Obama with all the Rulers of the World

Here's an image from the meeting Obama held in San Francisco with American's biggest tech-industry players. We told you yesterday that Obama he was meeting with Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Google's Eric Schmidt, so who are all the other people toasting to the good life? According to NYT the other dinner guests were:

Carol Bartz, president and C.E.O., Yahoo; John Chambers, C.E.O. and chairman, Cisco Systems; Dick Costolo, C.E.O., Twitter; Larry Ellison, co-founder and C.E.O., Oracle; Reed Hastings, C.E.O., NetFlix; John Hennessy, president of Stanford University; Art Levinson, chairman and former C.E.O., Genentech; and Steve Westly, managing partner and founder, the Westly Group.

The combined wealth of all the people who were in attendance is more than the GDP of Croatia. DAMN!

Facebook from a SIM Card? - no data charges, just SMS

According to The Register:

Gemalto has managed to get Facebook running on a SIM chip, making every GSM phone a Facebook phone and bringing social networking to the dumbest of handsets.

The SIM-based client isn't as pretty as its smartphone contemporaries – don't expect picture streams or sliding interfaces – but it was developed with the help of Facebook, and provides text-menu-based interaction with Facebook – including status updates, pokes and friend requests – to any GSM-compatible handset through the magic of the GSM SIM Toolkit and Class 2 SMS messages.

The SIM Toolkit is part of the GSM standard and thus supported on just about every GSM handset, from the dumbest PAYG talker to the latest iGear. It allows the SIM to present menu options to the user, collect responses, and pop up alerts when new data arrives, which is all that's necessary for a basic Facebook client.

Modern handsets also allow the SIM to make TCP/IP data connections, but Gemalto is eschewing that for Class 2 SMS to ensure compatibility with the most basic handsets, and networks.

Class 2 SMS messages are delivered direct to the SIM without the user being involved, so can update friends' status messages and deliver a poke or two. The application running on the SIM then prods the handset into alerting the user.

That user's own updates are sent over SMS too, following a status change or wall posting client pastes that into an SMS, which is sent silently on its way.

How, or if, the network operator charges for all those messages flying about isn't clear. Gemalto won't name operators yet but claims to be talking to one operator who reckons that Facebook is eating half its bandwidth, and another who's already working on SIM distribution strategies.

Not that a new SIM is necessarily required – SIMs are field upgradable, though few operators deploy them with sufficient empty space for an application like this and issuing replacement SIMs is probably easier from a marketing point of view.

But despite that it's likely that Facebook on the SIM will have a big impact in developing markets where smartphones and ubiquitous data networks have yet to penetrate. That could include South America, where Google's Orkut still dominates the social networking scene, or China, where QQ is where the cool kids hang out.

So having a SIM client could be good news for Facebook, as well as Gemalto and the dumbphone owners who want to stay connected.

Borders Files Bankruptcy, Is Closing Up to 275 Stores

According to Bloomberg:

Borders Group Inc., the second- biggest U.S. bookstore chain, filed for bankruptcy in New York today after management changes, job cuts and debt restructuring failed to make up for sagging book sales in the face of competition from Amazon.com Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Borders plans to keep operating and restructure with $505 million in so-called debtor-in-possession financing from lenders led by GE Capital, according to a statement. The 40-year-old chain listed debt of $1.29 billion and assets of $1.28 billion as of Dec. 25 in its Chapter 11 petition filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.

The reorganization is only possible if Borders immediately closes 200 of its 642 stores, according to an emergency motion to sell furniture and merchandise filed in Manhattan bankruptcy court today. Sales need to start no later than Feb. 19 to take advantage of the President’s Day long weekend, and another 75 stores may need to close if concessions aren’t won from landlords, the company said.

“Closing the stores right away is essential because the Debtors are losing approximately $2 million per week at the closing stores,” lawyers for Borders wrote in court pleadings.
Market Value

Borders, whose market value has shrunk by more than $3 billion since 1998, racked up losses by failing to adapt to shifts in how consumers shop. Its first e-commerce site debuted in 2008, more than a decade after Amazon.com revolutionized publishing with online sales. The world’s largest online retailer beat it again by moving into digital books with the Kindle e-reader in 2007, a market Borders entered in July.

“Borders Group does not have the capital resources it needs to be a viable competitor,” the company’s president, Mike Edwards, said today in a statement. The bankruptcy will give it “time to reorganize in order to reposition itself to be a successful business for the long term.”

“Instead of leading and being innovative, they were certainly a follower,” said Michael Souers, an analyst for Standard & Poor’s in New York.

Borders, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, began looking for a cash infusion in December. It said lenders cut its borrowing capacity, and that failure to find replacement credit could lead to a violation of its loan agreements and a “liquidity shortfall” in the first quarter of 2011.
Cash Drain

The company has 642 stores under the Borders, Waldenbooks, Borders Express and Borders Outlet names in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, according to the court filing.

