So disappointed to see people’s packages being delayed anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months after this status comes up.What can I do? Have never had this happen to me before.I’m an international receiver so I’m worried it could take weeks for it to leave USA

Introduction: In the rapidly evolving world of technology, businesses in Chicago face the challenge of managing their IT assets efficiently and responsibly. To meet this demand, IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) companies in Chicago offer comprehensive solutions for the secure and environmentally-friendly disposal of outdated or retired IT equipment. In this article, we will explore the significance of ITAD disposition companies in Chicago and how they provide reliable IT asset disposition solutions Chicago.

1. Understanding IT Asset Disposition: IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) refers to the process of disposing of IT equipment in a secure and responsible manner. Given the sensitive nature of data stored on these devices, it is crucial for businesses to partner with certified ITAD companies in Chicago to ensure data privacy and compliance with environmental regulations. These companies specialize in the proper disposal, recycling, and remarketing of IT assets, allowing businesses to extract value from their retired equipment while minimizing environmental impact.
   
2. The Importance of ITAD Companies in Chicago: ITAD companies in Chicago play a vital role in helping businesses effectively manage their IT asset lifecycle. By partnering with these specialized firms, organizations can ensure that their obsolete or surplus IT equipment is handled securely and in compliance with local, state, and federal regulations. Moreover, ITAD companies possess the expertise to thoroughly sanitize or destroy data-containing devices, safeguarding businesses against data breaches and legal liabilities.
   

Furthermore, ITAD companies Chicago prioritize sustainability. They employ environmentally-friendly methods for recycling and disposing of electronic waste, reducing the carbon footprint associated with IT equipment disposal. By recycling valuable components and materials, these companies contribute to the circular economy and promote a greener approach to technology management.

1. IT Asset Disposition Solutions in Chicago: ITAD companies in Chicago offer a range of comprehensive solutions tailored to meet the diverse needs of businesses. These solutions typically include:

a) Secure Data Destruction: Certified ITAD companies employ advanced data sanitization techniques or physical destruction methods to ensure sensitive data is irrecoverable. This eliminates the risk of data breaches and protects confidential business information.
b) Asset Remarketing: ITAD disposition companies Chicago assess the value of retired IT assets and identify opportunities for remarketing. By refurbishing or reselling viable equipment, businesses can recoup a portion of their investment, reducing the overall cost of technology upgrades.
c) Electronic Recycling: Environmental responsibility is a key focus for ITAD companies. They utilize environmentally-compliant processes to recycle electronic waste, extracting valuable materials and minimizing the impact on landfills. This commitment to sustainability aligns with the growing demand for eco-friendly business practices.
d) Logistics and Chain-of-Custody Management: ITAD companies handle the logistics involved in IT asset disposition, ensuring a seamless transition from the client's location to secure processing facilities. A well-established chain-of-custody process guarantees the security and traceability of equipment throughout its lifecycle.
ITAD disposition companies Chicago offer indispensable solutions for businesses seeking to manage their IT assets securely and sustainably. By partnering with these specialized firms, organizations can protect sensitive data, comply with environmental regulations, and optimize the value of their retired IT equipment. In an era where technology evolves at an unprecedented pace, businesses in Chicago can rely on ITAD companies to provide reliable and efficient IT asset disposition solutions, contributing to a safer, greener, and more responsible technology ecosystem.

As title states, getting zero drops from either LCK or LPL, is this as intended or? There have been steals and multikills etc, so I'm not exactly sure if something is broken or Riot are just being stingy with them? I just want to farm emotes lol.
lolesports as a whole is a buggy, awful mess of a site/service so if they're just broken again / not handing out drops I'll just watch clips/vods as and when instead of making sure I've got live streams up.

Businesses are being given access to new visa pathways for employing foreign workers as fresh immigration regulations come into effect. The Scale-up Visa, the High Potential Visa, and the Global Business Mobility Visa are the recently introduced visas. Only the High Potential Visa path, however, is exempt from this requirement; the other two were added to the lengthy list of UK Worker visa programmes that require it.
A sponsor licence: what is it
Employers can hire experts from EEA and non-EEA countries with the use of a sponsor licence (formerly known as a Tier 2 Sponsor Licence; it can be renewed after expiration). It's essentially a privilege that the UK government accords to companies with a high reputation and who satisfy the requirements.
Why are applications for sponsor licences so crucial right now?
Applications for sponsor licences have significantly increased since Brexit. Prior to January 2021, firms were free to seek out and hire candidates from anywhere in the EU to fill open positions without needing to meet these additional standards, but the regulatory environment has significantly changed.
Because of this, UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) urged businesses to obtain their separate sponsor licences before the new legislation went into effect in order to prevent problems in the future. As anticipated, these new policies caused significant delays in the application processes once they went into effect, in part because of COVID-19 limitations.
Application Process for a Sponsor Licence
The full application procedure is completed online. You must complete a form and include all necessary supporting documentation to prove your business's eligibility. In order to avoid having to start the application process anew, the supporting documents must be delivered via email within the next five days of submitting the application form.
You must be lawfully functioning in the UK as a PLC, LLP, LTD, or Sole Trader and obtain planning approval or consent from the Local Planning Authority in accordance with the type of business you run in order to qualify for a sponsor licence.
Companies and legal entities must not have any outstanding criminal convictions for immigration-related offences, fraud, or money laundering, and they must not have had a prior sponsor licence cancelled within the previous 12 months of the application date.
The UKVI will also verify that you have the appropriate "Key Personnel" in place, i.e., those who they consider qualified to participate in the sponsor management system (SMS). This system would be in charge of keeping records pertaining to the hiring of foreign workers, making sure sponsored workers satisfy the prerequisites and possess the necessary qualifications to apply for a UK sponsorship visa, conducting Right to Work checks, and promptly informing the UKVI of any changes to the organisation or a migrant's employment status.
The regulatory system governing the maintenance of a sponsor licence is quite strict, and violations may result in severe fines. Penalties for these offences may include hefty monetary fines or possibly jail time.
Sponsorship license agent

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 68%. (I'm a bot)

South Korea's defence ministry has lodged a "Stern" protest with Beijing and Moscow, local media reported, after Chinese and Russian military planes entered the country's air defence identification zone unannounced during what China's defence ministry said was a joint patrol exercise.
South Korean fighter jets were scrambled on Tuesday in response to the presence of four Chinese and four Russian military aircraft which did not violate the country's airspace but did enter South Korea's air defence identification zone.
S. Korea expresses 'stern' protest to China, Russia over air defense zone incursion https://t.
Japan also said it scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday in response to a pair of Russian bomber planes that were joined by two Chinese bombers over the Sea of Japan and flew together as far as the East China Sea, where they were then joined by two Chinese fighter planes.
South Korea also scrambled fighter jets in November 2022 during China's last joint aerial patrol with Russia when Chinese H-6K bombers and Russian TU-95 bombers and SU-35 fighter jets entered the KADIZ. During a joint patrol in May 2022, Chinese and Russian warplanes neared Japan's airspace as Tokyo was hosting a Quad summit with the leaders of the United States, India and Australia.
The air exercise alarmed Japan though China said the patrol was not intended to intimidate.

Summary Source FAQ Feedback Top keywords: Chinese^#1 China^#2 air^#3 South^#4 defence^#5
Post found in /worldnews, /worldnews and /NewsBuzzFeed.
NOTICE: This thread is for discussing the submission topic. Please do not discuss the concept of the autotldr bot here.

Synopsis: "As community members in a rural Appalachian town (Radford) become sick, the source of the contagion is called into question. Fallout follows three individuals experiencing illnesses after exposure to environmental contamination from a nearby United States Army Ammunition Plant. Manufacturing propellants, explosives, and rockets for the Department of Defense, the facility is the largest polluter in Virginia, emitting millions of pounds of toxic pollutants into the air, soil, and water each year.
Fallout examines how the United States Military, in collusion with the private manufacturing industry, perpetuates the cycle of exploitation and environmental contamination that has inundated the Appalachian region for decades. The film incorporates digital footage as well as over 1200 feet of 16mm film processed with contaminants from the facility."
This is an issue that should be near and dear to us as most of the schools food is grown right across the river from Rasford Army Ammunitions Plant, getting contaminated daily with toxic metals being released by the open burn pits.
On certain days, the cloud of pollution reaches Tech.
We as students should be aware of the amunitions plant and be aware of what we're eating from Kentland Farm, as well as what we're exposed to on campus.
Join Citizens for Arsenal Accountability to learn more and get involved. On Facebook and on insta: Nrvcaa

NPR investigation reveals the growing influence of the far right and their efforts to dismantle the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC).
Starting point: The far-right website Gateway Pundit initiated discussions on ERIC in January 2022, which led to a campaign against the voter fraud prevention tool. * A week later, Louisiana became the first state to withdraw from ERIC, citing concerns from citizens, government watchdogs, and media reports.
Local groups' involvement: NPR found that local "election integrity" groups played a significant role in the effort to discredit ERIC across the country. * Groups like Protect Your Vote Florida launched campaigns to influence state legislators to suspend their contracts with ERIC.
Trump ally's coordination: Cleta Mitchell, known for working with Trump to overturn the 2020 election, has been a ringleader in the effort to dismantle ERIC. * Mitchell hosted a secret ERIC summit with red state lawmakers last summer and has started an Election Integrity Network.
Impact on elections: With states withdrawing from ERIC, voter rolls may be less accurate leading to longer lines at precincts and mail ballots being sent to incorrect addresses.
View original article on NPR
This summary was created by an AI system. The use of this summary is subject to our Terms of Service.

Good morning,
I reside in Scotland, 25, single, living with a flat mate in a house and paying £330 p/m rent.
I work full time currently in retail security but I plan to attend college to study a full time nursing course (SWAP ACCESS). Further Eduction, not higher education.
I spoke to my local college who confirmed the available funding would be a maintaince allowance (£113 p/w) along with free tuition, possible with travel expensives as I am over 2.5 miles from my college.
This leaves with me not very much room for an income. I own a car which I will be selling to get a cheaper one, and I hope I can pay off my remaining loan (outstanding £3.3k).
Would I have to take up work? The course states its intense and working with it would be difficult... I do just eat from time to time along with the Coastguard but the incomes are not reliable.
Thanks

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 73%. (I'm a bot)

Russia claimed this week to have blunted the long-expected Ukrainian military offensive this week, and Kremlin officials on Tuesday even announced that the Russian ground forces had successfully destroyed eight German-made Leopard 2 main battle tanks, along with more than 100 other armored vehicles in just recent days.
"Total losses of Ukrainian troops in the southern Donetsk Region area were more than 1,500 Ukrainian servicemen, 28 tanks, of them 8 German-made Leopard tanks, 3 wheeled French-made АМХ-10 tanks and 109 armored fighting vehicles," the Russian Ministry of Defense told the Russian state news outlet Tass.
It was earlier this year that Berlin announced it would provide a number of the Cold War-era Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, while Paris also has been supplying the wheeled AMX-10 tank destroyer to aid Kyiv.
Perhaps to bolster the Kremlin's statements, on Tuesday, Russian state media outlet Ria Novosti published video footage on the social messaging platform Telegram-claiming the nearly minute-long-clip was recorded from a Ka-52 "Alligator" attack helicopter as the crew targeted a formation of Leopard 2 MBTs crossing an open field.
The video was heavily mocked as keen-eyed viewers noted that the Ka-52 didn't actually attack any Leopard 2s, or even tanks for that matter.
Russia may know that some will counter the claims that it was the Leopard 2 in the video, but the Kremlin can continue to allege that eight of the tanks were still destroyed.

Summary Source FAQ Feedback Top keywords: tank^#1 claim^#2 Leopard^#3 video^#4 Russian^#5
Post found in /worldnews, /UkraineConflict, /UkraineRussiaReport and /AnythingGoesNews.
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General Discussion: Part I

Crowdsourced Scoreboard

^{courtesy of CTIDmississippi}
All Times Local. Times May Be Subject to Change.

GAINESVILLE SUPER REGIONAL

Friday, June 9 (6:00ᴘᴍ)

Game 1 – ESPN2	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
South Carolina (42-19 / 0-0)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Florida (48-15 / 0-0)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Saturday, June 10 (3:00ᴘᴍ)

Game 2 – ESPN2	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Florida	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
South Carolina	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Sunday, June 11 (ɪꜰ ɴᴇᴄᴇꜱꜱᴀʀʏ)

Game 3 – TBA	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
South Carolina	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Florida	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

• Eastern Time

Winner advances to College World Series (Bracket 2), open versus champion of Charlottesville Super Regional

CHARLOTTESVILLE SUPER REGIONAL

Friday, June 9 (12:00ᴘᴍ)

Game 1 – ESPN2	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Duke (38-22 / 0-0)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Virginia (48-12 / 0-0)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Saturday, June 10 (12:00ᴘᴍ)

Game 2 – ESPN2	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Virginia	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Duke	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Sunday, June 11 (ɪꜰ ɴᴇᴄᴇꜱꜱᴀʀʏ)

Game 3 – TBA	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Duke	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Virginia	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

• Eastern Time

Winner advances to College World Series (Bracket 2), open versus champion of Gainesville Super Regional

EUGENE SUPER REGIONAL

Friday, June 9 (5:00ᴘᴍ)

Game 1 – ESPNU	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Oral Roberts (49-11 / 0-0)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Oregon (40-20 / 0-0)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Saturday, June 10 (6:00ᴘᴍ)

Game 2 – ESPNU	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Oregon	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Oral Roberts	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Sunday, June 11 (ɪꜰ ɴᴇᴄᴇꜱꜱᴀʀʏ)

Game 3 – TBA	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Oral Roberts	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Oregon	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

• Pacific Time

Winner advances to College World Series (Bracket 2), open versus champion of Fort Worth Super Regional

FORT WORTH SUPER REGIONAL

Friday, June 9 (4:00ᴘᴍ)

Game 1 – ESPNU	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Indiana State (45-15 / 0-0)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
TCU (40-22 / 0-0)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Saturday, June 10 (5:00ᴘᴍ)

Game 2 – ESPNU	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
TCU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Indiana State	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Sunday, June 11 (ɪꜰ ɴᴇᴄᴇꜱꜱᴀʀʏ)

Game 3 – TBA	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Indiana State	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
TCU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

• Central Time

Winner advances to College World Series (Bracket 2), open versus champion of Eugene Super Regional

WINSTON-SALEM SUPER REGIONAL

Saturday, June 10 (12:00ᴘᴍ)

Game 1 – ESPN	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Alabama (43-19 / 0-0)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Wake Forest (50-10 / 0-0)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Sunday, June 11 (TBA)

Game 2 – TBA	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Wake Forest	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Alabama	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Monday, June 12 (ɪꜰ ɴᴇᴄᴇꜱꜱᴀʀʏ)

Game 3 – TBA	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Alabama	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Wake Forest	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

• Eastern Time

Winner advances to College World Series (Bracket 1), open versus champion of Stanford Super Regional

STANFORD SUPER REGIONAL

Saturday, June 10 (3:00ᴘᴍ)

Game 1 – ESPN2	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Texas (41-20 / 0-0)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Stanford (42-17 / 0-0)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Sunday, June 11 (TBA)

Game 2 – TBA	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Stanford	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Texas	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Monday, June 12 (ɪꜰ ɴᴇᴄᴇꜱꜱᴀʀʏ)

Game 3 – TBA	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Texas	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Stanford	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

• Pacific Time

Winner advances to College World Series (Bracket 1), open versus champion of Winston-Salem Super Regional

BATON ROUGE SUPER REGIONAL

Saturday, June 10 (2:00ᴘᴍ)

Game 1 – ESPN	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Kentucky (40-19 / 0-0)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
LSU (46-15 / 0-0)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Sunday, June 11 (TBA)

