the most important exercise in the process. A franchisor should be able to give you a fully updated list of franchisees and ex-franchisees, as well as their contact details.
If you are interested in purchasing an outlet or a franchise group, test all the assertions with the franchisees before making a decision. Comparing their levels of support, the quality of their training, the profitability of the business, and the integrity of the franchisor?s business dealings, will give you a better understanding of your potential purchase.
? Investigate the location:
Suitability of the location of your outlet, or, in the case of non-retail franchises, the area in which you are going to operate in, is key.
An in-depth knowledge of the surrounding market is vital to the success of your business.
Make use of expert marketers or neighbouring franchisors for advice, but also do your own independent research to help ascertain your market.
? Get the value calculation right:
Ensure that you are not overpaying for the franchise outlet that you have in mind, whether it is a new or existing one. After conducting your research make a concerted effort to consult an accountant to check your financial projections and value calculations. Although they are costly, industry specialists are an asset for any business.
? Get legal advice and knowledge:
The franchise agreement the franchisor will give you to sign is a crucial document detailing the rights and obligations of you and the franchisor.
Ensure that a lawyer, preferably one with knowledge about the franchising sector, goes through the document with you, not only to make sure that it is fair to you, but also to explain any clause that you may not understand.
? In the end, it depends on you:
The strongest franchise brand can still fail, but with the correct leadership and management this can be avoided. ?Just like any other business, operational and cash-flow management needs to be realistic.
Bear in mind that a hands-on management approach is also required. If you are an experienced independent business owner, and this is your first attempt at franchising, it is also important to remember that you will need to become accustomed to operating according to the rules of the group.
The South African franchising industry is growing faster. There are currently 400 franchise systems and close to 23 000 franchise outlets in South Africa, according to figures released last week by Franchise South Africa.
About Issa Sikiti da Silva
Issa Sikiti da Silva is the editor and founder of Moon of the South and an award-winning African journalist. His work has been published in more than 40 media outlets based in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Europe and Qatar. He has travelled extensively across Africa, reporting on issues ranging from media freedom to travel and tourism, housing, education, marketing, advertising and branding, ICT, SMEs, sports, and many more. He won the 2010 SADC Media Awards in print category. Follow him on Twitter at @sikitimedia, email him at issasikiti@gmail.com.Source: http://moonofthesouth.com/buying-franchise-2/
Monica Lewinsky kim zolciak kim zolciak Richard Matheson red panda Rizzoli And Isles amy schumer
Researchers Develop Ghost-Free 3D For Viewers Not Wearing Glasses
You know that sad feeling you get when a headache's coming on while watching a 3D movie and you remember that you can't actually take the glasses off for a few seconds of relief because the ghosted 2D image is even harder to watch? That could be a thing of the past as researchers from the University of California Santa Cruz have developed a new kind of 3D display that doesn't appear ghosted when you're not wearing those special glasses.
Traditional 3D projection systems use two overlaid images, one for each eye that's singled out by those glasses you have to wear. But this new system works its 2D/3D magic by projecting an additional third image that's a negative of the image destined for the right eye. So when you're not wearing glasses it cancels out the right eye image, leaving just the un-ghosted left. But when you are sporting those less-than-stylish specs, the third image is filtered out, so you can see the 3D effect as intended.
In its current state the new 2D/3D system isn't perfect, though. The technique leaves the 2D image lacking contrast, so to compensate the researchers had to increase the brightness in the left image compared to the right in 3D mode. But through experimentation they managed to find a good balance where the researchers claim the difference in brightness didn't take away from the experience. Now where was this technology two years ago when theaters could have really used it to help sell the 3D experience? Is this a case of too little, too late? [UCSC via Gizmag]
Image by Deklofenak/Shutterstock
Source: http://gizmodo.com/researchers-develop-ghost-free-3d-for-viewers-not-weari-786582449
freedom tower freedom tower eric church quick silver where have you been rihanna world trade center kirk cousins
Portland schools: LePage wrong about limits on military recruiters
Hardware stores face challenging times
Hardware stores in Maine have been hit hard by the struggling economy, some even closing their doors. But a few, like Gosline's Hardware in Farmingdale, are holding out and welcoming a recent small rise in sales.
