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How To Get People To Like Craft Smart Acrylic Paint | Craft Smart Acrylic Paint

A set of watercolors afresh captivated my 4-year-old son. He corrective one account afterwards the next, account at how he could mix two colors and—presto!—make a new one. His activity was a relief.

Keeping accouchement busy—preferably afar so—is a claiming these days. With anybody spending added time at home, parents accept been affected to acquisition artistic means to entertain, educate, and appoint kids while accompanying binding in aggregate else. Options that authority absorption spans for added than a few minutes, crave basal affectionate oversight, and don’t absorb a awning are in abbreviate supply. (Though if screens are befitting the accord appropriate now, don’t feel too bad about it.)

Simple arts-and-crafts projects, advancing artistic activities, and toys or projects that accommodate opportunities for artistic comedy may fit the bill. Play, afterwards all, is how kids learn, says Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a assistant of attitude at Temple University and the columnist of Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful Children. “We’re so anxious about accepting worksheets done,” she says, “but architecture a Lego archetypal is as able as a worksheet—maybe more.”

Projects additionally action kids a way to action things. “This [current situation] is absolutely boxy on kids,” says Dr. Michael Yogman, a pediatrician based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the advance columnist of The Power of Play, a address by the American Academy of Pediatrics. “You accept to accord them means to accurate themselves both physically and emotionally.”

Here are some of our admired ability projects, art supplies, and artistic toys to advice accumulate kids busy—and hopefully buy you a little time.

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Europe Colorant Market Outlook 2026, Global Opportunity & Growth Analysis | BASF SE, DIC Corporation, Clariant, Cathay Industries, Colorchem International Corp

Colorants are very important ingredients in food such as confectionary, desserts, snacks and beverages. Colorants can be organic or inorganic, metal or mineral based too. It is also used in automotive part coloration and packaging. Most of the time, liquid colorants are compatible with many plastics and are cost efficient.

Growing promotional events and investment towards the colorants industries by various governmental bodies, to promote the manufacturers and suppliers in the developments is leading to the growth of the market in the forecast period.

Colorant is a substance that is used in order to change the material’s surface. They are used for painting, coloring of different materials such as painting, printing and for the coloration of different materials such as plastics and food. Most of the colorants have classifications such as dyes and pigments. Dyes are soluble colored organic compounds used for textiles in water whereas pigments are insoluble compounds that hold application in paints, printing inks and plastics.

Europe colorants market is growing CAGR of 4.0% in the forecast period 2019 to 2026.

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Competitive Analysis: Europe Colorants Market

Some of the major players operating in this market are BASF SE, DIC Corporation, Clariant, Cathay Industries, Colorchem International Corp and others.

Business Expansion:

In January 2017 Changzhou Longyu Pigment Chemical CO., LTD. Expanded the South America sale network by entering in Argentina by opening a sales office. Argentina with an increasing economy in the year was one of the best places to invest.

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Segmentation: Europe Colorants Market

Europe colorants market is segmented into three notable segments which are color, product and end-user.

On the basis of color, the market is segmented into natural and synthetic color. Natural colorant is further sub-segmented into green, red, yellow, brown, violet, purple, blue, white, black and others. Synthetic colors are again sub-segmented into green, red, yellow, brown, violet, purple, blue, white, black and others.

On the basis of product, the market is segmented into pigments, dyes, color concentrates and masterbatches. Pigments are sub-segmented into organic and inorganic. Organic is further sub sub-segmented into azo, polycyclic, anthraquinone, dioxazine, triarylcarbonium and quinophthalone. Inorganic is further sub-subbed segmented into colored and white. Colored again is classified into CICP, metal oxides, metal salts and others. White is segmented into opaque and non-opaque. Dyes are further sub-segmented based on by type, by nature, by lake and by chemistry. Based on by type, it is further sub segmented into natural, by source and synthetic. Natural, by source is again sub segmented into plants, animals and minerals. Dyes, by nature is further sub segmented into acidic and basic. Dyes, by lake, are further segmented into basic, fat soluble and metal complex. Dyes, by chemistry is segmented into direct dyes, mordant dyes, disperse dyes, reactive dyes, acid dyes, direct dyes, VAT dyes, azoic dyes, Sulphur dyes and others. Color concentrates are segmented again to solid and liquid. Masterbatches are sub segmented into white, black and color.

On the basis of end-user, the market is segmented into packaging, paper & printing, textiles, building & construction, automotive, consumer goods and others. Packaging is further sub segmented into food & Beverage, healthcare and consumer goods. Textiles are further sub segmented into fabric coloring, printed fabrics and leather. Building & construction is further sub segmented into paints & coatings, plastics and others. Automotive is further sub segmented into paints and coatings, plastics and textiles.

In July 2018, CATHAY INDUSTRIES agreed to divest the high purity Iron oxide plant located at Indiana, U.S. to Sun Chemicals, a U.S. based printing inks and pigments manufacturer.

In June 2018, Hoover Color Corporation, a U.S. based pigment manufacturer was acquired by CATHAY INDUSTRIES to cater a larger pigment customer base in the country.

In October, the company launched a new range of high performance thermostable pigments under the brand name CATHAYTHERM for thermosetting & thermoplastics applications.

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Special Report: From war room to boardroom. Military firms flourish…

CAIRO (Reuters) – In a four-decade military career, Osama Abdel Meguid served in the first Gulf War and was an assistant military attaché in the United States.

An employee works at the Helwan Company for Metallic Appliances (Factory 360) on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt February 20, 2017. Picture taken February 20, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer

These days he issues orders from an office that overlooks the Nile, as chairman of the Maadi Co. for Engineering Industries, owned by the Ministry of Military Production.

Maadi was founded in 1954 to manufacture grenade launchers, pistols and machine guns. In recent years the firm, which employs 1,400 people, has begun turning out greenhouses, medical devices, power equipment and gyms. It has plans for four new factories.

“There are so many projects we are working on,” said Abdel Meguid, a 61-year-old engineer, listing orders including a 495 million Egyptian pound ($28 million) project for the Ministry of Electricity and an Algerian agricultural waste recycling contract worth $400,000.

Maadi is one of dozens of military-owned companies that have flourished since Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a former armed forces chief, became president in 2014, a year after leading the military in ousting Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.

The military owns 51 percent of a firm that is developing a new $45 billion capital city 75 km east of Cairo. Another military-owned company is building Egypt’s biggest cement plant. Other business interests range from fish farms to holiday resorts.

In interviews conducted over the course of a year, the chairmen of nine military-owned firms described how their businesses are expanding and discussed their plans for future growth. Figures from the Ministry of Military Production – one of three main bodies that oversee military firms – show that revenues at its firms are rising sharply. The ministry’s figures and the chairmen’s accounts give rare insight into the way the military is growing in economic influence.

Some Egyptian businessmen and foreign investors say they are unsettled by the military’s push into civilian activities and complain about tax and other advantages granted to military-owned firms. The International Monetary Fund warned in Sept. 2017 that private sector development and job creation “might be hindered by involvement of entities under the Ministry of Defense.”

Egypt’s government counters that private companies are operating on an even playing field and that the military is filling gaps in the market, as it did during a shortage of infant formula in 2016. Then the military helped by importing supplies and has since announced plans to build a formula plant. Sisi says the military can deliver large, complicated projects faster than the private sector.

In 2016, the military and other security institutions were given exemptions in a new value-added tax (VAT) law enacted as part of IMF-inspired reforms. The law states that the military does not have to pay VAT on goods, equipment, machinery, services and raw materials needed for the purposes of armament, defense and national security.

The Ministry of Defense has the right to decide which goods and services qualify. Civilian businessmen complain that this can leave the system open to abuse. Receipts for a cup of coffee at private sector hotels, for example, add 14 percent VAT. Receipts at military hotels do not. Employees at the military-owned Al-Masah Hotel in Cairo told Reuters that no VAT was charged when renting venues for weddings and conferences.

