Hot on the heels of Etihads’s impressive in-flight upgrade announcement on Sunday, Singapore Airlines today announced it too will be upgrading 19 of its Boeing 777-300ERs. The upgrade programme will see the same product fitted to the aircraft that was introduced in September 2013 when 8 new 777-300ERs were introduced to the fleet. Installation work is expected to begin early in 2015, with all aircraft completed by September 2016.Executive Vice President Commercial, Mr Mak Swee Wah stated “Feedback about our next generation cabin products has been extremely positive and our customers have been asking for them to be fitted on more aircraft. We have listened.”The new First Class seat offers enhanced comfort, featuring a fixed-back shell design with curved side panels for added privacy. The seat also features an ergonomically sculpted cushion and adjustable headrest, with customised in-seat lighting. At 35 inches in width and with an increased bed length of 82 inches, it is one of the most spacious First Class products in the sky.The new Business Class seat offers greater recline at 132 degrees, with an improved ergonomic seat cushion. Two new seating positions have been introduced – ‘Lazy Z’ and ‘Sundeck’ – providing even more options for passengers. When converted, it becomes the industry’s widest full-flat bed, at 78 inches in length, with a padded headboard cushion for enhanced comfort. More stowage space has also been added, with an amenity stowage area on the side console and laptop stowage area.The new Economy Class seat also provides additional comfort, with increased personal space and legroom. Seats feature new backrest cushions with side bolsters for better support. An ergonomically sculpted headrest cushion provides an increased range of height adjustments and improved neck support.In other news, the airline also announced it will be soon launching a premium economy cabin.Suggested Read: Singapore Airlines safety ratingSee: Editors review of Singapore Airlines current in flight product Follow Sharon on twitter read more
Considering Cape Town is going through their worst drought in history, we revisit an old story that may provide a solution. In 2011, a young South African entrepreneur developed a product that allowed people to have a bath without using water. His reason? To get millions to hygienically skip a bath once a week to save the precious resource of water.Ludwick Marishane is the winner of the 2011 Global Student Entrepreneur of the Year Award. (Image: Ludwick Marishane, Facebook)Brand South African reporterImagine taking a bath anywhere, at any time, without using the traditional method of water.Now it is possible, thanks to a young South African entrepreneur who developed a product that allows people who have limited access to water to maintain their standards of hygiene.Ludwick Marishane hails originally from Motetema on the border of Limpopo and Mpumalanga, a town located not too far from the small Kwaggavoetpad Nature Reserve. He completed his fourth year as a commerce student at the University of Cape Town.His product, called DryBath, is a clear germicidal and moisturising gel that’s applied to skin in the manner of waterless hand cleaners, although it has a sweet aroma rather than the distinctive alcohol smell of the latter.‘Doing the work of soap and water’DryBath does the work of water and soap and it earned Marishane the 2011 Global Student Entrepreneur of the Year Award, with a US$10 000 (about R86 000 then) prize to boot.The product has positive implications for millions of people in Africa and other parts of the developing world where lack of regular access to clean water leads to reduced basic hygiene and a lower quality of life.Children, for example, often have to walk for hours to fetch clean water, which detracts from the time they can spend at school, doing homework or just playing.To show solidarity for and raise awareness of the millions of affected people, Marishane organised a no-bath weekend from 5 to 7 July 2013, which coincided with the fourth anniversary of the invention of DryBath.His main goal was to get 10-million people to hygienically skip a bath once a week during 2013, even if they don’t use DryBath, and save the precious resource of water.DryBath is manufactured by Western Cape-based gel cosmetic specialists BioEarth Labs for HeadBoy Industries, the company started by Marishane to develop and market the product.Watch:Laziness leads to inspirationMarishane grew up in rural Limpopo, where as a 17-year-old he was chatting one day with a close friend, discussing typical teenage topics and sunbathing in the winter sun.Full of imagination, the friend asked: “Why can’t they invent something that you can just apply to your skin so that you don’t have to take a bath nor shower?”Marishane felt the same way, and that planted the seed that would germinate into DryBath.“I came up with this idea all because I didn’t feel like taking a bath,” he joked. Although he only had high school science knowledge, Marishane got onto the internet via his mobile phone and researched statistics on water access, as well as the composition and manufacture of lotions and creams.He finally came up with a formula. Some months later and after much experimentation, he held a bottle of DryBath in his hand and went on to obtain a patent through his company.One 20ml DryBath sachet can do the work of one bath, and Marishane claims it saves about 80 litres of water on average with every use.Access to water is crucialDuring his research he found out that over 2.5-billion people in the world live without access to clean water – 450-millon of which are in Africa and five-million in South Africa.Continued research revealed that sanitation-related diseases are often found within these poor areas and the lack of water is one of the main causes of the infections.Saving water is a job that everyone needs to focus on. But there are many areas around the world that have no access to safe water, or any water at all, and people often have to walk long distances to get fresh water.Living without water can also lead to death, as waterborne diseases such as cholera, dysentery, typhoid and schistosomiasis are found in areas that lack clean water.Trachoma, a disease caused by dirt getting into the eye through agents such as flies or towels, affects 350-million people and leaves eight-million of them permanently blind through recurring infection.According to Water.org, nearly 10% of the global disease burden could be reduced through improved water supply, sanitation, hygiene and water resource management.Getting the product out thereMarishane first approached charity organisations for support, but says he was turned back because of his age and because of doubt that his concept would ever work. Back at the drawing board, he put together a lengthy and detailed proposal – all done on his trusty Nokia.With paper in hand, he approached the corporate world in search of sponsors, endorsements and investors;since then, he has struck up partnerships with WaterAid and Oxfam.DryBath is now also manufactured commercially for clients such as hotels, music festival organisers, major global airlines – one of which is British Airways – and governments for soldiers in the field.Source: Headboy Industries IncThis article was originally published in January 2013.Would you like to use this article in your publication or on your website? See Using Brand South Africa material. read more
SAinfo reporter and QS TopMBA.com 2 December 2013 Two South African business schools have been ranked as the top “emerging global schools” in the Middle East and Africa in a survey of the world’s top business schools released last week. The University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business pips the University of the Witwatersrand’s Wits Business School in Johannesburg to claim top position. The American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and the American School in Cairo, Egypt, are ranked third and fourth respectively. The QS Global Business Schools survey interviews employers who actively recruit MBA graduates. The survey is the largest of its kind and includes responses from 4 318 employers. International recruiters “know firsthand what they want in their employees and which schools most successfully engender these qualities. More importantly, they are the ones who decide who to hire based on this,” QS says on its website. The survey includes 200 business schools around the world. UCT and Wits both fall into the second highest “emerging global” category. “These are schools which can boast an established reputation for excellence beyond their region,” the report says. “Though these two top business schools in Africa cannot yet match the more glamorous names of the ‘elite global’ category, it is expected that they will move up in the years to come.” “There are many more business schools across the African continent, but management education is still in its infancy and it will take many years before these schools achieve real prominence on the international stage,” the report says. The survey shows that graduates from the UCT can expect to enjoy post-MBA salaries of around $82 000 (around R840 000) – among the highest in the world and the highest in the African region. With this kind of earning power, UCT can already compete with the elite global business schools, the report says. The survey shows that UCT’s graduates – 75% of whom are South African – are among the world’s top earners, “with the average salary in US dollars three years after graduation comfortably exceeding $130 000”. As a comparison, the report finds salaries at the world’s top business schools in the US and Europe average about $123 000, including bonuses. The leading schools in other regions surveyed are: Harvard and Stanford lead North America; INSEAD in France and the UK’s London Business School top the Europe table, while INSEAD in Singapore leads the Asia-Pacific region. These five schools received the maximum score for employer recognition.Recent accolades UCT’s business school was the only African business school to make the inaugural “Which MBA?” ranking featured in The Economist in August. This ranking is designed to assist prospective Executive MBA (EMBA) students in choosing a programme best suited to them. It is also the only MBA programme in Africa listed in the Financial Times Top 100 Global MBA ranking. Meanwhile, Wits announced on its website recently that it had been ranked at 24 out of 100 universities in a survey published by Times Higher Education. “The inaugural list, revealing the higher education institutions that have educated the current chief executives of the world’s largest companies, pinned Wits at number 24, with UCT, the only other African university on the list, coming in at number 79.” Read the full report at www.topmba.com read more
8 Best WordPress Hosting Solutions on the Market chris cameron Related Posts A Web Developer’s New Best Friend is the AI Wai… One of the major conclusions Gary says was drawn from this experiment is that for the next few years, mobile advertisements are going to play a large role in how expiring inventory is sold. For the Nets, this inventory was tickets to the final home game of the season. For other businesses, this could mean the last batch of doughnuts that is thrown away at the end of a day, or unfilled hotel rooms and airplane seats.But why only for the next few years? As Gary pointed out in our interview, soon enough, everyone is going to be using a service like Gowalla or Foursquare, and the novelty of the app combined with the emotional attachment of discovery will fade with time. The thing that separated this experiment from other promotions is that the people offered the tickets discovered them through their own actions, creating a sense of responsibility to redeem them. In the future, however, if everyone is using applications to find deals, the novelty of the game mechanics introduced could eventually dissipate.One of the major conclusions Gary says was drawn from this experiment is that for the next few years, mobile advertisements are going to play a large role in how expiring inventory is sold.A significant hurdles for mobile advertising is when a customer attempts to redeem a coupon only to be denied by an unknowing store clerk oblivious to the business’ mobile ad efforts. Gary says while this is a problem due to the relatively new nature of geolocation apps, only medium-sized businesses have to really worry about it. Small businesses with one or two locations and a handful of employees can easily spread the word of such a promotion, but a company with a half dozen locations across a metro area may have more difficulty. Unfortunately, this represents the majority of U.S. businesses.Examples taken from Twitter showed that the promotion with Gowalla and the Nets was well received by fans and helped to create new relationships between the team and its fans. One happy father even Tweeted about how his six-year-old son called the experience “the best day of my life, ever.” Clearly the integration of social media into a mobile ad promotion has helped to uncover some fascinating results about consumers. We also took the opportunity to ask Gary some of your questions about anything and everything, including managing work and family, following your passion, selling wine and – of course – his favorite football team, the New York Jets. Here’s what Gary had to say.Pete asked, “How do you maintain your ‘Crush It’ attitude and continue on the path to success while following the rule of family comes first?”Gary: Super hard. No question, by far my biggest challenge. I think it’s understanding the players. And what I mean by that is, just paying attention to what my wife feels […] It’s communication and making smart choices. Always filtering. The same things that excite me about the Internet – filtering and restrictions – are the same things for life, I just have to keep filtering.Renee wanted to know, “How do you overcome the fear of leaving a routine life to follow your passion?”Gary: For me, it was the fear of living a routine life. I think about legacy a lot, I’m a very big picture kind of thinker, so not taking chances and not being happy along the way just seems so insane to me. I’m very aware that everyone is wired differently, I’m nothing special. I’m just me. What I’d like for people to do is embrace more of the “try to be me” more than somebody else. I envy people that can sit down on a project and focus on it for ten years, […] but now that I’ve built that cushion, and that base, nothing wants me to do that. I want to scratch all of my itches – advise, consult, speak, author, do a show. Jason, a wine entrepreneur looking to use social media to be disruptive in the Scandinavian market, asked what Gary thinks of the idea and if he had any tips.Gary: I love the idea. My biggest tip is to keep your mind open to not just the wines you like. Don’t control it, let the pieces fall where they are, and make sure you hit as many demographics as possible. Don’t make it polarizing. Think about as many different niche markets as possible and don’t just talk at social media events, go to wine clubs and wine bars. Try to get as many people to embrace it as you can. And finally, Andrew asked Gary, “What do you think of the New York Jets’ Fight Song?”Gary: I bleed green. If I can like Jason Taylor, who was a former Dolphin and now he’s a Jet that I hated every day of my life for the last decade plus, then I love everything about the Jets.Disclosure: The author of this post is a Patriots fan, but that in no way affected his interview with Gary, a diehard Jets fan. Tags:#Interviews#start Why Tech Companies Need Simpler Terms of Servic… Last week we asked you to send us your questions for our interview with wine connoisseur and social-media expert Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary and his consulting company VaynerMedia recently ran an experiment with the NBA’s New Jersey Nets and geolocation app Gowalla (in which Gary is an investor) to see if location services could draw fans to games with free tickets. For all parties involved, the experiment was deemed a success, and the findings from it have provided a unique insight into the future possibilities for geolocationtional advertising.As you may recall, last Friday during the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit, we discussed the potential road-blocks for startups