Wednesday, November 21, 2007

As “Brand International Promotion Association” and “Taiwan Excellent Manufacturers‘ Association” merged to “Taiwan Excellent Brand Association” (TEBA), “2007 Taiwan Brands’ Trend Forum”, with the slogan of “Winning Global Economic with Taiwan Brands”, held yesterday and invited professionals from governmental, financial, and IT industries to share experiences on marketing MIT (Made in Taiwan) brands and encourage MIT brands market to the world by innovations.

Newly-elected Chairman of TEBA Andy Tzu-jen Hsieh remarked in the opening: “A product with MIT brand didn’t mean ‘cheap’ but ‘value’ of its good quality.” With Hsieh’s words, Minister of Economic Affairs of Taiwan Steve Ruey-long Chen echoed and said: “Self-made (MIT) brands were progressively refined with its innovations, R&D, and new ideas. Lots of good MIT brands became notable world-wide in the presence. But it’s uncertain to determine success or failure when a company manages its brand because companies with small-business scale were grown up. A brand needs a long-period management to keep it in a good image.”

Many participants and local media focused on the keynote speech by the founder of Multitech Stan Shih. He compared brands trend between Taiwan and other world-wide countries with “The World Is Flat“ and proved the trend of optimization on global companies with his “Smiling Curve” theory. “We (the public) should determine a brand good or failure by its quality, nature, and notability but not its scale.” Shih said and stressed, “Companies with MIT brands (OBMs) can’t always be ODMs or OEMs because some (people) often confused on conceptions and basis of ‘Branding Taiwan’ and ‘Taiwan Brands’. If a company need a good brand, it (a brand) should has its (brand owner’s) creations and management strategies to mark it into the world in a good position.”

“The brand trends in Taiwan is from ODM in the past to OEM commonly in the presence. But after some products by MIT companies were presented to the public, lots of MIT brands became world-class brands such as BenQ, Giant, Acer so that Taiwan can enter into the OBMs’ era. If Taiwan can still be in the OBMs’ era, the global market competitiveness and world-wide media exposure of MIT brands will be improved. ‘OBMs in Taiwan’ will help companies from several industries keep their headquarters retain in Taiwan.” Tracy Chun-fang Hsu (Vice Director-general of the Bureau of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Economic Affairs of R.O.C.) mentioned in the forum.

Before the Panel Discussion, Jerry Wang (Vice Chairman of BenQ) corrected the difference between “Values” and “Value” with some quotes from Wikipedia. He said: “Value of a brand include values and consumers’ value. A factor who determine consumers to buy a product or not is emotion or self-need. A brand’s or a product’s nature can be known with differences on consumers’ population. Of course, in Taiwan or other world-wide countries, every self-made brand or product has its style, nature, and characteristics.”

In the final of Panel Discussion, 3 main speakers think that “Smiling Curve” theory is a key factor to determine a company pursue its “brand value” success or failure. If a MIT brands wants to become world-class and notable, a company (brand owner) should not only have its creations, images, and innovations but also consider feelings from consumers.

Wednesday, June 16, 2021

In early May, Wikinews extended an invitation to Vitaly Filipchenko, an independent candidate in the 2021 New York City mayoral election, set to take place November 2nd, alongside other candidates. Filipchenko answered some questions about his policies and campaign during a phone interview.

Filipchenko, registered on the New York City Campaign Finance Board as Vitaly A. Filipchenko, is the first Russian candidate for New York City mayor, being born in Tomsk, Siberia in 1973, according to news agency Sputnik. He has since naturalised as a United States citizen. According to the web site, Filipchenko has been educated in road construction and maintenance and owns a moving services company; he describes himself on his web site as a “small business owner”. On his web site’s platform page, he says that “[m]y English may not be perfect – but my platform is.”

Incumbent Democrat mayor Bill de Blasio, who won re-election in the 2017 New York City mayoral election by 66.5%, cannot run for a third term under term limits. As of April 28, 22 candidates are currently running, the majority of whom are also Democrats. Ahead of the June Democratic primary for New York City mayor, a poll conducted May 23 and 24 by WPIX and Emerson College of 12 Democratic candidates with a margin of error of 3.2 per cent has former commissioner for the New York City Department of Sanitation Kathryn Garcia and Borough President of Brooklyn Eric Adams leading with 21.1% and 20.1%, respectively.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

A Saturday, July 26th, meeting of the United States Senate resulted in the passing of a $300 billion housing aid bill designed to help homeowners facing foreclosure by providing financial aid. In addition, the bill created a government emergency fund for mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The legislation is expected to benefit up to 400,000 homeowners. The Congressional Budget Office said that between now and December 31, 2009, that if any bailout for the companies was needed, they expected it to be less than $25 billion.