Neither the Egyptian government nor the military responded to Reuters requests for comment for this article.

FROM GUNS TO GREENHOUSES

Military commercial ventures fall under one of three main bodies – the Ministry of Military Production, which oversees 20 businesses, the Ministry of Defense, which controls dozens, and the Egyptian government-owned Arab Organization for Industrialization, which has responsibility for at least 12.

Estimates vary on the scale of the military’s role in the economy. Sisi said in Dec. 2016 the military accounts for up to two percent of output. “It has been said that the military’s economy is worth 20 or even 50 percent of the economy. I wish,” he said at the opening of a military facility to produce chlorine for water sanitation.

A leading political scientist, who asked not to be named, put the figure at about three percent of GDP. The World Bank estimated Egypt’s GDP at $336 billion in 2016.

President Gamal Abdel Nasser established the Ministry of Military Production in 1954 to help Egypt achieve self sufficiency in arms production. In the decades that followed, its fortunes were mixed. It was abolished by Nasser, only to be revived by President Anwar Sadat in 1971, according to a 1985 CIA report. Revenues from its firms declined in much of the 1990s and 2000s. When Sisi took power the picture changed again.

The Ministry of Military Production is projecting that operating revenues from its 20 firms will reach 15 billion Egyptian pounds in 2018/2019, five times higher than in 2013/2014, according to a ministry chart. The ministry does not disclose what happens to the revenues. The chairmen of two of the firms said profits go to the ministry or are reinvested in the business.

The chairman of one firm that falls under the Ministry of Military Production, Major General Mammdouh Badawy, recalled with distaste the days of economic liberalization under President Hosni Mubarak in the 1990s and mid 2000s when “businessmen were eating up the country.” Badawy’s enterprise, Heliopolis Co. for Chemical Industries, was set up in 1949 to produce hand grenades, mortars, fuses and chemicals. These days it has ambitions to become Egypt’s number one supplier of paint.

An employee works in the refrigerators section of the Helwan Company for Metallic Appliances (Factory 360) on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt February 20, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer

In 2017 Heliopolis teamed up with another Egyptian paint maker, Pachin, which is majority owned by the state. The two firms plan to work together to compete with the paint market leader, Norway’s Jotun, Badawy said. Over time, Heliopolis aims to increase the share of paint production it sends to the private sector to 80 percent of its output from 20 percent now, he added.

“Pachin and I can compete with Jotun, but I can’t compete with Jotun alone,” said Badawy, a man of military bearing and with a greying moustache. “I don’t want to be a local shop. I want to be a company that has the capacity to export and compete internationally.”

Jotun said in a statement it hadn’t seen “any influence on our business up to now.” Its products were aimed at the top end of the market, it added, while Pachin tended to target middle and budget buyers.

The chairmen of two military engineering companies, Abu Zaabal Engineering Industries Co and Helwan Engineering Industries Co, said in recent years it had become much easier to access financing through the Ministry of Military Production.

In 2015 the government appointed Major General Mohamed El Assar to run the ministry. Assar was a member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces that ruled Egypt after a popular uprising toppled Mubarak in Feb. 2011.

Abu Zaabal chairman, Major General Magdy Shawky Abdel Moneim, said his firm used to have to borrow from the banks. “We had to wait for our turn at the bank to get the money we needed. But now, as soon as I submit a request to the ministry and say I need 60 million or 40 million Egyptian pounds to buy such and such raw materials to manufacture such and such, the following day Major General Assar approves the request.”

The ministry did not respond to a request for comment about the financial approval process.

Founded in 1974 to make artillery for the armed forces, Abu Zaabal now produces a wide range of specialty steels.

Helwan was established in 1954 to make metal components for heavy ammunition. In the 1980s it began making cooking pots, cutlery, fire extinguishers and gas canisters. Its chairman, Major General Shokry Al-Qamary, said sales of kitchen utensils were booming since Egypt devalued its currency in 2016, pushing up the price of imported goods. “We can’t keep up with demand.”

One of the most visible symbols of the military’s commercial ambitions is in the city of Beni Suef, at the edge of the desert south of Cairo, where workers are putting the finishing touches to Egypt’s largest cement plant, owned by the military’s El Arish Cement Co. The cement industry is feeling the full force of the military’s expanding activities. It took 8,000 workers 18 months to build the $1 billion dollar plant. At full capacity, it will produce 12.6 million tons of cement a year.

An executive at a foreign-owned cement company said Egypt’s annual production capacity already stood at 79 million tons last year, far above consumption of 52 million. An official at an Egyptian company said his firm’s sales had dropped by a fifth since January because of the new plant.

Egypt’s majority state-owned National Cement Co. shut production in Nov. 2017 after suffering heavy losses in the second half. Suez Cement, majority owned by Germany’s Heidelberg, reported that its consolidated 2017 loss nearly doubled to 1.14 billion pounds, while Alexandria Cement, majority owned by Greece’s Titan, reported its consolidated loss rose tenfold to 513.9 million pounds.

The military did not respond to a request for comment about the cement market. It has said previously that housing and other major construction projects will create new demand for cement. In addition to the new capital, the military is involved in the development of two new cities – New Alamein on the Mediterranean coast and Gabal Galala in the mountains above the northern Red Sea.

The executive at a foreign-owned firm disagreed with the military’s demand projection. To absorb all the new capacity Egypt, already one of the world’s highest per capita cement consumers, would have to double its consumption, the executive said.

Among projects the Ministry of Military Production announced in 2017 was a plan to plant 20 million palm trees with an Emirati company and build a factory to make sugar from their dates. It agreed with a Saudi company to jointly manufacture elevators. The military inaugurated the Middle East’s biggest fish farm on the Nile Delta east of Alexandria.

The Ministry of Military Production signed a memorandum of understanding with China’s GCL Group last week to build a solar panel factory worth up to $2 billion. The military has taken over much of the construction of intercity roads from the Ministry of Transport and now controls the toll stations along most major highways.

Slideshow (21 Images)

“IT IS COMPETITION”

Egypt’s economy has been struggling ever since the popular uprising that toppled Mubarak in 2011. Political instability and Islamist violence have damaged Egypt’s crucial tourism industry.

Economists and investors say reforms tied to a $12 billion three-year IMF program signed in Nov. 2016 should lay the ground for economic expansion. But foreign investors are still shying away from Egypt, apart from those focusing on the more resilient energy sector. Non-oil foreign direct investment fell to about $3 billion in 2017 from $4.7 billion in 2016, according to Reuters calculations based on central bank statistics.

A commercial officer at a Western embassy said foreign investors were reluctant to invest in sectors where the military is expanding or in one they might enter, worried that competing against the military with its special privileges could expose their investment to risk. If an investor had a business dispute with the military, the commercial officer said, there was no point in taking it to arbitration. “You just leave the country,” he said.

Other economists, however, are less troubled by the military’s expanding role.

“The government is simply securing its interest in strategic sectors, and the way it’s done is far from the mandatory partnerships or nationalizations of the 1960s. The government is determined to have private sector-led growth,” said Hany Farahat, senior economist at Egyptian investment bank CI Capital.

Minister of Military Production Minister Assar told Reuters Egypt needs private companies, which he considers “the backbone of our industry and economy.” But he believes his ministry also has a place. “It is competition.”

Sisi, speaking at a Feb. 8 inauguration of 1,300 greenhouses built by military engineers, said the armed forces were invaluable for the economy.

“I will tell you simply, as you have seen, it would take the private sector three to four years to complete the executive procedures to do something this big, such as roads and water projects, and to this standard.”

Egypt’s military, the biggest in the Arab world, has advantages.

It enjoys financial support from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, staunch supporters of Sisi since he toppled the group they see as a threat to the Middle East, the Muslim Brotherhood. Western powers see Cairo as a bulwark against Islamist militancy. Egypt receives $1.3 billion in military aid annually from the United States alone.

In addition to the law exempting the military from value added tax, some of Egypt’s other laws also work to the military’s advantage.

