I’ll be honest: I’d watch Will Forte in a mullet wig for 90 minutes whether or not the trailer looked good. Luckily, it looks amazing. Screw the A-Team movie, this is the upcoming action movie I’m most excited about. [Rogue]
Category: News
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MacGruber Movie Will Change Action Movies Forever [Movies]
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A Brown Victory Changes Democrats’ Economic Agenda
Republican challenger Scott Brown seems likely to pick up Ted Kennedy’s old Senate seat in Massachusetts. That would give Republicans a filbuster-enabling 41-vote minority in the Senate, and Democrats are rightly freaking out about the future of their agenda. So should the party go small and eschew big legislation. In other words: Should Obamaism descend into–gasp!–Clintonism?
Noam Scheiber asks the question in this
perceptive TNR piece about what Obama should do with his
social/economic agenda if the Democrats lose in Massachusetts today.
This is a telling paragraph:According to the Senate aide, the first four weeks of the chamber’s
legislative year–which begins on January 19–will be devoted to three
initiatives: finishing up health care, hashing out a job-creation bill,
and raising the government’s debt limit, the last of which is like the
colonoscopy of Senate votes (necessary and not that
time-consuming in the grand scheme of things, but seemingly
interminable while it’s happening). Which means the earliest the Senate
could start working on regulatory reform, the next major item in the
queue, would be late winter. Unfortunately, the process of finalizing
that bill could take months. That leaves cap-and-trade on its
deathbed–“I can’t rule it out, but it’s fair to say it’s losing
steam,” says the Senate aide–to say nothing of other initiatives like
K-12 education.Hate to say it, but I think Noam (or his source) is being too
optimistic even with this pessimistic read of the Senate’s near future.
If Brown takes Massachusetts, the House and Senate will have to
scramble to put health care reform on the president’s desk before Brown is seated. Next up, you’ve got a job creation bill whose prospects were dimming
among conservative Democrats like Bayh and Baucus even when the 60-vote
majority seemed safe. Passing a messy health care bill, followed by a
messy job creation bill and then raising the debt ceiling will
give Republicans months of ammunition to capture and hold moderates who
are getting skittish on the deficit.The Senate has for a long time been less like an avenue to pass
legislation, and more like mud pit to watch it sink. A Brown victory
would effectively change the Senate’s consistency from viscous to solid
amber. A united Republican opposition would block anything resembling
Big Liberal Agenda, and Democrats will almost have to play small to create even the illusion of a working Senate. What kind of ideas would work? A small jobs bill that leans harder on tax cuts could make it out of Congress. Or Democrats could pass something small for the environment like the “green bank” proposal, “which would
use government money to help fund clean energy investments, and for
requirements that utility companies generate a certain amount of
renewable energy within a decade or so.”If Brown wins tonight, the commentariat will be focused on What Democrats Did Wrong. Liberals will say they didn’t move fast enough, or treat 2009 like the precious window of opportunity it was. Republicans will say they moved too fast, and Massachusetts is the public pumping the breaks on an out-of-control experiment in liberal one-party rule. It doesn’t really matter who’s right. A 59-41 Senate with a united opposition is, unbelievably, the equivalent of a house divided against itself.







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No iTunes Subscriptions from the Ashes of LaLa, Just Streaming Your Library from the Cloud [Rumor]
Apple isn’t going to use LaLa to launch a subscription service, a “variety of insider sources” have told the founder of MP3.com. It’s exactly what we speculated: Storing your iTunes library in the cloud and access it from anywhere.It’s a bit hard to tell where his insider sources stop and his own thoughts begin, but Robertson says that the next version of iTunes will integrate one of LaLa’s premiere features: scanning you entire music library, and letting you access the whole thing from the internet (it uploads any songs it doesn’t already have on the service), via a “personal URL using a browser-based iTunes experience,” not to mention from your iPhone.
The reason Apple didn’t just build it themselves, he says, is speed. We’ll probably see in September, like always with Apple and music events. [TechCrunch]
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Kraft to buy Cadbury for $19 billion
From BBC “Kraft and Cadbury: How they compare” (emphasis added),
The boards of Cadbury and US giant Kraft Foods have agreed a deal which will see Kraft takeover the British chocolate maker in a deal valuing the company at £11.5bn [~US$19.5 billion].
It means that the world’s second-biggest confectionery company will form part of the world’s second-largest food company. This is how the two firms currently stack up.