Jury instructions crucial to Zimmerman not guilty verdict
Jurors making the final decision in the trial against George Zimmerman were instructed to decide if there was reasonable doubt on the charges of second degree murder or manslaughter or whether he was justified in his use of deadly force. The six women on the jury acquitted him of all charges Saturday night.
elite eight stephon marbury the lion king suzanne collins cherry blossom festival nc state erika van pelt
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Zynga Gambling Apps Go To Facebook - Business Insider
Zynga is taking the wraps off its real-money gambling games today at an event in Barcelona, Spain.
The San Francisco company says that social gaming remains its heart and soul, but the gambling games are a logical extension for fans who want to bet real money and win it in social games. Zynga will launch the games in the United Kingdom, where real-money online gambling is legal.
Sean Ryan, head of game partnerships at Facebook, is showing off the Facebook titles for Zynga. The games include ZyngaPlusPoker and ZyngaPlusCasino. Both are gambling versions of Zynga?s social games, produced in partnership with Bwin.party, a British real-money online gambling company.
The games are the first titles in Zynga?s strategic expansion into Facebook and mobile gambling games. Investors have been very interested in them because they represent a chance for Zynga to make more money. But Zynga has downplayed the financial opportunity and says it is just in the beginning stages of its experiment. Zynga released the web and downloadable versions of the UK gambling games in April, but the Facebook and mobile versions are likely to be a bigger novelty in the UK market. They may also prove to be more accessible to a new audience.
In social games such as Zynga Poker, players can purchase virtual chips with real money. But they can?t cash out their winnings. In ZyngaPlusPoker, players will have the option to play for real money.
If they choose it, they will be taken to a different application that is completely different and is based on Bwin?s approved and regulated gambling game. In such games, players have to prove they are over the age of 18 and reside in the jurisdiction where the games are legal. They have to put down a deposit with Bwin to ensure they can pay for their chips. And they can win or lose real money.
On top of that, they are eligible to win promotional prizes such as a free night?s stay in a casino hotel or a free buffet meal, much like casinos themselves do in their attempts to lure players to real-money casinos.
Zynga is making a clear distinction between its existing social app and the gambling app so that users don?t get confused about which is which. The apps have different looks and color schemes, though they both share the same social DNA.
It?s not yet clear when the apps will launch. Zynga will have Facebook versions of ZyngaPlusPoker and ZyngaPlusCasino, as well as mobile versions in the near future. The timing of the launch depends on approvals in the United Kingdom.
The apps are the first result of a strategy the company began pursuing in October 2012, when it hired seasoned real-money gambling executive Maytal Olsha.
About six weeks after Olsha arrived, Zynga cut its partnership with Bwin.party. That deal was critical for it to move quickly in the UK online gambling market, since it would have taken Zynga much longer to create and then win regulatory approval for its own gambling game. Bwin already has its gambling games live in the market, and it knows how to operate them under UK regulations.
Online gambling games are tightly regulated. They have to be certified so they are not unfairly tilted against players (at least no more so than normal casino games). That means they require sophisticated mathematical models that produce results based on random number generators.
Such games aren?t necessarily hard to create, but they take time and experience. If Zynga wanted to go it alone and capture all of the profits from its games, it could create them itself. But that would take time. The partnership with Bwin.party signals the importance of moving fast. Other social gaming rivals are moving into the market, where social mobile is adding a fresh take for the old online gambling titles. Zynga believes the social mobile aspect will create a boom in the market.
