GOOD BLOG: January 2015

Wednesday, 28 January 2015

THOUGHTS WHEN HIGH ON WEED

Another day on thoughts when high on weed does it endager our life or does it just propels us to be better and smarter
shear your comments

The first thought that comes to my mind is do anyone really think am high the as rest on my couch all that comes to my mind is the awesome meals in the Deep freezer how to get them micro waved the fruits in the fridge how to go get them and patch up all the hole in my tummy like having more than 20 different suggestion to what my body really needs and the most frequent behavior is me plugin my earphone on my ear and then start listening to jams or either thinking about a hole lot of nasty thoughts about some slit mistake made in most fascinating movies or musical video and before i know whats happening i sleep off waking up five times healthier and stronger.And i tell myself i prefer being high than being drunk.
And an amazing thought comes to my head whispering would the Wold Health Organization (W.H.O) have a weed sack arranged for a top Celebrity if that's the only teams he would agree by if he is ever going to accepts an offer of promoting the raising of funds for a charity program.

Friday, 23 January 2015

A MOMENT ON MY OWN THOUGHTS

Thursday, 22 January 2015

Russia-China poised to upset US dollar: Economist

Beijing Bulletin (IANS) Thursday 22nd January, 2015
Global powers Russia and China are gearing up to push their currency in world trade to jolt the US dollar, considered to be the default currency unit for international trade, a British economist said Wednesday.
According to Simon Hunt, "de-dollarisation" is gathering pace in EU and Asian trade markets with the likelihood of China and Russia's currencies (Russian Rouble and the Chinese RMB) being linked to gold and the eco-strategic alliance the two world powers are forming.
"Russia is selling oil and gas in currencies other than US dollar undermining the importance of the American petro-dollar. It is also converting its export revenue into physical gold," Hunt told IANS at an event organised by Confederation of Indian Industries here.
According to World Gold Council, Russia became the sixth largest economy to have gold reserves pegged at 1,187.5 tonnes while China ranks seventh with the official figure of reserves at 1,054.1 tonnes.
"Gold is a still a premiere currency where no fiat money including the US dollar can match it," he said.
Hunt said while the US dollar is on its way to decline in European Union (EU) as the recent move from the Swiss National Bank to push the Euro in ECB policy signals "mistrust with American policies and the world being US dollar," the superpower perceives the SCO and BRICS blocks as a viable threat to its hegemony.
According to the economist, China is swapping currencies and keeping Russian companies liquid by taking equity positions in state-owned enterprises, making loans and advances both within China and between the two countries.
Hunt said a large group of countries centred on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS together with other emerging countries are keen to replace the US dollar with other currency formats with Russia getting the headway.
"The new world (developing and non US-allied nations) no longer wants to be dominated by America and want to divest themselves from being beholden to the US dollar," he said.
The Rouble, however, continues to be dependant on oil which may push Russia to enter actively in the geo-political scenario in the middle-east to push for strong oil prices while China will use loans in US dollar to convert it into assets measurable in RMB to push out the US dollar from its international transactions.
However, 32 percent comprising $4 trillion of China's forex is in US bonds.
China and Russia have also effectively switched to domestic currencies in trading using the financial tools comprising of 'swaps and forwards' amounting $25 billion to minimise the use of US dollar.

China Extends Custody, Probe of Human Rights Lawyer

BEIJING - The case of jailed Chinese rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang has again been transferred to prosecutors, who can continue extending their investigation against him.
His attorney, Mo Shaoping, told VOA's Mandarin service that the move meant authorities could continue holding him without trial for up to four more months.
"The recent progress is the police department's supplementary investigation has been completed," Mo said. "This is the second time [they have] sent the case file to the [prosecutors]. In two days, we will go to examine the case file, and we will meet Pu Zhiqiang very soon."
Authorities have not commented publicly about the latest moves in the case.
Pu, who turned 50 in custody this month, was initially arrested on charges of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble" and "illegally obtaining personal information." But police later added the more serious charges of "inciting separatism" and "incitement to subvert state power."
Pu, a well-known free-speech lawyer, was detained last May after attending a seminar on the 1989 pro-democracy movement. He was a participant in that movement, which ended when Chinese troops, backed by tanks, moved in to crush student-led demonstrations.
He has represented clients such as dissident artist Ai Weiwei and members of the New Citizens Movement, which campaigns against official corruption.
Julie Peng contributed to this report, which was produced in collaboration with the VOA Mandarin service.