From NYT “Behind Kraft’s Raise, a Glimmer of Bigger Savings” (emphasis added),
Irene Rosenfeld, Kraft’s chief executive, partially justified the higher price on an analyst conference call by announcing that she expects her company to reap an extra $50 million in annual cost savings through the merger. That brings the total figure to $675 million.
At a standard 10 percent discount rate, Kraft was essentially authorized to spend around another $500 million today for Cadbury, which is a little less than a fifth of what they ended up shelling out extra for the company.
From NYT “For Britain, Cadbury Takeover Isn’t Easy to Swallow“,
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said at a press conference that his government was “determined that the levels of investment that take place in Cadburys in the United Kingdom are maintained,” and, “at a time when people are worried about their jobs, that jobs in Cadbury can be secure.”
Cadbury employs 6,000 people in Great Britain, and more than 46,000 worldwide.
During its conference call Tuesday, Kraft reiterated that it would keep a strong presence in Britain and would be a “net importer” of jobs in the country.
And for those who has paid attention to the deal and Warren Buffett’s public opinion of the deal, Alice Schroeder (biographer of Buffett) made some insightful observations in “Buffett Orchestrates Kraft-Cadbury Deal” (emphasis added),
[…] why did Buffett make his announcement that Berkshire would vote against a deal that included more stock? Why didn’t he just tell Irene Rosenfeld that in private? Why set off a frenzy of rumors about a rift between the two of them?
True, lines drawn in the sand in public are taken more seriously than warnings made in private. And Buffett’s message was sent to all parties concerned – especially, perhaps, the arbs and Cadbury.
Posted in Business, Economics, investment, UK, united states, Warren Buffett, World

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Brittany Murphy Husband & Mother “Larry King Live” Interview [Sneak Peek]

One month to the day after the death of actress Brittany Murphy, the star’s husband, Simon Monjack, and her mother, Sharon Murphy, opened up about their loss and blame Hollywood for contributing to the star’s death.
The Clueless star, 32, died Dec. 20 after suffering a suspected cardiac arrest in her Los Angeles home.
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Should Google Kill the Nexus One?
Google this morning postponed the launch of two Android handsets in China in a clear indication that the company’s rift with Beijing threatens its booming mobile business. Meanwhile, the Nexus One has seen lackluster sales amid widespread complaints of technical glitches. So with Android’s future in China uncertain, and problems mounting with Google’s decision to build and sell the ideal Android phone — the Nexus One – is it too early to wonder whether Google will pull the plug on its flagship phone?Google indefinitely pushed back the launch of two handsets slated to debut tomorrow from China Unicom, dramatically upping the ante in its high-profile showdown with the Chinese government. As Om noted last week, China accounts for more 638 million wireless users, and handset sales are expected to grow by 21 percent this year alone. And the market could be especially ripe for Android given its support by some key players in the region: members of Google’s Open Handset Alliance include operators China Mobile and China Telecom as well as Huawei and ZTE.
While a governmental crackdown could lead to versions of the open-source OS that are far less integrated with Google’s mobile apps, the escalating conflict means that Google will be unable to control the evolution of Android in China. And it surely closes the door on any potential Chinese sales of the Nexus One — throwing yet another roadblock at the struggling handset.
Google appears to have overreached in launching its own branded handset. The search giant was clearly unprepared to deal with the customer service issues that inevitably arise in the retailing business, and splashy headlines of customer backlash are tarnishing its highly respected brand.
The company has obviously overestimated demand for an “official” Google phone, selling just 20,000 handsets in the first week it was out, and its strategy of competing against its handset and carrier partners has limited upside and risks losing the widespread support that has fueled Android’s growth. It may be unfair to predict doom for a handset that came to market just two weeks ago, but it’s becoming clear that taking on the role of mobile retailer was a mistake for Google. It’s too early to predict that Google will kill the Nexus One, but it’s not too early to wonder whether it should.
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Leave my soul alone
I’m re-reading the excellent book Into the Silent Land by neuropsychologist Paul Broks and was reminded of a part where he recounts an eerie poem about a 1938 operation to remove a brain tumour.The poem is by Welsh poet and doctor Dannie Abse and, looking it up on the internet, I discovered that the poetry archive has a wonderful entry for the piece online that not only includes the text but also a recording of Abse introducing and reading the poem.
The uncanny incident, probably caused by stimulation of the cortical surface, was witnessed by Abse’s brother, also a doctor, when observing an operation by the famous neurosurgeon Lambert Rogers.
