LOS ANGELES, July 24 (UPI) — Jay Z’s “Magna Carta… Holy Grail” is No. 1 on the U.S. album chart for a second week, Billboard.com reported Wednesday. …read more
'Magna Carta… Holy Grail' tops the U.S. album chart
Tag Archives: Holy Grail
License Fee Threatens China Car Sales
Filed under: Automotive Industry
Most large global car companies still believe that China will not only remain the world’s largest car market, but also will be one of the fastest growing. But growth there has been unimpressive recently, and taxes imposed by the government on auto licenses may make that problem worse, damaging efforts by manufacturers who have increased investment in the People’s Republic.
March is usually a good month for car sales in China. However, sales rose only 11% to 2.01 million. That is down from a rate of 20% improvement in the first two months, according to The Wall Street Journal. And these low double-digit percentage numbers come after an anemic 2012.
The investments in China made by large car companies must be relying on the 20% number more than on 2012 growth rates, because they are so large in dollar terms. This is particularly true of America manufacturers. A year ago, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) said it would invest $760 million in its operations in the People’s Republic. The money will go into a new plant in Hangzhou, set with its joint venture Changan Ford Mazda Automobile. And Bloomberg said of the investment in China by General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM):
GM‘s announcement at the Shanghai auto show this month that it is spending $11 billion by 2016 on new plants, products and people in China demonstrates a change in priorities. GM is investing $1.5 billion in North America this year, where it has a more modest factory footprint.
For the past two years, the primary concern about the growth of car sales in China has been based on whether its economy would slow, and its large middle class would move to its traditional habit of saving instead of consumer spending. As it turns out, that is not the most significant threat. Pollution is. And the People’s Republic has decided to attack the problem in part by high car license fees, most analysts believe. BusinessWeek reports on the cost of license plates in China:
Shanghai is one of four Chinese cities that limit car purchases by imposing quotas on registrations. The prices paid at Shanghai’s license auctions in recent months — 90,000 yuan ($14,530) — have exceeded the cost of many entry-level cars, the stronghold of Chinese brands such as Chery, Geely, and Great Wall. While residents with modest incomes may be able to afford an inexpensive car, the registration cost is often beyond their reach.
It is too early to know exactly what effect these license fees will have on sales, or whether they will be imposed more broadly. No matter what the reason, these new, high fees could scuttle the hopes that car sales in China will make it the Holy Grail for the industry.
Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Autos, China Tagged: F, featured, GM
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Dream Trip: Epic Summer Skiing & Fishing Adventure
When it comes to skiing or snowboarding, for serious snow junkies it doesn’t get any better than heli-skiing, the Holy Grail of the sport. When it comes to heli-skiing, it doesn’t get much better than Alaska, with more heli-operators than the rest of the country combined, much more snow than any resorts in the Lower 48, and endless terrain. When it comes to fly fishing, it doesn’t get much better than Alaska’s King salmon runs, pristine rivers overflowing with 30-50 pound fish. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Tech and The City: A New Book About New York's Startup Community
By Bhrigu Pankaj Prashar, Contributor
A new book has “Emmortalized” on the web the story of New York’s startup community and soon will immortalize it in print. The book, “Tech and The City, The Making of New York’s Startup Community”, authored by Maria Teresa Cometto and Alessandro Piol, could be the Holy Grail of New York’s startup scene. The authors provide an “exquisite first hand detail of How New York City became the world’s fastest growing startup technology center….Warm and personal, academic and comprehensive”**, Tech and The City augments personal stories and recollections of the pioneers of Silicon Alley. New York has witnessed a slew of entrepreneurial activity and there has been much written about this hot bed for tech startups. Center of many debates and focus of keen interests, Media and other interested sections have much celebrated, lauded, measured, faulted and deftly fielded the sustained opportunity and evolving potential in New York’s “tech startup scene”. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Autoblog drives to the Arctic Circle
Filed under: Minivan/Van, Truck, Etc., Mercedes-Benz, New Car Reviews, Diesel
In Which Mercedes’ Sprinter Becomes A Long-Distance Sherpa
In the wintery wilds of northern Alaska, even the cute little critters want to kill you.
As I am about to nod off on my long leg flight from Minneapolis to Anchorage ahead of driving to the Arctic Circle, the friendly twenty-something Alaskan knitting furiously in the seat next to me pauses and says, “When you’re driving up there, don’t open your windows.” In the dead of winter? I hadn’t planned on cruising alfresco, but her warning to keep the glazing snugged against the weatherstripping is one I would take to heart. She continues: “If you leave ’em open, a fox is liable to jump right in. There are lots of rabid foxes up there, and they leap into your car and just Go. To. Town.” And here I was, thinking that a curious bear or maybe an ill-placed moose in the road was going to be my biggest potential four-legged threat. In the wintery wilds of northern Alaska, even the cute little critters want to kill you.
Bedraggled after two flights and a long layover, I reach my hotel room nursing a toothache and a suddenly metastasizing cold. I manage to down half a reindeer burger from room service and a sleeping pill, and with a cute red fox taking the place of the killer rabbit in that scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail stuck on mental replay, I hit the pillow, wondering what in the hell I’ve gotten myself into.
The next morning starts early, and I meet my fellow adventurers-to-be at the morning briefing. We’re assembled at the Anchorage Sheraton at the behest of Mercedes-Benz Canada, and our plan is to drive from Anchorage to the former mining camp of Coldfoot, which lies north of the Arctic Circle. In Sprinter commercial vans. At 1,264 miles, it’s the last leg of a longer endurance run that started out in Edmonton. We’ll stop for the night in Fairbanks, then run alongside the 800-mile-long Trans-Alaskan Pipeline before saying hello to the Arctic Circle. From there, we’ll venture up to Coldfoot Camp, where we’ll hopefully stand directly underneath the Northern Lights. Then we’ll do the whole thing in reverse, ending up in this very hotel five days from now.
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Autoblog drives to the Arctic Circle originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 22 Mar 2013 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog
FBI Identifies Thieves in 'Holy Grail of Art Crime'
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
How to Find a Technical CoFounder
If you’re building a tech startup and you don’t know how to code, you’ll need to find the elusive technical cofounder who can partner with you to bring your product idea to fruition These days, finding a technical cofounder seems to be the equivalent to finding the Holy Grail. Every entrepreneur with an idea proclaims she could be starting the next Facebook if only she could find a technical cofounder! …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
How Facebook Graph Search will ignite a search revolution
Facebook’s Graph Search is the future of search. Even before Google was a verb, the search engine Holy Grail was to deliver you the most relevant search results despite not knowing who you were and what exactly you were looking for. Now Facebook can stop guessing who you are—because it already knows you—and start serving up hyper-personalized answers tailored to you and based on the Facebook social universe.
Search leaders haven’t been sitting idly by. Google’s own hyper-personal search tool is called Google Now and landed on desktop search just last month. Microsoft’s Bing has woven what it calls Social Search deep into its search engine. The hyper-personal search race has already been sparked; Facebook’s Graph Search ignites the revolution.
[[See also “Hands on with Facebook Graph Search: Interesting, but disappointing”]]
Getting personal
Personalized search is nothing new. We’ve gotten whiffs of the benefits of personalized search over time. Netflix has spent years honing its recommendation engine designed to keep you coming back to watch more movies and TV shows. Amazon recommends books, music, and numerous other products based on your past purchases. Pandora developed an algorithm that can generate playlists based on songs you tell it you like.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld