knaym

This is one of my favorite. New digital cameras have auto focus functions (well maybe not only new ones).  This ad is showing how good this camera is for capturing human faces. There are five more faces captured in the back watching these hot girls. Haha genius.

When most people (who have moderate knowledge of coffee) hear about coffee the first image that comes to their mind is brownish coffee beans that looks like some kind of nuts. It was my first time I knew that the brown coffee bean is actually the seed of some kind of cherry which I have never seen before (look like the ones in the picture above). I had a chance to have basic knowledge of coffee when I started my first part-time job at Blenz and from then I became a big fan of coffee. Well, now I’m an addict. The coffee beans before the roasting are green and they get brown as being roasted. Here is some interesting experiment some guy doing coffee importing for a living. The experiment is about green coffee. It’s quite interesting actually. Check it out.

In 2006, I visited Nairobi for charity activity. One scene that was very impressive was wherever I go I could see Coca Cola signs and I could buy Coca Cola in glass bottle. I remember the day I was sitting on the beach in Kenya and drinking a bottle of Coca Cola. It was awesome. Coca Cola has been in Africa since 1929. We could find Coca Cola everywhere in Africa now. According to Bloomberg, “Sales are flat in developed countries. For Coke to keep growing, Africa is it.”

I had no clue what this animal was until I was informed that the best and one of the most expensive coffee bean “Kopi Luwak” can only be produced  by this animal called Asian Palm Civet. The only way to get this extremely rare coffee beans is by coffee cherries eaten by the civet and pass through civet’s digestive track. Kopi Luwak is wheigh more expensive than other high end coffee beans and hard to find the 100% real one. But, it is so interesting and I am so willing to taste it sometime.

StarCraft has found a home in South Korea where many play it professionally or as a spectator sport. It is the most popular professionally played game due to its immense popularity in South Korea, where the best pro-gamers are seen as celebrities.

In Korea, Starcraft has leagues such as Ongamenet Starleague, MBC Starleague, and Proleague. Finals for these league attract tens of thousands of fans and are viewed on cable TV with great popularity.

StarCraft is the very first game to have been accepted into the World Cyber Games tournament and has a tournament at their events since inception. It also enjoys significant competitive popularity in the west as well.

What makes StarCraft gain its enormous popularity in South Korea? StarCraft was introduced in South Korea ten years ago by Blizzard and started to become popular since its launch. Well developed high speed internet distribution in South Korea allowed StarCraft, which players have a match over the internet, to become best selling PC game in South Korea. The popularity of StarCraft created players who compete professionally with others and led to establish StarCraft competition. The matches are broadcast like other sports games and the StarCraft players are professionally trained and sponsored like other sports players.

According to World Air Transport Statistics compiled by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Korean Air topped the global rankings for commercial airline cargo operations for the sixth consecutive year securing first place, and also ranked the 13th for commercial airline international passenger operations in 2009.

The airline industry is getting better as the world economy is slowly recovering even though there is still a fear of double dip. Airlines are struggling to differentiate their services. Providing in-flight wi-fi service could be one possible solution. In-flight wi-fi business is expending at a fast pace and I believe the there is still a great potential for expansion and growth. People like me, I mean people who are tired of same in-flight service, are eager to see in-flight wi-fi service to be expended to international flight level so when I go to visit my family in Korea I can do so many things with my lovely laptop during 12 hour flight.

I started to have an interest in low-cost airline business after I read few articles about low-cost airlines in Korea. There are three low cost airlines that fulfill qualifications of low cost airline but they are still in the early stage and I thought there is a room for growth . Low cost airlines’ basic business strategies are low-margin and high-volume. By keeping their margin low they could achieve price competitiveness. In order to keep the low level of margin they reduce airline service to most basic such as providing snacks and drinks but no meals during flights and providing self check-in and ticketing system but no check-in and ticketing station. By eliminating cost generative factors low cost airlines can offer low price. Normally, the price is lower than other full-service airlines by 40 – 70%. However, in Korea low cost airlines are not completely following western low cost airline models. The main reason is the high expectation on airline service of people in Korea. Travelling by airline in Korea is generally accepted as luxurious service and therefore their expectation and demand on the service is high. People in Korea demand decent level of service from airline even if the price is low. Korean low cost airlines therefore have to face the limitation on just copying western low cost airlines.

Welcome to UBC Blogs. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Ryanair is an Irish low cost airline with its head office in Dublin Airport, Ireland. Ryanair operates 250 Boeing 737-800 aircraft on over 1,100 routes across Europe and Morocco from over 44 bases.Ryanair is Europe’s largest low-cost carrier and the third largest airline in Europe in terms of passenger numbers and the largest in the world in terms of international passenger numbers.

EasyJet Airline Company Limited is a British airline headquartered at London Luton Airport. It carries more passengers than any other United Kingdom-based airline, operating domestic and international scheduled services on 500 routes between 118 European, North African, and West Asian airports.

Southwest Airlines Co. is an American low-cost airline. The airline has its headquarters on the grounds of Dallas Love Field in Dallas, Texas. Southwest is the largest airline in the world by number of passengers carried per year. Southwest maintains the third-largest passenger fleet of aircraft among all of the world’s commercial airlines.

Above Low-cost airlines are leading companies. Low-cost airlines attract customers with 40-70% lower ticket price. In order to generate revenue with such a low rate, low-cost airlines generally implement following business strategies:

• A single passenger class
• A single type of aircraft (commonly the Airbus 320 or Boeing 737 families), reducing training and servicing costs
• A minimum set of optional equipment on the aircraft, further reducing costs of acquisition and maintenance, as well as keeping the weight of the aircraft lower and thus saving fuel
• A simple fare scheme, such as charging one-way tickets half that of round-trips
• Flying to cheaper, less congested secondary airports and flying early in the morning or late in the evening to avoid air traffic delays and take advantage of lower landing fees
• Fast turnaround times (allowing maximum use of aircraft)
• Unreserved seating (encouraging passengers to board early and quickly, thus further decreasing turnaround times)
• Simplified routes, emphasizing point-to-point transit instead of transfers at hubs (again enhancing aircraft use and eliminating disruption due to delayed passengers or luggage missing connecting flights)
• Encourage the use of direct flights. Luggage is not automatically transferred from one flight to another, even if both flights are with the same company
• Generation of ancillary revenue from a variety of activities, such as à la carte features and commission-based products
• Emphasis on direct sales of tickets, especially over the Internet (avoiding fees and commissions paid to travel agents and computer reservations system)
• Employees working in multiple roles, for instance flight attendants also cleaning the aircraft or working as gate agents (limiting personnel costs)
• A disinclination to handle Special Service passengers, for instance by placing a higher age limit on unaccompanied minors than full service carrier
• Aggressive fuel hedging programs
• Passengers paying charges for extras, such as hold luggage, online check in and priority boarding
• Avoiding using jet ways to board and alight passengers by using a mobile stairway which is a cheaper alternative
• Not supplying meals in a flight, but offering snacks, sandwiches and drinks instead to purchase on board
• No refunds or transfers to later flights in the event of missed flights, i.e. if the aircraft leaves on time without a passenger who arrived late, he will have to buy a wholly new ticket for the next flight