In the Theatre
by Dannie Abse(A true incident)
Sister saying—‘Soon you’ll be back in the ward,’
sister thinking—‘Only two more on the list,’
the patient saying—‘Thank you, I feel fine’;
small voices, small lies, nothing untoward,
though, soon, he would blink again and again
because of the fingers of Lambert Rogers,
rash as a blind man’s, inside his soft brain.If items of horror can make a man laugh
then laugh at this: one hour later, the growth
still undiscovered, ticking its own wild time;
more brain mashed because of the probe’s braille path;
Lambert Rogers desperate, fingering still;
his dresser thinking, ‘Christ! Two more on the list,
a cisternal puncture and a neural cyst.’Then, suddenly, the cracked record in the brain,
a ventriloquist voice that cried, ‘You sod,
leave my soul alone, leave my soul alone,’—
the patient’s dummy lips moving to that refrain,
the patient’s eyes too wide. And, shocked,
Lambert Rogers drawing out the probe
with nurses, students, sister, petrified.‘Leave my soul alone, leave my soul alone,’
that voice so arctic and that cry so odd
had nowhere else to go—till the antique
gramophone wound down and the words began
to blur and slow, ‘ … leave … my … soul … alone … ’
to cease at last when something other died.
And silence matched the silence under snow.Link to poetry archive entry for ‘In the Theatre’.
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Cornea Cell Density Predictive of Graft Failure at Six Months Post Transplant
Cornea Donor Study Investigator Group Finds Preoperative Cell Density Not a Factor in Success
A new predictor of cornea transplant success has been identified by the Cornea Donor Study (CDS) Investigator Group. New analysis of data from the 2008 Specular Microscopy Ancillary Study (SMAS), a subset of the CDS, found that the preoperative donor cell count of endothelial cells, previously considered to be an important predictor of a successful transplant, did not correlate with graft success. Instead the study found that a patient’s endothelial cell count six months post-cornea transplant is a better indicator of subsequent failure of the graft rather than the donor’s cell count. These results offer an additional, reliable indicator of success that surgeons can use for monitoring patients at the six-month milestone after transplantation.
Endothelial cells form the back layer of the cornea and keep the cornea clear and prevent it from swelling. Previously it was thought that the more endothelial cells/mm2 in the donor cornea, the better, which put pressure on the eye banks to have donors with the highest count possible to distribute to corneal surgeons. However, the SMAS findings show no correlation between it and a patient’s graft success rate five-years post transplant, as long as the industry standard minimum of 2,000 cells/mm2 was met. The results of this study are published in the January issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology.
“These new findings of the SMAS are excellent examples of evidence-based medicine impacting clinical practice,” says Jonathan H. Lass, M.D., senior author of the study and professor and chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals Case Medical Center. “This evidence offers surgeons a broader pool of donors for their patients and will allow more individuals to donate to eye banks.” The results were analyzed at the Specular Microscopy Reading Center, part of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Case Western Reserve University and the University Hospitals Eye Institute.
Conceived in 1998, the CDS is a prospective cohort study that has already reported: 1) The age of the donor does not impact transplant survival after five years for conditions with moderate risk for graft failure due to endothelial dysfunction (Fuchs’ dystrophy, pseudophakic/aphakic corneal edema) (Ophthalmology 2008); 2) Incompatibility of blood type between the donor and recipient also does not impact graft survival at five years (Am J Ophthalmology 2009); and 3) There was a trend toward greater endothelial cell loss (75 percent) in the older donor age group (over 65 years to 75 years of age) than the younger donor age group (under 65 years) (69 percent), but this difference did not impact graft survival at five years (Ophthalmology 2008). This NIH-funded study has been extended through 2012 in order to determine whether these findings persist for a total of ten years post-transplant.
“The more than 100 physicians and researchers involved in the Cornea Donor Study have been leading the effort to identify factors that will keep donated corneas clearer for longer,” says Roy W. Beck, M.D., Ph.D., the principal investigator of the Cornea Donor Study Investigator Group and Executive Director of the Jaeb Center for Health Research in Tampa, Florida.
Additional support for CDS was provided by: Eye Bank Association of America, Bausch & Lomb, Inc., Tissue Banks International, Vision Share, Inc., San Diego Eye Bank, The Cornea Society, Katena Products, Inc., ViroMed Laboratories, Inc., Midwest Eye-Banks (Michigan Eye-Bank, Illinois Eye-Bank), Konan Medical Corporation, Eye Bank for Sight Restoration, SightLife, Sight Society of Northeastern New York (Lions Eye Bank of Albany), and Lions Eye Bank of Oregon.