“It buys them a little bit of time, because they are closing stores that are a drain on cash flow,” said Peter Wahlstrom, a retail analyst for Morningstar Investment Services in Chicago. The bankruptcy filing “allows them to retrain their focus on the stores that are profitable.”

The company owes $302 million to vendors for inventory and has $109 million in guarantees for liquidated foreign units, it said it its filing. Among the stores being closed are three in Manhattan.

Penguin Putnam, a unit of Pearson Plc, was listed as the largest unsecured creditor with a $41 million claim. Hachette Book Group has a claim of $36.9 million and Simon & Schuster Inc. has a claim of $33.8 million. Random House, the publisher owned by Bertelsmann AG, Europe’s biggest media company, has a claim of $33.5 million.
Deal With Liquidators

Borders has a deal with liquidators Hilco Merchant Resources LLC, SB Capital Group LLC and Tiger Capital Group to guarantee it 73 percent of the cost value of all merchandise at the closing stores, which Borders estimates will bring in $131 million to $148 million to repay its creditors.

The offer, structured as a “stalking horse bid” is subject to higher and better offers, and calls for the liquidators to fund store level expenses while the locations close. It also gives Borders a 50 percent share of any proceeds after a 5 percent fee and expense recovery.

Before its bankruptcy, Borders had already started a plan to close more than 260 stores, and those locations are stocked with “quickly dwindling merchandise” that make it necessary to close them right away, Borders said in court papers. The agreement with liquidators calls for a break-up fee of $1 million if a better offer is received at an auction.
Creditors

Borders’ debt includes a $970.5 million revolving loan under an agreement from March 2010, with Bank of America Corp. and General Electric Capital Corp. as agents to other lenders. About $196.05 million was outstanding as of the bankruptcy, lawyers for Borders wrote. A term loan taken at the same time, worth $90 million, had $48.6 million outstanding.

Borders estimated that funds would be available for distribution to unsecured creditors, according to the filing signed by the company’s chief financial officer, Scott Henry.

The company in May raised $25 million in a private sale to an entity controlled by Bennet S. LeBow, who was then named CEO and chairman. Pershing Square Capital Management LP, the hedge fund run by William Ackman, is Borders’s largest shareholder, according to the filing. Borders’ biggest shareholders also include Zurich-based UBS AG, according to the court filing.

In its petition, Borders says Pershing Square holds 31.3 percent of the stock and LeBow is a 15.4 percent stakeholder.

The New York Stock Exchange suspended trading in Borders shares today and is moving to delist the company. The shares traded at a 52-week high of $3.29 last April 12.
Restructuring

Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP is the law firm that filed the petition and Jefferies & Co. is handling restructuring.

Borders has struggled with cash levels since at least 2008, when it ran short of money and was forced to borrow from Pershing Square, its largest shareholder at the time. After missing a deadline to find a buyer, the company issued 5.15 million warrants to Pershing, making the fund the bookseller’s largest investor.

Borders borrowed $42.5 million from Pershing to remodel stores and upgrade technology to compete with Barnes & Noble Inc., the largest bookseller in the U.S., and Amazon.com. Cost- savings measures have been implemented over the past year.

In January 2010, Borders announced it would close some of its bookstores in the U.S. and cut 11 percent of staff at its headquarters and eliminate 76 other jobs. Chief Executive Officer Ron Marshall resigned after a year on the job. Michael Edwards was put in a role as interim CEO.
Delayed Payments

Borders delayed payments to publishers in December as part of a plan to restructure financing arrangements with vendors. The stock lost more than a fifth of its market value, its biggest drop in two years, after the announcement.

Kmart Corp. acquired Borders in 1992, then a chain of about 20 stores founded by Tom and Louis Borders, for about $190 million and combined the retailer with its Waldenbooks unit.

In 1995, Kmart renamed the unit Borders Group Inc. and spun it off in an initial public offering. The new public company, with a market value of about $500 million, had more than 1,000 locations under the Borders, Waldenbooks and Planet Music brands and generated $1.5 billion in revenue.

Borders then joined Barnes & Noble in dotting the U.S. with book superstores that proved to be more profitable than its mall-based Waldenbooks locations. The superstore unit grew to 200 by 1996 and doubled by 2002.

“They over-expanded and built up some debt on their balance sheet,” said Souers, who has covered Borders for six years. “There was also less control to those businesses.”

Borders has asked court permission to keep its customer- rewards program, serving 42 million members, and honor obligations to its employees, which include 6,100 full-time workers and 11,400 part-time employees.

The case is In re Borders Group Inc., 11-10614, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York.

Coca Cola recipe revealed!!!?

I knew this day would come. This is one of the foundations of America, and now the secret is out. What a sad, sad day.