Zynga has hired its own in-house online gambling experts and it acquired Spooky Cool Labs, which was founded by a team of slot machine game experts headed by Joe Kaminkow. Kaminkow was an executive who designed games for IGT, the world?s largest slot machine maker. He holds 130 patents and has worked on pinball games and casino products for decades.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/zynga-gambling-apps-go-to-facebook-2013-7
deron williams clear channel drexel dale george will obama birth certificate nick cannon
South Sudan fails to protect civilians in east, U.S. says
JUBA/KHARTOUM (Reuters) - The United States issued a rare criticism of South Sudan on Wednesday, saying the African state was failing to protect civilians in the east where the army is fighting an insurgency.
Western powers have long urged Juba to find a peaceful solution to fighting involving the army, a rebel group and rival tribes in the vast Jonglei state but have so far mostly refrained from criticizing the government.
A United Nations source said new fighting erupted a week ago between the rival Lou Nuer and Murle tribes in the Pibor area in Jonglei, killing an unknown number of people.
More violence was expected as armed youths from both sides were amassing forces in the area, the source said. A U.N. team visiting the town said that most civilians had left Pibor, contrary to government figures, the United Nations said in a report.
The United States, South Sudan's biggest ally, said it was "deeply disappointed" that the army, or SPLA, had failed to protect civilians in vulnerable areas in Jonglei.
"The lack of action to protect civilians constitutes an egregious abdication of responsibility by the SPLA and the civilian government," the U.S. embassy in Juba said in a statement.
Washington urged the government to prevent "SPLA attacks on U.N. staff and humanitarian assets". It gave no details but soldiers had looted compounds of U.N. agencies and aid agencies in Pibor in May, according to aid sources.
South Sudan has struggled to turn its army, a loose group of former guerrillas formed the civil war with Khartoum, into a professional force since seceding from Sudan in 2011 under a 2005 peace deal. The U.S. was a driving force in pressuring Khartoum into allowing an independence vote.
The army has faced a rebellion by militia leader David Yau Yau but diplomats say the SPLA is fuelling dissent with abuses such as rape and torture committed during a state disarmament campaign.
A cycle of tribal violence has killed more than 1,600 people in Jonglei since South Sudan's secession, uprooting tens of thousands of civilians and hampering plans to explore for oil with the help of France's Total and U.S. firm Exxon.
Analysts say the roots of the tribal violence and cattle raids go back to South Sudan's failure to start development in Jonglei and elsewhere in the vast country due to corruption.
(Reporting by Andrew Green and Ulf Laessing; Editing by Michael Roddy)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-sudan-fails-protect-civilians-east-u-says-213822979.html
uc berkeley harrison barnes brett ratner stevie nicks anchorman capybara duggars
Monday, July 8, 2013
No push notifications and live tile with Facebook app
Hello!
I have just recently purchased myself the Nokia Lumia 920. While I already love the device, and will choose it over boring iOS and Android any time, I already have some problems. These problems have to do with both Whatsapp and the Facebook app. While Whatsapp is pretty bad at the moment, and this forum is full of reports of the dysfunctions of this app, I'll just have to wait for the long awaited update.
On the other hand, the Facebook app has only recenly been released out of the beta, and while 'everyone' is pretty thrilled about it, I have one or two major problems with the app: the push notifications and the live tile. I have yet to receive my first push notification from this app and the live tile isn't working either.
I have tried all the common troubleshooting which i found on this site (removing/reinstalling the app, removing/reinstalling my facebook account, turning off battery saving, letting facebook run on the background, etc.) but nothing works. What I get out of this forum is that I am not the only one having these problems. I hope someone, who had the same problems as me and has managed to solve it, can help me figure out how to fix this.