The House on July 23th, passed the bill with a final vote of 272 in favor and 152 against. The final vote in the Senate was 72 in favor and 13 against. President Bush had initial woes about the bill based upon a $3.9 billion part of the legislation allowing for repurchase and improvement of foreclosed homes by the stricken neighborhoods.

The Bush Administration believed that this could be a potential problem, because it created a incentive for mortgage companies to foreclose homes. Bush has since changed his mind on the matter and is expected to sign the bill in the near future.

The bill has been considered one of the most important pieces of housing legislation in years. Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut said that “this bill is going to make a difference almost immediately.” Despite the bill’s overwhelming support, it has had its dissidents. “We are pretending to chain a monster here and we are, instead, letting that monster loose,” said Arizona Representative Jeff Flake. Originally a supporter of the bill, Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa has changed his opinion because of the addition of the emergency fund for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “This bill has fallen prey to the special interests on Wall Street and K Street at an unjustifiable expense to taxpayers and homeowners on Main Street,” said Grassley.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Over 1000 cases of illness have now been identified in a foodborne salmonellosis outbreak that began in mid-April 2008 in the United States.

As of July 8, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported 1013 confirmed infections throughout the United States, along with four cases in Canada. 203 hospitalizations have been linked to the outbreak. It has caused at least one death, and it may have been a contributing factor in another. The pathogen responsible is the rare Saintpaul strain of Salmonella enterica.

Nearly half of the reported illnesses were in Texas and New Mexico. According to unnamed sources close to the investigation, most illness clusters in the outbreak involve Mexican restaurants. Illness clusters in the hard hit state of Illinois were publicly identified by local health departments as involving three Mexican restaurants.

The CDC is in the process of investigating the outbreak and trying to identify the contamination’s point of origin. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) currently suspects that the contaminated food product is an ingredient in fresh salsa, such as fresh jalapeño pepper, fresh serrano pepper, fresh cilantro, or certain types of raw tomato.

Some produce industry insiders doubt that fresh produce is to blame for the outbreak. They point to the absence of Salmonella on all of the tested produce samples to date, as well as divergent results from produce tracebacks. They also say that the extended time frame of new sicknesses makes it unlikely that either raw tomatoes or fresh jalapeños, the government’s two main suspects, could be responsible. Will Steele, President and CEO of Frontera Produce, said that “the outbreak is probably related to processed goods and they’re looking in the wrong closets.”

Steele’s Texas based company has been forced to hold shipments of fresh jalapeño peppers after loads of produce were repeatedly flagged by the FDA for testing. Although independent testing of both loads showed no sign of Salmonella, the peppers are still on hold until the FDA finishes its own testing of the second load flagged on July 1st. “There are still no results,” Steele says. “The salability of that produce in two to three days is gone. We ceased harvesting. There is no sense in bringing in more product and having it rot.”

Steele, like others in the produce industry, believes that the FDA should be focusing on processed produce instead of fresh produce. “Methodology is backward,” he says. “FDA is reaching for answers. You can’t tie jalapeño pepper shipped on June 30 back to April 10.”

Still, the FDA and the CDC consider testing of fresh jalapeños and other fresh produce a high priority. The CDC writes that “the accumulated data from all investigations indicate that jalapeño peppers caused some illnesses.”

The FDA is cautioning that people who would be in the most danger if infected with Salmonella (infants, the elderly, and those with compromised immune systems) should avoid eating the suspected types of produce listed on their website.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Denunciations of corruption, bribe, collection of bribes from refugees [1] and of sexual scandal involving the peacekeepers [2], [3] threaten the Organization of the United Nations (UN).

The gravest denunciations involve the aid project to Iraq, called Oil-for-Food. Grave denunciations of bribe exist, superfluous accounting and collaboration with the ex-dictator Saddam Hussein, against staff of the UN, companies and politicians of several countries. Even the secretary of the UN, Kofi Annan was suspicious of participation in the plan of corruption. And also grave doubts still hover about his son, Kojo Annan.

The gravity of the denunciations threatens not only the credibility of the UN, but its existence.