For more information contact Jessica E. Studeny, 216.368.4692.
For more information contact Christina DeAngelis, 216.368.3635.
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D4 Thermal Shock Review
D4 Thermal Shock is a diet pill that “helps you obtain your fat loss and fitness goals much more efficiently than previously thought” (website). This D4 Thermal Shock review will give you the information you can’t find on the Cellucor (D4 Thermal Shock manufacturer) website so you can determine if D4 Thermal Shock is the diet pill for you.D4 Thermal Shock Ingredients
Embelic Myrobalan Extract
Caffeine is a clinically proven diet pill ingredient. Although D4 Thermal Shock does not list how much of each ingredient it contains, the customer service representative told me there are 298 mg of caffeine contained in D4 Thermal Shock. Based on this information, this D4 Thermal Shock review finds the caffeine in D4 Thermal Shock is sufficient to contribute to weight loss.
White Willow Bark Extract is an anti-inflammatory. It does not cause weight loss.
Octopamine has not been proven to contribute to weight loss.
Yohimbine causes weight loss by mobilizing fatty acids. Unfortunately, D4 Thermal Shock does not reveal how much Yohimbine it contains.
Evodiamine does contribute to weight loss.
Scareolide
Vinpocetine increases blood flow to the brain; it has not been shown to cause weight loss.
Passion Flower Extract
Acetyltyrosine has been shown to contribute to weight loss when taken in doses of 500 to 1500 mg per day. Since there is no record of how much tyrosine D4 Thermal Shock contains, there is no way to determine if it will actually cause weight loss.This D4 Thermal Shock review finds the ingredients in D4 Thermal Shock could very well cause weight loss, if they are included in the necessary amounts. However, since D4 Thermal Shock does not list how much of each ingredient is included, there is no way of knowing whether or not the product will cause weight loss.
D4 Thermal Shock Cost
D4 Thermal Shock diet pills cost $71.99 for 120 capsules. If you take the maximum recommended dosage of 4 capsules per day, one bottle of D4 Thermal Shock will last a month. This is on the expensive side for a diet pill, but not outrageous considering it actually has potential to be effective.
D4 Thermal Shock Customer Service
I had several questions about D4 Thermal Shock, so I tried their live online chat. Usually this means you are chatting with a computer that can only answer general questions. However, the chat I had about D4 Thermal Shock was with a live person and was very informative.
I asked what how much of each ingredient is included in D4 Thermal Shock. The representative (Jerry) told me that because of patent issues, they can’t release information on ingredient amounts.
He did inform me that if you purchase D4 Thermal Shock you will receive free counseling from a personal trainer. With the trainer you agree on a feasible weight loss goal. If you do not achieve your goal, D4 Thermal Shock will refund your money. Fairly impressive.
D4 Thermal Shock Conclusion
This D4 Thermal Shock review finds there are several effective ingredients contained in D4 Thermal Shock diet pills. Unfortunately, there is no indication of how much of each ingredient is included. While this would usually be reason enough for us not to recommend a product, we really like the guarantee associated with D4 Thermal Shock and the great customer service.
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One Third of U.S. Internet Users Now Post Status Updates Once per Week
A third of all Internet users in the U.S. now post status updates on social networking services like Twitter and Facebook at least once per week. According to new data from Forrester Research, more than half of what the report calls “conversationalists” are female and 70% are 30 years old or older. Forrester’s data also shows that 59% of all U.S. Internet users now use social networks and that 70% consume content on social media and social networking sites.As Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff notes, two years ago, when the company first looked at similar data, people’s online behavior with regards to creating and consuming content was very similar to what Internet users are doing today. One major difference, however, is the rise of conversational interactions. People still blog, comment and vote on social news sites like Digg and Reddit. Over the last two years, however, the fastest growing group in Forrester’s surveys have been conversationalists who use Twitter and Facebook to post status updates and engage in conversations with their friends.
More People Join Social Networks – Number of Creators Remains Stable
Creators – those who publish their own blogs or upload audio they created – now make up 24% of all Internet users. Joiners – those users who maintain a profile on a social networking site – make up 59% of all users. Interestingly, while the number of joiners has grown rapidly, the number of creators has remained relatively stable over the last few years. This makes sense, though, given that it’s very easy to join a social network but relatively hard to create a podcast or maintain a blog.
Forrester classified 17% of all respondents as “inactives.” These users don’t participate in social networking activities at all.

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Markets Zoom Higher, Erasing Friday’s Losses

The Dow is up 96 points while the NASDAQ and S&P are up 26 and 12 points, respectively.