Game 2 – TBA	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
LSU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Kentucky	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Monday, June 12 (ɪꜰ ɴᴇᴄᴇꜱꜱᴀʀʏ)

Game 3 – TBA	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Kentucky	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
LSU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

• Central Time

Winner advances to College World Series (Bracket 1), open versus champion of Hattiesburg Super Regional

HATTIESBURG SUPER REGIONAL

Saturday, June 10 (2:00ᴘᴍ)

Game 1 – ESPNU	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Tennessee (41-19 / 0-0)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Southern Miss (45-18 / 0-0)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Sunday, June 11 (TBA)

Game 2 – TBA	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Southern Miss	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Tennessee	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Monday, June 12 (ɪꜰ ɴᴇᴄᴇꜱꜱᴀʀʏ)

Game 3 – TBA	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Tennessee	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Southern Miss	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

• Central Time

Winner advances to College World Series (Bracket 1), open versus champion of Baton Rouge Super Regional

➣ REGIONALS MEGA THREAD

Here's a great story about an entrepreneur crushing it an unglamorous, unsexy industry: porta-potty rental.
Pooping is a great equalizer. No matter who you are — you, me, the King of England, the President of the United States, and the person who does the President’s dry cleaning — at some point in the last day or two, we’ve all had to sit down and perform this most basic of bodily functions.
(If you haven’t, please see a doctor urgently, or at the very least, eat more fibre.)
And when people have been doing something for thousands of years — eating out, building homes, swimming, watching plays, and yes, pooping — there’s probably a profitable business in that niche.
That brings us to Gary Mead, the poop millionaire of Chelmsford, Essex, here in the UK.
Gary has built Euroloo, his porta-potty rental business, into a company with revenue of about £9m and profit of £1m. Renting porta-potties.
How has he built this business?
Origins
Gary’s story begins in the late 90s. At the tender age of 22, he started a small property management company in his home town of Chelmsford, Essex, about 30 miles northeast of London. According to his LinkedIn profile, he grew it every year for five years in a row, achieved profitability, and sold it. A successful exit by the age of 27 — not bad at all.
Possibly just to prove it wasn’t luck, Gary then started a small property management company in his home town of Chelmsford, Essex. He grew it every year for three years in a row, achieved profitability, and sold it. Again.
(If you take nothing else from this post, learn this: if Gary Mead ever sells you a property management company, make sure you include a non-compete clause.)
As a result, at just 30 years old, Gary had two successful exits under his belt. Likely holding some capital and a well-earned degree from the University of Hard Knocks, Gary scouted around for the next chapter in his career.
What next for this intrepid entrepreneur? Go for the property management three-peat? Start a SaaS business? Rest on his laurels and start a coaching business?
Not for young Gary. No, Gary saw his future paved with brown gold.
In 2003, Gary Mead founded Euroloo. Euroloo rents porta-potties to you, for a fee, including drop-off, pick-up, and weekly servicing.
This is what Mike Rowe would call a Dirty Job. When these porta-potties are dropped off on site on day one, they’re clean. When they’re picked up again on day seven, they are not. Someone has to make them clean again before renting them to the next customer.
That’s both a blessing and a curse. It’s a curse because, you know, you have to clean up poop. For more detail on this subject, check out this article from the wonderfully named company Poles and Holes:

“A good pair of gloves and a spray bottle full of cleaner is all it really takes to keep a porta-potties looking like new!”

It’s a blessing because grads from Harvard Business School and the LSE don’t want to go into this business. It’s not glamorous, it’s not sexy, and you probably don’t get admiring looks when you talk about it at the dinner table.
That’s great, because you don’t want to be competing against HBS and LSE grads. You want to compete, as Nick Huber says, with the type of person making a lot of money and using a fax machine. You are more likely to find those people in an industry like porta-potties. And with some smart use of technology, you can out-compete them.
SEO works with poop too
Euroloo are doing a couple of things you don’t usually see from companies in industries like this.
Firstly, they’re putting time and money into paid search. If you google “portaloo hire [city]” you’ll see them come up (at least in the UK). I did this for my city, Nottingham, and Euroloo are #2 in the sponsored search results, and they’re also #2 in the organic search results.
If I click through on mobile, I’m taken to a landing page, that includes the city name, and a phone number with a local area code.
But wait! If I google “portaloo hire Manchester,” they’re the #2 sponsored result again. If I click through, I’m taken to a different landing page, that mentions a different city, with a different local phone number, which makes them look like a local Manchester business.
This is a level of tech and internet marketing that you honestly just don't see it blue collar industries like this. Definitely makes them stand out. And it's not that hard to do either.
Is there money in porta-potties?
Short answer: yes.
Euroloo are based in the UK so a lot of their company financials are public info. I dove into Euroloo’s financial statements to see what I could learn.
They don't publish a full P&L because they're so small, but their retained earnings -- i.e. the total cumulative profit in the business -- went up by £871k in 2022.
That means that after any dividends paid, Euroloo made £871k profit.
The UK corporate tax rate is 19%, and £871k is the after-tax profit, meaning the pre-tax profit must be £1.075m.
I also estimated their revenue based on the accounts receivable. Euroloo are selling to trade customers, probably on credit terms, so those construction crews and event management teams are paying for their porta-potties after they’ve used them.
On 31st March 2022 they had £422.8k outstanding in accounts receivable. That includes 20% VAT (UK sales tax) that they can’t count as revenue, so if we strip that out, we're left with a figure of £352k.
Guessing that their customers are on 14 day credit terms, then you do 352k / 14 * 365
= £9.2m annualised revenue.
Lastly, just for fun, I got a quote from Euroloo to rent my own porta-pooty.
The minimum rental period is 4 weeks at £195. That works out as £48.75 per week.
If their revenue is around £9.2m and each toilet rents for an average of £48.75 per week, we come up with a total of 188,438 toilet hire weeks per year.
I'm guessing each toilet is in use 90% of the time to account for time spent picking up, cleaning, and delivering. That means they need about 4000 porta-potties.
Their financials say they've spent £3.2m on fixed assets, which means each toilet costs around £800 each.
This also tells us that the real business here isn’t buying expensive assets and renting them out. Porta-potties are about £800 each, and you can rent them for £48.75 a week. Your payback period is less than 6 months.
So this is really a logistics and distribution business. The trick here is making sure that your 4,000 porta-potties are on site, earning income, as much as possible.
The secret sauce
So our master of poop, Gary Mead, has a business with around £9m in revenue, a fleet of around 4,000 portaloos, netting him at least £900k a year, while employing 93 people in the process.
What I really love is how Gary describes the secret sauce. The engine of growth. It’s word of mouth and repeat business. How do they drive that word of mouth? What ensures their incredible reputation?
Gary's LinkedIn page simply says:
We want our customers to recommend us to others and to use our services time after time because:

• It’s easy to work with euroloo
• We deliver and service as promised
• We are friendly and customer focussed
• Our people are trained and good at their job

I love the simplicity. These principles are not rocket science. Euroloo is a phenomenal example of, as Charlie Munger says, “taking a simple idea, and taking it seriously.”
So you can get rich following the Euroloo playbook:

1. Pick an unglamorous industry.
2. Focus on operational and customer excellence.
3. Layer in some technology.
4. Keep at it for 20 years.

That’s what Gary Mead has been doing since 2003. Over that time he's built an incredible business worth millions that provides a great living for him, his family, and his team. I love to see it. Anyone could do this. It’s not easy, but it is simple.
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(if you want more detail, check out this post, which includes a bunch of figures and screenshots I couldn't put here)

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The Allure of American Candy:

American candy has a certain allure that captivates taste buds around the world. From iconic chocolate bars like Hershey’s and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups to fruity delights like Skittles and Starburst, the United States has a rich candy culture that is both nostalgic and innovative. Many people are drawn to the unique flavors, vibrant packaging, and the sheer variety of options that American candy offers.

The Convenience of Online Shopping:

With the rise of e-commerce, it has become easier than ever to access a wide range of products from around the world. This includes American candy, which was once a rare find in UK stores. Now, online retailers specializing in international treats make it possible for candy enthusiasts to indulge in their favorite American goodies without having to search high and low in local shops. What’s even better is when those retailers offer free delivery, making the experience even more enjoyable.

Conclusion:

Thanks to the wonders of online shopping and the growing popularity of American candy, UK residents can now enjoy a vast array of sweet treats from across the pond without stepping foot outside their homes. With online retailers offering free delivery, the indulgence of American candy has become even more accessible and convenient. So, if you’re a fan of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Twizzlers, or any other iconic American candy, don’t miss out on the opportunity to treat yourself to some delightful goodies delivered right to your doorstep. Happy snacking!