In 2015, the defense minister issued a decree exempting nearly 600 hotels, resorts and other properties owned by the military from real estate taxes.

Military companies receive an exemption from import tariffs under a 1986 law and from income taxes under a 2005 law. Cargoes sent to military companies do not have to be inspected.

It’s not just the military’s big ventures that are making some private sector companies uneasy. The Military Production Company for Projects, Engineering Investments and General Supplies grew out of a team of five employees in a small office in the Ministry of Military Production back in 2012. A ministry decree established the company in 2015. There are now 70 staff working in its new headquarters in the Nasr City area in northern Cairo, home to many military officers.

The company is striking deals with the ministries of education and youth and is involved in sewage and irrigation projects. It built a swimming pool for a leading sports club, is developing railways, constructed more than 60 schools and has built offices for organizations connected to Al Azhar, Egypt’s top religious institution.

“The ministries deal with us because they trust the armed forces. We will deliver on time, prices are not exaggerated and quality is high,” said company chairman Maged El Serty, who aims to build concrete and asphalt mixing plants to aid expansion.

At bustling Cairo squares, people line up to buy subsidized meat and other food handed out from trucks sponsored by the military. Sisi said he had instructed the military to enter the market “to supply more chicken to push down prices.”

Some disagree with such measures on the grounds the military’s mission is to protect the country from external threats.

“We have reached a point where they are competing even with street vendors,” said Hazem Hosny, a political scientist and economist at Cairo University and spokesman for retired general Sami Anan, who briefly sought to compete in Egypt’s 2018 presidential election.

“I believe that any military officer who respects himself will be upset from seeing even one soldier standing on the street selling chicken legs.”

Edited by Janet McBride and Michael Georgy

The post Special Report: From war room to boardroom. Military firms flourish… appeared first on World The News.

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Special Report: From war room to boardroom. Military firms flourish…

CAIRO (Reuters) – In a four-decade military career, Osama Abdel Meguid served in the first Gulf War and was an assistant military attaché in the United States.

An employee works at the Helwan Company for Metallic Appliances (Factory 360) on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt February 20, 2017. Picture taken February 20, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer

These days he issues orders from an office that overlooks the Nile, as chairman of the Maadi Co. for Engineering Industries, owned by the Ministry of Military Production.

Maadi was founded in 1954 to manufacture grenade launchers, pistols and machine guns. In recent years the firm, which employs 1,400 people, has begun turning out greenhouses, medical devices, power equipment and gyms. It has plans for four new factories.

“There are so many projects we are working on,” said Abdel Meguid, a 61-year-old engineer, listing orders including a 495 million Egyptian pound ($28 million) project for the Ministry of Electricity and an Algerian agricultural waste recycling contract worth $400,000.

Maadi is one of dozens of military-owned companies that have flourished since Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a former armed forces chief, became president in 2014, a year after leading the military in ousting Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.

The military owns 51 percent of a firm that is developing a new $45 billion capital city 75 km east of Cairo. Another military-owned company is building Egypt’s biggest cement plant. Other business interests range from fish farms to holiday resorts.

In interviews conducted over the course of a year, the chairmen of nine military-owned firms described how their businesses are expanding and discussed their plans for future growth. Figures from the Ministry of Military Production – one of three main bodies that oversee military firms – show that revenues at its firms are rising sharply. The ministry’s figures and the chairmen’s accounts give rare insight into the way the military is growing in economic influence.

Some Egyptian businessmen and foreign investors say they are unsettled by the military’s push into civilian activities and complain about tax and other advantages granted to military-owned firms. The International Monetary Fund warned in Sept. 2017 that private sector development and job creation “might be hindered by involvement of entities under the Ministry of Defense.”

Egypt’s government counters that private companies are operating on an even playing field and that the military is filling gaps in the market, as it did during a shortage of infant formula in 2016. Then the military helped by importing supplies and has since announced plans to build a formula plant. Sisi says the military can deliver large, complicated projects faster than the private sector.

In 2016, the military and other security institutions were given exemptions in a new value-added tax (VAT) law enacted as part of IMF-inspired reforms. The law states that the military does not have to pay VAT on goods, equipment, machinery, services and raw materials needed for the purposes of armament, defense and national security.

The Ministry of Defense has the right to decide which goods and services qualify. Civilian businessmen complain that this can leave the system open to abuse. Receipts for a cup of coffee at private sector hotels, for example, add 14 percent VAT. Receipts at military hotels do not. Employees at the military-owned Al-Masah Hotel in Cairo told Reuters that no VAT was charged when renting venues for weddings and conferences.

Neither the Egyptian government nor the military responded to Reuters requests for comment for this article.

FROM GUNS TO GREENHOUSES

Military commercial ventures fall under one of three main bodies – the Ministry of Military Production, which oversees 20 businesses, the Ministry of Defense, which controls dozens, and the Egyptian government-owned Arab Organization for Industrialization, which has responsibility for at least 12.

Estimates vary on the scale of the military’s role in the economy. Sisi said in Dec. 2016 the military accounts for up to two percent of output. “It has been said that the military’s economy is worth 20 or even 50 percent of the economy. I wish,” he said at the opening of a military facility to produce chlorine for water sanitation.

A leading political scientist, who asked not to be named, put the figure at about three percent of GDP. The World Bank estimated Egypt’s GDP at $336 billion in 2016.

President Gamal Abdel Nasser established the Ministry of Military Production in 1954 to help Egypt achieve self sufficiency in arms production. In the decades that followed, its fortunes were mixed. It was abolished by Nasser, only to be revived by President Anwar Sadat in 1971, according to a 1985 CIA report. Revenues from its firms declined in much of the 1990s and 2000s. When Sisi took power the picture changed again.

The Ministry of Military Production is projecting that operating revenues from its 20 firms will reach 15 billion Egyptian pounds in 2018/2019, five times higher than in 2013/2014, according to a ministry chart. The ministry does not disclose what happens to the revenues. The chairmen of two of the firms said profits go to the ministry or are reinvested in the business.

The chairman of one firm that falls under the Ministry of Military Production, Major General Mammdouh Badawy, recalled with distaste the days of economic liberalization under President Hosni Mubarak in the 1990s and mid 2000s when “businessmen were eating up the country.” Badawy’s enterprise, Heliopolis Co. for Chemical Industries, was set up in 1949 to produce hand grenades, mortars, fuses and chemicals. These days it has ambitions to become Egypt’s number one supplier of paint.

An employee works in the refrigerators section of the Helwan Company for Metallic Appliances (Factory 360) on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt February 20, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer

In 2017 Heliopolis teamed up with another Egyptian paint maker, Pachin, which is majority owned by the state. The two firms plan to work together to compete with the paint market leader, Norway’s Jotun, Badawy said. Over time, Heliopolis aims to increase the share of paint production it sends to the private sector to 80 percent of its output from 20 percent now, he added.

“Pachin and I can compete with Jotun, but I can’t compete with Jotun alone,” said Badawy, a man of military bearing and with a greying moustache. “I don’t want to be a local shop. I want to be a company that has the capacity to export and compete internationally.”

Jotun said in a statement it hadn’t seen “any influence on our business up to now.” Its products were aimed at the top end of the market, it added, while Pachin tended to target middle and budget buyers.

The chairmen of two military engineering companies, Abu Zaabal Engineering Industries Co and Helwan Engineering Industries Co, said in recent years it had become much easier to access financing through the Ministry of Military Production.

In 2015 the government appointed Major General Mohamed El Assar to run the ministry. Assar was a member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces that ruled Egypt after a popular uprising toppled Mubarak in Feb. 2011.

Abu Zaabal chairman, Major General Magdy Shawky Abdel Moneim, said his firm used to have to borrow from the banks. “We had to wait for our turn at the bank to get the money we needed. But now, as soon as I submit a request to the ministry and say I need 60 million or 40 million Egyptian pounds to buy such and such raw materials to manufacture such and such, the following day Major General Assar approves the request.”