Oil is just about breaking even, unchanged at $78 a barrel of crude.
Gold is up $4.20 to $1138 an ounce and silver up $0.34 at $18.77.
Apple (AAPL) is doing well on the hard news of ra coming Apple tablet launch. It’s currently up 3.8% at $214 a share.
AIG (AIG) is also having a good day amid news that it may sell its Alico unit to MetLife (MET) for $14-15 billion. It’s up 2% at $28.64 a share.
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
- Stocks Predict A GOP Win In Massachusetts
- Here’s What Will Happen To Healthcare Stocks If Scott Brown Wins Tomorrow
- Stocks Boom Across The World After Intel Numbers
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Snooki Dating Show Could Be Headed To VH1

Reality fans could be “Snookin’ for Love” sooner than originally thought. Jersey Shore’s Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi has revealed that she is fielding offers from several networks to star in her own reality dating show.
“Definitely there is no set thing but it has been talked about. I got offers from VH1 and other reality networks,” she tell Us Weekly.
Snooki, a 21-year-old self-described “guidette,” has previously said she’d like to appear in a Flavor of Love-esque show, tentatively-titled Snooki For Love, where she will hand out pickles to the men she wanted to keep in the competition.
“A guy I can be real with. I love to be a dork; I love a guy with a sense of humor,” Snook replied when asked what kind of man she would like meet.
Snooki recently admitted to “hooking up” with co-star Mike ‘The Situation” Sorrentino, but insisted that the arrangement is “not awkward at all.”
Jersey Shore airs Thursdays on MTV.
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Microsoft Reduces Bing’s Personal Data Retention Profile
Microsoft, with a nod toward privacy protection, has announced that it will limit the amount of time that it stores IP addresses of web searchers using the Bing search engine to six months, down from 18. Peter Cullen, the company’s chief privacy strategist, announced the move in a blog post.According to Cullen’s post, increased pressure from the European Union, which has been squaring off with Microsoft lately, may be behind the decision. The EU has specifically called for search engine providers to limit retention of personal data to six months or under:
“This change is the result of a number of factors including a continuing evaluation of our business needs, the current competitive landscape and our ongoing dialogue with privacy advocates, consumer groups, and regulators – including the Article 29 Working Party, the group of 27 European national data protection regulators charged with providing advice to the European Commission and other EU institutions on data protection.”
Cullen also supplied the following slide, which claims that Microsoft will de-identify personal information immediately when Bing is used, but will store the user’s IP address for six months:
Microsoft’s shift in policy follows similar moves from both Yahoo and Google. Yahoo announced over a year ago that it would delete most personal data on users of its site after three months. Google partially deletes IP addresses after nine months by deleting the last characters and numbers in the addresses, as noted on FutureOfPrivacy.org.
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— Molan —
Hey, this is a new city i’ve just started and so i thought about posting a few initial shots, so as to progress with the growth slowly and capture the moments, not much is here yet i know, but keep with me, as i’ll be updating this thread as the city grows. 🙂Right now it’s at around 5’000 in population.
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Helmut Marko afirma que Bruno Senna no correrá en Toro Rosso
Helmut Marko acaba de desmentir los últimos rumores que situaban a Bruno Senna como nuevo piloto de la escudería Toro Rosso. Según ha afirmado el propio Marko:

No es cierto, nunca he oído esa historia. Será Alguersuari. Hay algunos detalles contractuales que hay que resolver, pero en principio, será Alguersuari.
Por lo visto, ya se habría concretado una fecha para confirmar la renovación de Jaime Alguersuari. Asi que, es muy posible que en los próximos días los seguidores españoles de la Fórmula 1 volvamos a recibir otra buena noticia.
Por lo visto, Franz Tost tendría que ser informado al completo de todo lo referente a la renovación de Alguersuari. De confirmarse esta noticia, tendríamos tres pilotos españoles en la parrilla, Fernando Alonso, Pedro de la Rosa y por último, Jaime Alguersuari.
Related posts:
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Published calories counts have intended effect
THERE has long been enthusiasm among the “nudge” behaviouralists for the posting of calorie content in restaurants. The availability of this information, it is assumed, will encourage diners to choose healthier options, thereby improving public health, without heavy-handed government limits on what can actually be sold and consumed. And so there was a great deal of disappointment when early results out of New York City, where mandated calorie count information was introduced in 2008, failed to show the expected decline in calories consumed:
The results were pretty dismal: only about half the respondents even noticed the calorie counts and only 15% said they influenced their choice. But the receipts told an even more dismal story: overall, people actually purchased more calories after the law went into effect. The results aren’t statistically significant, though, so basically all the researchers can really say is that the law (so far) hasn’t had any effect. The only glimmer of good news is that among people under 35, respondents who noticed the labeling did seem to cut back a bit. No other subgroup showed any effect.
