Fro-Yo Business, Such a Sweet Profit

Frozen yoghurt is an urban trend in Jakarta nowadays. Almost all shopping centres have cafes or take-away booths selling frozen yoghurt, plus some ice cream mix and various delicious toppings. The dairy product is believed to have the property of rejuvenation and clearing one's skin.

Within the last two years, at least 75 brands of frozen yoghurt, or fro-yo, have been circulating in Indonesia. Not all have survived, some rise only to fall into obscurity. But some, are budding and expanding.

One of the fro-yo pioneers in Indonesia is PT Berjaya Sally Ceria (PT BSC), owner of the Sour Sally brand. Though only 1.5 year old, Sour Sally, that serves the premium segmentation, has expanded to 36 outlets. These outlets are spread over several major cities in Indonesia, such as Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, and Denpasar.

Considering the enthusiastic response from people, PT BSC is weighing the option of offering a franchise called Yogu Buzz. "We're deliberately creating a second brand before offering the franchise so that the market segment would spread better," said Sagita Kwee, Brand Marketing Manager for Sour Sally, who is also in charge of the Yogu Buzz franchise.

The plan is to give Yogu Buzz a lighter pricing compared to Sour Sally; around Rp. 14,500 per cup. As a comparison, a cup of Sour Sally yoghurt costs around Rp. 17,500 to Rp. 64,000.

Yogu Buzz's outlets won't be like Sour Sally's boutique cafe concept. They will only be take-away booths. And also, Yogu Buzz only sells personal size fro-yo, or single scoops. "Yogu Buzz's slogan is 'Fro-Yo for Everyone'," Sagita said.

Though a second brand, Sagita ensures that PT BSC, as the master franchiser of Yogu Buzz will supply import quality materials.

The interest for this franchise is tremendous. It was only released last November 2009, but so far there have been 300 people interested in it. But as the starting stage, PT BSC has only chosen 5 to 10 franchisee around Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi. "We don't want to be too aggressive."

If you're interested, no need to worry. You can still join. The next selection process for the Yogu Buzz franchise is next April.

Yogu Buzz has set licensing fees around Rp. 350 million to Rp. 450 million. In return, the franchisee gains licensing rights, free material supplies for a month, production machines, all the professional tools, display booth, and an estimate of the yearly tenant fee. "The rest we would detail during a meeting with the potential franchisee," said marcus Kandou, Marketing Communications and PR Director for Sour Sally.

Sagita estimates that if one Yogu Buzz booth could earn Rp. 3 million per day, then the franchisee's capital would break-even in a year.

According to Bambang N. Rachmadi, franchise observer and also lecturer at the University of Indonesia, the business prospect for frozen yoghurt in Indonesia is still prime. His reason, "The Indonesian people's market potential is very big and the consumers' per capita income is estimated to rise."

Bambang is also very supportive of local franchises such as Yogu Buzz, and advises that "It's better for Yogu Buzz to develop its own simple business format." He also hopes that the new franchise would offer franchise prices that aren't too high. "So it can reach all levels of the people."

Stripping to Bikinis for Controversial Student Newspaper

They go together hand in hand - students and pubs. But Cambridge dons will be having a blue fit after this undergraduate draped herself across a bar in a revealing bikini for a controversial student newspaper.


The girl, who goes under the name Brittany and is studying social and political sciences at Homerton College, is the latest to pose for online students' magazine The Tab.


Previous models have been pictured in a punt and wearing boxing gloves, provoking criticism that the photographs demean women.


But Britanny, who had her photoshoot done at The Maypole, a popular student haunt, defended her decision, saying it showed beauty and brains could be found in the same package.


'Cambridge used to have this preconception that you can't be both smart and beautiful but the Tab's kind of smashing that,' she said.


'It's not like I'm naked, it's just a bit of fun. I was worried that I'd be really nervous but it was actually really casual. No pressure.'