Source: http://forums.wpcentral.com/windows-phone-8/232663-no-push-notifications-live-tile-facebook-app.html
Sasquatch 2013 super bowl commercials wheres my refund superbowl ads Super Bowl Ads 2013 Buffalo Wild Wings Superbowl Start Time
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Pilots faced challenges landing in San Francisco
WASHINGTON (AP) ? San Francisco International Airport, with its tightly spaced runways that extend right up to the water, requires more skill for landing than most of the nation's big airports, experienced airline pilots say. That challenge was further complicated by the shutdown of a ground-based instrument landing system and the movement of runway thresholds prior to the crash Saturday of a Korean airliner.
The instrument landing system, or ILS, uses radio signals to create a three-dimensional "glide slope" for planes to follow so they aren't too high, too low or too far to the right or left. The ILS for runway 28 left, where the plane crashed, had been shut down since June and the beginning of the runway was moved 300 feet to the west to accommodate construction at the airport, according to pilots who use the airport.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman said Sunday investigators will look at what role, if any, the absence of the ILS may have played in the accident.
Airline pilots with experience flying the Boeing 777 or flying into San Francisco told The Associated Press that the Federal Aviation Administration notified pilots in June that the ILS was turned off. Pilots were also warned that the beginning of runways 28 left and right had been moved.
A white line that previously designated the end of the runway was blacked out and a new line painted further west, said Rory Kay, a training captain for a major airline who landed a plane at San Francisco the day before the crash.
The change in the runway line might have added an element of confusion to the landing, he said.
All Boeing 777s, like most modern airliners, have cockpit computers that use GPS to create a glide slope for landing that is nearly as good as the ground-based ILS, said Bob Coffman, an American Airlines captain who formerly flew the 777.
It would be standard procedure for pilots to create their own glide path before landing, but the computer's database relies on where the runway normally begins, he said. Moving the runway threshold would invalidate the computer-generated slope, he said.
Without the ILS, and with information in hand that the threshold had been moved, it's likely that the pilots of the Asiana plane were landing using other instruments and a greater reliance on visual cues, Coffman said.
It's standard procedure for pilots to refer to FAA notices on ILS shutdowns and movement of runway thresholds in a pre-landing briefing, so the Asiana pilots should have been aware that they were going to have to rely more heavily on visual cues, pilots said. The challenge of landing a wide-bodied airliner like the 777 using visual cues is greater than if an ILS or a computer-generated glide slope were available, pilots said.
The Asiana plane was flying well below its target speed of 137 knots during the landing attempt, and in the last seconds before the crash the pilots received an automated warning that the plane was about to stall, Hersman told reporters at a briefing.
Coffman said he could think of no reason why the plane would be flying that slowly unless the pilots had turned off the autopilot, which controls the aircraft's navigational systems, or the autothrottle, which controls power to the engines. That would be highly unusual, especially in a wide-bodied jet like the 777, he said.
___
Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pilots-faced-challenges-landing-san-francisco-214857963.html
Chinua Achebe The Croods ashley greene marquette university Chris Porco cbs sports ncaa tournament
Canadian freight train blast death toll hits three, set to rise
By Richard Valdmanis and Julie Gordon
LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec (Reuters) - Canadian police on Sunday raised the death toll from a massive explosion involving a runaway freight train to three and said they expected to find more bodies in the still-smoking wreckage of a small Quebec town.
The train, which had been hauling crude oil from North Dakota to eastern Canada, derailed and blew up early on Saturday in the middle of Lac-Megantic, a town of 6,000 on the edge of a deep blue lake and ringed by forests of pine and birch. There was no driver on board.
It is not clear why the train began rolling down toward the town, or why the crude oil blew up. The rail line is owned by Montreal, Maine & Atlantic, which said the engineer had secured the train for the night and left.
The train had five locomotives and 72 tanker cars, each carrying 30,000 gallons (113,000 liters) of crude oil. Four caught fire and exploded.
The blast at about 1 a.m. on Saturday produced a huge orange and black fireball that mushroomed hundreds of feet into the air and destroyed dozens of buildings in the center of the town, including a bar popular with young people.