But perhaps that initial analysis underestimated the effect of the programme. Here’s a new piece of research from NBER, by Bryan Bollinger, Phillip Leslie, and Alan Sorensen:
We study the impact of mandatory calorie posting on consumers’ purchase decisions, using detailed data from Starbucks. We find that average calories per transaction falls by 6%. The effect is almost entirely related to changes in consumers’ food choices—there is almost no change in purchases of beverage calories. There is no impact on Starbucks profit on average, and for the subset of stores located close to their competitor Dunkin Donuts, the effect of calorie posting is actually to increase Starbucks revenue. Survey evidence and analysis of commuters suggest the mechanism for the effect is a combination of learning and salience.
That is what we’d expect to see; after all, consumers seem to significantly underestimate the calorie content of junk food, occasionally by thousands of calories. What’s interesting is that Starbucks actually benefitted financially, relative to nearby competitors, from posting this information. That suggests that firms should be quick to adopt calorie posting in places where it’s not yet mandated. And, oddly enough, the government mandate seems to have turned up a few twenty dollar bills, just lying around on the sidewalk.
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Play.me – A New Music Service With Unlimited, Uninterrupted Streaming On Demand
Play.me – the newest music platform where users can stream ad-free music on demand from virtually anywhere at any time – has officially launched. Play.me’s browser-based service gives users instant access to over 2.5 million songs to create playlists and customize radio stations to share and stream through social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Play.me enables music fans to quickly find and play all the songs they love from a comprehensive, continually updated catalog and find new artists with Play.me’s discovery tools, including similar artist suggestions, new releases, and dynamic commercial-free radio stations which can be instantly created based on genre, artist, and decade.
For the music listener on-the-go, Play.me’s pioneering Android app — the first of its kind in the US market — allows users to temporarily save playlists directly to their phone. This new feature enables users without a signal to enjoy uninterrupted listening while “off the grid,” such as being on a plane or in a subway tunnel where you don’t have cell phone reception or wi-fi access.
Play.me offers consumers both a premium monthly subscription service ($9.99) and a free trial version with limited streaming capabilities and complimentary downloads.
Play.me has licensing deals with major music companies including Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Music, IODA, The Orchard and Beggars Group. In addition, Play.me is actively working to add more content providers, and is in the latter stages of negotiations with the other major labels. From mainstream hits to buzz-worthy indies and everything in between, Play.me provides over 10 million minutes of non-stop music.
“We believe that our easy-to-use navigation and extensive catalog — combined with the trial and paid offerings — makes Play.me the ultimate destination for music enthusiasts to hear and discover music the way they want, when they want,” said Massimiliano Pellegrini (Chairman, Play.me Inc.).
“We are pleased to make our unparalleled roster of music available through the Play.me platform. We think well-built, easy-to-use services that provide a compelling consumer experience to fans have a huge opportunity to meet consumer demand for legitimate digital solutions,” said Michael Paull, Executive Vice President, Global Digital Business, Sony Music Entertainment.
In the coming weeks, Play.me will launch new features, including the release of its mobile application for iPhone and Blackberry; and Play.me News featuring artist interviews, special promotions, and the latest music news. Developers are also encourage to check out Play.me Labs, and be sure to check out Play.me blog for the latest updates and company news.
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MARRAKECH | Hotel Kenzi Farah


In June I stayed in this hotel for 4 nights and 5 days. The hotel was very good, the rooms are very spacious, the staff very friendly, the pool is very big, unfortunatly I couldn’t take a swim in it because in my first full day of visit I fell down in the Medina of Marrakech and hurt my hand, I had to receive two stitches, so no swiws in the pool, facing 5 days of 40 degrees with a stitched hand isn’t easy, but the hotel has AC in all the rooms.
