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Thursday, June 21, 2012
GoT Iron Throne Reviewed by Those Who Know it Best [Design]
Friday, June 8, 2012
Franchise Business: Determine Whether Your Business Should Be ...
How do you go about determining whether your business has a future as a franchise business? This is the ultimate question that you have to consider as a potential franchisor. You may have a successful business and may see franchising as a sure route to success, but it is possible for franchising to be the wrong route for your business. Like other major business decisions, this is something that you will have to do research on and to think about long and hard.
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One of the first issues you need to consider is the type of business you would like yours to grow into. If you want to expand your business by a few regional branches or offices, then franchising is not likely to be the way for you. Franchising involves so much legal red tape and expense that you do not want to venture in that direction for a relatively small expansion. If, on the other hand, your long-term plan is to expand nationwide and to do so dramatically, then you are probably right to consider turning it into a franchise business. Franchising is ideal for large-scale, accelerated growths of this kind because they are more financially manageable this way. Rather than having to shoulder all the associated financial burdens, you can rely on your franchisees to share the load. Furthermore, because they are investing their own capital into the process, your franchisees are bound to be more invested in making things work than would an employee you hired to run a branch of your business.
Something else you have to think about is whether your business will work well as a franchise business. Not every business can work under this model. Some businesses work best as mom-and-pop stores. They owe much of their success to the unique styles and personalities of their operators and to other contextual factors. If someone tries to replicate these businesses at other locations, he or she will quickly realize that they do not translate successfully in the new contexts. A business of this kind does not make a good franchise business. For businesses to be franchised successfully, the formulae on which they are based have to be replicable in other contexts with equal or greater success.
In addition to being replicable, your business should sell a distinct, innovative idea that makes it stand out in the market in order to survive post-franchising. It is not enough to simply copy another franchise business?s ideas and hope for success. You will be competing with that business, and the only way to do so effectively is to offer customers something that your competitor doesn?t.
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Video: Trump: Ex-Miss Pennsylvania is sore loser
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Greek extremist party member in TV assault
In this image taken off a TV screen, Ilias Kasidiaris, 2nd left, spokesman of Greece's extremist far-right Golden Dawn party, who was elected to Parliament in the country's recent inconclusive polls physically assaults Liana Kanelli, a female member of the Parliament for the Greek Communist party during a talk show at the studios of the ANTENA TV station in Athens on Thursday, June 7, 2012. Kasidiaris bounded out of his seat and slapped Communist Party member Liana Kanelli three times on Thursday, after throwing a glass of water over radical left Syriza party member Rena Dourou. Police have issued an arrest warrant for Kasidiaris after he physically assaulted the two left-wing deputies on live television during a morning political show. (AP Photo/ANTENA TV)
In this image taken off a TV screen, Ilias Kasidiaris, 2nd left, spokesman of Greece's extremist far-right Golden Dawn party, who was elected to Parliament in the country's recent inconclusive polls physically assaults Liana Kanelli, a female member of the Parliament for the Greek Communist party during a talk show at the studios of the ANTENA TV station in Athens on Thursday, June 7, 2012. Kasidiaris bounded out of his seat and slapped Communist Party member Liana Kanelli three times on Thursday, after throwing a glass of water over radical left Syriza party member Rena Dourou. Police have issued an arrest warrant for Kasidiaris after he physically assaulted the two left-wing deputies on live television during a morning political show. (AP Photo/ANTENA TV)
In this image taken off a TV screen, Ilias Kasidiaris, 2nd left, spokesman of Greece's extremist far-right Golden Dawn party, who was elected to Parliament in the country's recent inconclusive polls physically assaults Liana Kanelli, a female member of the Parliament for the Greek Communist party during a talk show at the studios of the ANTENA TV station in Athens on Thursday, June 7, 2012. Kasidiaris bounded out of his seat and slapped Communist Party member Liana Kanelli three times on Thursday, after throwing a glass of water over radical left Syriza party member Rena Dourou. Police have issued an arrest warrant for Kasidiaris after he physically assaulted the two left-wing deputies on live television during a morning political show. (AP Photo/ANTENA TV)
ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? Greece's election campaign turned ugly Thursday on live TV: The spokesman of the extreme-right Golden Dawn party, after trading insults of "commie" and "fascist," lunged at two female left-wing politicians on a mainstream morning talk show, throwing water at one and smacking the other three times across the face.
The violent display reminiscent of trash TV, a week and a half ahead of crucial elections, stunned Greeks as they seek to avoid a catastrophic exit from the common euro currency. Prosecutors immediately issued an arrest warrant for Ilias Kasidiaris, whose party alarmed Europe by gaining 21 of Parliament's 300 seats in Greece's inconclusive May 6 elections.
