Welcome to Hell

You have come to a place mute of all light, where the wind bellows as the sea does in a tempest. This is the realm where the lustful spend eternity.

Here, sinners are blown around endlessly by the unforgiving winds of unquenchable desire as punishment for their transgressions. The infernal hurricane that never rests hurtles the spirits onward in its rapine, whirling them round, and smiting, it molests them.

You have betrayed reason at the behest of your appetite for pleasure, and so here you are doomed to remain. Cleopatra and Helen of Troy are two that share in your fate. Last night, I had dinner with them.

Cartoon of the Week

Why A Marketing Plan Is Important In Any Business?

In any business success, marketing always plays a key part. You have to make a good relationship with your customers. You need to work out how you will reach and win new customers and make sure that they will be happy and remain satisfied of the services you are providing them. You need to always review and keep on improving everything you do to stay ahead of the competition.

Although marketing plays an important role, it will not guarantee sales unless by doing it with a laid out plan. A well-researched and logical plan is important to have a better chance of building a long-term profitable relationships. A marketing plan will serve as a reference or your basis to execute a marketing strategy. By laying out plans, it will set out a clear objectives and explains how you will achieve them. You can define your business well if you have a written document that details the necessary actions to achieve your marketing goals. A marketing plan is considered a part of an over all business plan.

A marketing plan is backed up by a solid marketing strategy. It would be useless without a working strategy. So you need to be clear about your objectives and how you're going to achieve them. You have to be realistic with your plans by setting measurable objectives, deadlines, defining responsibilities and considering your budget. A good marketing plan should assist you to integrate your total marketing effort and ensures a systematic approach to developing products and services to meet and satisfy your customer's needs.

Having a solid marketing plan will let you identify your customer's needs and wants. You can determine the demand for product and aid in the design of product that will satisfy and fulfill consumer needs and wants. It also helps you identify your competitors and make you analyze what are their advantages over you or your advantages over them and focus on those things. You will know if your marketing strategies are working or not and maybe you can switch to another one. You will be able to identify new product areas and new or potential customers.

When you do have a marketing plan, you will know what are the specific thing you need to do and focus on things that play an important role in running your business. Every plan laid out has a specific target so that progress can be monitored. A marketing plan usually covers transactions for years and most probably you still have a standing business in the years to come.

Most Dominant NBA Players By Decade

1980s | Larry Bird & Magic Johnson
In reviving the NBA and renewing the Lakers-Celtics rivalry, Bird and Magic couldn't have fit more perfectly with their respective teams. The plain-spoken, yet cocky, Bird rejuvenated a franchise from one of the Northeast's industrial dynamos whose fans clung fast to their glorious history, while Johnson's flashy play and ubiquitous smile were ideal for a Lakers club tasked with entertaining Hollywood. The two sublime talents led their teams to a combined eight NBA titles in the '80s -- five for Magic, three for Bird.

Picture of the Day

The Launch of Francophone Games in Beirut

The 6th Francophone Games, the 'Jeux de la Francophonie', were formally launched this evening in Beirut.

The games running until October 6 are being attended by 42 countries. They reflect Lebanon's diversity, as Beirut is a venue in which all cultures and religions meet.

The players and the states participating in this tournament are welcomed to the country of the cedars, grouping on its soil all races and languages.

The event is held every 4 years with the participation of more than 3,000 athletes.

Cartoon of the Week

Postcard of the Week

Anjar - Lebanon

The World's Best Brands

Coke has held the top spot in the Interbrand rankings for each of the past nine years. IBM, Microsoft, GE, Nokia, McDonald's, Google, Toyota, Intel and Disney, in that order, round out the top 10 (in all, the study ranks the top 100 brands). To qualify for the list, a brand must offer publicly available financial data and must book at least one-third of its revenues from outside its country of origin. So Walmart, for example, can't qualify because it does not generate enough international cash under the Walmart name.

What's perhaps even more telling than the actual rankings are the year-over-year changes. According to Interbrand, the recession has produced a few stars. Take Google, for example. Its value jumped 25%, to $32 billion, in 2009. "Google has romped through our league tables over the last three or four years," says Frampton. The report credits the diversification of the company's businesses, including new advertising models and the Android phone software, with propping up the company's numbers. Another tech outfit, Amazon, is also surging: the Circuit City bankruptcy and struggles at the Borders bookstore chain are driving traffic to the site. Plus, the Kindle shows that you can still innovate in a downturn. The online retailer jumped 15 spots in the rankings, to 43.

No brand fell farther than UBS, the Swiss bank that lost more than $17 billion in 2008 and became known as an alleged haven for American tax cheats. According to Interbrand, the company's value dropped 50%, to $4.4 billion, sinking UBS 31 spots, to 72nd, in the rankings. Citi also struggled. The troubled financial giant saw a 49% drop in brand value, to $10.3 billion, compared with last year. "These firms have lost the trust of their customers, investors and employees as well," says Frampton. "Sticking money in your mattress now seems like a viable alternative."

Outside the financial-services sector, Harley has taken a hit. The iconic motorcycle brand saw its value fall 43%, to $4.3 billion. "I don't think there is any less love for Harley-Davidson," says Frampton. "The company is just highly susceptible to shifts in discretionary spending." Harley-Davidson's profits are down 66% for the first two quarters of 2009.

Harley still makes the top 100 (at No. 73), but more than 30 brands that started out the decade on Interbrand's list are now nowhere to be found. They include AT&T, Boeing, Heineken and (we're sorry to say) TIME. But the saddest fall of all may be Barbie. She started out the decade riding high, and now she can't crack the list. Blame those sassy Bratz dolls for Barbie's demise. "But there's an enduring nature to Barbie," Frampton says. "I believe she's one of those brands well positioned for a comeback." Too bad you can't say the same for Ken.

Behind Bars®: Johnnie Walker

When a fifteen-year-old farm boy took over a small Kilmarnock grocery store in 1820, he was taking the first step in the journey that led to the creation of an iconic global whisky brand. The boy’s name was John Walker, and his dedication to excellence made him an icon of personal progress—a sophisticated and dynamic brand that is sold in more than 200 countries.

Today, Johnnie Walker is the world’s leading Scotch whisky brand with a portfolio of five award-winning whiskies—Red Label, Black Label, Green Label, Gold Label, and Blue Label. Around the world, more than four bottles of Johnnie Walker are consumed every second.