China Expects 'Downward Pressures' on Its Economy in 2015

DAVOS, SWITZERLAND - Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Wednesday that China's slowing economy reflected the broader, global situation and promised that he would forge ahead with major reforms to boost growth prospects.
Li told the World Economic Forum in Davos that China, hurt by a housing slump and waning investment and manufacturing growth, would continue to face headwinds in 2015.
China, the world's second-largest economy, announced Monday that growth slowed to 7.4 percent in 2014 from 7.7 percent in 2013, with fourth-quarter expansion put at 7.3 percent - slightly higher than markets had expected.
"The Chinese economy will face downward pressures in 2015," Li said, adding that it was not heading "for a hard landing."
"China's economy has entered a period of new normal," he said. "The new situation has made structural reform all the more necessary. The [economic] adjustment in China reflects the world economy."
Among the reforms he listed were liberalizing the service sector, protecting intellectual property rights and deepening China's capital markets.
"We will move toward the path of reforms," Li said. "This way we can shift gears without losing momentum and achieve medium- to high-speed growth, and medium- to high-level development."
Beijing would encourage mass entrepreneurship and innovation, he said, which could "offer an endless source of creativity and wealth" and a "gold mine" for the country to tap.
The government should let the market "take a decisive role," he added.
Fiscal policy, taxation, foreign exchange and financial markets will also all be overhauled, the Chinese premier said.
"China will continue to move along the path of restructuring with great determination,'' he said.
He added that China did not intend to compete with other countries for supremacy. Regional hostilities must be resolved by political means, he said.
At last year's meeting in Davos, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe raised concerns about a potential clash between China and Japan, drawing a parallel at the time with the eve of World War I. But those worries have since eased, with both states seemingly determined to keep a firm lid on tensions.

ydney Festival 2015 Opens to A Great Reception

Jan 16, 2015

Category:

SYDNEY, Jan. 16, 2015 - ASIATODAY.COM - Sydney Festival's opening weekend of events took over the city in an explosion of exceptional theatre, dance, music, visual arts, film and more. Over three weeks Sydney Festival brings the harbour city to life from January 8-26.
Sydney Festival 2015 is comprised of 179 events, 85 of which are free. With 495 performances across 25 indoor and outdoor venues,Sydney Festival 2015 features 974 artists from across 30 countries. With 18 world premieres, 11 Australian premieres and 22 Australian exclusives, summer in our beautiful city is not to be missed.
In Sydney's famous outdoor venue The Domain, three fantastic free events are set to delight audiences. Sydney Festival 2015 opened with a special Summer Sounds in The Domain concert with the samba sounds of South American superstar Seu Jorge kick-starting summer in Brazilian style. Symphony in The Domain this year has a very special new addition with ARIA-award winning William Barton performing on didgeridoo alongside the Sydney Symphony.
Headline artist James Thierree returned to Sydney Festival with Tabac Rouge, his largest and most extravagant work to date, receiving a five star review on opening night from the Sydney Morning Herald.
Masquerade, a world premiere and new Australian theatre work by Kate Mulvany lovingly brings to life the iconic children's book by Kit Williams. A huge success with opening audiences, this magical tale enchants everyone aged nine to 90.
The hugely popular Festival Village has returned in 2015 with a variety of thrilling circus and cabaret shows, activities and almost 40 contemporary music performances. Dublin's famous street artist Maser has transformed Hyde Park with Higher Ground, an installation and explosion of colours, shapes and stripes. Inspired by M.C. Escher's perspective-skewing artworks and reaching over two stories high, the installation reimagines a world of converging architecture and geometry on a grand scale.
A highlight of the 2015 program which is yet to come is Tex Perkin's Far From Folsom. In a world premiere and unforgettable music experience, Tex Perkins heads behind bars to embody the spirit of Johnny Cash. Delving into the country music star's dark repertoire, he recreates his seminal 1968 Folsom Prison shows within the haunting surrounds of Parramatta Gaol.