After remaining invincible and impregnable for centuries, the mighty Pir Panchal is witnessing enormous developmental activity for a new expressway, a challenging railway line and most of the dam-fed hydropower projects involving an investment of tens of thousands of crores. At places, this is triggering the fragile range to cave in at the cost of homes and livelihoods of age-old villages, a situation that experts believe could have been avoided with better pre-feasibility studies and sophisticated project implementation, reports Masood Hussain
Anticipated for years, finally, the increased incidence of land subsidence and sinking in the Pir Panchal Mountains is Jammu and Kashmir’s new normal. The young fragile and unstable mountain range separating Kashmir from the rest of the world is in news frequently as the slopes housing small habitations for centuries are caving in.
On February 19, 2023, around 16 structures of Duksar Dalwa (Duksar Dal), a hamlet almost 45 km uphill from Ramban, suffered serious damage as the land caved in. It crippled road connectivity between Gool and Ramban where almost 500 meters developed cracks, tripped the electric supply and snapped the water supply. Three homes developed cracks forcing authorities to shift the impacted population to safer areas.
Officials said while they are working overtime to resume power and water supplies, they are also improving the Dharam-Salballa road to make it an alternative supply route to the “literally disconnected” area. In the sinking village, the official encouraged the residents to move swiftly to safer spots. For residents, however, the gradual 3-day sinking was a painful watch of their life earnings slowly cracking up and becoming black holes over hills.
It started with a crater that widened to almost 500 meters during two nights, making almost everything around unsafe, unstable and life-threatening. A mosque, Darsgah, the village seminary and the village graveyard were destroyed. Residents quickly exhumed a recently buried body and laid it to rest at a “safe” place.
Officials who visited the spot said the village’s agriculture fields were rendered useless, pushing residents into poverty. They lost homes and their livelihoods too.
The Duksar erasing came less than a fortnight after Doda lost a cluster of houses to a similar instance on February 3, 2023. Located on the foothills on the road to Kishtwar near Thathri, nearly 35 km from Doda, the volunteers, residents and government officials had to quickly shift 117 members of 19 families as the patch of slope housing the Nai Basti cluster gave in within three days. A total of 21 structures cracked and became unsafe.
Horrific Tunnel Collapse
The last horrific tragedy took place on May 19, 2022, when the workers were digging into an adit (minor access to the T3 tunnel) near Khooni Nalla at Ramsu’s Makerkot area. It collapsed over them killing ten workers including two local residents and eight Nepalese labourers. The tragedy struck during the day amid incessant rain but still, only two persons could be rescued alive.
The workers were on the challenging stretch of the national highway between Digdole and Khooni Nallah, which is otherwise notorious for frequent landslides and shooting stones due to fragile geology. It was part of the twin-tube tunnel that would connect Digdole to Panthyal and was implemented by Ceigall India Limited in a JV with Patel Engineering Limited. (The contractor has been imposed a heavy fine.)
The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) that has taken over the Jammu Srinagar national highway from Border Roads Organisation (BRO), a few years back, is constructing at least five tunnels to bypass the highway’s 3-km “killer’’ stretch from Panthyal to Makerkote. Tunnel T3 is part of this intervention.
Unlike the rest of the highway, the 36-km Banihal Ramban stretch has been the most challenging one and that is why it is still under implementation. On this stretch are six “killer spots” located on a 14-km road stretch and NHAI intends to spend Rs 2000 crore to manage this. Implementation of this would offer some safety from frequent halts owing to shooting stones at Marog, Panthial, Digdol and Battery Chashma.
Triggering Instability
Implementation of these projects is triggering crises for the localities living around them. As many as 13 houses in Sujmatana village near Ramsu were literally devastated. The round-the-clock blasting for the tunnel projects and cutting work made these houses inhospitable after they developed cracks. Most of them have left their unsafe homes and migrated elsewhere. Though officials are looking into the crisis since 2017, it is yet to be settled.
On August 4, 2022, 36 families had a providential escape when their Bassan village in Reasi became the casualty of sinking and erosion at the same time. Without any notice, landslides carried down boulders and muck that crashed the houses and put the agriculture fields out of sight. It was so abrupt, villages said, that they had no time to take their belongings along.
Officials admitted that almost 60 kanals of land sank as another 400 kanals patch was rendered useless. Almost all the fruit trees, mostly walnut and apricot, were engulfed in mud. Almost 200 meters of a PMGSY road was also downthrown by around 25 meters from its actual alignment.
The earlier worst case was reported from Dalwas when on March 28, 2020, the residents fled when their homes and fields were literally buried by landslides. Almost 40 households were impacted.
The village has been there for ages and never experienced any such threat. Then one day it literally disappeared. Residents alleged that being away from Srinagar and Jammu, deep into the mountains they hardly were reported. At one point in time when they wanted to protest, authorities invoked Covid19 concerns to prevent it.
Response Protocol
Over the years, the government response has remained unchanged. Once the reports land that spots are sinking, they as the first quick reaction, send cops, paramilitary, SDRF and revenue officials to oversee and, in most cases, extend help in quick evacuations. In stage two, the respective Deputy Commissioner writes to geologists and the Department of Geology and Mining and, off late, to the Geological Survey of India, who rush their experts to these spots. In the subsequent few days, they study the local rock formations and submit reports, part of which goes to newspapers and by and large the files get closed.
At the same time, files start rolling about relief and rehabilitation. It takes its own time. In many cases, people who lose their homes and livelihoods are yet to be properly rehabilitated.
Invariably, the policymakers and the administrators avoid two vital ingredients of the story – the assessments that the local populations make about the crisis they land in and the wider angle that remains unchanged across the Pir Panchal range.
Resident Assessments
Affected populations are unwilling to accept that these crises are natural. They see them as man-made disasters. Raqeeb Wani, a former Sarpanch of Daskar Dalwa told The Telegraph that his village’s erasing is directly linked to the construction of two railway tunnels downhill, that would link a 3km rail track between Sangaldan and Chaddi. He attributed it to the “continuous blasting” that loosens the soil and adds to the instability of the mountain.
