Archive for July, 2009
Jul
30
Some small-town festivals have pig-calling contests, while others celebrate them with watermelon-eating face-offs.
For the past four years, Waynesburg, Pa.’s, venerable Rain Day festival has thrown a husband-calling contest where the winner is judged for being the most obnoxious contestant.
“The highest scorer is the last woman I’d want to have as a wife calling me,” the borough’s police chief, Tim Hawfield, told the Observer-Reporter newspaper in Washington, Pa. He thought up the silly affair and serves as one of its judges.
Leading no-frills, low-fare carrier to bid for Denver-based Frontier. Keep fingers crossed
Frontier Airlines is in bankruptcy protection right now. Republic Airways Holdings seemed poised to take over the Denver-based carrier, its convenient A-Gates at Denver International Airport and, hopefully, bring it out of bankputcy while retaining Coloradans loyalty for this home-grown carrier. A just just-released news from Southwest Airlines indicates that it too is now in the running. Republic indicated that it planned to operate Frontier independently. Whether Southwest would do so is an unknown, but its track record is fantastic. In the best of all worlds as I see it, Southwest’s bid would be successful, and that company would run Frontier but under its original colors and with those clever “spokesanimals” on the tail.
Below Southwest’s just-out press release as it relates to customers, with the section for the investment/financial community deleted:
Title: Southwest Airlines Developing Bid Proposal in Frontier Airlines Bankruptcy Court Proceeding
Date: 7/30/2009 1:20:00 PM
Low-Fare Carrier Seeks to Acquire Frontier Airlines
Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV)
confirmed today that the carrier is preparing a bid to acquire Denver-based
Frontier Airlines, which will be sold at auction in bankruptcy court next
month. The carrier has submitted a nonbinding proposal in accordance with the
bidding procedures established in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern
District of New York. The bid is worth a minimum of $113.6 million, which is
in excess of the bid currently filed by Republic Airways.
Submission of a nonbinding proposal gives Southwest an opportunity to
engage with Frontier in the due diligence required to determine the scope of a
binding proposal to be submitted by the court’s Aug. 10, 2009, deadline.
“We are excited about the opportunity to submit a bid,” said Gary Kelly,
Southwest’s Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO. “We see a strong fit
between our Company cultures, a mutual commitment to high quality Customer
Service, and similar entrepreneurial roots.”
A successful acquisition of Frontier Airlines will allow Southwest to
expand its network with its legendary low fares, add jobs into Southwest, and
boost competition in Denver and other cities. Southwest is a qualified
investor and is still preparing its proposal; therefore, it is premature to
comment on the specifics at this point.
To view a Q&A with a Southwest Airlines Executive Vice President Corporate
Services and Corporate Secretary Ron Ricks, please visit:
http://www.blogsouthwest.com/blog/southwest-bids-frontier-airlines.
Frontier filed for bankruptcy court protection in April 2008. On June 22,
2009, Republic Airways submitted a bid to purchase Frontier for $108.8
million.
After 38 years of service, Southwest Airlines offers a reliable product
with exemplary Customer Service. Southwest Airlines is the most productive
airline in the sky and offers Customers a comfortable traveling experience
with all premium leather seats and plenty of legroom. Southwest recently
updated its gate areas and improved its boarding procedure to make flying
Southwest Airlines even more convenient and simple. Southwest Airlines
currently serves 66 cities in 33 states, and announced service to Boston
Logan, which begins Aug. 16, 2009, and to Milwaukee, which begins Nov. 1,
2009. Southwest currently operates more than 3,300 flights a day and has more
than 35,000 Employees systemwide.
A few months ago, I needed a last-minute hotel/motel room in Santa Monica. I foolishly booked online without doing due diligence and found myself trapped in the Pacific Sands Motel, which I have described to friends as the “worse motel in the country.” I blogged about here. Had I read the traveler-generated reviews on, say, TripAdvisor.com before booking, I might have suspected that it is a pit. But then again, when I looked later, I saw some positive write-ups that might not have deterred me. I’ve always suspected that some of the good reviews of bad places (and defensive comments to negative reviews) were plants.
come part of the Republic Airways group (but hopefully will retain its own identity), has been running an ad campaign that is cute, clever and memorable. Talking animals on the tails of Frontier planes extol the virtues of Frontier, and one of them is now a regional Emmy winner.
Photo © Brent Stirton-All Rights Reserved
Brent Stirton’s work from Papua New Guinea is just superlative…have a close look at his series of images of PNG which highlights the uniqueness of its tribal culture and the ritual of dress and dance for which it is most famous.
Brient is the senior staff photographer for the assignment division of Getty Images, New York. He specializes in documentary work and is known for his alternative approaches, and travels an average of nine months of the year on assignment.