According to the Guardian:

For almost 125 years, the secrecy surrounding the recipe for Coca-Cola has been one of the world's great marketing ploys. As the story goes, the fizzy drink's famous "Merchandise 7X" flavourings have remained unchanged since they were concocted in 1886 and are today only known to two Coke executives, neither of whom can travel on the same plane for fear that the secret goes down with them.

Now one of America's most celebrated radio broadcasters claims to have discovered the Coke secret. Ira Glass, presenter of the public radio institution This American Life, says he has tracked down a copy of the recipe, the original of which is still supposedly held in a burglar-proof vault at the Sun Trust bank in Atlanta, Georgia.

The seven-ingredient formula was created by John Pemberton, an Atlanta chemist and former Confederate army officer who crafted cough medicines and other concoctions in his spare time. In 1887, he sold the recipe to a businessman, Asa Griggs, who immediately placed it for safekeeping in the then Georgia Trust bank.

Glass came across a recipe that he believes is the secret formula in a back issue of Pemberton's local paper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, while he was researching an entirely different story. Tucked away on an inside page of the 8 February 1979 edition, he stumbled on an article that claimed to have uncovered the closely guarded 7x formula.

The column was based on an old leather-bound notebook that belonged to Pemberton's best friend and fellow Atlanta chemist, RR Evans. Glass was intrigued and, after some digging, found the notebook had been handed down the generations until it reached a chemist in Georgia called Everett Beal, whose widow still possesses it.

The rediscovered recipe includes extract of coca leaves, caffeine, plenty of sugar (it specifies 30 unidentified units thought to be pounds), lime juice, vanilla and caramel. Into that syrup, the all-important 7x flavourings are added: alcohol and six oils – orange, lemon, nutmeg, coriander, neroli and cinnamon.

The formula is strikingly similar to the recipe deduced by Mark Pendergrast who wrote a history of the drink in 1993 called For God, Country & Coca-Cola.

Coke's secret recipe is, in fact, part mythology. Contrary to the mystique surrounding it, the soda has in fact changed substantially over time.

Cocaine, a legal stimulant in Pemberton's day, was removed from the drink in 1904 after mounting public unease about the drug. Extract of coca leaves have still been used but only after the cocaine has been removed.

In 1980, the company largely replaced sugar, squeezed from beet and cane, with the cheaper high-fructose corn sweetener that has become ubiquitous in American food and drink. Coke purists were not impressed.

Despite such occasional controversies, one element has remained constant: Coke's commitment to keeping its own secret. Speculation about the recipe has been a popular talking point for more than a century, proving good for business.

True to form, the company has treated the This American Life story with the disdain that has marked its commercial strategy since the 19th century.

"Many third parties have tried to crack our secret formula. Try as they might, they've been unsuccessful," Coca-Cola's Kerry Tressler said.

The recipe: how to make your own Coca-Cola
Fluid extract of coca: 3 drams USP
Citric acid: 3 oz
Caffeine: 1 oz
Sugar: 30 (unclear quantity, possibly pounds)
Water: 2.5 gallons
Lime juice: 2 pints, 1 quart
Vanilla: 1 oz
Caramel: 1.5 oz or more to colour
Into every five gallons of syrup, add 2oz of the following seven-part flavouring:
Alcohol: 8 oz
Orange oil: 20 drops
Lemon oil: 30 drops
Nutmeg oil: 10 drops
Coriander oil : 5 drops
Neroli oil: 10 drops
Cinnamon oil: 10 drops

ICC red flags Dhoni over ambush marketing

According to Hindustan Times:
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has warned Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni that he could be in breach of its ambush marketing laws and has asked him to stop promoting companies and products not related to the World Cup. Dhoni has earned ICC's displeasure for doing advertisements for Sony and Aircel. According to the ICC's rules, players had to stop promoting companies and products not related to the World Cup days before the event begins on February 19.

The DNA newspaper reports ICC has written a letter telling Dhoni that a recent commercial he had featured in could be in breach of its ambush marketing laws.

According to sources, the ICC has written to chief executives of all the national boards reminding them of the need for strict adherence to the ambush marketing clause after the publication of the Dhoni’s commercial in a leading national daily.

In a recent advertisement, Dhoni was seen endorsing a product that is a competition to an official sponsor of the World Cup. As per the ambush marketing rules, that is not permitted from seven days prior to the start of the championship.

Benefits of Working out as a Couple @lifemojo

I been reading alot on the Benefits of Working out as a Couple... tho I have never been a fan of it; I think its time to open my mind.

See what lifemojo has to say:

One of the nicest things about working out with your spouse or partner is that you get to spend quality time together! Throughout the week the two of you maybe apart doing your own thing with work and its requirements. However, exercise time can be a shared time of bonding and catching up with your lives.

