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Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today named Mark Miller, chairman, president, and CEO of Stericycle Inc. as its 2009 CEO of the Year.

Morningstar’s annual award recognizes a chief executive who exhibits exemplary corporate stewardship, demonstrates independent thinking, creates lasting value for shareholders, and has put his or her stamp on an industry.

Stericycle is a medical waste disposal firm that provides business and consulting services to customers worldwide. Based in Lake Forest, Ill., the company has operations in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Romania.

“With such an eclectic group of nominees this year, we’re proud to present the award to Mark Miller, whose entrepreneurial spirit and personal sacrifices helped Stericycle become the industry titan it is today,” said Paul Larson, equities strategist and editor of Morningstar StockInvestor.

“When Miller took over the financially strapped company in 1992 after a 16-year career at Abbott Laboratories, he took a 50 percent pay cut, mortgaged his home, and cashed out his retirement account to keep the firm afloat.

Although the company didn’t post a material profit for another five years, this difficult start emphasizes the managerial skill Miller exercised to transform the company in a relatively short span of time.”

Miller has deftly guided Stericycle during his tenure at the firm:

• By shifting the company’s focus from large hospitals to smaller, higher-margin customers, earnings per share have compounded at 32 percent annually; revenue and operating income have seen a 16 percent compound annual growth rate; operating profit has reached more than $300 million over the past 12 months; and the company is currently generating free cash flow at an annual rate in excess of $225 million.
• Stericycle has acquired more than 170 companies since 1993 and opted to bundle traditional medical waste disposal services with expanded offerings including OSHA compliance training, safety product sales, and pharmaceutical recall and retrieval services. These moves have solidified the company’s dominance of this small, but profitable, industry.
• The company’s growing 440,000 customer base is a far cry from the 12 customers Stericycle had when Miller took the reins.
• In addition to posting 10-year annualized returns of 28 percent, the firm’s diversified and essential business model has been largely unaffected by the recent market downturn, making Stericycle a recession-resistant investment.

Morningstar considers Stericycle to have a wide economic moat–possessing a set of sustainable competitive advantages–because of its uncontested scale, its low-cost advantage, and the industry’s high barriers to entry.

The company has established a sound reputation for remaining in compliance with stringent government disposal guidelines and has secured an edge over competitors by patenting environmentally friendly electro-thermal deactivation (ETD) treatment technology.

These factors helped the company reach sales of more than $1 billion in 2008 and, along with the company’s corporate stewardship practices, keep it well positioned for future growth.

Executives receive a majority of their compensation in the form of stock and other long-term incentives, and all executives are required to have equity ownership equal to three to five times their base salary, depending on years of service.

“Miller manages Stericycle with an eye to the future. He’s been willing to part with unprofitable businesses and forego higher revenue in an effort to increase profitability and returns on capital, which we think proves his focus on shareholder value,” Larson added.

“Miller’s offer to pay any fines for customers found in violation of OSHA’s blood-born pathogens standards demonstrates his belief in Stericycle’s value proposition, which employees also embrace.

Employee equity in the company has created more than 30 millionaires over the years.

In fact, Stericycle’s compensation structure is so attuned to long-term value creation and long-dated incentives that 2008 was the first time in five years that executives received modest increases in base salaries.

Plus, in a decade where major stock indices ended near where they started, common shareholders at Stericycle have enjoyed a total return in excess of tenfold.”

The three other nominees for Morningstar’s 2009 CEO of the Year award were Hunter Harrison of Canadian National Railway; Lonnie Smith of robotic surgery pioneer Intuitive Surgical; and Jim Skinner of McDonald’s.

The Morningstar CEO of the Year award was introduced in January 2000. Winners are chosen by Morningstar stock analysts based on Morningstar’s independent research.

For Morningstar’s article about the winner, go to: morningstar.com/goto/ceo2009.

For the complete list of past winners, go to: corporate.morningstar.com/CEOhalloffame.

About Morningstar, Inc.

Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

The company offers an extensive line of Internet, software, and print-based products and services for individuals, financial advisors, and institutions.

Morningstar provides data on more than 325,000 investment offerings, including stocks, mutual funds, and similar vehicles, along with real-time global market data on more than 4 million equities, indexes, futures, options, commodities, and precious metals, in addition to foreign exchange and Treasury markets.

The company has operations in 20 countries and minority ownership positions in companies based in two other countries.