looking to innovate in the localized mobile ad space. By using an existing network like Gowalla, however, the Nets experiment actually succeeded to bring in a significant amount of people to a game where thousands of seats went unsold. By using Gowalla to check-in at local gyms, parks and other locations where supposed basketball fans might frequent, 38 users found and redeemed 1 of 250 pairs of tickets made available for the game. 76 of 500 (15.2%) of the seats offered through the application were filled directly because of the mobile promotion – seats that would have otherwise been left empty. These patrons instead paid for parking, merchandise and other concessions at the arena that would have previously not been purchased.VaynerMedia Case Study from Gowalla/Nets Experiment Top Reasons to Go With Managed WordPress Hosting read more
Ethel Booba on hotel’s clarification that ‘kikiam’ is ‘chicken sausage’: ‘Kung di pa pansinin, baka isipin nila ok lang’ Through the course of the six-game championship series, the KaTropa drew huge contributions from their upstarts like Roger Pogoy, RR Garcia, and Troy Rosario — all of whom have carved their niche in coach Nash Racela’s system.Castro had high praise for Pogoy, who emerged as a vital piece for TNT this conference.FEATURED STORIESSPORTSSEA Games: Biñan football stadium stands out in preparedness, completionSPORTSPrivate companies step in to help SEA Games hostingSPORTSWin or don’t eat: the Philippines’ poverty-driven, world-beating pool starsAnd though losing in the Finals stings, Castro thinks these kinds of experiences could only help their young guns grow.“This conference, I’m happy with their performance. Like with Pogoy, I tell it to him to stay confident. Even though we lost, it’s a huge boost for him to play in the finals and it will only be huge for us for the next conference. I hope they bring the lessons they get from this when we make it again in the Finals,” he said. MOST READ Pogoy heard Castro’s message loud and clear, and if there’s one thing he could take away from this bitter memory, it’s that just like in any level of basketball competition, championships could only be achieved through teamwork.“We can’t win it if we think of ourselves individually. Just like what San Miguel did, we have to share the ball and work as a team,” he said.Sports Related Videospowered by AdSparcRead Next China furious as Trump signs bills in support of Hong Kong View comments TNT KaTropa. Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.netTNT lost the 2017 PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals but Jayson Castro believes that his team learned a lot from its clash with a powerhouse squad like San Miguel.“We had a lot of young guys in this team. We only have five remaining from the old core that we had, so the finals was a great learning experience for us all,” Castro said in Filipino.ADVERTISEMENT Robredo: True leaders perform well despite having ‘uninspiring’ boss PLAY LIST 02:49Robredo: True leaders perform well despite having ‘uninspiring’ boss02:42PH underwater hockey team aims to make waves in SEA Games01:44Philippines marks anniversary of massacre with calls for justice01:19Fire erupts in Barangay Tatalon in Quezon City01:07Trump talks impeachment while meeting NCAA athletes02:49World-class track facilities installed at NCC for SEA Games Pagasa: Kammuri now a typhoon, may enter PAR by weekend Another vape smoker nabbed in Lucena LATEST STORIES Cayetano to unmask people behind ‘smear campaign’ vs him, SEA Games What ‘missteps’? LOOK: Jane De Leon meets fellow ‘Darna’ Marian Rivera Lacson: SEA Games fund put in foundation like ‘Napoles case’ Don’t miss out on the latest news and information. Injured Kyrgios pulls out of Wimbledon opener read more
Actress Kareena Kapoor Khan, who terms her father-in-law Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi as a ‘man of few words’, said he was proud of her and son Saif Ali Khan.Saif, son of the late cricketer and actress Sharmila Tagore, is planning to make a film on Pataudi’s life.”It’s really nice that Saif is thinking of it (making the film). I had spent three years with him (Pataudi) and he was a man of few words. He was a very quite person,” Kareena told in an interview here.Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan got married in 2012″He was very warm and would not express his affection towards me. But I remember, once we all were in Pataudi (town) and he put his hand on my shoulder. It was a gesture of warmth and strength. It is something which will always remain with me,” she said.The 33-year old actress said her father-in-law was proud of the work of his children and her as well.”He was always proud of Saif and me. I don’t think he had seen too many of my films but he had seen Omkara and liked me in it,” she said.The former Indian cricket captain, who was the titular Nawab of Pataudi from 1952 until 1971, died in 2011 of a lung ailment in Delhi.The actress says he was a great sporting icon and legend. “I remember reading lovely articles written by the Indian and international media about him after he passed away. I am happy people paid respect towards him,” she said.advertisementMeanwhile, on the rumours of Saif’s daughter Sara, from his former wife Amrita Singh, joining films, Kareena said that there are no Bollywood plans for Sara now as she is still studying in New York.The Jab We Met actress, will be next seen in Rohit Shetty’s ‘Singham Returns’ with co-star Ajay Devgn. read more