- See more at: http://asiatoday.com/pressrelease/sydney-festival-2015-opens-great-reception#sthash.Km4oey3D.dpuf

ydney Festival 2015 Opens to A Great Reception

Jan 16, 2015

Category:

- See more at: http://asiatoday.com/pressrelease/sydney-festival-2015-opens-great-reception#sthash.Km4oey3D.dpuf

ydney Festival 2015 Opens to A Great Reception

Jan 16, 2015

Category:

- See more at: http://asiatoday.com/pressrelease/sydney-festival-2015-opens-great-reception#sthash.Km4oey3D.dpuf

Rihanna wins Topshop T-shirt row

Appeal court judges uphold ban on fashion chain selling a sleeveless top bearing the singer’s image without her permission

A substantial number of Rihanna’s fans were likely to be led into the false belief that she had authorised the top to carry her image, the judges ruled. Photograph: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Pop star Rihanna has prevented Topshop selling T-shirts displaying her picture in a test case reinforcing the ability of celebrities to control their public image.
The court of appeal has ruled that the fashion retailer’s unauthorised use of the singer’s photograph amounted to “passing off” – illegally exploiting an unregistered trademark.
The three court of appeal judges – Lords Justices Richards, Kitchin and Underhill – affirmed there was no English law directly allowing anyone to restrain reproduction of their name or image. But their judgment provided further legal grounds for the famous to limit the circumstances in which commercial advantage can be derived from exploiting their celebrity status.
The dispute dates back to 2012, when Topshop began selling a £22 sleeveless T-shirt bearing a recognisable image of Rihanna derived from a photograph taken of her during a video shoot for her Talk That Talk album.
The picture was taken by an independent photographer who, as owner of the copyright in the photograph, licensed the use of the image to Topshop. Rihanna and two of her corporate licensing companies then launched legal action alleging that the use of her image for fashion clothing was not licensed and that people buying the T-shirt would think she had endorsed it.
The high court found in favour of the Barbadian performer and granted an injunction prohibiting Topshop from selling the clothes without informing prospective purchasers that it had not been approved or authorised.
Topshop’s unsuccessful appeal examined precedents where other celebrities, such as Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, had tried to stop pictures of them being published.
Because there are no directly applicable laws, Kitchin said, “a celebrity seeking to control the use of his or her image must therefore rely upon some other cause of action such as breach of contract, breach of confidence, infringement of copyright or, as in this case, passing off.”
He added that passing off does not “protect a person against the sale by others of the same goods or even copied goods. What it protects is goodwill and it prevents one person passing off his goods or services as those of another.
“No one may, by the use of any word or name, or in any other way, represent his goods or services as being the goods or services of another person and so cause that other person injury to his goodwill and so damage him in his business.
“This allegation did disclose a sustainable case in passing off. In substance Rihanna alleged that she had suffered damage to the goodwill in her business as a result of the misrepresentation, implied in all the circumstances, that she had endorsed the T-shirt.” The law of passing off, Kitchin explained, had expanded over the years.
Commenting on the implications of the judgment, Mike Gardner, head of intellectual property at the law firm Wedlake Bell, said: “Rihanna was forced to rely on the English common-law right of passing off because in the UK, unlike certain other countries, there is no ‘image rights’ law to help celebrities to control the commercial use of their image.
“The court of appeal has dismissed Topshop’s appeal against that earlier high court decision, so the ban remains in place. This ruling, in what was seen as a finely balanced case, may encourage other celebrities to make similar claims in the future.
“Retailers will have to be extra careful in how they sell items bearing celebrity images. They will need to learn lessons from what happened with Topshop. Anything that is seen as wrongly suggesting an official tie-up or endorsement by the celebrity could lead to legal action.”
Georgie Collins, an intellectual property partner at the law firm Irwin Mitchell, said: “In the UK, there is no free-standing law of ‘image rights’ that allows a person to control the reproduction of their image, contrasted with the US. Anyone seeking to protect and prevent the unauthorised use of their image must choose from a variety of rights, including trademarks, copyright, designs and the developing law of privacy. The court of appeal has just reinforced this position.”
Leon Glenister, a barrister at Hardwicke Chambers, said: “Until now celebrities have struggled to protect their image being used by other organisations. Even now there needs to be an implied endorsement of the product [for a celebrity’s case to succeed]. Without that, there is no protection of image.”