In an interview that was filmed and posted online, Brittany reveals she had briefly considered her father's reaction - but this hadn't dampened her enthusiasm.


She says she chose a pub because she wanted to appear in a traditional English setting and used a hot chocolate instead of alcohol to build up some Dutch

courage.


'I considered beer but I thought at 11 in the morning I would probably barf,' she added.


Readers have posted appreciative comments, with one who identifies himself as Will saying: 'Shotgun a bar stool at the Maypole. Glad the Tab has kept its

sense of humour.'


Another fan, called James, wrote: 'The Maypole barman never looked so good.'


The Tab was launched in May last year to 'shake up' traditional student journalism at the university in the year it celebrated its 800th anniversary.


Its so-called Tab Totty has included a blonde student, Becky Adams, standing in a punt wearing a pink bikini and high heels, a brunette English graduate from Downing College called Heidi dressed in a kickboxer outfit, and 'size 12 stunner' Emmalina Thompsell, from Gonville and Caius, who was pictured in a bikini on her college lawn.


Courting controversy has helped it pass the one million online hits mark, compared to a print run of 20,000 for each edition of traditional student newspapers Varsity and The Cambridge Student.


Cambridge Student Union women's officer Natalie Szarek has called for the editorial team to remove the photos, saying: 'Tab Totty plays into the idea of  women as sexual objects.'


But co-founder George Marangos-Gilks, 22, a third-year politics student from Downing College, said yesterday:


'The purpose of The Tab was to get away from the patronising and dull style of other student papers. We want to give students what they want. The university declined to comment.

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"Split the Sack"

By Jalaluddin Rumi


Why does the soul not fly

when it hears the call?

Why does the fish, gasping on land,

but near the water,

not move back into the sea?

What keeps us from joining the dance

the dust particles do?

Look at their subtle motions

in sunlight.

We are out of our cages

with our wings spread,

yet we do not lift off.

We keep collecting rocks and broken bits

of pottery like children

pretending they are merchants.

We should split the sack

Of this culture

And stick our heads out.

Look around.

Leave your childhood.

Reach your right hand up

and take this book from the air.

You do know right from left, don’t you?

A voice speaks to your clarity.

Move into the moment of your death.

Consider what you truly want.

Now call out commands yourself.

You are the king. Phrase your question,

and expect the grace of an answer.

Superman Saves Girl from Bar Date-Rape

DATE-rape drug victim Elizabeth Caulwell was rescued - by a real-life Superman. The mum of one collapsed in a bar when her drink was spiked with a substance, thought to be Rohypnol.

But she was carried safely to an ambulance by the mystery hero who then vanished - leaving her wrapped in his red cape, the only clue to his identity. After recovering from partial paralysis in hospital, Elizabeth, 26, made an appeal to track down her Superman using the local paper in her hometown of Wigan, Lancs.

Modest hero Paul Longmire came forward. He had been out with pals in the costume borrowed from a friend. The marketing executive, 23, said: "We saw Elizabeth stumble and go down face first. I tried supporting her but her legs kept giving way so I just picked her up and carried her outside before the ambulance came.

"She was shivering so I wrapped my cape around her then left. It wasn't heroic. I just helped someone."

Married Elizabeth, who had been out with pals and her sister, said: "I'd drunk three drinks when I collapsed. I woke hours later in hospital.

"Doctors were certain I'd been spiked, probably with Rohypnol or maybe GHB.

"I was determined to find who Superman was to say thanks and return his cape.

"Now we're pals on Facebook. I dread to think what could have happened without him."

This Mother Helped Her Daughter Die after 17 Years of Suffering

A mother cleared of attempting to murder her incurably ill daughter says that watching her die felt like 'having her heart ripped out'. Former nurse Kay Gilderdale, 55, wept after a jury found her not guilty - to cheers and applause from friends and relatives in the public gallery.