The ministry did not respond to a request for comment about the financial approval process.

Founded in 1974 to make artillery for the armed forces, Abu Zaabal now produces a wide range of specialty steels.

Helwan was established in 1954 to make metal components for heavy ammunition. In the 1980s it began making cooking pots, cutlery, fire extinguishers and gas canisters. Its chairman, Major General Shokry Al-Qamary, said sales of kitchen utensils were booming since Egypt devalued its currency in 2016, pushing up the price of imported goods. “We can’t keep up with demand.”

One of the most visible symbols of the military’s commercial ambitions is in the city of Beni Suef, at the edge of the desert south of Cairo, where workers are putting the finishing touches to Egypt’s largest cement plant, owned by the military’s El Arish Cement Co. The cement industry is feeling the full force of the military’s expanding activities. It took 8,000 workers 18 months to build the $1 billion dollar plant. At full capacity, it will produce 12.6 million tons of cement a year.

An executive at a foreign-owned cement company said Egypt’s annual production capacity already stood at 79 million tons last year, far above consumption of 52 million. An official at an Egyptian company said his firm’s sales had dropped by a fifth since January because of the new plant.

Egypt’s majority state-owned National Cement Co. shut production in Nov. 2017 after suffering heavy losses in the second half. Suez Cement, majority owned by Germany’s Heidelberg, reported that its consolidated 2017 loss nearly doubled to 1.14 billion pounds, while Alexandria Cement, majority owned by Greece’s Titan, reported its consolidated loss rose tenfold to 513.9 million pounds.

The military did not respond to a request for comment about the cement market. It has said previously that housing and other major construction projects will create new demand for cement. In addition to the new capital, the military is involved in the development of two new cities – New Alamein on the Mediterranean coast and Gabal Galala in the mountains above the northern Red Sea.

The executive at a foreign-owned firm disagreed with the military’s demand projection. To absorb all the new capacity Egypt, already one of the world’s highest per capita cement consumers, would have to double its consumption, the executive said.

Among projects the Ministry of Military Production announced in 2017 was a plan to plant 20 million palm trees with an Emirati company and build a factory to make sugar from their dates. It agreed with a Saudi company to jointly manufacture elevators. The military inaugurated the Middle East’s biggest fish farm on the Nile Delta east of Alexandria.

The Ministry of Military Production signed a memorandum of understanding with China’s GCL Group last week to build a solar panel factory worth up to $2 billion. The military has taken over much of the construction of intercity roads from the Ministry of Transport and now controls the toll stations along most major highways.

Slideshow (21 Images)

“IT IS COMPETITION”

Egypt’s economy has been struggling ever since the popular uprising that toppled Mubarak in 2011. Political instability and Islamist violence have damaged Egypt’s crucial tourism industry.

Economists and investors say reforms tied to a $12 billion three-year IMF program signed in Nov. 2016 should lay the ground for economic expansion. But foreign investors are still shying away from Egypt, apart from those focusing on the more resilient energy sector. Non-oil foreign direct investment fell to about $3 billion in 2017 from $4.7 billion in 2016, according to Reuters calculations based on central bank statistics.

A commercial officer at a Western embassy said foreign investors were reluctant to invest in sectors where the military is expanding or in one they might enter, worried that competing against the military with its special privileges could expose their investment to risk. If an investor had a business dispute with the military, the commercial officer said, there was no point in taking it to arbitration. “You just leave the country,” he said.

Other economists, however, are less troubled by the military’s expanding role.

“The government is simply securing its interest in strategic sectors, and the way it’s done is far from the mandatory partnerships or nationalizations of the 1960s. The government is determined to have private sector-led growth,” said Hany Farahat, senior economist at Egyptian investment bank CI Capital.

Minister of Military Production Minister Assar told Reuters Egypt needs private companies, which he considers “the backbone of our industry and economy.” But he believes his ministry also has a place. “It is competition.”

Sisi, speaking at a Feb. 8 inauguration of 1,300 greenhouses built by military engineers, said the armed forces were invaluable for the economy.

“I will tell you simply, as you have seen, it would take the private sector three to four years to complete the executive procedures to do something this big, such as roads and water projects, and to this standard.”

Egypt’s military, the biggest in the Arab world, has advantages.

It enjoys financial support from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, staunch supporters of Sisi since he toppled the group they see as a threat to the Middle East, the Muslim Brotherhood. Western powers see Cairo as a bulwark against Islamist militancy. Egypt receives $1.3 billion in military aid annually from the United States alone.

In addition to the law exempting the military from value added tax, some of Egypt’s other laws also work to the military’s advantage.

In 2015, the defense minister issued a decree exempting nearly 600 hotels, resorts and other properties owned by the military from real estate taxes.

Military companies receive an exemption from import tariffs under a 1986 law and from income taxes under a 2005 law. Cargoes sent to military companies do not have to be inspected.

It’s not just the military’s big ventures that are making some private sector companies uneasy. The Military Production Company for Projects, Engineering Investments and General Supplies grew out of a team of five employees in a small office in the Ministry of Military Production back in 2012. A ministry decree established the company in 2015. There are now 70 staff working in its new headquarters in the Nasr City area in northern Cairo, home to many military officers.

The company is striking deals with the ministries of education and youth and is involved in sewage and irrigation projects. It built a swimming pool for a leading sports club, is developing railways, constructed more than 60 schools and has built offices for organizations connected to Al Azhar, Egypt’s top religious institution.

“The ministries deal with us because they trust the armed forces. We will deliver on time, prices are not exaggerated and quality is high,” said company chairman Maged El Serty, who aims to build concrete and asphalt mixing plants to aid expansion.

At bustling Cairo squares, people line up to buy subsidized meat and other food handed out from trucks sponsored by the military. Sisi said he had instructed the military to enter the market “to supply more chicken to push down prices.”

Some disagree with such measures on the grounds the military’s mission is to protect the country from external threats.

“We have reached a point where they are competing even with street vendors,” said Hazem Hosny, a political scientist and economist at Cairo University and spokesman for retired general Sami Anan, who briefly sought to compete in Egypt’s 2018 presidential election.

“I believe that any military officer who respects himself will be upset from seeing even one soldier standing on the street selling chicken legs.”

Edited by Janet McBride and Michael Georgy

The post Special Report: From war room to boardroom. Military firms flourish… appeared first on World The News.

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[dragnews]

Special Report: From war room to boardroom. Military firms flourish…

CAIRO (Reuters) – In a four-decade military career, Osama Abdel Meguid served in the first Gulf War and was an assistant military attaché in the United States.

An employee works at the Helwan Company for Metallic Appliances (Factory 360) on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt February 20, 2017. Picture taken February 20, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer

These days he issues orders from an office that overlooks the Nile, as chairman of the Maadi Co. for Engineering Industries, owned by the Ministry of Military Production.

Maadi was founded in 1954 to manufacture grenade launchers, pistols and machine guns. In recent years the firm, which employs 1,400 people, has begun turning out greenhouses, medical devices, power equipment and gyms. It has plans for four new factories.

“There are so many projects we are working on,” said Abdel Meguid, a 61-year-old engineer, listing orders including a 495 million Egyptian pound ($28 million) project for the Ministry of Electricity and an Algerian agricultural waste recycling contract worth $400,000.

Maadi is one of dozens of military-owned companies that have flourished since Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a former armed forces chief, became president in 2014, a year after leading the military in ousting Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.

The military owns 51 percent of a firm that is developing a new $45 billion capital city 75 km east of Cairo. Another military-owned company is building Egypt’s biggest cement plant. Other business interests range from fish farms to holiday resorts.

In interviews conducted over the course of a year, the chairmen of nine military-owned firms described how their businesses are expanding and discussed their plans for future growth. Figures from the Ministry of Military Production – one of three main bodies that oversee military firms – show that revenues at its firms are rising sharply. The ministry’s figures and the chairmen’s accounts give rare insight into the way the military is growing in economic influence.