“A few years ago, we had a similar disaster in Sangaldan a few years ago when an entire market caved in,” Wani was quoted as saying. “That also was owing to the railway project.”
In the case of Dalwas, for instance, a former lawmaker from Ramban Ashok Kumar Dogra said the “unscientific planning” of the widening of the national highway is responsible. “The highway authorities started excavation of the road from beneath the village without raising any wall on the side of the village. As no concrete measures were taken by the NHAI to protect the village and debris was also disposed of at the same place, the tragedy was bound to happen and the houses collapsed and the village sank,” Dogra told Outlook. “I will not call it a natural disaster. It was the unplanned construction that destabilised the soil of the whole area, leading to its sinking.”
Right to A Road
Pir Panchal mountain range has remained literally invincible and technically impregnable for centuries. It took decades of thought process and a lot of resources to lay a foot track between Jammu and Srinagar, to have an alternative to Mughal Road. Known to history as the Banihal Cart Road, it was difficult and always retained by Dogra despots as a private route. It remained inaccessible to people till 1922. Till the Jawahar Tunnel was inaugurated, the road would pass over the Banihal pass, the abandoned remnants of which still exist.
This made Kashmir rely on the Jhelum Valley Road (JVR) as the main highway.
Almost 225 residents from 48 households who somehow survived the tragedy moved to another village and are still struggling to pick the threads of their lives. Though life has returned to the village, they are still fighting for an electric supply line and the rebuilding of the school building.
An Upcoming Railway
The road is just not the only thing that is happening deep inside the Pir Panchal mountain range. While the road is being upgraded, there is a railway project in an advanced stage of implementation.
Unlike the road that is being laid over the foothills not far away from the old alignment that also followed a foot track of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, the railway track is passing through a virgin area, part of which has not seen even a bus. For making rail reach Baramulla from Udhampur, the 272-km project is going to cost a whopping Rs 37012 crore of which more than ninety per cent has already been spent.
Work on JVR started in 1880 and was formally thrown open in September 1890, when Maharaja Partap Singh was driven through from Baramulla to Kohala. The construction of this gigantic road project was implemented by a major British Indian contractor M/S Spedding, Mitchell & Co and was overseen by different British engineers at different stretches. While General de Bourbel oversaw everything as the Chief Engineer Kashmir, it was Alexander Atkinsonmanagedmost of the road up to Chakoti (on the other side of LoC now) and a few parts on the Kashmir side; Farrant was in charge of construction between Chakotiand Baramulla; as EG Hebbert supervised its completion in November 1889. Resources apart, it cost too many lives. Between Chakoti and Baramulla, 54 Pathans were killed in four years. Besides, 20 lives were lost to snake bites.
Post-partition, the Banihal Road became arterial and pressure built with a surge in population and demand in Kashmir. For seven decades, this road bore the brunt of all the pressures of travel, demand and consumerism and gave in. The rise of the Kashmir apple added another pressure factor so did the security requirements.
Finally, a stage reached that the health of the national highway was directly linked to the economic well-being of Kashmir. This paved the way for the decision by the Government of India that distances need to be reduced and the highway must be improved so that commuters do not end up spending a day on a 300-km highway.
More than a decade after the first spadework, it is emerging as one of the best roads. There are three major tunnels that have skipped dangerous patches while reducing distance and uphill driving: a set of four small tunnels near Nandni with a combined length of 1.4 km; 9.2 km Chenani-Nashri tunnel has bypassed a gruelling uphill drive and 8.5 km Banihal-Qazigund tunnel is going to tame dangerous Banihal Pass forever.
Distance has dropped from 300 to 270 km and the travel time from 12 to around 5 hours. But the Banihal-Ramban stretch remains a challenge. Earlier, it was merely a technological crisis, now it is a serious ecological issue.
These villagers were fortunate in comparison to the Sadal hamlet of Udhampur which was buried under a massive mudslide at noon on September 6, 2014. Following incessant rains for many days, it triggered massive floods in Kashmir and the rest of the erstwhile state. As many as 41 residents from 65 households were killed by the wee hour mountain collapse that brought an almost 30-foot-thick blanket of rafted rock fragments mud, sludge and rubble.
The rail is already chugging between Udhampur and Katra (25 km) since July 2014, Baramulla to Qazigund (118 km) since October 2009; and Qazigund to Baramulla (18 km) since June 2013. This leaves the most challenging stretch of 111 km between Banihal and Katra to be implemented.
However, the cost of the track does not define the project. It is the work that details the challenge. Nearly 119 km of the entire track will pass through 38 tunnels, the longest of which is 12.77 km long.
What is interesting is that in the 111-km Banihal – Katra track, 97.42 km are tunnels and most of the rest are bridges. Railway officials have to do 163.82 km of tunnelling in total – 66.4 km are escape tunnels – to make the track possible. For making these tunnel spots accessible to men and machines, there is a network of 205 km of roads, which remain busy round the clock.
This track will have 37 bridges – totalling 7 km in length, including the iconic Chenab Bridge, which is tipped to be the highest railway bridge on earth. While this bridge is ready, the current focus is on the first cable-stayed railway bridge on Anji Khad.
With thousands of people working deep inside the mountains with basic cutting and blasting machinery a lot of activity is generated.
There were dozens of instances in which the portions of various tunnels collapsed resulting in either changing the alignment or repairing the damage and restoring the tunnel. In July 2006, an almost 3 km long tunnel on the Udhampur-Katra track gradually started sinking after massive soil swelling on the two ends making it unusable and thus delaying the project. Northern Railways later hired an Austrian consultant, Geo Consult International (GCI), to salvage the project after many years of delay. The causes of the damage were visible to even the then Chief Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, who said he saw “a river flowing under the tunnel”.