Benefits of Exercising as a Couple
The two of you may have very different weight loss goals. But working out together will mean helping each other out. There are many benefits when you choose to exercise as a couple. Togetherness time is just the bonus! Here are some plus points of couple exercise:

*Safety: Accidents can happen during exercise - a trip, a twisted ankle or wrist. Having your soul-mate with you, watching as you workout together is advantageous to both of you. Help is always at hand!

*Common Interest: Apart from the many other things you may enjoy in common you could add exercise to that list! New activities to the already growing common interests can only add to the excitement of your relationship and help keep it fresh! Think about it, you can never have too much in common.

*Encouragement: Getting support with your exercise program is another wonderful thing when you workout with your partner or spouse. You can always count on him or her to encourage you and help you boost your motivation when you just don't feel like you want to go on. Your spouse will always be honest with you without hurting your feelings.

*A Deeper Bond: When we exercise the brain releases chemicals which stir up feelings of happiness, thus reducing stress and tension. These chemicals also increase arousal and libido. Studies show that partners who enjoy exercising together report having better sexual relations with each other thus deepening their bond.

*Pride: By exercising, you show that you care for your body and want to be able live a healthy life for longer. That in turn means that you so treasure the time you spend with your spouse that you want to be around longer!

*A Sense of Balance: Women tend to prefer cardio workouts whereas men go for strength training. By spending workout time together, it's a great opportunity to learn from each other. Let your partner share their knowledge with you and you enjoy the new fitness experience.

*Quality time: Mentioned earlier, this is a good time to catch up with each other having been apart during the week due to work and other responsibilities. By choosing a common workout time, you will not have to sacrifice this one-on-one time which is uniquely yours.

How to Start a Program Together
If you're not already exercising together, then here are a few tips to get going:

* Sign up for classes together. You can choose from salsa to contemporary dance, yoga, aerobics and many others.
* Do cardio workouts side by side. You can watch and learn from each other.
* Stretch together. By doing assisted stretches, your body becomes more flexible.

And there you have it. An opportunity to spend time with your loved one and get a great body workout. So what are you waiting for? Head straight to the gym with him (or her) and start bonding!

Training Tips for Couples @mens_fitness

thx Mens Fitness:

So your lady wants to start going to the gym—and she wants you to show her what to do. It's the moment you've been waiting for. This is your chance to spend time together—in your element (rather than at the mall). It's your opportunity to flaunt your vast knowledge of weight training, and help her look even hotter! To keep you from screwing it up, we've developed a checklist for leading her through the weight room from Day One.

1.) Forget your own training.
"If you're trying to show off by demonstrating how much you can lift, you're going to have problems," says Rachel Cosgrove, a strength and conditioning coach and co-owner of Results Fitness in Santa Clarita, Calif. "She wants you to pay attention to her." This means concentrating on moves that she can do and enjoy (unless you want a dumbbell dropped on your foot).

2.) Say the right things.
Feed her compliments—and try to ensure that she processes them as such. "Don't say, 'Wow, your arms are getting so big,' or, 'You're looking really buff!'" says Cosgrove. "If a woman hears that, she might never come back with you to the gym." Instead, reinforce her work by telling her that her arms are really "toned," or that her legs are "defined."

3.) Know what she wants.
Her goals are to burn calories and fat, and get more "shapely." So take it easy on the isolation exercises, use lighter weights and higher reps, and keep her moving. "Women are multitaskers," says Cosgrove. "They want combination exercises, compound movements, and circuit sets." In terms of body parts, she's concerned with her legs, glutes, and—most of all—abs. "As much as guys love the bench press, that's how much women love ab work," says Joe Stankowski, a trainer of pageant contestants in Wilmington, Del. So grab a Swiss ball and crunch!

4.) Disguise the workout.
Women often fear weights, so hide weight training in moves like medicine-ball squats and med-ball overhead presses. You can also use those colored, plastic kettlebells for figure eights and swings. And here are always cable moves like wood chops. She will find these exercises more fun and less intimidating, and she won't feel like she's turning into the Incredible Hulkette.

5.) Think outside the gym.
Stankowski has his female clients drag weighted sleds and flip tractor tires. "They love it, because it's so different that it's interesting," he says. "And it gives them confidence because they feel like they're doing something no other woman is doing."

6.) Play the metabolism card.
"Girls tend to gravitate toward inner-thigh machines, leg extensions, and other machines and exercises that aren't so useful, " says Brian Grasso, a strength coach in Chicago. Rather, women should be doing squats and deadlifts because they involve a great deal of muscle recruitment, "which leads to a more aesthetically pleasing physique and increases their metabolic rate significantly," says Grasso. Tactfully point out these facts to leverage your girlfriend away from the inefficient machines and toward the free-weight movements. As much as she dislikes iron, she hates cellulite even more.

7.) Challenge her.
See who can do the most jump squats in a minute. Or who can lift the most proportionally, says Grasso, who regularly works out with his ex-figure-skater girlfriend. Start with Romanian deadlifts at 50% of your body weight and work your way up. The winner is the one who can lift the higher percentage. Grasso says battles like this push him, because he hates losing to a girl. "If you have a competitive girl and work body percentage into a friendly dare, you're both going to see massive gains."