Some Egyptian businessmen and foreign investors say they are unsettled by the military’s push into civilian activities and complain about tax and other advantages granted to military-owned firms. The International Monetary Fund warned in Sept. 2017 that private sector development and job creation “might be hindered by involvement of entities under the Ministry of Defense.”

Egypt’s government counters that private companies are operating on an even playing field and that the military is filling gaps in the market, as it did during a shortage of infant formula in 2016. Then the military helped by importing supplies and has since announced plans to build a formula plant. Sisi says the military can deliver large, complicated projects faster than the private sector.

In 2016, the military and other security institutions were given exemptions in a new value-added tax (VAT) law enacted as part of IMF-inspired reforms. The law states that the military does not have to pay VAT on goods, equipment, machinery, services and raw materials needed for the purposes of armament, defense and national security.

The Ministry of Defense has the right to decide which goods and services qualify. Civilian businessmen complain that this can leave the system open to abuse. Receipts for a cup of coffee at private sector hotels, for example, add 14 percent VAT. Receipts at military hotels do not. Employees at the military-owned Al-Masah Hotel in Cairo told Reuters that no VAT was charged when renting venues for weddings and conferences.

Neither the Egyptian government nor the military responded to Reuters requests for comment for this article.

FROM GUNS TO GREENHOUSES

Military commercial ventures fall under one of three main bodies – the Ministry of Military Production, which oversees 20 businesses, the Ministry of Defense, which controls dozens, and the Egyptian government-owned Arab Organization for Industrialization, which has responsibility for at least 12.

Estimates vary on the scale of the military’s role in the economy. Sisi said in Dec. 2016 the military accounts for up to two percent of output. “It has been said that the military’s economy is worth 20 or even 50 percent of the economy. I wish,” he said at the opening of a military facility to produce chlorine for water sanitation.

A leading political scientist, who asked not to be named, put the figure at about three percent of GDP. The World Bank estimated Egypt’s GDP at $336 billion in 2016.

President Gamal Abdel Nasser established the Ministry of Military Production in 1954 to help Egypt achieve self sufficiency in arms production. In the decades that followed, its fortunes were mixed. It was abolished by Nasser, only to be revived by President Anwar Sadat in 1971, according to a 1985 CIA report. Revenues from its firms declined in much of the 1990s and 2000s. When Sisi took power the picture changed again.

The Ministry of Military Production is projecting that operating revenues from its 20 firms will reach 15 billion Egyptian pounds in 2018/2019, five times higher than in 2013/2014, according to a ministry chart. The ministry does not disclose what happens to the revenues. The chairmen of two of the firms said profits go to the ministry or are reinvested in the business.

The chairman of one firm that falls under the Ministry of Military Production, Major General Mammdouh Badawy, recalled with distaste the days of economic liberalization under President Hosni Mubarak in the 1990s and mid 2000s when “businessmen were eating up the country.” Badawy’s enterprise, Heliopolis Co. for Chemical Industries, was set up in 1949 to produce hand grenades, mortars, fuses and chemicals. These days it has ambitions to become Egypt’s number one supplier of paint.

An employee works in the refrigerators section of the Helwan Company for Metallic Appliances (Factory 360) on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt February 20, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer

In 2017 Heliopolis teamed up with another Egyptian paint maker, Pachin, which is majority owned by the state. The two firms plan to work together to compete with the paint market leader, Norway’s Jotun, Badawy said. Over time, Heliopolis aims to increase the share of paint production it sends to the private sector to 80 percent of its output from 20 percent now, he added.

“Pachin and I can compete with Jotun, but I can’t compete with Jotun alone,” said Badawy, a man of military bearing and with a greying moustache. “I don’t want to be a local shop. I want to be a company that has the capacity to export and compete internationally.”

Jotun said in a statement it hadn’t seen “any influence on our business up to now.” Its products were aimed at the top end of the market, it added, while Pachin tended to target middle and budget buyers.

The chairmen of two military engineering companies, Abu Zaabal Engineering Industries Co and Helwan Engineering Industries Co, said in recent years it had become much easier to access financing through the Ministry of Military Production.

In 2015 the government appointed Major General Mohamed El Assar to run the ministry. Assar was a member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces that ruled Egypt after a popular uprising toppled Mubarak in Feb. 2011.

Abu Zaabal chairman, Major General Magdy Shawky Abdel Moneim, said his firm used to have to borrow from the banks. “We had to wait for our turn at the bank to get the money we needed. But now, as soon as I submit a request to the ministry and say I need 60 million or 40 million Egyptian pounds to buy such and such raw materials to manufacture such and such, the following day Major General Assar approves the request.”

The ministry did not respond to a request for comment about the financial approval process.

Founded in 1974 to make artillery for the armed forces, Abu Zaabal now produces a wide range of specialty steels.

Helwan was established in 1954 to make metal components for heavy ammunition. In the 1980s it began making cooking pots, cutlery, fire extinguishers and gas canisters. Its chairman, Major General Shokry Al-Qamary, said sales of kitchen utensils were booming since Egypt devalued its currency in 2016, pushing up the price of imported goods. “We can’t keep up with demand.”

One of the most visible symbols of the military’s commercial ambitions is in the city of Beni Suef, at the edge of the desert south of Cairo, where workers are putting the finishing touches to Egypt’s largest cement plant, owned by the military’s El Arish Cement Co. The cement industry is feeling the full force of the military’s expanding activities. It took 8,000 workers 18 months to build the $1 billion dollar plant. At full capacity, it will produce 12.6 million tons of cement a year.

An executive at a foreign-owned cement company said Egypt’s annual production capacity already stood at 79 million tons last year, far above consumption of 52 million. An official at an Egyptian company said his firm’s sales had dropped by a fifth since January because of the new plant.

Egypt’s majority state-owned National Cement Co. shut production in Nov. 2017 after suffering heavy losses in the second half. Suez Cement, majority owned by Germany’s Heidelberg, reported that its consolidated 2017 loss nearly doubled to 1.14 billion pounds, while Alexandria Cement, majority owned by Greece’s Titan, reported its consolidated loss rose tenfold to 513.9 million pounds.

The military did not respond to a request for comment about the cement market. It has said previously that housing and other major construction projects will create new demand for cement. In addition to the new capital, the military is involved in the development of two new cities – New Alamein on the Mediterranean coast and Gabal Galala in the mountains above the northern Red Sea.

The executive at a foreign-owned firm disagreed with the military’s demand projection. To absorb all the new capacity Egypt, already one of the world’s highest per capita cement consumers, would have to double its consumption, the executive said.

Among projects the Ministry of Military Production announced in 2017 was a plan to plant 20 million palm trees with an Emirati company and build a factory to make sugar from their dates. It agreed with a Saudi company to jointly manufacture elevators. The military inaugurated the Middle East’s biggest fish farm on the Nile Delta east of Alexandria.

The Ministry of Military Production signed a memorandum of understanding with China’s GCL Group last week to build a solar panel factory worth up to $2 billion. The military has taken over much of the construction of intercity roads from the Ministry of Transport and now controls the toll stations along most major highways.

Slideshow (21 Images)

���IT IS COMPETITION”

Egypt’s economy has been struggling ever since the popular uprising that toppled Mubarak in 2011. Political instability and Islamist violence have damaged Egypt’s crucial tourism industry.

Economists and investors say reforms tied to a $12 billion three-year IMF program signed in Nov. 2016 should lay the ground for economic expansion. But foreign investors are still shying away from Egypt, apart from those focusing on the more resilient energy sector. Non-oil foreign direct investment fell to about $3 billion in 2017 from $4.7 billion in 2016, according to Reuters calculations based on central bank statistics.

A commercial officer at a Western embassy said foreign investors were reluctant to invest in sectors where the military is expanding or in one they might enter, worried that competing against the military with its special privileges could expose their investment to risk. If an investor had a business dispute with the military, the commercial officer said, there was no point in taking it to arbitration. “You just leave the country,” he said.