The trial judge questioned whether the week-long hearing should have been held at all since Mrs Gilderdale had already admitted assisting in her daughter Lynn's suicide. The case was in stark contrast to that of Frances Inglis, the mother given nine years last week for injecting her brain-damaged son with a lethal dose of heroin, because Lynn had said she wanted to die.

Lynn, 31, who suffered from the chronic fatigue disease ME for 17 years, begged her mother 'to end her pain' after taking an insufficient morphine overdose and she answered the plea by giving her additional drugs. The charge was attempted murder because it could not be certain whether the drugs administered by Lynn or her mother were what killed her.

Mrs Gilderdale, from Wadhurst, East Sussex, did not give evidence during the trial at Lewes Crown Court, UK. But describing her terrible dilemma in an interview, she said: 'You are torn apart. You have one part of you wanting to respect your daughter's wishes and understanding everything they have been through.

'You have got your heart being ripped out at the same time because all you want to do is to get them better and keep them alive.'

Following the not guilty verdict, Mr Justice Bean gave Mrs Gilderdale a conditional discharge for assisting the suicide, to which she pleaded guilty last July.

He said: 'I do not normally comment on the verdicts of juries but in this case their decision shows that common sense, decency and humanity which makes jury trials so important in a case of this kind.'

In tense courtroom scenes, he was told by the Crown Prosecution Service barrister that the decision to prosecute had been taken at the 'highest level'.

This is believed to be a clear reference to Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, who has been at the forefront of the 'right to die' debate since drawing up guidelines for prosecutors on assisted suicide last year.

Lynn Gilderdale had been in pain for 17 years, had previously attempted suicide and placed a Do Not Resuscitate note on her medical records.

The judge said Lynn had made a 'fully informed decision that she wished to die'. He added that her mother had acted 'selflessly and with exemplary devotion for 17 years'.

In an interview with the BBC's Panorama programme, to be shown next Monday, Mrs Gilderdale said helping end her daughter's life was the hardest thing she had ever done.

'There will be nothing that compares to that pain and heartbreak of watching my beautiful daughter leave this world.'

Her only other child, Stephen, 35, hugged his mother on the courtroom steps.

Standing alongside his father Richard, 56, who divorced his wife in 2002 but still took an active role in caring for their daughter, he said: 'These actions exhibited the same qualities of dedication, love and care that mum unwaveringly demonstrated during the 17 years of Lynn's severe illness.

'I am very proud of her and I hope she will now be afforded the peace to rebuild her life and finally grieve the death of her daughter.'

Esther Rantzen, whose daughter Emily suffered from ME for 14 years but has recovered, said she supported the verdict 'with all my heart'.

She told ITV News: 'The jury has shown yet again that ordinary people can empathise with this sort of tragic case, understand its uniqueness and realise it serves no purpose to put away a devoted mother into prison.'

Lynn was a musical and sporty teenager until she contracted ME as a teenager. In the final years of her life she developed a fear of hospitals after a botched operation left her with a punctured lung which filled up with blood.

She also told her father and mother in her final year that she had been sexually abused by a doctor at a London hospital when undergoing treatment at the age of 14.

The court heard that Lynn had previously carried out a failed suicide attempt in 2007 and had also been in touch with Dignitas, the Swiss assisted-suicide clinic.

At 1.45am on December 3, 2008, she attempted a morphine overdose - injecting herself with 210mg at the bungalow she shared with her mother.

After trying for an hour to talk her daughter out of it, Mrs Gilderdale gave her two further ampoules of the drug, which her daughter injected into a Hickman line - a tube connected to directly to her veins.

Her mother also gave her some powdered sleeping tablets through a tube in her nose. She later told her family's GP she had also injected her daughter with syringes of air in the hope of sending a fatal air bubble into her heart.

At a pre-trial hearing, Judge Richard Brown invited prosecution lawyers to drop the attempted murder charge in the light of Mrs Gilderdale's guilty plea to assisting suicide, adding that he felt a trial would 'not be in the public interest'.