Healthy Chinese Food @mens_fitness

thx Mens Fitness:

Chinese food may be tasty, but more often than not it's an ab-killer. We asked Jim White, R.D., a Virginia-based dietician, to help us make some smarter choices.

LEARN THE LINGO
Anything steamed is obviously good, as is Jum (poached), Chu (broiled), Kow (roasted), Shu (barbecued), lightly stir-fried, dry stir-fried, or braised. Anything breaded, fried, or coated in flour is not.

USE THE RIGHT TOOLS
Chopsticks are your friend. "You're going to get less oil than you would with a fork," adds White.

GET SAUCED
Steer clear of thick gravy or sauces made from sugar, flour, or cornstarch (such as those found on General Tso's or Sweet and Sour Pork). They're loaded with corn syrup. Instead, White suggests hot mustard sauce, hoisin sauce, or oyster sauce. And no matter what, always make your order "half sauce." That way, you get half the sauce—and half the calories—of what they'd normally use in the dish.

GO VEGGIE
Here's an inside tip: Order your meal cooked in vegetable stock (a traditional Chinese style of cooking called "stock velveted") to reduce the calories in your dish by 150-300 and the fat by 15-30 grams. "Expect your protein to be a bit more moist and tender, with less crunch than usual," says White.

SKIP UNNECESSARY SIDES
A serving of crispy noodles can set you back as much as 200 calories and 14 grams of fat, and Lo Mein is even worse. That dark brown color in the noodles? It comes from soaking up all that oil. A large portion generally runs in the thousands of calories.

BROWN RICE vs. WHITE RICE
Fried rice is undeniably bad for you, setting you back 450 calories and 14 grams of fat. Brown rise is better, with only 215 calories and a generous 3.5 grams of fiber per cup. But even though it's trendy to avoid white rice because it's a high-glycemic carb, it's not so bad. "Calorie for calorie, they're about the same," says White. You do lose the fiber, though (only a gram in a serving), and you get hardly any vitamins at all. Still, it's definitely not as bad as it's been made out to be.

The Lil Wayne: I Am Still Music Tour 2011 pre-sale passcode

thx WiseGuys:
The Lil Wayne: I Am Still Music Tour 2011 pre-sale passcode has been listed: For a very limited time you can get great tickets before the public. presale password for Lil Wayne: I Am Still Music Tour 2011 tickets in New Orleans - LA (New Orleans Arena) You might never have another chance to see Lil Wayne: I Am Still Music Tour 2011′s concert in New Orleans.
Here are all the Lil Wayne: I Am Still Music Tour 2011 show details:

You can use this presale codes and information to buy your tickets:

* 546616 – a CITI issued credit card MIGHT be required.

Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way' Rockets Up Billboard Charts

thx Mtv:

Who didn't see this one coming? Thanks to the pushed-up release date on Friday and the most talked-about entrance at Sunday night's Grammys — not to mention what must have amounted to endless spins at clubs over the weekend — Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" is making some chart history.

Billboard reported that after just three days of availability, the tune shot to a record-setting debut on the Pop Songs radio airplay chart at #14 and is poised to possibly debut at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart this week thanks to brisk digital sales.

The first single from the album of the same name due on May 23 got 4,602 plays, which gives it the highest detections total by a debuting song in the chart's 18-year history, representing an audience of 39.3 million. Citing unnamed sources, the magazine also reported that "Born" sold more than 450,000 downloads since its release on Friday morning, which could help the song debut at #1 on the Hot 100 and make it only the 19th song ever to do so on that chart.

Gaga could also potentially wrest a record for the biggest debut track for a woman from Britney Spears if download sales continue to climb. Spears' "Hold it Against Me" rocked the chart a month ago with 411,000 in sales, but if Gaga's numbers hold she could land the fourth-largest digital track debut of all time behind Flo Rida's "Right Round," (636,000) the Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow" (465,000) and Flo Rida's "Low" (460,000).

The star stopped by "Jay Leno" the day after the Grammys, and in addition to explaining that she and Madonna have no beef over complaints by some that "Born This Way" bears too much of a resemblance to some earlier Material Girl hits, Gaga also announced her upcoming May HBO special and explained the inspiration behind her new album.

She also revealed that she changed up the entire look of her Grammy performance two days before it aired because she wasn't happy with it. "I don't want the band and dancers to feel like a band and dancers," Gaga said, explaining why her crew was dressed in flesh-tone vinyl outfits that matched her own.

When Leno made a crack about her trio of Grammy outfits, which included a molded leather bodice created by fashion icon Thierry Mugler, Gaga said the latter had a cosmic inspiration. "It was inspired by humanoids, alien sex humanoid hybrid women," she said matter of factly, rocking some of the low budget sci-fi alien face-ridged makeup she debuted at the Grammys, on Leno's show.