Other economists, however, are less troubled by the military’s expanding role.

“The government is simply securing its interest in strategic sectors, and the way it’s done is far from the mandatory partnerships or nationalizations of the 1960s. The government is determined to have private sector-led growth,” said Hany Farahat, senior economist at Egyptian investment bank CI Capital.

Minister of Military Production Minister Assar told Reuters Egypt needs private companies, which he considers “the backbone of our industry and economy.” But he believes his ministry also has a place. “It is competition.”

Sisi, speaking at a Feb. 8 inauguration of 1,300 greenhouses built by military engineers, said the armed forces were invaluable for the economy.

“I will tell you simply, as you have seen, it would take the private sector three to four years to complete the executive procedures to do something this big, such as roads and water projects, and to this standard.”

Egypt’s military, the biggest in the Arab world, has advantages.

It enjoys financial support from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, staunch supporters of Sisi since he toppled the group they see as a threat to the Middle East, the Muslim Brotherhood. Western powers see Cairo as a bulwark against Islamist militancy. Egypt receives $1.3 billion in military aid annually from the United States alone.

In addition to the law exempting the military from value added tax, some of Egypt’s other laws also work to the military’s advantage.

In 2015, the defense minister issued a decree exempting nearly 600 hotels, resorts and other properties owned by the military from real estate taxes.

Military companies receive an exemption from import tariffs under a 1986 law and from income taxes under a 2005 law. Cargoes sent to military companies do not have to be inspected.

It’s not just the military’s big ventures that are making some private sector companies uneasy. The Military Production Company for Projects, Engineering Investments and General Supplies grew out of a team of five employees in a small office in the Ministry of Military Production back in 2012. A ministry decree established the company in 2015. There are now 70 staff working in its new headquarters in the Nasr City area in northern Cairo, home to many military officers.

The company is striking deals with the ministries of education and youth and is involved in sewage and irrigation projects. It built a swimming pool for a leading sports club, is developing railways, constructed more than 60 schools and has built offices for organizations connected to Al Azhar, Egypt’s top religious institution.

“The ministries deal with us because they trust the armed forces. We will deliver on time, prices are not exaggerated and quality is high,” said company chairman Maged El Serty, who aims to build concrete and asphalt mixing plants to aid expansion.

At bustling Cairo squares, people line up to buy subsidized meat and other food handed out from trucks sponsored by the military. Sisi said he had instructed the military to enter the market “to supply more chicken to push down prices.”

Some disagree with such measures on the grounds the military’s mission is to protect the country from external threats.

“We have reached a point where they are competing even with street vendors,” said Hazem Hosny, a political scientist and economist at Cairo University and spokesman for retired general Sami Anan, who briefly sought to compete in Egypt’s 2018 presidential election.

“I believe that any military officer who respects himself will be upset from seeing even one soldier standing on the street selling chicken legs.”

Edited by Janet McBride and Michael Georgy

The post Special Report: From war room to boardroom. Military firms flourish… appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2rJz0cQ via Today News

[samanthasroberts]

5 Weird Questions With Surprisingly Interesting Answers

Ever had a weird, dumb question pop into your head for no reason? You know there’s an answer out there somewhere, but it’s not so important that you have to drop what you’re doing and research it right goddamn now. Well, I’m one of those weirdos who has to have these questions answered right goddamn now, or they will gnaw at my brain until it catches on fire from eat-friction. Unfortunately, I get those all the time. Fortunately, I can at least weave them into my career and educate the world in a way they never asked for in the process. For example …

5

Why Is The McFlurry Machine Always Broken?

A little over half of my attempts to get a McFlurry have been denied. If the McDonald’s employee had squeezed my love handles and made pig sounds, then this wouldn’t be such a mystery. But instead they give an explanation that perfectly tows the line between useless and substantive, forcing me to give up and screech away from the drive-thru in a huff. They say the McFlurry machine is “down.” The damn thing breaks more often than a former child actor with a heroin addiction. I guess McFlurry machines are planks of balsa wood barely held together by the faint hope of being able to actually dispense a McFlurry one day. They’re piles of substandard materials and glue and dreams.

Turns out McFlurry machines aren’t so much poorly built hunks of shit as they are filthy, disgusting vats of bacteria which require daily cleanings so vigorous and time-consuming that it probably isn’t even worth keeping them on the menu. We should’ve known that coming into this, though. Of course the machine that distributes the tastiest things in the world would be literal swamps.

Every day, the machines have to go through a four-hour heat-cleaning cycle that’s broken down into 11 parts. The process involves, among many other steps, “combining a sanitizing mix with warm water, removing and rinsing seven parts, brushing clean two fixed parts for 60 seconds and wiping down the machine with a sanitized towel.” When your entire business is based around “We get you your food before you’re even done saying your order,” this is definitely a McFlurry wrench in the Value Meal gears.

They have to strip the entire machine down to its atoms, scrub each nucleus with a fine sasquatch-hair brush, then jigsaw puzzle that shit back together like a soldier reassembling a rifle to rebuild a device nearly as deadly. The cleaning process is usually triggered during off-peak hours, or whenever the drive-thru employee sees me pull in.

But none of this is to say that McFlurry machines aren’t poorly built hunks of shit, because they are. One McDonald’s franchise consultant conducted a study which showed that there’s a 25 percent chance that if a McDonald’s isn’t serving ice cream or ice-cream-related menu items, it’s because the machines just stopped working like they’re also getting paid minimum wage.

There is some good news: McDonald’s has heard the complaints, and they’re finally going to replace the old, busted-ass McFlurry machines with ones that don’t come with self-destruct buttons.

4

Can Insects Get Fat?

I’ve seen mosquitoes get fat off my blood and then had it turn into a crime scene when my delicious juices exploded everywhere with a smack. I can see their asses get plump with every gulp. But that’s not the mosquito technically getting “fat” — it’s the equivalent of having a distended belly after a big meal. But are there flies out there having trouble dragging their saggy bug tits and double chins around after munching on discarded pastries? Are there ants feeling shame as they look at their expanding thorax in the mirror after eating a dropped French fry? Where are the fat insects? Can they even get fat?

Depends on the insect.

Diamondback moth caterpillars can alter their metabolism over generations to adjust to high-carb diets, turning their bodies into fat-burning furnaces. If a dragonfly is infected with a certain type of parasite, it’ll start storing more fat around the muscles they use to fly. Struggling to fly means they can’t defend themselves using their deadly “bumping enemies with their eyes” attack. Researchers also found that fat male dragonflies have less dragonfly sex, just in case you were super-duper curious about that.

And I was wrong, mosquitoes can get fat. They suck blood when they need protein to produce eggs. They normally eat plant nectar. One scientist / bored suburban nine-year-old hand-fed mosquitoes ’til half their dry weight was made up of fat. And then he made them dance.

The weight gain on some insects is hidden by their tough chitin exoskeletons. The fatter they get, the more their insides squeeze up against their own outsides. Imagine you get so fat that your pants don’t fit anymore, but you can’t take them off. You’re forever stuck feeling like the Hulk’s ten-foot-around thighs squeezed into Bruce Banners’ size-32 jeans.

3

Do The Blind Need Ad Blockers?

At first, you’d think that blind people wouldn’t use ad blockers, because they don’t see the ads in the first place. But it turns out they have the exact opposite problem. If you saw the rough drafts of my columns, you could tell which ones I’ve run through text-to-speech software by counting the lack of egregious grammatical errors. Hearing my writing out loud lets me catch those errors, because if I just try to proofread them, I become word-blind. Sometimes I’ll copy the text off the preview page set up to look exactly like the text on the page you’re reading now, ads and all. I’ll inelegantly CRTL+A the whole thing and have the software read all the whales and seals that get caught in the fishing net of my highlight. So in the middle of my own writing, I’ll hear about “17 Actors You Didn’t Know Were Loaves of Wheat Bread — #8 Will Get A Rise Out of You” or “She Had No Idea Why Men Kept Cheering Her On (Her Vagina Was Out).”