His work is published by: National Geographic Magazine, National Geographic Adventure, The New York Times Magazine, The London Sunday Times Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, The Discovery Channel, Newsweek, Le Express, Le Monde 2, Figaro, Paris Match, GQ, Geo, Stern, CNN, and many other other will known international titles and news organizations. He also received numerous awards from the Overseas Press Club, the Frontline Club, the Deadline Club, Days Japan, multiple P.O.Y USA awards, and awards from the World Press Photo Foundation and the United Nations for his work on the environment and in the field of HIV. In 2009, he received awards from the National Press Photographers Association, and the ASME magazine publishers award for photojournalism for his work in the Democratic Republic of Congo as published in National Geographic magazine.
Brent’s work in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley was featured in TTP.
Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
After one of my classes at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop, Dar Yasin (a photographer from Kashmir) and I went exploring the small tented settlement of Rajasthanis in central Manali. Most of the settlers are transient, and if my understanding is accurate, they spend around the 4-5 months of summer in the milder climates of Manali. Most of those we spoke to were from Kota, and have established small tented temples where they hold daily pujas. The travel takes them about 4 days by train, and they are regular visitors here. In common with such situations, the locals probably resent the intrusion, but I haven’t seen any overt signs of it.
The Wall Street Journal reports on research from Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Modoff showing that Apple and Research in Motion together accounted for approximately 35% of the mobile phone industry’s total operating profit in 2008 while only representing 3% of total unit sales. Apple’s share of industry profits clocked in at approximately 20% while holding only just over 1% of the unit market share.
The two companies’ outsize share of profits underlines the shift in the wireless industry toward feature-rich devices accenting easy-to-use software and away from an emphasis on hardware. Smart phones account for only about 13% of total cellphone sales globally, but the segment is growing, despite a drop in the broader cellphone market. Apple and RIM had about 32% of the smart-phone market between them in the first quarter, estimates IDC.
Moreover, Modoff estimates that Apple and Research in Motion will reach a combined 5% of unit sales for 2009, raking in roughly 58% of the total industry profit between them.
The report notes that wireless carrier subsidies provide the driving force behind such large profits for leading smartphones such as Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry lines. Apple reportedly receives about $400 in carrier subsidy for each iPhone, while BlackBerry sees about $200 and the typical basic cellphone about $100. Among manufacturers dominating the basic cellphone market, only market leader Nokia is able to leverage its economies of scale to pull in a greater share of industry profits (55%) than its corresponding unit market share (46%). But even Nokia has seen its unit market share and profits slip as customers increasingly adopt more sophisticated smartphone models from smaller competitors.
Jul
30
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So nice to be home! I feel totally lost, now I will have to try to find my way back to normal. Right now it is like beeing a tourist in my own life. Billy Shire illustrates my feeling 
Elisabeth is showing us pieces of her home over at Design*Sponge.
Big is Beautiful: A Review of B as in BeautyB as in BeautyAlberto FerrerasGrand Central Publishing2009This week I read B as in Beauty by Alberto Ferreras. Earlier this week I said I was going to try to lighten up. I saw this book reviewed a few places, and I loved the cover so I was happy to give this chick lit a go. Read it in one sitting. Okay, it’s chick lit, a genre I don’t normally read but
By Scott Beveridge,
WEBSTER, Pa. – At one end of a short street in the heart of my hometown sits the rusting and sagging Donora-Webster Bridge that has been closed to traffic for two weeks over safety concerns.
At other end of this tiny road in Webster, Pa., there are crooked stone stairs leading to an abandoned house that is collapsing at a slow rate of speed.
Yet this road that is the length of two mini-blocks has just been given quite a noble feature and it doesn’t involve the one building sharing its address.
Commissioners in Rostraver Township have renamed the street to honor the late Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Ernest P. Kline who grew up in the village before entering state politics in Beaver County.
It’s a fitting place to call Kline Street because his mother was part of a protest there in the 1970s that local women organized to force state transportation officials to install traffic lights at the intersection. The same confusing signals are still there, even though the traffic has all but disappeared since the bridge closed.
It will surely become more confusing for such people as utility workers and delivery drivers as their likes had trouble finding Webster residences even when the bridge was open.
They had a good excuse.
Kline Street used to be Anderson Street, but that was anyone’s guess because there were no road signs marking the drag until last week. Then Westmoreland County 911 renamed Anderson, deeming it Thomas Street a two years ago when houses here were finally given street numbers. This move was supposed to make it easier and quicker for ambulances to get to emergencies in the village.
A friend tried to get here a few weeks ago for a party and the global positioning system in her van took her to Webster, across the bridge and onto what the GPS gods know as Tenth Street. The same GPS navigators take people to Donora when they try to find my house.
The Kline family must be chuckling at the honor, albeit small, our village has bestowed upon the legacy of Ernie Kline. At least most of its members know how to get here to see their name on three new large street signs in town
