eyocopeland

As Britain's original Chesterfield company...

This is a question we are often asked; the answer is we're not sure! We have customers the world over who have their own ideas; our Canadian customers like to think that Chesterfield is a Canadian word although they refer to any sofa as a Chesterfield. We have done a little research and according to Robert Hendrickson in the Encyclopedia of word and phrase origins, the term chesterfield is commonly applied to a sofa in honour of Philip Stanhope, the forth Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773). However, Hendrickson points out that it is more likely that a latter Earl of Chesterfield invented them, which earl he does not know. At any rate, according to the OED (Oxford English Dictionary), it was used to refer to a couch in 1900.

Despite the current economic uncertainty, Stefan Angele, head of investment management of Swiss & Global, has predicted no new global recession in the short-term.

Stefan Angele, head of investment management of Swiss & Global, has predicted weak economic global growth – unless there is another financial services crisis.

On his outlook for the world economy, Mr Angele said Swiss & Global’s main scenario was weak economic growth in the industrialised countries but no new global recession.

However during a presentation at Swiss & Global’s Zurich offices this morning (9 November) he said this scenario only held if there was no major shock in the financial sector.

MORELIA, Mexico (AP) — Three major political parties are campaigning in the Mexican president’s home state, but it’s the groups that aren’t on Sunday’s ballot that have everyone worried: the drug cartels.

In hilly, rural Michoacan, a state known for its avocados, marijuana and meth, the mobsters are putting Mexico’s halting democracy to a test, using violence and bribes to influence elections for governor, the legislature and all 113 mayors.

While many other Mexican states have been penetrated by narco-politics, nowhere is that influence as overt as in Michoacan, where the electoral season so far has featured the kidnapping of nine pollsters, the gunning down of a mayor, and the withdrawal of at least a dozen candidates frightened off the campaign trail by organized crime.

“Organized crime is getting involved in discouraging candidates, to force (elections) with only one candidate,” said Fausto Vallejo, gubernatorial candidate for the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. “And that is happening not only to the PRI, but in all the three political parties.”

The stakes in Sunday’s vote are heightened by the fact that President Felipe Calderon is from Michoacan, and made his home state the launch pad for his war against the drug cartels five years ago. His sister, Luisa Maria “Cocoa” Calderon, is running for governor and pledges to deepen her brother’s offensive.

ZURICH: The European Union is “resolutely determined” to ensure the financial stability of the eurozone, the bloc’s President Herman Van Rompuy said Wednesday.
“We are resolutely determined to guarantee the financial stability of the eurozone, the stability of the eurozone is also vital for the world economy,” he told reporters after a meeting with Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey in Zurich.
Among topics raised during the discussions were bilateral relations between Switzerland and the European Union, as well as the eurozone debt crisis.
Calmy-Rey also signalled Switzerland’s support for Brussels in its fight to contain a public debt crisis, saying that it is in Bern’s interest that solutions are found “as the crisis is impacting our country on several counts.”

There’s no doubt that technology brings with it some scary things. The scariest of them all is the uncertainty.

Human beings are creatures of habit and the introduction of anything new typically raises an eyebrow (at least) or pitchforks (more often). It’s a somewhat common theme that is tiresome to me, but one that provokes debate throughout the times.

The common gripe against smartphones and mobile devices is that they are shackles that handcuff an employee to their work – 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

While your boss may have an expectation that because you have a BlackBerry you should be responding to emails at 6 a.m. on a Saturday (emergency or not), this is less about your boss’s disposition and more about a lack of education as to how to use technology to get the best results.