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Retail competition will heat up this week as giant retailers try to entice shoppers during Chinese New Year celebrations.

Central Department Store (CDS), The Mall Group, Future Park Rangsit, Big C Supercenter, Siam Piwat and Robinson Department Store will spend combined budgets of 200 million baht on their promotions. it is projected over 10 billion baht will circulate during the festival.

Chamnarn Maytaprechakul, senior chief marketing officer of The Mall, said the group is spending over 50 million baht at its branches (The Mall, The Emporium and Paragon) from Jan 12 to Feb 5. The 25-day event is expected to generate 3.5 billion baht in sales.

Piyawan Leelasompop, vice-president for marketing of CDS, said it increased its budget for the period by 15% to 80 million baht. Customers have a chance to win a 2.5-million-baht Audi car with every 1,500 baht in purchases and a 5% discount for every 2,000-baht purchase. The company expects its sales for the Chinese New Year at all 15 branches nationwide will reach 2.6 billion baht, up from 2.4 billion last year.

Jittinan Wanglee, vice-president of Rangsit Plaza Co, the operator of Future Park Rangsit, said the company plans to spend 300-350 million baht on its marketing activities this year including the 10-million-baht Golden phenomenon of Henan from Jan 20-29.

It expects visitors to rise by 20% from 150,000 per day during the campaign.

Phattaraporn Phenpraphat, vice-president for marketing and public relations of Central Food Retail, the operator of Tops Supermarket, said it is spending 20 million baht for its campaign from Jan 11-Feb 11.

CFR expects sales during the period will grow by 20-25% or 500 million baht per week.

Big C offers 10-50% discounts on 5,000 items of food, decoration, clothing and accessories, in addition to giving away 25 diamond-embedded golden dragons via lucky draws. Customers can enter the draw with every 500-baht purchase at Big C or 100 baht at Mini Big C. The Big C chain will feature a Shaolin Temple Kung Fu performance and lion dance on Jan 21.

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<a href="http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/economics/275468/mall-battle-royale-for-new-yeartag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/economics/275468/mall-battle-royale-for-new-yearMon, 16 Jan 2012 19:01:26 GMT”>Mall battle royale for New Year

It has been revealed that the perpetrator of the recent horror massacre in Oslo may have been influenced by a right-wing South African blog, reports online publisher News24.

It has come to light that Anders Behring Breivik, the man behind the Oslo bombings and mass shootings, borrowed heavily from several sources, including the controversial blog iluvsa. the blog is hosted by Google’s blog service, Blogger.

In Breivik’s rambling 1 500-page Manifesto on Western Civilisation, there is a link to what he calls the “democratic struggle against the Islamisation of Europe” with arguments made by iluvsa against multi-culturalism in the South African, and global, context.

The iluvsa site features a blood-spattered banner, with the words “I Luv South Africa .. But I Hate My Government” emblazoned across it.

A Memeburn search revealed that Brevik was particularly interested in a post from the blog entitled “from Titans to Lemmings: the Suicide of the White race part II”.

At one point the post asks:

If all races are equal, why aren’t the Chinese, the Japanese, the Koreans, the Arabs, the Pakistanis, the Indians, the Africans all accepting masses of immigrants into their lands and allowing alien cultures and religions to be of equal importance to their own?

The bio of iluvsa’s Facebook page explains “ILuvSA was conceived as an online space where South Africans both home and abroad could come together to discuss the issues of the day in a political correctness-free environment”.

The blog’s first post explains why iluvsa is “needed”.

“we pledge therefore to reveal to the world the true horror of the “rainbow nation” under the repressive, Marxist, socialist, black-nationalist, racist regime that is the ANC government.”

<a href="http://memeburn.com/2012/01/volkwagen-follow-up-to-2011-viral-success-involves-star-wars-dogs-video/tag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://memeburn.com/2012/01/volkwagen-follow-up-to-2011-viral-success-involves-star-wars-dogs-video/Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:01:08 GMT”>Link between Norwegian killer and right-wing South African blog unearthed

By Christopher LawtonGetty ImagesAudi chairman Rupert Stadler

The car of the future seems best suited for people who don’t like driving.

From the annual Digital Life Design conference in Munich, Audi AG Chairman Rupert Stadler described the future car as one that drives itself and parks itself, though unfortunately it doesn’t wash itself.

What was amazing about mr. Stadler’s vision of the future, which included the stereotypical 1980s “Knight Rider” reference, is that connectivity in cars is becoming so advanced, they’ll be able to speak to each other on the road. mr. Stadler wasn’t talking about trading Facebook messages or emails, but instead he spoke of cars that could drive so efficiently that we could see traffic lights and even the concept of traffic disappear.

Perhaps sensing some Audi fans in the audience, who like the feeling of driving 200 kilometers an hour on the autobahn, he was quick to say that the autopilot feature on a car will be completely voluntary. “We promise to support you as the driver and not tell you what to do,” he said on stage at the conference.

