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Post Media's Offer to Buy Sun Media Would Make It Dominant in Canadian Newspaper

      Toronto- Postmedia Network says it will buy Quebecor Inc's Sun Media newspaper for $282 million, the deal would give a single publisher control of most of the major English-language dailies in Canada.  If the acquisition goes through it would make Postmedia the owner of competing major local dailies in cities such as Ottawa, Edmonton, and Calgary.  The deal would bring in approximately 175 newspapers and publications, including the Sun's flagship assets, the Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Calgary Sun newspapers - as well as the London (Ontario) Free Press, into the Postmedia conglomerate.  Postmedia says the deal will position it to better compete with foreign-based offerings.  The Competition Bureau downplayed its role so far as acting as a guardian of the diversity of voices in the media.  "While media ownership concentration can raise other publicised interest concerns, under the Competition Act, the bureau's mandate is  to review mergers exclusively to determine whether they are likely to result in a substantial lessening or prevention of competition," the agency said. 
          Postmedia said it plans to operate the major Sun dailies and their websites side-by-side with its existing publications, in markets with multiple brands, as it has in Vancouver for more than 30 years, with the Province and The Vancouver Sun.  Postmedia competes against Torstar Corp., publisher of The Toronto Star.   It also competes against The Globe,  and Mail a national daily, majority-owned by the Thomson family.  See also, www.reuters.com. 

Always in Season

             Manhattan - With each suite having four diagonal balconies and being two stories, guests have eight different views of Manhattan.  Guests may not want to leave their suite after seeing its multi-million dollar views.  However, when they do, a chauffeur is always on call, and when they arrive back home they will have at least one personal butler to watch their every move. 
     The library contained within each suite boasts a 26-foot cathedral ceiling and is decorated with $50,000 worth of gilded bronze vine-and-leaf motif.  Semi-precious stone surfaces and fabrics woven with platinum and 22-carat gold decorate the penthouse.  The penthouse cost $50 million to construct.  According to Fox Business News, designer Peter Marino and architect I.M. Pei came out of retirement for the project and collaborated with hotel owner Ty Warner to build this luxurious suite.  A staggering 800-feet above Manhattan, this 4,300 square-foot Ty Warner penthouse can be yours for $45,000 per night.  On the 52nd floor, this suite is offered by the Four Seasons in New York.  With iPads in all 285 guest rooms, Four Seasons Beverly Hills Intelity ICE technology was first introduced on iPad2s in October 2011.  In February 2013, a second phase of this process was completed.  Four Seasons worked with Intelity to develop a mobile app for guest's use on personal smart phones and tablets in order to reinforce Four Seasons' success with ICE on its in-room iPads.  The completion of this upgrade made Four Season's Hotels the first in its market to feature an integrated mobile solution.  It was of the utmost importance for the Four Seasons to remain ahead by taking advantage the increasing popularity of mobile devices, particulary among younger guests.  Guests can order things and communicate with the hotel, whether on or off the hotel property.  Four Seasons Hotels mobility offers.  See also, www.fourseasons.com.                     
 

Experience The Millennium Force

Giga-Coaster Millennium Force

      Sandusky - Cedar Point pushed the limits on roller coaster design.  The Millennium Force broke ten world records when it debuted in 2000.  The impressive Millennium Force is a steel roller coaster for which a new term was invented.  This "Giga-coaster" was the first full-circuit (vs. shuttle coasters that stay on the chain or cog after they leave the lift hill) to reach more than 300-feet in altitude.  Millennium Force has an "out-and-back" ( high altitude first drop with plenty of smaller hills that give you feelings of weightlessness - known as airtime -  as you ride back to the starting point) layout that does not have any inversions (points where the coaster is upside down) but includes over-banked turns (during the curve the roller coaster tilts 90 degrees or more left or right). 
     Millennium Forces's lift-hill has an altitude of 310-feet and parallels Lake Erie.  Millennium Force is 6,595-feet long and includes hills of 310-feet, 182-feet, and 169-feet.  Millennium Force has a stomach stealing 300-foot drop, at a near vertical 80 degree angle, two dark tunnels, and three over-banked turns. 
     Since its debut in 2000 Millennium Force has consistently been voted the number one steel roller coaster in the world.  Millennium Force has a ride duration of two minutes and twenty seconds.  Millennium Forces top speed is 93 miles-per-hour, two of Millennium Forces three over-banked turns are 122-degrees and the other is 112-degrees.  Millennium Force is the first roller coaster to use an elevator-cable system to lift the trains up the 310-foot lift-hill.  See also, www.cedarpoint.com.   

Mayors Vote on Climate

      Dallas - Mayors are looking for alternatives to traditional infrastructure projects that will be cost-effective and provide residents with amenities.  A bipartisan group of mayors from across the country unanimously approved a resolution, Monday, October 6, 2014 that calls on cities to use natural solutions to fight the effects of climate change.  Attendees of the United States Conference of Mayors voted in Dallas on a resolution that encourages cities to use nature to "protect freshwater supplies, defend the nations coastlines, maintain healthy tree and green spaces, cover air-quality, and protect air-quality," sometimes by partnering with non-profit organizations.
     In a move from partisanship (different parties voting differently against one another) the resolution was backed by mayors from GOP-dominated (Republican Gubernatorial candidates).  Austin Mayor, Annise Parker, and Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton.  Science shows human industrial activity (including, not recycling computer and mobile cell phone hardware when possible), is contributing to global warming, some conservatives remain skeptical.  "What's so significant is that there was a unanimous vote on an issue that can be so divisive," said Laura Huffman, director of the Nature Conservancy, in Texas.  See whole story, www.foxnews.com.