Secretary Kofi Annan said that he is going to promote reforms in the organization. [4]

Sunday, April 10, 2005

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, the San Jose, California-based joint venture of Japanese storage vendor Hitachi and U.S. technology giant IBM, has set a new record for storage density at 230 gigabits per square inch (Gb/in²). The company has developed technology to implement a recording method known as perpendicular recording, which allowed the increase in density above the current ~130 Gb/in² limit.

Techworld claims there is a race between Hitachi and Toshiba for who will get the first drives to market which use the technology. According to Hitachi, they expect, “to ship [their] first perpendicular recording product in 2005 on a 2.5-inch hard drive”. Toshiba is also planning to ship a drive in 2005 that uses perpendicular recording.

According to Techworld, Toshiba will ship an 80 GB, 1.8″ drive in 2005. Toshiba’s 1.8″ drives are used in portable electronic devices such as Apple’s iPod, which is currently available in sizes 60 GB and smaller.

While all commercially available hard drives to date use longitudinal recording, perpendicular recording has roots in research done in academic circles over 100 years ago.

Hitachi Tech has produced a Flash animation that explains the rudiments of perpendicular recording in a music-video style.

Inspired by the 1970s Schoolhouse Rock series of educational animation shorts, the flash movie features whimsical moments with data bits and disk platters that speak and sing (not possible with today’s technology), it also contains realistic details. Of no importance to the viewer, but perhaps of interest to some, the animation shows Texas Instruments’ UC5608DWP chips visible briefly in the background. While TI’s UC5608DWP 18-line SCSI terminator chips have been made obsolete by the new UCC5618, the chips are indeed designed for use in hard drives.

Friday, September 29, 2006

Diamond Brownridge, a 5-year old girl from Chicago, Illinois, has died after a visit to the dentist. Children’s Memorial Hospital officials say that the girl was rushed to the hospital when she never woke up after being sedated for a dental procedure. She had been in a coma, on life support, since being admitted to the hospital early in the weekend.

“She passed very peacefully and beautifully,” said the hospital in a statement that the family issued.

Ommettress Travis, the mother of the girl, was asked not to remain inside the room while dentists were operating on the girl to repair two cavities and to have at least two caps replaced. Travis says after thirty minutes she was asked to come back in and found Brownridge not breathing, in the dentist chair.

Hicham Riba, a specialist and professional in anesthesia, who was also licensed, was the dentist in charge of the procedure.

“My family and I are so sad. May God bless Diamond and her family. Every time you have a tragedy like this, you pray more. I don’t think I will ever go back to a normal life after an experience like this,” Riba said in a statement on Wednesday, September 28.

According to the family, the girl had been given at least a triple dose of medicine that sedated her. Those drugs include: nitrous oxide gas, a single dose of an “oral agent” and an IV.

A judge has ordered that all equipment and materials used during the operation be protected and examined. The girl’s medical records have also been ordered to be examined.

There is no word on whether or not any charges will be filed against Riba or any of the dentist’s staff.

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Wikinews extended invitations by e-mail on March 23 to multiple candidates running in the Texas’ 6th congressional district special election of May 1 to fill a vacancy left upon the death of Republican congressman Ron Wright. Of them, the office of Democrat Daryl Eddings, Sr. agreed to answer some questions by phone March 30 about their campaigns and policies. The following is the interview with Ms Chatham on behalf of Mr Eddings, Sr.

Eddings is a federal law enforcement officer and senior non-commissioned officer in the US military. His experience as operations officer of an aviation unit in the California National Guard includes working in Los Angeles to control riots sparked by the O. J. Simpson murder case and the police handling of Rodney King, working with drug interdiction teams in Panama and Central America and fighting in the Middle East. He is the founder of Operation Battle Buddy, which has under his leadership kept in touch with over 20 thousand veterans and their families. He was born in California, but moved to Midlothian, Texas. He endeavours to bring “good government, not no government”. Campaign manager Faith Chatham spoke to Wikinews on matters ranging from healthcare to housing.

An Inside Elections poll published on March 18 shows Republican candidate Susan Wright, the widow of Ron Wright, is ahead by 21% followed by Democrat Jana Sanchez with 17% and Republican Jake Ellzey with 8% with a 4.6% margin of error among 450 likely voters. The district is considered “lean Republican” by Inside Elections and voted 51% in favour of Donald Trump in last year’s US presidential election. This is down from 54% for Trump in 2016’s presidential election, the same poll stated.