"Three bodies have been found," police spokesman Michel Brunet told reporters. "People have been reported missing or disappeared but ... we are not going to issue a figure. We know there are going to be more deaths."
Police said late on Saturday they had discovered the remains of one victim.
Maurice Bernier, an official who works for the county, declined to give the number of missing but said the final death toll would climb.
"It is a catastrophe," he told Reuters.
An unofficial list drawn up by residents and posted on the Internet showed about 40 people were still unaccounted for.
Scores of people gathered at a school that was being used as a makeshift shelter. Outside, Louise Boulet, 65, looked at a local newspaper that had published an aerial view of the explosion scene. One of the flattened buildings was the house where her 63-year old sister, Marie-France Boulet, lived.
"She is dead for sure. If she were alive, her car would not still be there," she said, pointing to a burned out vehicle in the photo.
Marie-France ran a women's clothing shop from the front of the building where she lived by herself.
"She was my best friend," Louise Boulet said as tears welled in her eyes. "She died with all of my secrets and I will guard all of hers."
About 2,000 of the town's inhabitants were evacuated after the blast.
"IT WAS LIKE THE APOCALYPSE"
Residents said they were particularly concerned about people who had been inside the Musi-Cafe bar, which was right next to the center of the blast.
Yvon Rosa said he and a friend had just left the bar when they saw the train hurtling toward them. As the town center exploded, they ran to the lake, jumped in a boat and went out onto the water until morning.
"It was incredible. The smoke, the heat - fire everywhere. There were people running... It was like the apocalypse," he told Reuters.
Lac-Megantic is in the predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec, about 160 miles east of Montreal close to the border with Maine and Vermont.
Two tankers were still burning on Sunday. About 150 firefighters, some from the United States, spent most of Saturday spraying cold water from the lake on five tanker cars they said still posed a serious risk of exploding.
Fire officials said on Sunday they had contained the risk somewhat, and only two tankers were still considered at risk of blowing up.
White vapor still rose from the town center, which police have cordoned off. Photos released by the authorities showed shattered buildings, burning piles of rubble and stumps of burned trees.
Crude oil shipments by rail in North America are rising steadily as pipelines fill to capacity and more and more oil is produced in western regions like Alberta and North Dakota.
There have been a number of high-profile derailments of trains carrying petroleum products in Canada recently, including one in Calgary, Alberta, last month when a flood-damaged bridge sagged toward the still-swollen Bow River. The derailed rail cars were removed without spilling their cargo.
The disaster will focus attention on the merits of TransCanada Corp's proposed Keystone XL pipeline from the oil sands of Alberta to the Texas coast, a project U.S. President Barack Obama is considering whether to approve.
Proponents of Keystone XL, which environmentalists strongly oppose on the grounds that extracting crude from the tar sands generates more greenhouse gas emissions than regular drilling, say shipping oil by pipeline is safer than using rail cars.
Montreal, Maine & Atlantic owns some 510 miles of track in Maine and Vermont in the United States and in Quebec and New Brunswick in Canada.
(Writing by David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Janet Guttsman and Bill Trott)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/least-one-dead-oil-tanker-train-explosion-canadian-000931751.html
doctor who powerball Preakness 2013 beyonce lottery Preakness results justin bieber
Use Search Engine Optimization Like A Pro | Internet Home Based ...
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Use Search Engine Optimization Like A Pro. ... Thanks for visiting! Many new webmasters and business owners rely solely on articles and paid adverts in order to increase their visibility online. Although these techniques might ...
Source: http://emmanueladegbola.com/use-search-engine-optimization-like-a-pro/
4/20 boston Cnn Live Logan airport Miranda rights Police Scanner boston herald
Energy independence should begin at home
Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
Source: http://www.app.com/article/20130706/NJOPINION02/307060010/1028/OPINION&source=rss
barry sanders jimmie johnson juan pablo montoya crash chardon high school shooting mark martin cleveland news daytona race
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Monty Python members lose 'Spamalot' lawsuit
Pop culture 
5 hours ago
AP file
"Spamalot."