A number of tunnels between Katra and Sangaldan witnessed “abnormal” water discharge making construction a challenging task. In Sangladan, the managers were shocked when they saw a 500-meter track between two tunnels actually missing one fine morning. Reported in 2006, it destroyed a vast stretch of land on a slope housing as many as 100 structures besides over 400 meters of the road connecting Mahore and Gulabgarh.
In 2016 summer of 2016, authorities shifted 124 families – almost the entire village of Dharam, after the vast patch of land that housed the hamlet caved in within three months. Though the officials attributed it to natural reasons, the residents linked the unprecedented situation to the ongoing work on the railway line passing close to the village.
Oceans In Gorges
Piercing the Pir Panchal mountains for smooth, faster and better communication is just not the only thing happening in the region. Owing to the mighty Chenab, the region is Jammu and Kashmir’s powerhouse. More than 90 per cent of the hydropower potential is restricted to the region owing to the availability of water and enough space to construct dams within the mountain gorges. This has led to a situation where the region holds a massive amount of water in its dams.
The region’s tryst with power generation started late last century with the implementation of the 900-MW Salal power project in Reasi in 1978. The project’s 1.45 million cubic meter dam has created the Salal lake which has the capacity to retain more than 28 million cubic meters of water.
Then came the 390-MW Dul-Hasti Power Project near Kishtwar. It was followed by the 900-MW Baglihar power with 1.8 cubic meters of the dam and an additional reservoir capacity of 39.5 cubic meters – a facility that has created a huge water body in the mountain gorges between Chanderkote belt and Thathri to the extent that certain localities and infrastructures had to be relocated. Quite a few people still live in the highway town of Pul Doda.
The region has many other power projects at different stages of implementation. These include 850-MW Rattle, 100-MW Pakal Dul, 624-MW Kiru, 540-MW Kwar, 800-MW Bursar, and 930-MW Kirthai-II. This is an investment of tens of thousands of crore in mountain gorges on a single river within a river length of fewer than 100 km.
Baglihar is the only project that Jammu and Kashmir’s fully-owned JKSPDC owns. Chenab Valley Power Projects Ltd, a joint venture between JKSPDC and NHPC, India’s hydropower giant, is implementing four power projects – Pakal Dul, Kiru, Kwar and Karthia-II. Salal and Dul Hasti owned fully by NHPC and Ratle is being executed under a fresh JV with JKSPDC in which the latter holds 49 per cent stakes.
Stakes apart, hydropower stations are gigantic projects. These need huge spaces for water storage – even in the case of run-of-the-river schemes, and a lot of tunnelling. All projects have main tunnels, both head race and tail race, and then there are a lot of additional adits and small tunnels for servicing. Even though most of the tunnels and the dams are concrete structures, having such critical infrastructure usually triggers soil erosion and soil swellings too often. The 110-km Batote Kishtwar road has been ailing for all these years. Never in a year could it operate for all 365 days.
Cause versus Consequence?
Science has fundamentally opposed the idea of correlating causes with consequences especially when there is no plausible explanation. In the case of the Pir Panchal region, however, there are striking correlations. For most of recent history, land sliding has been happening around the national highway only. However, in the last decade, land subsidence is a routine and it is happening at all places where developmental activities are going on.
Bhaderwah town and its surroundings are witnessing “region-exclusive” tremors almost every year. In August 2022, there were 21 tremors, reaching up to 3.9 on the Richter scale. Such summer tremors have been there in 2013, 2016, 2017, and 2018. In fact, 2013 was harrowing as the earthquakes touched 5.8 on the Richter scale.
Land patches are caving in at spots closer to some kind of major developmental activity. This is as true with railway projects as it is in road widening projects. Certain spots caved in because works were implemented without a detailed study.
In Sangaldan, for instance, when the railway track collapsed, it was pointed out by geologist Prof GM Bhat that it had been built “on a fossil slide”, which failed to withstand the weight and crumbled down. “We knew it for decades but we were never consulted,” Bhat said. “In this part of the Himalayas, rock types change after every half a kilometre.”
A respected geologist, Bhat insists that developmental activities can take place in any space that is as fragile as Pir Panchal but it needs adequate pre-implementation study and proper implementation mechanism.
“In the four-laning of the highway, the crisis would have been manageable had there been least vertical cuts,” Bhat said. “Impounding so much of water (in power projects dams) within a small patch has the potential of inducing earthquakes.” He insists that the managers of the water projects must ensure better maintenance of the tunnels or these could become a serious crisis in future.
Bhat, however, sees society also going unruly. “In Banihal near the Mahu Mangat side, a hillock is a completely populated town now,” he said. “Has anybody tried to verify where the waste goes? Are we expecting a major crisis in the coming days when the hill will cave in because of seepage?”
The region is a risky belt given its fragile geology. The upcoming railway line is built over three major active geological fault lines: the Main Boundary Thrust (between Udhampur and Katra), the Muree Thrust (between Baglihar and Sangaldan) and the Panjal Thrust (between Digdol and Mahu Mangat). “I never say railway tracks cannot cross fault lines but I believe that had local expertise been involved, extensive fieldwork would have reduced the costs and perfected the alignment”. Entire Jammu and Kashmir is classified as seismic zone-V, the highest earthquake-prone area. CAG has already done a thick report on the resources that were wasted because of the geological surprises that erupted after various rail projects were implemented. Parts of the alignment were changed and completed works were abandoned.
A fault line actually passes through the centre of the Baghlihar dam and most other reservoirs are very close to the fault lines underneath. “A dam burst will be worse than the earthquake itself,” Bhat, who retired recently after heading the University of Jammu’s Geology Department for a long time, said. Interestingly, the area is reporting an increased incidence of cloudbursts, seen as an indicator of climate change. “One major cloudburst near a dam can trigger unprecedented devastation.”
One such cloudburst on July 28, 2021, almost decimated Honzer, a hamlet concealed within inaccessible mountains of remote Dacchan, killing 26 residents. The bodies of almost 18 of the victims were never found.
Many geologists who studied Dalwa fall attributed the land subsidence to water seepage, and extensive cutting of steep slopes. They have suggested a robust urban land use plan, a prerequisite for any activity, especially in hilly areas.
https://kashmirlife.net/o-pir-panchal-vol-14-issue-49-311779/