Drop in Ebola cases ‘signals turning point’

Sierra Leone sees biggest fall in Ebola cases but experts warn outbreaks can flare up as quickly as they die down

The Ebola epidemic seems to have reached a turning point, as cases fall in all three of the worst-hit countries of west Africa, according to World Health Organisation figures.
Last week there were fewer than 150 cases reported, with Sierra Leone accounting for most of them – 117 of the total. The previous week it reported 184 cases and the week before 248. At the peak in December, the country was reporting 550 cases a week. Liberia’s case numbers have dropped from a high point of more than 300 a week in August and September. This week it reported eight, while the total for Guinea was 20.
Dr Christopher Dye, the director of strategy in the office of the WHO director general, told the BBC News website: “The incidence is pretty clearly going down in all three countries now.
“Each of the last three weeks has been the most promising we’ve seen so far, the message is reductions in all places.”
Dr David Nabarro, the UN secretary general’s special envoy on Ebola, and senior coordinator of the response, said the outbreak was diminishing, while insisting: “I want all to be vigilant.”
Nabarro, who is now at the World Economic Forum in Davos to discuss funding for fighting the epidemic, told the Guardian the UN was now looking for $1bn more to add to the $1bn that governments, international organisations and philanthropists have already donated. That is $500,000 more than has so far been pledged.
“It will be hard to raise, but the last bit – getting to zero – is the most difficult and is very expensive,” he said.
In an interview in London earlier this week, he said the money would be needed to ensure a fast and flexible response to any new outbreaks, using helicopters to access remoter regions and bring in the personnel needed, as well as carrying out the intensive detective work of tracing contacts to ensure everybody who is infected is treated and isolated.
But the rhetoric around the epidemic has changed. Last October, the WHO was warning that the number of new infections was doubling every four weeks. The Centers for Disease Control in the US estimated that there could be 1.4m cases by this month.
Now, WHO is talking of new case numbers halving. In Guinea, where they are dropping fastest, the numbers are halving every 10 days, in Liberia every 14 days and in Sierra Leone every 19 days. There have been 21,724 reported cases so far and 8,641 officially recorded Ebola deaths. The true figures are believed to be much higher.
Experts are warning, however, that Ebola outbreaks can flare up again just as quickly as they die down. In Guinea, the pattern has been a sequence of rises and falls. Mali has been declared free of the virus, but, said the WHO: “Surveillance and information sharing will be increased in the border districts of Guinea-Bissau, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Senegal adjacent to the three intense-transmission countries.”
In the worst affected countries, there are long-awaited moves to return life to something closer to normality. Schools in Guinea have begun to reopen after five months’ closure. The decision was sudden, with staff and parents given just four days’ notice. Both Liberia and Sierra Leone have also said schools will reopen.
The closures were ordered to avoid mass gatherings where people would come into physical contact and there was a risk that transmission of the virus would occur. Public meetings, political rallies and even football games were also halted and curfews were imposed on roads at night to prevent people travelling.
In Liberia, where the first signs of a drop in cases were seen, the government is treating the apparent slowing of the disease with “very cautious optimism”, said information minister Lewis Brown.
However, he stressed there was no room for complacency and warned that the slightest lapse in vigilance could yet prove disastrous. “We are determined that as the cases continue to go down, there is no recurrence,” he told the Guardian. “We may have got a handle on the transmission of the virus; we may be in a position to isolate and treat people quickly. But this is a virus which, given our sociology and health infrastructure, could spread again very, very quickly. So we have to make sure that no one has any false sense that the hard work’s done.
“When you add the fact that we share very porous borders with both Sierra Leone and Guinea, you can understand why, even as our numbers go down, we remain very cautiously optimistic.”
He added: “We continue to call for a regional approach to ending this scourge; none of us can be safe until all of us are safe.”
The epidemic has continued to take a severe toll of health workers, who are exposed to the greatest risk by their physical contact with those who are sick. In total, 828 have been infected across the three countries and 499 have reportedly died, says the WHO. The numbers becoming infected in Liberia and Sierra Leone have fallen but they rose in Guinea in December.

Baroness Amos

Guinea’s president, Alpha Condé, yesterday called on the International Monetary Fund to provide debt relief to help his Ebola-stricken country build a health system capable of preventing a future epidemic.
Condé was meeting Christine Lagarde, the IMF’s managing director and the World Bank president Jim Kim at the Davos World Economic Forum in an attempt to reduce payments to Guinea’s creditors.
The country has been one of the three West African countries affected by the Ebola virus, and Condé said any help provided would be re-cycled into health.
His call came as Baroness Amos, UN undersecretary for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, hit out against the way the international community responded to the Ebola crisis. Amos said that much more support was needed, with better co-ordination and a more long-term approach.
“We should not be having to scramble around to raise money to put in place to set up the supply chains,” said Amos, who was speaking on a separate panel to Condé.
She said the three countries currently being dealt with – Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia – were post conflict. “I think we are way too short-term, we have to be in for the longer term. We have to say as a global community to say we are going to be with you for the next, 20 years, for example.”
But she highlighted the difficulties in coordinating the various bodies and said governments businesses and NGOs needed to work together. “We have agencies with separate and overlapping mandates, we are highly bureaucratic,” she said.