What isn’t that big a deal for me must be a nightmare for the blind. Text-to-speech programs are one of the tools blind people use to peruse the internet. But what happens when there’s an ad? Does the program indiscriminately read everything, ads included? Can it distinguish between an ad and article text? Nope. They read everything. Here’s a video of a vision-impaired woman demoing a screen reader program called JAWS:

Not everyone with a vision impairment likes the reader’s voice to be speaking in tongues while dancing with venomous snakes. But even at normal speeds, reading The New York Times can be a pain in the ass:

Auto-playing videos are also a problem. You try listing to one voice at Formula One speeds and have a loud video cut in without shitting your pants. Sighted people can ignore the text of an ad, to the point where it might as well not even be there at all. But the visually impaired have to sit through it all, even random web trash like “Sign Up / Log in” and “Join Our Mailing List.”

So it makes sense that the guy who created AdBlock has blind people thanking him for making their internet surfing experience less cacophonous.

2

Why Are Donut Boxes In Movies Always Pink?

I’m always disappointed that I haven’t eaten donuts out of a bright pink box like in every movie and show that I’ve ever seen a box of donuts in. I just assumed the box was a generic Hollywood prop that was used all the time, like those fake newspapers or bottles of Heisler Beer, the favorite beer of every TV character. Some stingy producer who blew the last of his production expenses on a tall nonfat latte with a caramel drizzle enema didn’t want to pay Dunkin’ Donuts the licensing fee to show their logo on an empty box of donuts. He used a pink box once, it did its job of portraying the role of a tough-as-nails but big-hearted donut box, and every producer in history followed suit.

GaryAlvis/iStock

Pink donut boxes are a regional trend in Southern California, the birth canal from which most movies and shows slide, and they wouldn’t exist if not for the Khmer Rouge, the regime responsible for orchestrating the Cambodian genocide in the mid-1970s. Oh. Oh my. I thought it was just going to be a “They showed up once in Godfather Part II and people just liked how they looked” kind of thing. That is … umm … oh my.

When the Khmer Rouge was exterminating everyone in sight, Cambodians hauled ass out of there. Many made Los Angeles their new home, where they opened donut shops, of all things. One of them was named Ted Ngoy. He was an immigrant, an astoundingly good businessman, and a gambling addict who lost a bunch of his donut stores in bad bets. And holy shit, did he own a lot of donut shops. He had shops all over Los Angeles County, each staffed with fellow Cambodian immigrants.

Before Ted, donuts in LA came in standard white, no-frills boxes. When he decided to save some money without getting skimping on ingredients, he asked his supplier, Westco, if they had cheaper boxes. They had a bunch of cheap pink card stock lying around that could perfectly house a dozen donuts. Word of how cheap the bright pink boxes were quickly spread from one Cambodian-owned donut shop to another throughout LA, and then into Texas and Arizona.

So whenever a film production needed their characters to be from New York but they’re filming in LA, to hold a box of donuts, Prop Masters would hand actors the bright pink boxes Ted popularized, not realizing New Yorkers don’t eat donuts from pink boxes. They have to wrestle them away from big rats off of taxi cab floors, because everything’s tougher in New Yaw’k.

1

How Do Movies And Shows Get Newborn Babies For Delivery Scenes?

There’s a very specific shriveled and red newborn baby look. Wailing infant chic, if you will. When a woman in a movie gives birth and the kid doesn’t look like a dried chili, you know it’s a one-month-old unconvincingly playing a one-second-old. But how does getting a newborn on screen even happen? What parents are going directly from the hospital to set? “I know that we just had this thing, like, 30 minutes ago, but could someone make it a star real quick?”

Putting newborns in entertainment is surreal. The baby has to be no younger than 15 days old to be in a movie. That’s when doctors say babies have developed enough to not be floppy lumps of flesh that can fall apart at any second. If that authentic newborn look is absolutely required, they’ll use twins or triplets, which aren’t just useful because child labor laws in Californian only allow a baby onset for four hours and to only work for 20 minutes at a time. Twins and triplets are often born premature, which keeps them looking like newborns even after the 15-day barrier. Filming with premature babies is illegal in California, but it’s cool in 18 other states.

Parents, I know you’ve just experienced the trauma of wondering if your babes will survive their stint in incubators, but if by the grace of God they survive, they can be movie stars before their fontanelles fully harden. Ka-ching. That’s the sound of your preemie payday.

In the movie Knocked Up, they wanted to film a real woman giving birth to a real baby during the delivery scene, but legally couldn’t for the best reason for anything I’ve ever heard: Since the baby would be in the process of being born at the time of filming, it wouldn’t be a member of the Screen Actors Guild. People can’t get their SAG cards in utero. Not to mention it violates the “must be at least 15 days old” rule.

And then there’s the matter of all that vaginal slime newborns are coated in during birthing scenes, which I’m sure has a more delicate, technical name, but “vaginal slime” is more colorful, so I’m going with that. I imagined it would be a special goop whipped up by visual effects masters in a fit of creative inspiration, like chefs in a kitchen going with the flow to create an exemplary new dish. It’s not. Vaginal slime is sometimes a combination of grape jelly and cream cheese. Instead of going to makeup, they hand the baby over to the craft services people so that they can prepare the baby like a bagel.

Luis is hard at work getting his preemie casting agency off the ground. In the meantime, you can find him on Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook.

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from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2018/04/24/5-weird-questions-with-surprisingly-interesting-answers/

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Server Infrastructure

We take pride in our service and aim to please we hope you enjoy shopping with us and look forward to processing your order. hThe R420 supports Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 x64 as well as Hyper-V two., Windows Little Business Server 2011, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Optional embedded hypervisors include Citrix XenServer and VMWare vSphere. Our key distribution focuses mainly on brand name goods such as digital cameras, camcorders, camera lens, sensible phone, Beauty product from extremely respected brands such as Sony, Samsung,canon, nikon, fujitsu, hitachi all at extremely aggressive pricing. For Stand-By UPS systems, the households are Internet Office, BC Pro® and BC Personal®. Strong-metal cabling clips in the rear of the cabinet to help hold cables organized and out of the way. We've had far more than the usual quantity of rain over the last few weeks so the roses have all been loving that. And even though I don't adore it when it rains, it does imply we don't have to water the roses. This server rack can be mounted in a server room, office, or above a doorway in rooms lacking the floor space for a full-size rack, expanding your workspace and keeping your equipment simply accessible. Yet another day accomplished and another massive-scale project completed here at Orion, this time for a new £335 million state-of-the-art hospital - the Royal Liverpool Hospital! To reset your password, simply enter your e mail address into the box below and click 'Send password reset email'. An e-mail will be sent to this address with a link to reset your password. Leasing with HardSoft indicates that the as soon as expensive Mac based network is now cost-effective. This is the perfect creative answer for little creative companies. Beginning at just £49 plus VAT per week, this lease consists of warranty, a Mac mini Server with 8GB and OS X Server plus 5 iMacs.