The talk show host pointed to her third getup, which she said featured a giant black "church" hat, and asked if maybe it didn't block the view of the star behind her at the show, actor Will Smith. Gaga promised it didn't and added that she is in love with his daughter's hit single. "I love Willow," gushed Gaga, who took a series of photos with the pre-teen Smith family singer on her lap at the show. "I told her that she inspired me to whip my hair back and forth!"

Though she claimed to have written "Born This Way" in a matter of minutes, Gaga said she spent more than a year perfecting it and tweaking the music, promising that it is just one of the many sounds you'll hear on the album. "The record is kind of eclectic in a way," she said. "The rest of the songs on the album are quite different from 'Born This Way.' "

As for the album's theme, Gaga said it's about "being able to know that when you were born, you weren't just born in that moment, you have your entire life to realize the person that you're potentially going to become and whoever you choose to be was part of your destiny." Her hope, she said, was to encourage people who are feeling bullied or disenfranchised at the moment to realize that it's "never too late to harness your inner superstar."

5 Secret Memory Enhancers

According to Fox News:

Today’s population is aging -- that's no secret. But the extent of this aging is so profound that it’s almost unbelievable. In 2008, there were 500 million people aged 65 or older, which accounts for about 7 percent of the world’s population.

By 2040, that number will hit 1.3 billion, which will account for 14 percent of the total population. While these numbers are staggering, what will make this population shift actually frightening is the associated increase of dementia. Now, that’s something to really worry about.

Although researchers are hoping to find cures for Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, most folks will be left to fend for themselves. So, to keep your mind and memory sharper than the rest, here's list of secret memory enhancers. Be sure to keep these to yourself.

1. Gum
Believe it or not, chewing gum can actually improve alertness and memory -- well, maybe. At least that’s the conclusion that two medical studies reported in the journal Appetite back in 2002 and 2004, respectively. In these studies, individuals who chewed gum during the learning phases of a specific test recalled test items better than those who did not. Although the exact reasoning behind why gum would enhance memory isn’t yet clear, one simple explanation said that chewing gum increases heart rate, which subsequently increases blood flow to the brain.

What this means for you and your memory: Before you go out and spend your life's savings on boxes of supposed life-saving secret memory enhancers in the form of spearmint gum, you should know that the jury is still out on this one. Despite those past promising results, more recent studies have failed to find a similar link between chewing gum and memory enhancement, although these newer studies still maintain that chewing increases alertness (no wonder ball players love the stuff so much).

2. Exercise
Men may be more active than their female counterparts, but that still doesn’t mean they get enough exercise. Granted, most men are probably sick and tired of hearing about just how great and beneficial daily exercise can be, but it’s time to chalk up another benefit of regular exercise. A slew of research over the past decade has shown that exercise can be a secret memory enhancer.

In fact, just cutting calories may help you remember where you left your keys. According to a 2008 study in the journal PNAS, eating a calorie-restricted diet had beneficial effects on memory performance in healthy elderly subjects.
What this means for you and your memory: Toss out the cheeseburger and fries, and get outside and get moving. Bike to work, take the stairs or walk to the store. Even simple exercise is a better secret memory enhancer than none at all. Better yet, it’s free.

3. Caffeine
As one of the most hotly contested food items, caffeine has strong backers on both sides of the health debate. Some swear by its benefits while others vilify caffeine for its unhealthy effects. But almost no one can argue the effect of caffeine on alertness (and, consequently, memory). According to various studies conducted in the last five years, caffeine boosts short-term memory, protects older women against memory loss and may even reverse Alzheimer’s memory loss (at least in mice).
What this means for you and your memory: Before you slam back a venti latte in hopes of treating your brain to long lost memories, keep in mind that caffeine can have a negative health impact, as well. Stay on the safe side by drinking in moderation.

4. Daytime naps
Our next secret memory enhancer might actually contradict the last. After all, it’ll be hard to catch a little daytime shut-eye if you’re all hopped up on java beans. If you’re into daydreaming, you’ll be happy to know that science strongly supports the idea that daytime napping improves your declarative memory. That’s the memory you use to store facts (for example, the memory used when cramming for a final exam).

What this means for you and your memory: If you’ve been cramming hard all day, don’t be afraid to catch a couple of quick Zs -- but be sure to keep your nap no longer than 45 minutes to avoid hitting deep REM sleep, or all benefits might be undone.

5. Alcohol
Rounding off our list of secret memory enhancers is alcohol, a substance that men are probably familiar with. Although this list is sounding more and more like justification for a bunch of bad habits, alcohol -- make that moderate levels of alcohol -- may actually enhance memory. Recent research has found that having a daily drink or two may improve memory and may even help prevent dementia. Higher levels of alcohol, however, may actually impair memories or may even reinforce negative ones (so the old act of “drinking to forget” may not hold true).