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Selection is purely on the basis of merit. Only after the confirmation of admission, the candidate can send the DD for 1000 USD [non-refundable deposit]. The balance fee can be paid or before 31st May 2010 on receipt of the Provisional Admission letter.
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Filed under: Sedan, Marketing/Advertising, Hyundai, Luxury, South Korea

Hyundai spokesman Dan Bedore has confirmed to Autoblog that while a version of its home-market Equus is on the way to North America in 2010, the Korean automaker still hasn’t decided what the car will be named when it arrives. The high-end sedan may carry the horse-inspired KDM appellation, or perhaps even its Middle East moniker, Centennial, but other nameplates remain under discussion. And although Bedore declined to offer any specific possibilities, when pressed, he did admit that the company hasn’t ruled out anything with the word “Genesis” in its title, a move that would seemingly be appropriate given that the model has more than a few Genesis Sedan genes in its genetic blueprint. Such a strategy would also seem to be consistent with a rumored plan to separate Hyundai’s pricier offerings within brand showrooms. Genesis Prestige or Genesis Supremacy, anyone?

The rear-drive, V8 luxury sedan is on track for arrival in the second half of this year, and while it will be essentially identical to the Korean Equus, small visual differences like alloy wheel patterns and perhaps the absence of the domestic car’s prominent hood ornament (shown above) are also likely. No word yet on specific changes to the car’s underpinnings, but Bedore tells us that we “can expect some adjustments to things like suspension damping and steering tuning for the U.S. market.”

A Korean-spec Equus will be on display at next week’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit, but no further announcements regarding the car are scheduled.

Hyundai Equus on track for States in 2010, name still undecided originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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France is once again leading the way with a new proposal to advance the state of the Internet after the very popular, and apparently delayed, ‘three strikes’ law. A report presented to the French officials suggests a great way of helping the misfortune news publishers and the music industry, which just can’t seem to be raking in the kind of revenue they’ve been used to, by taxing online advertising. The report claims that companies like Google, Microsoft or Yahoo shouldn’t be able to profit from the advertising they sell while the poor content creators can hardly make ends meet. And if that doesn’t cut it, ISPs should also pay based on their traffic.

The French government, known for its innovative solutions and practical approaches to solving this nefarious problem, represented by its culture minister Frédéric Mitterrand put together a crack team to come up with a plan. Dubbed the Zelnik Mission, the group was formed by Patrick Zelnik, who also lent his name, a former music executive at Polydor and Virgin France currently CEO of independent music label Naïve, Guillaume Cerutti CEO of Sotheby’s France and former culture minister Jacques Toubon.

The team now presented their proposals to the French government and isn’t trying to hide that some of the more controversial pro… (read more)

For an extended frequency range, lower distortion, enhanced clarity and transparency, the 2010 Acura ZDX features the most advanced ELS Surround Premium Audio System yet, developed by Acura and Panasonic engineers.

The audio system boasts 435 watts of power through a total of 10 speakers, comprising titanium dome tweeters, an array of 6.7-inch Super Dynamic Range mid-range and bass drivers, and a downward-firing 8-inch diameter subwoofer with its own 100-watt PWM amplifier that e… (read more)

On January 7, 1610, Galileo Galilei pointed his “spyglass” to the heavens and stared up at Jupiter, one of the brightest lights in the evening sky, and noted what he at first assumed to be three bright stars near the planet. But over the following nights, he realized that those three bright bodies weren’t fixed in the heavens like stars, but rather seemed to dance around Jupiter along with a fourth, smaller body.

Galileo triumphantly announced his discovery of four “planets” that revolved around Jupiter in his March treatise, Starry Messenger [pdf]. Thinking of his pocketbook, he dutifully proposed naming them the Medicean Stars in honor of his patron, Cosimo de Medici. But the name didn’t stick, and today we honor the scientist rather than the patron by calling Jupiter’s four largest satellites the Galilean moons.

The discovery dealt a death blow to the Ptolemaic understanding of the universe, in which all planets and stars were believed to orbit the Earth. For, as Galileo wrote in his treatise, “our own eyes show us four stars which wander around Jupiter as does the moon around the earth.”

In the 400 years that have passed since Galileo first laid eyes on them, we’ve learned a great deal about the moons Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto (all named after the mythological paramours of Jupiter). If all goes according to plan we’ll soon get to know them much more intimately–NASA and the European Space Agency are currently planning missions to closely observe three of the moons. Click though this gallery to view NASA’s most stunning photos of the four satellites, and to find out what we’ve discovered in the four centuries since Galileo began the work.

(For more on Galileo’s discovery and what it meant to science, check out this post from DISCOVER’s Phil Plait.)

Image: NASA/JPL/DLR

Christmas was far better than expected, despite the snowstorms in the U.S. Retailers are getting excited, with many raising their forecasts as a result.