Golden Dawn, which vehemently denies the neo-Nazi label, has been accused of violent attacks against immigrants in Athens. The party denies involvement in the attacks, insisting it is a nationalist patriotic group campaigning on a platform of ridding the country of illegal immigrants and cleaning up crime-ridden neighborhoods. It has advocated planting anti-personnel mines along Greece's borders to stop migrants from sneaking across.
The attack "put on public display what was widely known," said the radical left-wing Syriza party, whose member Rena Dourou was splashed with water on the show. "The true face of this criminal organization."
Tempers frayed on the daily morning political show on the private Antenna television station during a political debate, to which representatives of all seven parties that won parliamentary seats on May 6 had been invited.
Discussion had turned to the country's natural resources. But it went off on a tangent about political history in Greece, which suffered a vicious civil war between Communists and the right-wing after World War II, and a seven-year military dictatorship that ended in 1974.
Kasidiaris, his temper wearing thin, shot an insult of "you old Commie" at prominent Communist Party member Liana Kanelli, in return for her branding him a "fascist." Kasidiaris also took offense at a reference by Dourou to a court case pending against him.
It all careened into violence after Dourou, 58, said there was a "crisis of democracy when people who will take the country back 500 years have got into the Greek parliament." The 31-year-old Kasidiaris, who has served in the Greek military's special forces, bounded out of his seat and hurled a glass of water at her, shouting an insult loosely translated as "you circus act."
Talk show host Giorgos Papadakis ? shouting "no, no, no!" ? ran over to Kasidiaris, attempting to calm him down. But a furious Kasidiaris turned on Kanelli, who had gotten out of her chair and appeared to throw a newspaper at the Golden Dawn member.
Kasidiaris hit Kanelli three times ? with right-left-right slaps to the sides of her head.
Papadakis tried and failed to restrain him.
The channel cut to a commercial break, and returned five minutes later without Kasidiaris.
The court case Dourou referred to was one in which Kasidiaris is accused of participation in a 2007 attack on a student. He faces charges of assisting in robbery and bodily harm after his car was allegedly used in the incident in which a student had his identity card stolen. Kasidiaris claims the accusation is politically motivated by Syriza members. The case was to be heard in court on Wednesday but has been postponed to June 11.
Papadakis and Kanelli later said attempts had been made to restrain Kasidiaris after the scuffle by shutting him in a room in the TV channel's building, but he broke through the door and left. Police were searching for him to serve the arrest warrant, which under Greek law must be carried out within 24 hours.
"The government condemns in the most categorical way the attack by Golden Dawn spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris against Liana Kanelli and Rena Dourou," government spokesman Dimitris Tsiodras said. "This attack is an attack against every democratic citizen."
Tsiodras called on Golden Dawn to condemn its member's actions.
For its part, Golden Dawn said it was Kanelli who first attacked Kasidiaris, "hitting him unprovoked in the face with a packet of documents."
"Golden Dawn continues its fight for a strong nationalist movement against everyone, and naturally against the orphans of Marx, who dominate on the (broadcast) channels and are playing a dirty propaganda game," the party said in a statement.
"If you want us to condemn our co-fighter for a truly unfortunate moment, you should first condemn the insults and the attack by Liana Kanelli, otherwise you are nothing but sad hypocrites following orders."
Golden Dawn won nearly 7 percent of the vote on May 6, giving it 21 seats in the 300-member Parliament. It was a radical increase from its showing in the previous elections in 2009, when the party won just 0.31 percent of the vote.
Greeks reeling from two years of austerity amid their country's vicious financial crisis punished the two main parties, the conservative New Democracy and socialist PASOK, turning instead to smaller radical parties to the right and left.
The 300 deputies took up their seats for a day last month before parliament was dissolved and new elections called as no party won enough votes to form a government on its own. Negotiations for a coalition government collapsed after 10 days.
"The people voted for them because they didn't know what Golden Dawn was. They didn't know they're a new form of neo-Nazis," said Athenian Maria Misaridaki as she walked through the capital's central Syntagma Square. "They saw the violence. It should open their eyes so as not to vote for them."
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Thursday, June 7, 2012
Signs of hope in a former Baghdad killing field
BAGHDAD (AP) ? For residents of Azamiyah, once one of Baghdad's most violent neighborhoods, the opening of a department store selling party dresses, imported men's suits and designer label perfumes is a sign that a better future could lie ahead.
Just five years ago, Azamiyah was a terrifying place. Bodies of Shiites and Sunnis butchered in sectarian killings turned up almost daily, dumped on sidewalks or in trash piles, earning one street the name "Street of Death." Fearful residents huddled at home. A U.S. infantry company on patrol here lost 13 men to snipers and roadside bombs during the bloodiest period of 2006 and 2007.
