.shop

.shop is a proposed top-level domain (TLD) for the Internet, submitted to ICANN for approval as a sponsored TLD (sTLD). Nine companies including Google, Amazon and Famous Four Media have filed applications for this TLD.

History

The idea of a .shop generic top-level domain was around since at least 1999, when an attempt to register it with IAHC was made. Its proposed usage is similar to current endeavors: to provide a dedicated space for ecommerce on the Internet. In 2000, Commercial Connect, LLC requested to operate a .shop registry from ICANN .

Commercial Connect's application from 2000 was well-received, but other domains were prioritized. It is still considered by ICANN to be pending. Japan's GMO Registry also expressed interest in the top level domain name space in late 2009, though Commercial Connect was the most vested candidate that had taken prior steps towards attaining delegation. In 2011, Commerccial Connect was reported to have the support of ecommerce companies, with its completed application awaiting final approval as of June 2010. To further this support, Richard E. Last of the National Retail Federation and shop.org joined the board in late 2011.

Variety store

A variety store (also pound shop, dollar store, and other names) is a retail store that sells a wide range of inexpensive household goods.

Variety stores often have product lines including food and drink, personal hygiene products, small home and garden tools, office supplies, decorations, electronics, garden plants, toys, pet supplies, remaindered books, recorded media, and motor and bike consumables. Larger stores may sell frozen foods and fresh produce.

Variety stores arose in the early 20th century, with Woolworth's model to reduce store overheads by simplifying the duties of sales clerks. They may now be found all over the world.

A variety store often sells all goods at a single price, in which case it may be called a price-point retailer. The name of the store often reflects this, and in different markets it may be called a dollar store, pound shop, euro store and so on.

Economics

Some items are offered at a considerable discount over other retailers, whereas others are at much the same price point as conventional retail establishments. There are two ways variety stores make a profit:

108 Shop

108 Shop is a Thai chain of franchise convenience stores, with locations nationwide. Sun 108 is the operator of 108 Shop convenience stores and is a subsidiary of Saha Group.

References

Clock

A clock is an instrument to indicate, keep, and co-ordinate time. The word clock is derived ultimately (via Dutch, Northern French, and Medieval Latin) from the Celtic words clagan and clocca meaning "bell". A silent instrument missing such a striking mechanism has traditionally been known as a timepiece. In general usage today a "clock" refers to any device for measuring and displaying the time. Watches and other timepieces that can be carried on one's person are often distinguished from clocks.

The clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to consistently measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units: the day, the lunar month, and the year. Devices operating on several physical processes have been used over the millennia. A sundial shows the time by displaying the position of a shadow on a flat surface. There are a range of duration timers, a well-known example being the hourglass. Water clocks, along with the sundials, are possibly the oldest time-measuring instruments. A major advance occurred in Europe around 1300 with the invention of the escapement, which allowed construction of the first mechanical clocks, which used oscillating timekeepers like balance wheels. Spring-driven clocks appeared during the 15th century. During the 15th and 16th centuries, clockmaking flourished. The next development in accuracy occurred after 1656 with the invention of the pendulum clock. A major stimulus to improving the accuracy and reliability of clocks was the importance of precise time-keeping for navigation. The electric clock was patented in 1840. The development of electronics in the 20th century led to clocks with no clockwork parts at all.

Clock (restaurant)

Clock was a Swedish hamburger restaurant chain originally founded by an offshoot from the US-based Carrols. The chain suffered from mismanagement and declared bankruptcy; as the government had acquired the forfeited company, it was incorporated into the state-owned restaurant chain SARA.

As Carrols, Clock used the McDonald's concept with names for hamburgers such as 'Big Clock' ('Big Mac'). Using a huge clock as its logo, the chain grew to be very successful and widespread during the 1970s and 1980s, even branching out to China, but got into economic problems in the 1990s and started closing or selling restaurants. In 1996 Clock actually sold six restaurants (four in Stockholm and two in Gothenburg) to McDonald's. The same year, as part of what turned out to be a new business strategy, the company bought the hotel and restaurant company Provobis, which had the same main owner, Rolf Lundström, who thereby consolidated his holdings. It also attempted to reduce its own ownership in restaurants and increase the number of franchise restaurants, but by 1998 only 14 Clock restaurants remained, of which six were sold the same year and the remaining eight at the beginning of 1999. The company took the name Provobis, and was in 2000 bought by the large Scandic Hotels corporation.

CLOCK

Clock (Circadian Locomotor Output Cycles Kaput) is a gene encoding a basic helix-loop-helix-PAS transcription factor (CLOCK) that affects both the persistence and period of circadian rhythms. CLOCK functions as an essential activator of downstream elements in the pathway critical to the generation of circadian rhythms.

Discovery

The Clock gene was first identified in 1994 by Dr. Joseph Takahashi and his colleagues. Takahashi used forward mutagenesis screening of mice treated with N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea to create and identify mutations in key genes that broadly affect circadian activity. The Clock mutants discovered through the screen displayed an abnormally long period of daily activity. This trait proved to be heritable. Mice bred to be heterozygous showed longer periods of 24.4 hours compared to the control 23.3 hour period. Mice homozygous for the mutation showed 27.3 hour periods, but eventually lost all circadian rhythmicity after several days in constant darkness. This showed that intact Clock genes are necessary for normal mammalian circadian function.

Xbox One

The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced on May 21, 2013, it is the successor to the Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox family. It directly competes with Sony's PlayStation 4 and Nintendo's Wii U as part of the eighth generation of video game consoles. The Xbox One was released in North America, several European markets, Australia, and New Zealand on November 22, 2013, and in 26 other markets, including Japan, the remaining European markets, and the Middle East, in September 2014. It is also the first Xbox game console to be released in China, specifically in the Shanghai Free-Trade Zone. Microsoft also marketed the device as an "all-in-one entertainment system", also making it a competitor to other digital media players, such as the Apple TV and Google TV platforms.

Moving away from the Xbox 360's PowerPC-based architecture—back to the x86 architecture used in the original Xbox—the console features an AMD Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) built around the x86-64 instruction set. The Xbox One places an increased emphasis on cloud computing and entertainment integration, offering the ability to overlay live television programming from an existing set-top box with an enhanced program guide, split-screen multitasking of applications, and improved second-screen support. The console optionally includes an upgraded Kinect sensor, providing richer motion tracking and voice recognition for use in its graphical user interface (GUI) and games. The Xbox One also offers the ability for users to record and share highlights from or live-stream gameplay. The console's controller was refined over that of the Xbox 360, with a redesigned D-pad and triggers capable of delivering directional haptic feedback.