Massive pipe falls off bridge into harbor

A massive 60-foot piece of a water main weighing as much as 3 tons broke off the condemned Long Island bridge and crashed 50 feet into Boston Harbor, prompting commuter ferries to take a longer route and city officials to take extra steps to shore up the crumbling structure before its demolition begins later this month, the Herald has learned.

“That’s the reason why we closed the bridge, because it’s structurally unsound,” Mayor Martin J. Walsh said yesterday. “I knew I did the right thing the day I (shut it down in October). I would rather take critics criticizing me for closing the bridge down rather than having a tragedy happen.”
The mayor closed the 3,050-foot two-lane steel bridge Oct. 8 after reports it could no longer support vehicles’ weight. The bridge served as the main link to a now shuttered city-run homeless shelter.
Boston Public Works Commissioner Michael Dennehy said the water main crashed into the shipping channel beneath the bridge last week after its crumbling metal bracket gave way. “It’s corroded beyond rusting,” he said, adding city officials were notified of the collapse Jan. 13.
The pipe was hauled to the surface three days later. It was partially filled with frozen water and weighed roughly 6,000 pounds, he said.
“The Coast Guard is very concerned about the state of this bridge,” said Dennehy. “It’s quite a fall. It’s a 12-inch thick water main. It’s heavy steel.”
Rick Nolan, president of Boston Harbor Cruises, which operates the MBTA’s commuter ferries, said his company this week made the “prudent decision” to divert two dozen ferries daily around Long Island rather than risk going under the bridge. The detour adds about three to six minutes to each trip.
Nolan said “we shudder to think” what would have happened if the main landed on one of his 400-passenger ferries: “It would have crashed through the aluminum cabins and caused painful injuries, if not death.”
Demolition of the bridge should begin Jan. 31, Dennehy said, adding: “We anticipate that this bridge will be down by April 30.”

Obama to keep Netanyahu at arm's length during controversial US trip

Relations between Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu neared a new low on Thursday as the White House revealed the president would not meet the Israeli prime minister when he visits Republican leaders of Congress in March.
Obama administration officials insisted the reason for the apparent diplomatic snub was “long-standing practice and principle” that US presidents should not meet foreign leaders during re-election campaigns.
“Accordingly, the president will not be meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu because of the proximity to the Israeli election, which is just two weeks after his planned address to the US Congress,” national security council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said.
But the White House decision arrived as strains with the Israeli government burst into the open following an invitation from Republican House speaker John Boehner, who asked Netanyahu to discuss their shared concerns over Obama’s nuclear talks with Iran before a combined session of Congress.
“If that’s the purpose of prime minister Netanyahu’s visit two weeks before his own election, right in the midst of our negotiations, I just don’t think it’s appropriate and helpful,” said Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House minority leader.
The brewing standoff also stood in stark contrast to a White House visit by British prime minister David Cameron, who is also running for re-election but appeared alongside Obama last week as they both warned of the dangers should Congress pass new sanctions authorisation that they insist could derail the Iran talks.
The UK elections on 7 May are eight weeks further afield than the Israeli elections, and Cameron also visited Washington two month earlier than Netanyahu’s planned trip. But the British prime minister’s official state visit to Washington was still widely interpreted as a boost to his electoral prospects back home.
Cameron also admitted to calling senators directly during his stay, urging them not to vote for proposed legislation that would authorise fresh economic sanctions on Iran if nuclear talks fail but the White House argues will cause them to fail and risk war instead.
Such open lobbying of Congress by foreign leaders over pending legislation is frowned upon in Washington. But Cameron’s talks may have helped spur Republicans to finalise the Netanyahu invitation in order to make quite the opposite argument – that a stiffer response to Iran’s threatened nuclear weapons potential is necessary as diplomatic deterrence.
The Israeli prime minister is also not the only foreign ally to have sided with Republicans over foreign policy in recent days.
Former British leader Tony Blair recently spoke to a Republican leadership retreat in Pennsylvania, urging a stronger western response to the rise of Islamic extremism.
But a pending vote in the Senate over authorising future sanctions against Iran poses a much more significant risk for the White House, particularly since a number of hawkish Democrats are also behind the legislation.
Boehner said his invitation to speak before Congress had been sent “on behalf of the bipartisan leadership of the US House of Representatives and the US Senate”. Netanyahu is expected to discuss both the threat from Iran and Islamic extremism.