I liked this Marrakech trip, the city and surroundings reminded me of Tunisia, but in Tunisia the food was a lot better, traditional morrocon food doesn’t suite me, in the Tunisian Hotel they served tipical european food while in the Kenzi Farah it was all moroccon. In the first day I visited Djemaa-El-Fna, in the second day we visited Essaouira, in the last full day we visited Chez Ali. This trip was an offer from my insurance company. -
How the price tag doubled for the St. Clair line
Quote:
How the price tag doubled for the St. Clair line
Lack of central oversight, construction add-ons blamed for the cost skyrocketing to $106-million
Kelly Grant
City Hall Bureau Chief From Tuesday’s Globe and Mail Published on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010 12:13AM EST Last updated on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010 4:20AM EST
The price tag of the new St. Clair streetcar line nearly doubled because nobody was in charge as the project’s scope ballooned, public consultation ran amok and more than 20 small contractors tripped over each other.
That’s the conclusion of a new study to be presented tomorrow to the TTC’s board, which is trying to learn from its mistakes as it embarks on a 120-kilometre light-rail expansion modelled on St. Clair’s exclusive right-of-way.
It’s no secret this thing was not the city and the TTC’s finest hour in the eyes of the public, said Richard Soberman, co-author of the report and former chairman of the University of Toronto’s department of civil engineering.
When city council approved the 6.8-kilometre St. Clair line in September, 2004, it predicted the project would cost $48-million.The figure was revised to $65-million before construction began.
Now, six years later, the final cost is expected to be $106-million and the last 300 metres of the line won’t open until June.
Dr. Soberman and co-author Les Kelman found the city and TTC failed to co-ordinate because there was no clear boss.
Various elements of the project were neither centralized nor controlled by any single entity, the report says.

The study also criticized the TTC for letting public consultations drag on indefinitely and for allowing scope creep.
Once shovels were in the ground, transit upgrades and unrelated jobs such as burying hydro lines piled up, increasing the costs and the construction headaches.
Those headaches linger for some business owners on St. Clair West.
Although construction is finished and streetcars are rolling from Yonge Street to Lansdowne Avenue, shoppers haven’t returned, said the executive director of the Corso Italia Business Improvement Area.
It’s done nothing. It’s been of little value to the businesses and little value to the residents, Jeff Gillan said. His wife owns Carmen’s Designs, a children’s clothing shop and one of approximately 250 businesses between Dufferin Street and Lansdowne.
To avoid laying off staff, she hasn’t taken a paycheque in three months, Mr. Gillan said.
Don’s Meats, located on the unfinished stretch of the streetcar route west of Lansdowne, hasn’t suffered as much as some of its neighbours.
That’s because construction crews ripped up the road outside the shop in small chunks rather than several blocks at a time, mitigating the traffic jams that paralyzed other sections of the St. Clair line, said Don Panos, who has owned a wholesale and retail meat shop in the area for 26 years.
The TTC should apply that construction lesson to its new light-rail routes, Mr. Panos said.
The transit authority also needs to avoid dividing the community, as happened on St. Clair. They [the TTC and the city] were adamant and forced their will on the people, Mr. Panos said.
The councillor who championed St. Clair’s exclusive right-of-way said many of the problems identified in the report have already been remedied for the first Transit City lines to be built on Eglinton, Sheppard and Finch avenues.
You need to know where the buck stops, said Joe Mihevc, a TTC commissioner whose Ward 21 includes most of St. Clair West. On Eglinton, Sheppard and Finch, it’s the TTC that will be in charge. It’s their puppy.
The TTC is already looking to replace the mishmash of small contractors that built St. Clair with larger contractors capable of co-ordinating sprawling projects. Teams of communications staff will keep people abreast of Transit City developments; one employee with 16 other projects on his watch handled communications for the St. Clair line, Mr. Mihevc said.
So far, Mark Bozian is cautiously optimistic about the 15-kilometre light-rail line outside his Toyota dealership on Sheppard Avenue East, where he chairs the business improvement area. Pre-construction broke ground last month.
We want it to be done in a consensual, prudent, businesslike fashion, Mr. Bozian said. If they don’t, we’ll end up with the same nightmare as St. Clair.
Off the Rails
The St. Clair Avenue West streetcar line leapt in cost from its conception to its completion over half a decade. Here is a list of key numbers relating to the project:
* $48-million initial cost estimate, September 2004
* $65-million updated cost estimate
* $106-million estimated final cost
* 5 the number of years to complete, assuming the full line opens by June 2010
* 20 the minimum number of small construction contracts awarded for projects relating to the line
* 8 the number of months a judicial review delayed the projectSource: Getting it Right: Lessons from the Implementation of the St. Clair Streetcar for the Implementation of Transit City.