He said: 'Wouldn't it be better to accept it now rather than let this defendant get tangled up in a messy trial for the sake of some legal mumbo-jumbo?'

But the CPS insisted in proceeding with the charge.

At the trial, Mr Justice Bean asked Sally Howes, QC: 'Why was it in the public interest to proceed with attempted murder rather than accepting the plea of assisted suicide?'

Miss Howes said: 'It was thought at the highest level this should be a case that should be canvassed before a jury.'

Last night a CPS spokesman said: 'There is no doubt that Mrs Gilderdale was a devoted mother who cared for her daughter up to the end of her life and we accept the jury's decision in this case.

'However the law does not allow someone to take the life of another, regardless of how compassionately they do it.'

I Didn't Mean to Park There

This is the moment a pensioner tried to reverse out of her garage but drove forward by mistake - and smashed through a wall before landing in a river.

Pat Dancer, who is in her 70s, was trying to reverse her blue Vauxhall out of her garage when she clipped the side wall. But she then hit the accelerator and shot forward - smashing through the rear garage wall and plummeting into a stream behind her home.

The car landed on its front bumper with the back in the air and Ms Dancer was trapped inside at the scene in Chillaton near Lifton, Devon.

Police were called by a neighbour and she was cahttp://stat.k.kidsklik.com/data/photo/2010/01/22/1043225p.jpgrried from the car and taken to hospital with leg injuries and mild hypothermia. A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall police said: 'The woman had been trying to reverse the car out of the garage when she struck the side wall.

'She panicked and floored the accelerator which shot the car forward at speed and straight through the back wall. The wall was destroyed.

'Her car was found in the river with the front wheels under water but luckily she was largely unhurt.'

Ms Dancer is now in a stable condition and being treated for minor injuries at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth.

New App Translates Baby's Cries

Image via Wikipedia

Next time your baby cries, you might want to hold the little one up to your iPhone. A new app could translate those yells into adult-speak, telling you whether it's a cry for food or perhaps a nap.

After 10 seconds of crying, the Cry Translator (patented by Biloop Technologic, S.L.) will light up one of five icons to indicate, the company claims, whether your baby is hungry, tired, bored, sleepy, stressed, or in some kind of discomfort.

While you might think the cry decoder is as valid as having a conversation with your dog or cat, some research suggests there is meaning behind those wails.

For instance, scientists have found the pitch and frequency of a baby's cries can indicate health problems and even the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), according to research published in 2005 in the journal Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.

Other more recent research has shown the cries of newborns already bear the mark of the language their parents speak. For instance, one study showed French newborns cry with rising melody patterns, slowly increasing in pitch from the beginning to the end, while German newborns have falling melody patterns, both of which are consistent with their prospective languages. That suggests infants are already picking up bits of language in the womb.

And while newborns may not have language for some time, pediatricians have known they cry to communicate.

"Babies do cry; it's their main form of communication," said pediatrician Jamie A. Freishtat, adding that over time parents tend to figure out what certain cries mean. "I know that anecdotally a lot of parents, after time, say, 'Ah she must be wet,' by a certain cry. I think pain [is something] parents tend to pick up on."

That "I'm in pain" cry could be higher pitched or more shrill, said Freishtat, who is also a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

Even so, all babies sound different, just like adults. "I'm not sure if you had ten babies and they were all hungry if you would get the same cry from each baby," Freishtat told LiveScience.

The Web site set up for the new baby-cry app acknowledges the variability of cries, explaining that rather than tone or pitch, the technology relies on some kind of pattern in the cries.

The company cautions, however, that the technology is meant to help parents and caregivers understand what their infant is trying to communicate and is not a stand-in for a medical doctor.

Freishtat echoed this caution: "Regardless of how a parent is trying to interpret his or her baby's cry, if a baby is ever crying inconsolably (won't stop regardless of interventions, such as offering a feed, changing a diaper, holding the baby, etc.) then it is very important to contact or go to the doctor immediately because that can mean there is something more serious going on."