What this means for you and your memory: Stick to one or two glasses of wine or one drink of liquor a day, at most, and you’ll stay on the safe side. Anything beyond that will likely do more harm than good.

Secret No More
Who would have thought that some of our most familiar habits may in fact be mending our memory? Although the secret’s now out, remember not to overindulge. Everything in moderation.

Madoff: Banks 'Had to Know' of Multi-Billion Dollar Fraud

According to Fox News:

Bernard Madoff arrives at federal court in New York.

Convicted fraudster Bernard L. Madoff believes banks and hedge funds were complicit in his elaborate multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

In an interview from prison in North Carolina, the 72-year-old pointed to the "willful blindness" of many financial institutions who dealt with his investment advisory business, highlighting their failure to examine discrepancies between his regulatory filings and other information available to them.

"They had to know," Madoff said. "But the attitude was sort of, 'If you're doing something wrong, we don't want to know.'"

Madoff, who is serving a 150-year sentence in Butner Federal Correctional Institution, has previously claimed that he was the only person involved in the massive fraud.

In the interview with The Times, he maintains that his family members knew nothing about his crimes and says he never thought the collapse of his Ponzi scheme and his arrest in December 2008 would cause the sort of destruction that has since befallen his relatives.

In particular, Madoff lashed out at what he called some "disgraceful" coverage of the death of his son Mark, who committed suicide on Dec. 11.

He disputed reports that he refused to attend any funeral services for Mark, saying prison authorities had said they would not approve such a request.

Madoff, who acknowledged his guilt during the interview and said nothing could excuse his crimes, also said he was determined to aid official efforts to recover assets. However, he reportedly made little mention of the financial pain he caused thousands of his more modest investors.

In March 2009, he pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies and admitted to turning his wealth management business into a massive Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of investors of billions of dollars.

A Ponzi scheme pays returns to separate investors, not from any actual profit earned by the organization but from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/02/15/madoff-banks-know-multi-billion-dollar-fraud/#ixzz1E8FcJm43

HTC Facebook phone??

thx Engadget

Yes folks, the leaks were for real, HTC really is bringing out a pair of new handsets adorned with a dedicated, delicately illustrated Facebook key front and (almost) center. HTC is very careful not to call its Salsa -- a 3.4-inch, 480 x 320 touchscreen device -- and portrait QWERTY-sporting ChaCha "Facebook phones," however Mark Z's highly successful social network is indeed the focus around which both are built. The OS is Android 2.4 underneath, however the Sense customizations have taken on an extra few tweaks and functions to accommodate a Facebook-centric lifestyle. That royal blue button is context-aware, with a pulsating light surrounding it any time there's an opportunity to share whatever you're doing with the phone through Facebook. A good example of that is you can long-press the F key to automatically check in with the social mothership.

In terms of specs, you're looking at a lot of common components between these two. There's a 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 -- which didn't seem to struggle unduly with basic functions during our quick play around with the Salsa -- 512MB of both RAM and ROM, a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, and a VGA front-facing cam. The resolution on the ChaCha is 480 x 320 as well, which should provide decent pixel density on that 2.6-inch screen. Both are expected to launch globally before the end of Q2 2011, at pricing points above the newly announced Wildfire S, but below the similarly fresh Desire S and Incredible S handsets. We'll have more in-depth impressions and hands-on galleries for you as soon as we can get them, stay tuned!

Press Release from HTC:
HTC UNVEILS TWO SOCIAL PHONES WITH ONE-TOUCH FACEBOOK® ACCESS

HTC raises the bar for mobile social phones with HTC ChaChaTM and HTC SalsaTM

BARCELONA, SPAIN – Mobile World Congress – February 15, 2011 – HTC Corporation, a global designer of smartphones, today announced two new phones built entirely to be social, combining the simplicity, ease-of-use and depth of HTC SenseTM with the power and connectivity of Facebook®. As part of an extended portfolio of six new HTC Sense-based devices being unveiled at Mobile World Congress, HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa feature a dedicated Facebook® button for one-touch access to the key functions of the Facebook service that are integrated throughout the HTC Sense experience.

"HTC has always understood that different people want different things and the new HTC ChaCha and Salsa offer special new ways to experience Facebook on a mobile device," said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation. "With more than 500 million active users worldwide, Facebook has become synonymous with the social web and we wanted to create the ultimate socially connected phones with mass market appeal."

"We have worked closely with HTC for several years on bringing Facebook to their devices and HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa are the next stage," said Henri Moissinac, Head of Mobile Business for Facebook. "HTC has brought Facebook to these two new devices in an innovative way enabling people to connect and share easily whenever they want, wherever they are."