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CNN MONEY: Kraft’s Rosenfeld Expects Deal To Close Successfully
By ANJALI CORDEIRO
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
January 19, 2010: 12:37 PM ET
Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) Chief Executive Irene Rosenfeld , speaking soon after brokering a deal to buy British confectionerCadbury PLC (CBY), said that she’s confident the acquisition will close successfully and that the newly structured deal no longer requires a vote of approval from her own shareholders. Kraft on Tuesday announced a sweetened deal for the British confectioner with a new structure including less stock and more cash. The fact that
Kraft is using less stock and no longer requires a vote from its shareholders is significant. Earlier this month, Kraft’s largest shareholder, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRKA, BRKB), said it would vote against the issuance of new stock. Kraft now no longer requires Berkshire to change its vote.To be sure, while Buffett has not spoken publicly, he could be less critical of the new terms since it involves the issuance of fewer
Kraft shares, which he had suggested were undervalued. A Berkshire Hathaway spokeswoman said Buffett was not available for comment. In the interview, Rosenfeld said her company doesn’t need its investors to sign off on the deal because less stock was being issued. The
Kraft shareholder vote no longer is required under the rules of the New York Stock Exchange since new stock being issued is less than 20% of shares outstanding. Rosenfeld declined to comment directly on Buffett’s reaction to the new terms.
“I have no reason to believe Mr. Buffett doesn’t support my management team,” Rosenfeld said. Buffett’s comments earlier in January had been seen as a rebuke of
Kraft . Earlier Tuesday, Cadbury accepted a
GBP11.9 billion takeover offer fromKraft , a deal that ends a bitter four-month battle and nearly 200 years of independence for the U.K.’s largest confectionery company. The U.S. food company, which makes the Toblerone and Milka brands of chocolate, as well as processed cheese and ready-to-eat meals, said it has agreed to pay 840 pence a share for the company as well as a 10 pence dividend, sweetening the original offer and significantly increasing the cash element. Kraft will pay 500 pence in cash for each Cadbury share as well as 0.1874 new Kraft shares, up from its original offer of 300 pence in cash and 0.2589 new Kraft shares. The original hostile bid had been rejected by the U.K.-based maker of Trident gum and Dairy Milk candy for being “derisory,” and had been criticized by some shareholders for offering too little in cash. Rosenfeld argued in the interview that despite the higher price,
Kraft believes the deal “would deliver attractive economic returns.” She said that over the course of the transaction, she had conversations with many investors, including Buffett, and they told her there was “tremendous intrinsic value” in
Kraft shares. That eventually pushed Kraft to significantly reduce the number of shares in the transaction. Asked if other bidders might still emerge, Rosenfeld only said that she was confident her agreement with Cadbury would close. Hershey (HSY), far smaller than
Kraft and with less financial firepower, is likely to be reluctant to jump in at this stage. The deal will add
5 cents toKraft’s per share earnings by 2011. Rosenfeld said, “It is hard to argue that a deal that is quickly accretive to earning can be bad for our shareholders. It is a transformational transaction.”
Kraft would be able to increase its footprint in developing markets, she said, and get cost savings and faster growth from the combination. Kraft is committing to its dividend and expects to keep its investment-grade rating despite the sweetened bid. The company is funding the cash portion of its bid through financing from banks that it had arranged for at the start of the takeover battle, proceeds from the sale of its pizza business to Nestle and cash on hand.
“There are revenue synergies and cost savings that will come from the combination that will be able to accelerate the growth of the combined company,” Rosenfeld said.
In
India for instance, where Cabdury is strong,Kraft will use that sales network to grow the reach of Kraft brands, she said, whereas in a country like Brazil ,Kraft will use its own network to boost Cadbury’s presence. Closing the lengthy, and sometimes acrimonious, deal would be seen as a positive for Rosenfeld. But
Kraft will also face challenges in integrating a giant company with a presence across the globe. “They are getting an asset that will be very good for them. The price paid will take some justifying. It will take some time before Cadbury contributes to
Kraft financially,” said Edward Jones analystMatt Arnold .Rosenfeld didn’t say what would happen to Cadbury’s top management, saying only that the company had a lot to work on in coming weeks.
“For a transaction of this magnitude we have been doing a great deal of integration planning…first hundred days planning,” she said, adding that it will be key to ensure that Cadbury maintains its business momentum.
The agreement brings to an end a lengthy battle that often threatened to go sour for
Kraft . “[I] feel quite good about the end results,” Rosenfeld said Tuesday.
Kraft shares, however, were down Tuesday, falling almost 2% to $29.00 in early afternoon trading.-By Anjali Cordeiro, Dow Jones Newswires
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