Disney CEO Iger hauls in $46.5M

Getty

Robert Iger, CEO of Walt Disney (DIS), scored a 35% raise in 2014 pushing his total pay to $46.5 million, according to the company’s regulatory filing Friday.
Already one of the CEOs with the highest pay packages in 2013, Iger will undoubtedly find himself on the top of Corporate America’s pay scale again.
Iger’s pay breaks down as follows:
Salary: $2,500,000
Stock awards: $8,943,204
Option awards: $8,339,396
Non-equity incentive plan: $22,810,000
Change in pension value: $2,795,268
Other compensation: $1,109,150
Total: $46,497,018
Source: Disney
Well-timed and daring investments made by Iger and his team continue to pay off huge. Shares of Disney skyrocketed 23% in 2014 and earnings continue to climb.

Google, Fidelity invest $1B in SpaceX

Google and Fidelity are investing $1 billion in Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies, and will own just shy of 10% of the company.
These investors join other investors Founders Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Valor Equity and Capricon, says SpaceX.
The investment was widely anticipated as news broke of the talks over the holiday weekend. But SpaceX confirmed it just now. Google has long expressed interested in finding more ways to use aeronautics to allow the Internet to extend more broadly around the globe. Google’s business model – mining personal data that can be sold to advertisers – hinges on widespread availability of the Internet.

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah dies aged 90

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz has passed away, aged 90. The monarch died late last night January 22nd (Nigerian time) in his home. His death was announced in a statement broadcast on Saudi state TV.

"His Highness Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and all members of the family and the nation mourn the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, who passed away at exactly 1am this morning (Friday - Saudi time)," the statement said.

Abdullah became king in 2005 after the death of his half-brother King Fahd. The late king's brother, Salman, 79, has been announced as the new ruler of the kingdom.

Emerging countries, big businesses deck out Davos

David Callaway and Donna Leinwand Leger 6:35 p.m. EST January 22, 2015

DAVOS, Switzerland -- Gather a couple thousand of the world's richest people in a small, frozen town for a week and you get more than parties and seminars. Davos is replete with emerging countries aggressively promoting themselves as good places to do business.
Walk along the main promenade that winds through the center of town toward the main conference center, where the World Economic Forum''s annual meeting is in session, and you'll see advertisements for India, Malaysia, Egypt, South Africa, Azerbaijan and others. Colorful billboards extol each country's business virtues.
"Make it in India," say the signs on the temporary India center in town and on the buses that drive up and down the promenade, delivering WEF attendees to their seminars. A massive promotional banner for Egypt hangs from the top of the Hotel Belvedere in the middle of town. A banner lauding South Africa's "Inspiring New Ways" occupies an entire side of the city's art museum.
The pitches don't stop with billboards. Many countries host elaborate parties and dinners, such as "A Taste of Italy" or "Japan Night," where delegates can sample the national fare and, of course, partake of an open bar.
Businesses, too, want a crack at the elite clientele who trek along the icy streets from their far-flung hotels to the Congress Center, which hosts the forum's 2,500 guests.
Steps from the entrance where CEOs queue up for a security check in below-freezing temperatures, a man in a rustic shack ladles out steaming cups of hot cocoa while touting the virtues of Renault-Nissan's electric car.
"How about a bacon sandwich," shouts a cheery Brit outside Davos headquarters of Aberdeen Asset Management, one of the premier Scottish fund managers, specializing in emerging markets.
This prime corner real estate on Davos' main promenade "51 weeks a year is a crystal shop selling healing crystals," says Aberdeen spokesman James Thorneley. Aberdeen rented the shop from the owner for a week, stripped it down and redecorated it in cool gray accented with stags, the company's logo, painted an eye-popping fuchsia to transform the shop into a hip coffee cafe by day and a sleek cocktail lounge at night.

Aberdeen pulled out all the stops to entice the delegates, who include heads of state, CEOs and media giants, to stop by its pop-up cafe. The company even imported a top mixologist from a London restaurant to create drinks with scotch at the bar. Just to be sure the Davos delegates don't overlook the spot in the hustle and bustle, Aberdeen has a bagpiper playing outside the cafe for several hours a day.
"It's an amazing place to meet our clients," Thorneley said. And Davos residents are welcome to stop by, too.
The company, founded 30 years ago with $100 million, now has assets topping $550 billion, Thorneley said.
"We are a big player and we need to be seen as a big player. The World Economic Forum is the place to be," he said. "It raises our global profile."