Now the glass-fronted five-story MaxiMall department store stays open as late as midnight, and Sunnis and Shiites shop side by side. Azamiyah is overwhelmingly Sunni, but salespeople say they get many customers from surrounding Shiite areas, drawn by colorful displays and air conditioning that offers a welcome relief from Baghdad's dusty heat.
Multilevel shopping centers are still rare in Baghdad, and the $3 million investment by the Turkish owners of MaxiMall, which opened in April, is seen as a show of confidence in Azamiyah's future.
"The terrorists have failed, and Baghdad is turning into a city of life instead of being a city of death," said Umm Zaid, 45, browsing through the store with three children in tow. "It is no longer a risk to take my kids to the streets and shops."
But many fear the calm won't last.
Sunnis, though a minority in Iraq, were the dominant group under toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, a Sunni. Now they feel vulnerable to the whims of the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has been accused of stoking sectarian tensions by sidelining Sunni and Kurdish coalition partners.
As a former stronghold of support for Saddam and a center of Sunni pride, Azamiyah feels particularly exposed, said Daoud Mohammed, a local member of the Sunni local council. "Azamiyah will be a target and will move backward" if sectarian violence resumes, he said. "But if the political problem is solved, Azamiyah will witness a quick development."
The heavy presence of the Iraqi army is seen as a particular provocation in Azamiyah. The neighborhood is cut off from the rest of Baghdad by a loop of the Tigris River and a 12-foot-high (4-meter) wall of cement slabs erected by U.S. troops in 2007.
Five years later, army checkpoints control movement in and out of the neighborhood, with lines of cars backing up even in off-hours. Coils of barbed wire and large cement blocs close some streets. Soldiers in Humvees monitor potential hotspots, such as the Abu Hanifa mosque, perhaps the most important Sunni shrine in Iraq and a past hub for insurgents.
During Saddam's rule, middle-class Azamiyah was famous for its barbecue restaurants that drew Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds alike for late-night feasts of skewered lamb. The Abu Hanifa mosque was a regionally renowned center of Sunni learning and holds the remains of a revered Sunni scholar. Members of the Hashemite dynasty that briefly ruled Iraq are buried in a mausoleum on the edge of Azamiyah.
On April 9, 2003, when most of Baghdad had already fallen to American troops, Saddam chose Azamiyah for his last public appearance, climbing on top of a car to exhort dozens of supporters to keep fighting the invaders before he slipped into hiding. The neighborhood fell quickly, but only after a fierce battle, and eventually turned into a base for al-Qaida-led insurgents.
During the sectarian fighting of 2005-2007, the Sunni enclave and its outskirts became one of the main battle grounds for Sunni and Shiite death squads.
Ashreen Street in Azamiyah, close to the center, soon earned the nickname "Street of Death" because of the large number of bodies found there ? most shot in the head execution-style, but others with signs of torture, such as nails driven through victims' limbs. Shops opened only for a couple of hours a day, and frightened residents sought refuge in their homes well before nightfall.
Maj. Michael Baka, who commanded Charlie Company, an infantry unit assigned to Azamiyah, said that on his very first patrol in August 2006, he found a dead man in a trash pile. On a U.S. military map that tracked where bodies were found, "my sector just blew up like a light," he said by phone from Afghanistan, his current posting. "There were dots everywhere."
Mohammed, the local council member, said about 1,000 Azamiyah residents have been killed since 2003 and that some 5,000 fled, including 2,000 Shiites and 3,000 Sunnis. About half the Shiites have since returned, while the vast majority of Sunni refugees ? generally those who were better off and settled in other countries ? remain in exile.
Ahmed Mohammed, a 39-year-old real estate agent, fled with his wife and three children to Egypt in 2006, after he was threatened by insurgents for business ties with Americans. A Sunni, he returned to Azamiyah for work in 2009 after he ran out of money, but keeps his family in Egypt.
"There is not a single reason that makes me optimistic about the future," he said. "There are no services and risks are high.
Amer Hasnawi, a Shiite, left Azamiyah in 2006, afraid to get caught by militiamen, even though he protectively carried both Shiite and Sunni IDs. "My Sunni neighbors were urging me not to leave," said the 39-year-old furniture salesman and father of two. "I told them, 'You are not going to protect me when the gunmen come to me at night or if I am arrested while walking in the street.' "
He returned in late 2007, to a warm welcome from his Sunni neighbors, and said the situation has improved dramatically. "Now there is a kind of coexistence," he said. "People discovered in the end that killings will not solve their problems."
Across Baghdad, the level of violence has dropped considerably in recent years, though insurgents from time to time still target religious sites, government officials and members of the security forces in bombings and shootings. Earlier this week, 23 people were killed in a suicide bombing outside the Shiite Endowment, the office running Iraq's Shiite religious and cultural sites.