All racks I've utilized, even that oddball with the round holes, can take any quantity of accessories, such as shelves and fan trays, so do not make such products also high a priority. If the rack manufacturer does not have them you can constantly get them elsewhere. FusionServer RH1288 V3 is a common 1U, two-socket rack server. It supports Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 v3 and v4 series processors with up to 20 cores per processor, unlocking superior performance continue for enterprises' computing-intensive applications. Developed for cloud computing applications and enterprise applications requiring computing and storage sources, RH1288 V3 strikes an optimal balance in between performance and density by supporting up to 1 TB memory and 16 TB nearby storage. We're committed to providing low costs every single day, on every thing. So if you find a existing decrease price from an on the internet retailer on an identical, in-stock solution, inform us and we'll match it. See a lot more specifics at On-line Cost Match. A NAS is a file server. What tends to make it a NAS is that it has been place into an appliance and has an interface to make items easier for you. It has absolutely nothing to do with capability, efficiency, and so forth. High availability servers mean minimal down-time for your mission essential applications. Consumers are increasingly hunting for extremely virtualised datacentres which are capable sufficient to manage the ever-evolving enterprises applications and organization workloads. Although according to the IDC's MaturityScape Benchmark Report for Huge Information and Analytics (BDA) some firms have developed a vision and are setting up BDA strategies, even so there are numerous who are however to implement solutions and construct up internal infrastructure capabilities. This choice is specially critical when installing sensitive active equipment or when utilised in a controlled environment. It is also specially valuable for transporting populated cabinets over ground or in autos for relocation etc. Unity All-Flash storage options deliver the ultimate in simplicity and flexibility for the midrange enabling customers to speed deployment, streamline management, minimize expense, decrease footprint, and seamlessly tier storage to the cloud. Optimized for SSD overall performance and efficiency, with fully integrated SAN and NAS capabilities, cloud primarily based analytics and proactive assistance. Rack mount elements follow a kind factor that is referred to as a rack unit. A normal rack mount server is referred to as a 1U server which means that it is 1 rack unit in size. A 2U server consumes two rack units of space inside the rack. Some vendors also offer 4U and ½U servers. The larger type elements are usually used when the server requirements to be capable to accommodate a massive quantity of storage. Tower Servers are the typical boxes (in appearance) you would have noticed in Visio Diagrams. Of course they are really powerful & have bundled software tools to manage them. The dilemma with Tower Severs is the space they occupy, management personnel they need, and price of operating them (energy, network, and so on.). View our inventory of Dell Servers for sale and speak to the specialists at SourceTech Systems for all of your hardware wants. Typically overlooked, more than-sized cables and power cords in a rack enclosure will restrict airflow. 42U's Sales Engineers will gladly support with your cable management wants. Energy cords are obtainable in lengths of 1′, 3′, 6′, 10′, 14′. CAT5 patch cables are obtainable in lengths of 1′, 2′, 3′, 5′, 7′, 10′, 14′, and so on.

ILO supports the fantastic RIBCL protocol, that is by far the very best option for monitoring HP servers: it is based on xml and, thus, very easily parseable and it is native (no want of installing SNMP daemons in our servers). Sadly there is not a related alternative to RIBCL in Onboard Administrator. It supports a telnet/ssh command interpreter, but parsing outputs from a facility addressed to human administrators as an alternative of machines is much more than tricky: Bet that the output format of the command you parse will adjust in the subsequent firmware revision. As a 2U rack server, the Dell EMC PowerEdge R820 server offers considerably improved overall performance and power-efficiency when compared to previous generations. The results of all tests on all IBM servers have been almost identical - except that the RAID drives on the HS21 XM models and x3650 server had been slightly faster than NT-File-System- or ext3-formatted drives. The more quickly, two.66GHz CPU clock of the x3550 and x3650 units gave them a slight overall performance edge as effectively. Server interface pods (SIPs): The Dell KVM 1081AD is compatible with the following SIPs: PS/two, USB 1.1, USB 2. with Virtual Media assistance and USB 2. with Virtual Media/widespread access card (CAC) assistance. All-in-One and desktops with exceptional construct high quality, unique supplies, and effective functions. The locking outlet factor is exactly where fire-marshals begin coming into play, they never like seeing chained NEMA-15 plugs. server dell poweredge r710 rack 2u Locking plugs mean that the chances of a violent disconnection are significantly lowered, which in turn reduces the opportunity of a spark getting generated. Sparks are ignition sources, and fire-marshals have Opinions about these. Leasing a laptop network with HardSoft is the best remedy for tiny and medium-sized businesses that want a lot more portability with no sacrificing the protection and centralization that a server offers. Laptop networks commence from just £39 plus VAT per week. Consulting solutions give professional guidance to support you develop, optimize and transform your IT environment at your personal pace and spending budget. We employ a broad variety of certified consultants and engineers, backed by program management teams, who can provide deep technical expertise. We give you the self-assurance that your project will be carried out right and on time. These higher-density, higher-overall performance, higher-efficiency and extremely cost-successful servers are excellent options for cloud computing and web hosting applications. These are upright, free of charge-standing units that contain all traditional server elements: difficult disks, motherboards and central processing units (CPUs), networking, cabling, power and so on. You typically add a tough drive to a tower server for direct attached storage (DAS). A rack has the benefit that you can mount much more than ten servers in a single rack very easily, and if you have them on rails, still be able to access them (slide out, open up, swap components and so on.). Also, the troubles of cable management, airflow management, and energy distribution come to thoughts. Our collection of server racks and ancillaries is continually altering, so we advise checking back on a regular basis to see what’s new. For a lot more info or to go over an order, get in touch with the ITC Sales group right now. Our aim is that with a quiet soundproof cabinet installed you will not hear that noisy server above the normal office ambient noise. Monster Mega Store Trading is swiftly emerging and expanding to become 1 of the biggest worldwide suppliers of digital gear and electronic goods. Characteristics of the R320 contain the functionality of Intel Xeon E5-2400 processors with Intel memory RAS functions. Complementing the processors, the R320 has six DIMMs and two PCI Express slots that offer ample memory and a broad I/ bandwidth to sustain memory-sensitive applications and databases. With Dell memory upgrades, you can operate more applications at when. In addition, adding far more memory makes it possible for your technique to manage further function with tiny performance disruption.

The Lenovo Technique x3550 M5 is a 1U dual-socket server designed to deal with intensive workloads in application-defined information centers. Featuring Intel's Xeon processor E5-2600 v4 item family members and TruDDR4 memory (high-finish DDR4 memory that meets strict” Lenovo requirements), the x3550 M5 is developed for use in little- and medium-business use cases. It fits nicely in places such as database, virtualization and cloud computing, infrastructure safety, systems management, enterprise applications, collaboration/e mail, streaming media, internet, and HPC. Lenovo's concentrate is to preserve business-crucial applications and cloud deployments operating safely with the x3550 M5. This cost-successful server is also constructed with an substantial set of systems-management tools to make deployment and maintenance easy. Provide balanced efficiency and midrange scalability with a strong 2S/2U rack server. The PowerEdge M1000e blade chassis enclosure is the robust foundation for the PowerEdge M series blade answer, enabling substantial information center density with an easy to deploy and handle platform that maximizes energy and cooling efficiency. For smaller components, such as switches, routers or modems, the Front Mounted Shelf is a universal, cost-effective answer with a 15 Kg load capacity. In situations where the fixed shelving dimensions do not match the profile configuration, the 1U Adjustable Shelf supplies an option. Adjustable from 515mm to 970mm it is suitable for 800mm, 1000mm and 1200mm deep cabinets. Please review the forums rules , start with your initial post today and turn into an active element of forums now! In truth, we have to dig deep quite deep to discover anything to complain about - Dell could eliminate or automate some of the configuration and setup steps, but most administrators will want to place their network and domain info in by hand anyway. The Android client introduces a few added measures to get at different pages and data, but this is to be expected when functioning with a smartphone interface. The most recent international server reports are out from both IDC and Gartner, and regardless of a couple of vibrant spots, general the news is not excellent. Dell aims to ease virtual desktop management by offering its integrated enterprise VDI packages with Unidesk's layering tech. We offer you certifiable and verifiable bank instruments by way of Swift Transmission from a genuine provider capable of taking up time bound transactions. Tower servers look similar to normal tower PCs, and are popular as very first servers as they are compact and straightforward to set up. Cost-free with your Precision workstation, the Dell Precision Optimizer takes the guesswork out of customizing settings and automatically tunes your workstation to run the most well-known Independent Application Vendor (ISV) applications at the quickest speeds achievable. Featuring centralized management with Microsoft SCCM and KACE, simplified systems management to improve program reliability, detailed analytics and wise notifications to proactively address resource bottlenecks, certified graphics drivers downloads and Radeon ProRender ray-tracing plug-ins to render stunningly photorealistic pictures ― all in an elegant, new UI.

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