Even though he lives in Alabama. What a brave LOLCat!
(It’s amazing how many states must still label evolution as a “controversial” theory and also teach intelligent design in the year 2015. It hasn’t changed much since 2005, when NPR summarized the sad state of affairs.)
James Cook spots the south-eastern coast of Australia and his crew of the Endeavour becomes the first recorded Europeans to encounter its eastern coastline, 164 years after the first undisputed sighting of the western coastline by the Dutch in 1606, and 148 years after the first English sighting. (Ten days later Cook’s expedition makes landfall at a place he called Botany Bay, now known as the Kurnell Peninsula, and made contact with the Gweagal.)
Cook’s expedition is significant because, 125 days, he took possession of the whole Eastern Coast, which he called New South Wales, in the name of the Kingdom of Great Britain which, thereby, became the first European power to officially claim any area on the Australian mainland. And then, a mere 18 years later, the Kingdom of Great Britain started using it as Penal Colony, transporting convicts from the cold, damp, foggy miserable shores of the Northern landscape to the warm, dry, clear, sunny shores of the Southern Australian coastline. Talk about early logistics put to good use! 😉
The Patriot Act is due to be reauthorized again in a mere six weeks on June 1, 2015. While no one doubts the importance of this act, or the continued need for foreign surveillance and border security, the act does contain some controversial provisions on domestic surveillance and security. Controversial provisions which, since the act came into law on October 26, 2001, have resulted in one arrest of one taxi driver who wanted to give $8,500 to a known terrorist group. (In other words, the controversial provisions never resulted in the ends they hoped to achieve.)
If no fuss is made, the Senate will just rubber stamp it back into law, as is, on June 1, 2015 and that might be the right thing to do. However, before the Senate does this, every American should decide if that is what she wants and advise the senator she elected accordingly. Because, whether she knows it or not, the provisions of the act not only allow the NSA to essentially tap and store just about every piece of electronic communication created by everyone in the US and by everyone communicating with someone in the US, but it allows the NSA to intercept, store, and view all of your private pictures, including those naked selfies the average American is so fond of taking.
In layman’s terms, if you took a dick-pic between October 26, 2001 and today, the NSA has it and there’s a good chance that someone who was not the intended recipient has looked at it. Listen to the interview below between Edward Snowden and John Oliver (who was the first to put the provisions in layman’s terms) where Snowden not only confirms that multiple sections of the Patriot act give the NSA these rights, but recounts his experience where NSA employees casually shared private pictures of various individuals’ naked parts for fun.
If you are happy with this, then by all means tell your Senator to re-authorize the Patriot act as is. But if you aren’t, tell your Senator that while you fully support the foreign surveillance and border security provisions of the act, domestically, you have a right to your privacy and you would like to see the controversial provisions amended to where the government agencies can only collect your personal, private data with probable cause and a warrant.
What do you think of this, LOLCat?
In our last two posts, Robin Salter of KWIPPED introduced us to the many benefits of an online marketplace for rental procurement. KWIPPED is one of the, if not the, first general purpose marketplace for your business rental needs. Launched in late February, KWIPPED is closing in on 100 suppliers that can meet your rental needs across 17 categories:
|
|
Like all modern online marketplaces, KWIPPED is simple and easy to use. All a buyer has to do is
Once a quote to your liking has been received, you can accept it and check out on the site. The site then collects the first payment and seals the rental contract on your behalf. It’s that simple. And the next version coming late this quarter will allow you to check out commodity rental items on the spot – no RFQ needed. Quick and easy like rentals should be.
KWIPPED will do for rentals what sites like BuyTruckload.com did for truck rentals and turn the commercial rental industry on its head. It’s Rent-a-Center for business. Check it out!
Today’s guest post is from Robin Salter, CMO of KWIPPED.
In Part I, we noted that even though there are currently a few online marketplaces that support the construction/heavy-equipment industry, there are no true online marketplaces for equipment rental even though it is estimated to be a $38 Billion to $50 Billion market, of which construction equipment represents less than half of all rentals. In today’s post we will address the potential benefits of an online marketplace for equipment rental, but first we will discuss traditional equipment rental sourcing as a foundation.
Traditional equipment rental sourcing
When there’s a job to be done that requires equipment rental, the first step is sourcing the equipment. Most organizations have a policy that requires multiple rental quotes from multiple suppliers in order to establish a basis for comparison and leverage the cost reduction power of competition. The traditional equipment rental sourcing process looks something like this:
How does an online marketplace benefit equipment rental sourcing?
Added efficiency
Procurement staff (or whoever is in charge of sourcing the equipment) could visit a single website. Select the equipment needed with a few clicks. Provide the details and dates just once and then allow the marketplace platform to do the work. Your single quote request would be automatically and immediately delivered to all of the marketplace suppliers that meet your rental criteria. Any additional details that you may need to communicate can be sent through the system once and distributed to all of the participating suppliers simultaneously.
The system manages the research and communications for you and then delivers multiple, side-by-side quotes for easy comparison. If you need to rent equipment immediately and don’t require quotes, a quality rental marketplace would offer the ability to select and rent specific equipment directly from uploaded supplier inventory. Tasks that traditionally takes hours, days and even weeks could be accomplished in minutes in an online marketplace environment.
Growth opportunities
An online equipment rental marketplace would provide such efficient access to all kinds of equipment that businesses could easily take on projects that they may have previously turned down due to a lack of equipment. In fact, a marketplace filled with categorized equipment could empower a business to proactively discover new ways to expand their services and their customer bases, simply by renting equipment they don’t currently own. Scrolling through various equipment categories could generate creative ideas about new service offerings and allow businesses to test them out without a large capital investment or strain on cashflow.
Quality Assurance
When the completion of a job is totally dependent on having the right rental equipment, it’s important to rent from suppliers you can trust to deliver quality equipment, and on time. A good online equipment rental marketplace will have processes in place to ensure the quality of their suppliers so you don’t have to waste time doing background checks and investigations. Suppliers are not only typically certified by the marketplace itself, but most online marketplaces will also include a rating system that allows renters to review and rate suppliers based on their experiences.
Cost control
Because marketplaces aggregate lots of rental activity, they usually have access to lots of data about how much specific equipment rentals should cost. A good marketplace will create a truly competitive environment, which is always good for the renter. Some marketplaces will even offer transparency so renters can easily see the going rates based on real-time rental transactions.
The time has come for a comprehensive equipment rental marketplace.
Thanks, Robin.