Azamiyah residents complain that security forces conduct frequent arrest sweeps. They believe Sunni applicants are not given a fair chance in public sector hiring and that municipal services are even worse in their neighborhood than elsewhere in Baghdad.
"I want to stay in my country, but the future is uncertain because we cannot see a ray of hope," said Hamid al-Azami, 45, a doctoral student in Islamic studies who also works as a barber in a narrow stall in the open-air market outside the Abu Hanifa mosque.
Lt. Gen. Hassan Baidani, a top Baghdad security official, denied that troops are singling out Azamiyah and said about half the checkpoints would be removed later this month, after an important Shiite religious holiday. Mohammed Hashim, a city spokesman, said services are bad all over Baghdad, not just in Sunni areas. Since the U.S.-led invasion, Iraqis have endured daily power cuts.
Azamiyah residents reserve some of their greatest bitterness for the United States.
Mohammed, the local council member, said he bluntly told U.S. officials during a trip by an Azamiyah delegation to Washington in 2008 that "you have destroyed the country and people hate you."
Still, residents said American soldiers generally made an effort to spare neighborhood's civilians, could be reasoned with and contributed to the gradual security improvement since 2008. U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq in December.
Maj. Cecil Strickland, who took command of Charlie Company in March 2007, said he believes the unit, which lost 13 soldiers over 15 months, served as a catalyst for the turnaround.
"I think we did not waste our time," he said in a phone interview from Colorado Springs, Colorado. Even then, he said, Azamiyah was not without hope. "I would like to think that some of that hope has come to fruition," he said.
___
Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad and Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara, Turkey contributed reporting.
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UN warning on 'risk of cyberwar'
7 June 2012
Last updated at 15:51
The UN has urged countries to seek a "peaceful resolution" in cyberspace to avoid the threat of global cyberwar.
The comments by the head of the UN's telecommunications agency came a week after Flame, one of the most complex cyber-attacks to date, was uncovered.
Dr Hamadoun Toure told the BBC that he did not suspect the US of being behind the attack.
He added that developing countries were being helped to defend themselves more adequately against threats.
Giving his first public interview about the attack, Dr Toure said the UN's International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which co-ordinates the sharing of communication infrastructure across the world, had been following the threat since May.
He said he did not consider Flame to be an act of cyberwar.
"It hasn't reached that level yet as it has been detected in time," he added.
When asked about the attack's possible source, he said: "All indications are that Flame has been created by a nation state, that's clear.
"The ITU is not mandated to make a judgement on who is responsible. Our role is to work with partners to promote better co-operation."
However, Dr Toure said he had discussed the matter directly with some countries, but added: "I don't suspect that the US is behind it."
Continue reading the main story?Start Quote
End Quote Dr Hamadoun Toure General Secretary, ITUThere is a fine line between security and freedom. ?
He said media reports suggesting US involvement in Stuxnet, a previous major attack, were "speculation".
'Weak link'He told the BBC that it was important for UN member states to work closely to defend themselves against the emerging cyberthreat.
"There is a risk of cyberwar - but it's not necessary. That's what we're trying to do: prevent. We're saying the best way to win a war is to avoid it in the first place."
"As the UN, of course we are interested in making sure there is a peaceful resolution, and a peaceful approach to this.
"Our role is first to co-ordinate international efforts - not only sharing knowledge, but also training people, especially from developing countries because we want to avoid one country being a weak link in the whole process.
"Therefore, we're trying to see that there's a global effort to keep cyberspace free of politics, ideology and especially free of criminals."
He acknowledged that governments face a challenge in ensuring the safety of their citizens while preserving their freedom online - something Dr Toure said he considered a "basic right".
He added: "There is a fine line between security and freedom.
"Some people try to oppose them. We say no, we want both. You can't be free if you're not secure. You can't have privacy without security - that's why we want to have both."
Efforts to establish the source and full extent of the Flame attack are ongoing.
Kaspersky Labs, one of the companies which first revealed the malware, said this week that the attack sought mainly to steal technical documents from Iran.
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Tina Fey big winner at Audie Awards
NEW YORK (AP) ? Tina Fey, Jane Fonda and William Shatner are now award winners in the book world.
On Tuesday night, Fey received Audie Awards for Audio Book of the Year and best Biography/Memoir for her narration of her million-selling "Bossypants." Fonda won in the Personal Development category as the reader of her own "Prime Time." Shatner was cited in Humor for "Shatner's Rules." An audiobook about the Titanic, "The Watch That Ends the Night," won for Distinguished Achievement in Production.
Hope Davis' narration of Ann Patchett's "State of Wonder" won for literary fiction and Will Patton's reading of James Lee Burke's "Feast Day of Fools" won for mystery. The awards, in more than 25 categories, were sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association.
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