Audi is already quite advanced in the race to connect the car. At the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas earlier this month, it announced it would be outfitting its cars with 4G, allowing passengers to download and play high-definition video while driving.

Currently drivers and passengers focus on one screen in the car. In the near future, Audi will expand that to three screens for each the driver, passenger and backseat. With a hand wave, the driver will be able to move content around the three screens.

Mr. Stadler cautioned that to move forward in this area, car makers will have to speed up their development cycles to more closely match tech companies such as Apple Inc., which launches a new iPhone every year. He referenced the typical car timetable which takes 60 months to go from the sketchpad to the showroom floor.

To keep up, Audi can update the software in its cars at anytime. It’s also integrating smartphone apps into its vehicles.

“In the future a digital car will have to keep pace with the breaking neck speed of entertainment electronics industry,” he said.

<a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/drivers-seat/2012/01/23/audis-future-vision-self-driving-cars/?mod=google_news_blogtag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://blogs.wsj.com/drivers-seat/2012/01/23/audis-future-vision-self-driving-cars/?mod=google_news_blogMon, 23 Jan 2012 19:01:56 GMT”>Audi’s Future Vision: Self-Driving Cars

Mercedes-Benz could be done with taking a back seat to Audi and BMW in the small hot-hatch niche, with reports this week that a new A-Class AMG flagship is in the works.

the regular version of the 2013 A-Class has yet to be revealed, but with the latest batch of Mercs now brandishing their own AMG guns, the carmaker's tuning arm is understood to have turned attention to its smallest model yet.

this is not the first time that reports have pointed to a hi-po version of the new A-Class, with last year's 156kW Concept A-Class suggesting that a rival for at least Volkswagen's Golf GTI could be in the works.

Rumours in the months since have pointed to a brand-new twin-turbo 2.0 litre engine, producing figures in the realm of 240kW and making the so-called a 25 AMG a new champion in the hot-hatch segment – and almost matching the 250kW 1 Series M Coupe.

Unlike the front-wheel-drive 224kW Ford Focus RS, the a 25 AMG will reportedly send power to all four wheels, transferred through the company's 4Matic system and a seven-speed double-clutch transmission.

According to British magazine Car, the project is now well underway and should bear fruit soon after the regular hatch debuts later this year.

if an AMG-tuned A-Class is indeed on the way, it could be joined by a hardcore version of the mysterious new "CLC", with spy photos in August last year revealing a pint-sized version of the big CLS four-door coupe.

According to enthusiast blog BenzInsider, the CLS-inspired small sedan will feature front-wheel-drive in its regular form, while high-powered AMG variants will get an all-wheel-drive system.

US website Edmunds has pointed to a New York Auto Show unveiling for the CLC, this coming April.

<a href="http://www.themotorreport.com.au/53315/mercedes-benz-a-25-amg-on-the-way-reporttag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.themotorreport.com.au/53315/mercedes-benz-a-25-amg-on-the-way-reportThu, 19 Jan 2012 02:17:21 GMT”>Mercedes-Benz A-Class AMG In The Works: Report

DICE is essentially three components, the left dash, the right dash and the windshield. The left dash is the most traditional, displaying car speed and all the other things we’re used to seeing in a dash. The right dash though is all kinds of new. It’s like an embedded iPad only its motion sensitive instead of touch sensitive. The windshield looks like an ordinary windshield but it also serves as a heads-up display.

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There’s not much to say about the left dash, it’s the right dash that deserves attention. in basic mode, it displays just three words, Social, Media and Places. “Social” provides a connection to the social world of the person working the system. Friends, associates, co-workers etc. They’re all there, including the means for real time interactions with them. “Media” is for controlling music or other such devices, and “Places” is for forging connections between the car and real world or places, outside. And it all works by hand gestures. Moving left to right and vice-versa highlights menu choices. to select a choice, the user pushes his or her hand forward. Also of note, it’s clear that the right dash is meant to be used by a passenger, rather than a driver, which might just be a subtle way of telling us Mercedes thinks that maybe we won’t be driving alone so much in the future.

As for the windshield, in addition to providing wind relief, it is also used to display information. in some scenarios it can display augmented reality information, such as identifying builders as you pass them, or the stuff inside of them. in others it helps plot your course as you navigate through a city. Also, it can display images, such as a picture of a person associated with your “friends” menu choice on the right dash. in short, it can display pretty much anything you might find of interest.

One of the most noticeable aspects of the new system is the complete absence of buttons or knobs. Many people may find this troublesome, as we humans have grown quite accustomed to adjusting things by physically moving something. But, it might just be that such knobs and whatnot are more distracting than we realize. The people at Mercedes-Benz certainly seem to think so. Could it be possible that we’re less likely to drive into the car that has stopped ahead of us if we need only wave a hand in the general direction of the radio to change the station, than if we have to reach out, find it, then turn it? Time will tell of course, but for now, it looks like most of the new stuff seen in such demo’s as Mercedes is showing off will be phased in slowly over time, as will other embedded technology that will forcefully prevent us from driving into one another, regardless of what’s on the dash, making such questions moot.