The Facebook button on HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa is context-aware, gently pulsing with light whenever there is an opportunity to share content or updates through Facebook. With a single press of the button, you can update your status, upload a photo, share a Website, post what song you are listening to, 'check in' to a location and more. For example, you can take a photograph of friends on your phone and upload it instantly to Facebook by simply pressing the button. Or let your friends know what song you're listening to by pressing the button while listening to music on the phone. The track is automatically identified and shared on Facebook.

The new devices feature Android Gingerbread 2.3.3, the latest version, and use the latest iteration of HTC Sense to integrate Facebook throughout the HTC Sense experience. When you make a phone call, the dialer screen displays your friend's latest status and photos, and even tells you if their birthday is approaching. The same updates are also displayed when you receive a call from a Facebook friend. You can also use your phone's existing contacts to help you connect with them on Facebook or personalize your handset further with a number of new, Facebook-branded widgets.

The HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa smartphones make it simple to stay in touch with your friends using Facebook Chat and Messages on your phone. Your Facebook messages and conversations are integrated within your phone and appear within your text and email inboxes alongside your regular conversations.

Stay connected with the smartphone for the Facebook generation – HTC ChaCha
The HTC ChaCha smartphone is designed to provide a seamless, social experience by enabling you to stay in touch with your friends anytime, anywhere. The unique tilt design shapes the display and physical QWERTY keyboard so it is easy to view and comfortable to type. Capture special moments in crisp, High-Definition detail or video chat with your friends using the dual cameras, including a 5-megapixel color camera with auto focus and LED flash and a VGA front-facing camera. The ChaCha smartphone also brings the Internet to your fingertips with a 2.6-inch, 480 x 320 resolution landscape touch screen.

Your Facebook friends never felt closer – HTC Salsa
Boasting the same deep Facebook integration as the HTC ChaCha smartphone, the HTC Salsa smartphone provides a fast, high-performance smartphone experience. Capture the moment in high-resolution stills or video with the 5-megapixel camera and immediately share it with friends on the generous 3.4-inch, 480 x 320 resolution touch display. Upload your photos to Facebook at the touch of a button. For face-to-face conversations on the move, the VGA forward-facing camera enables high-quality video calling.

Availability
The HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa smartphones will be available to customers across major European and Asian markets during Q2 2011. In the United States, AT&T and HTC are exclusively bringing this unique user experience to market later this year.

Methi Thepla [Recipe]

thx Auntie Manjua

Methi Thepla is favorite Gujarati snack bread. It is very flavorful and makes for a great travel or picnic food.

Recipe will make 6 to 8.

Ingredients:

* 1 cup whole wheat flour (atta)
* 1/4 cup gram flour (basen)
* 1/8 teaspoon asafetida (hing)
* 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)
* 1/2 teaspoon turmeric (haldi)
* 1 teaspoon red chili flakes adjust to taste
* 1 1/4 teaspoon salt adjust to taste
* 1/4 cup dry fenugreek leaves (kastoori methi)
* 2 tablespoons oil
* 1/4 cup yogurt (dahi)
* About 3 tablespoons of water as needed
* Approximately 1/4 cup of oil for cooking

Method

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl: flour, gram flour, asafetida, cumin seeds, turmeric, chili flakes, salt, and fenugreek leaves.
2. Add oil and yogurt to the bowl and mix well. Add water as needed to make firm dough.
3. Knead the dough for 2 minutes on a lightly greased surface to make smooth and pliable dough.
4. Set the dough aside and cover it with a damp cloth. Let the dough rest for at least ten minutes.
5. Divide the dough into 6 to 8 equal parts. Using your palm, roll each one into a smooth ball and press flat.
6. Take each dough and press it in some dry flour on both sides. Using a rolling pin roll each dough into 5 to 6” diameter circle. If dough starts sticking, dust it with more flour. However, do not use any dry flour towards the end of the rolling. This will make the Thepla dry.

Cooking the Thepla

1. Heat the skillet on medium high (iron skillet works better). To see if the skillet is ready, put a couple of drops of water and it should start to sizzle, immediately.
2. Place the Thepla over the skillet. As the Thepla’s cooking, the color of the dough will change and have a dryer look. Turn over the Thepla using a spatula. You should see golden-brown spots on the semi-cooked side.
3. Wait just a few seconds and place 1/2 teaspoon of oil onto the Thepla and spread with a spatula. Turn over the Thepla.
4. Using your spatula, lightly press the entire Thepla. This will help it cook all the way and it may puff up in some areas.
5. Turn over the Thepla again and press with the spatula making sure it is golden-brown on both sides. Remove from heat.
6. Repeat with the remaining dough, till they are all done.

Serving Suggestions

Serve as is or with plain yogurt or pickle.

Variation

This recipe uses dry fenugreek leaves as it is available year round. But using fresh fenugreek leaves is ideal if you can find it. Substitute the dry leaves for 1/2 a cup of fresh chopped fenugreek leaves.