Mark Forstater, a producer on the 1975 film, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," has gotten a UK High Court to acknowledge that he's owed a larger share of profits from "Spamalot."
The Tony Award-winning musical came out in 2005 and was penned by original Monty Python member Eric Idle. It's described in marketing as "lovingly ripped off from" the 1975 film about the Arthurian Legend, and in his lawsuit, Forstater said that he was due money on "spin-offs" under a 1974 agreement between him and the Pythons, including Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, John Cleese,Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam.
During a trial late last year, Forstater's lawyer said his client was the "seventh Python" for purposes of profit-sharing, and that the other members couldn't unilaterally reduce his share. On Friday, a UK high court judge agreed with Forstater over contentions by the other Pythons that the producer was being ungrateful.
STORY: Inside the Operations of a Media-Suing Machine
According to the agreement that Forstater signed in 1974 to become a producer on "Holy Grail," he got a ?5,000 fee plus a share of profits. The contract included consideration of "merchandising" and "spin-off rights" but had some special provisions for instances when the Pythons contributed materially to the making of the work.
In certain of these special instances, 50 percent of revenue from exploitation -- the "Top Half" -- would first go to a film company set up by the Pythons before the residue of money would be then put into a pot for division among all profit participants. In Forstater's lawsuit, he argued he was entitled to a 1/7 share of the Top Half generated by "Spamalot," and that as a result of accounting moves, he should have gotten twice as much in money and only paid half as much in expenses. Forstater has estimated about $400,000 in damages.
In looking at the case, the judge has to rely on testimony about an agreement made nearly four decades ago, and a trial, the surviving members testified.
Terry Jones was one of the two members (along with Gilliam) who once wanted Forstater's participation on the film, but also said that "Python is very jealous" and that he had no idea why Forstater would get a share of the 50 percent.
Eric Idle said he now disliked Forstater. The judge notes that the Spamalot writer "undoubtedly regarded Mr Forstater as ungrateful."
Michael Palin's recollection was "hazy," according to the judge, but Palin kept an invaluable diary during the making of "Holy Grail" that proved informative as well as funny as hell. For example, he wrote in October 1973 about the "seething jealousy and rivalry below the surface" among various producers fighting for their shares. Later, in November 1974, he recounted a meeting where as Forstater "ran through the clauses [of a contract], it was increasingly clear that we be were being asked to sign away our copyright on the film ? which is tantamount to signing away every bargaining counter Python ever had."
STORY: 'Monty Python' Star Michael Palin Cast in BBC War Drama
Then, there is this gem from Palin's diary in the middle of 1975 where the Python member reacts to Forstater?s persistent requests for more money:
"....as we are a soft lot and not at all businesslike, I think it would be in the finest traditions of Python irrationality if we gave Mark an extra ?1000 and a silver tray with some cut glass sherry glasses and told him to stop writing to us for more money. Beyond that even I am not prepared to go. Oh, all right, some cheese straws to go with the sherry glasses.?
Ultimately, after the judge recounts the maneuvering and bickering of "Holy Grail" participants in almost Pythonesque absurdity, he comes to his conclusion that in the mid-70s, as opposed to now, "there was a consensus that Mr Forstater should be entitled to a 1/7th share of the Top Half."
The judge adds, "As I assess the evidence the Pythons continued at that point to be 'a soft lot and not at all business-like' and to be genuinely enthused at having secured the services of Mr Forstater: and Mr Forstater continued to be concerned that he got the maximum from his relationship with the Pythons and that what he had obtained should not be whittled away. So the consensus was intended to be recorded..."
Here's the full ruling.
The exact amount of money due to Forstater is still to be determined.
ipad mini Kevin Krim Autumn Pasquale ann coulter minecraft Ben Wilson Latest Presidential Polls
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)