Reuters: Based on reports of 30 retailers tracked by Thomson Reuters Data, 71 percent posted better-than-expected sales results for stores open at least a year in December, the most important month in the calendar for the sector. Retailers overall posted a 2.9 percent increase, exceeding the 2 percent rise analysts were expecting and marking the best performance since a 3.4 percent gain in April 2008, according to Thomson Reuters Data.

Graphic below taken from the WSJ:

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Why The Tough November For Retail Doesn’t Mean A Bad December
• Surprise! U.S. Consumers Are Crawling Back Up The Ropes
• Retail Sales: It Really Was Gasoline!

While not a huge surprise, it’s worth discussing just how bad an idea it was for Warner Bros. Studios to get Netflix to delay renting DVDs of its movies for 28 days in order to offer up more streaming content. To recap, the very, very, very confused movie studios seem to think that the way to deal with increasing competition is to just add more windows to releases — and one way to do that is to delay when you can rent a movie. In the studios’ incredibly short-sighted thinking, they believe this will make more people buy DVDs — the one area of the movie business that has been on the decline of late. At the same time, the studios have been pissed off at Netflix for routing around them and getting rights to stream movies from Starz, and as such, have been denying requests to stream more movies.

So, the compromise is getting Netflix to delay the rentals in exchange for more streaming content.

It’s hard to express just how bad an idea this is for Warner Bros., and how far out of touch with their customers they must be to think this makes any sense from a business standpoint. What they are saying is that they are not going to give in to customer demand and offer them what they want, but actually make it more difficult, more annoying and more confusing for them to get what they want — and (at the same time!) screwing up basic marketing plans as well. Now, when movies are released on DVD and the large group of people who prefers renting to buying goes online to their Netflix account to do so, they won’t be able to. Four weeks later, they’ll be looking for something else. And, for those who simply want to see it right away, they’re now more likely to get it in an unauthorized manner.

Under what set of logic would it ever make sense to give the customer less of what they want in an era when increased competition from other sources is causing them to already wonder if they should buy your product?

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Stress is a part and parcel of our frenetic lives, but chronic stress is not what the doctor ordered. Too much stress hikes up your blood pressure, causes body inflammation and can result in heart problems.

So what do we do to slow down? Here are some ways to manage your stress.

• Be realistic about your goals and keep things simple. If you offer to host the annual family Holiday party, don’t go over the top and self cater the entire thing. Take-out side dishes and salads are great fill-ins.

• Express your thoughts in writing. Keeping a journal, blog or diary can be very therapeutic. And if you are not keen of the pen, try recording yourself via a digital voice or video recorder.

• Incorporate some form of exercise into your day and be consistent about it. You don’t have to run the marathon; take a walk with a friend, join the pool at the local Y or shoot some hoops with your kids.

• Massages are the ultimate relaxant. If you don’t believe me, try one for yourself. An aside, did you know that despite the gloomy economy – massage therapy has remained quite popular according to a recent survey from the American Massage Therapy Association?

• Find out if your workplace has any stress-fighting resources in place. Many Employee-Assistance Programs (EAP), wellness programs or health plans provide confidential personal stress-relief plans.

Ms. Hanson’s report, “Faithless Heathens: Scriptural Economics of Judaism, Christianity and Islam,” carried a title far more provocative than its contents, said the professor who advised her. But it may have given a hint of her career to come, as an officer for the Central Intelligence Agency specializing in hunting down Islamic extremists.

That career was cut short last week: Ms. Hanson was one of seven Americans killed in a suicide bombing at a C.I.A. base in the remote mountains of Afghanistan.
The victims there included the unidentified chief of the post at FOB Chapman, a mother of three young children, as well as two contract employees of Xe (formerly known as Blackwater), and four CIA employees whose families have released their names: Harold E. Brown Jr. of Massachusetts, 37; Scott Michael Roberson of Ohio, 39, a former U.S. Navy Seal; and Jeremy Wise of Arkansas, 35. Brown left behind his college-sweetheart wife and three children. Roberson was a security officer new to the agency, whose wife is due to give birth to their first child next month. Wise, who is survived by a wife and young son, was memorialized in a Facebook posting.

Another slain CIA officer was Elizabeth Hanson, 31, an Illinois native and a 2001 graduate of Colby College. A family friend posted notice of her death to friends on Facebook, describing Hanson as “effervescent” and “vibrant.”

I first saw the somber CIA Memorial Wall and book at the side of Henry “Hank” Crumpton, a legendary former CIA officer. Hank’s almost-mythic reputation has been chronicled in bits and pieces – though usually pseudonymously. He was simply called “Henry” by the 9/11 Commission Report and in Bob Woodward’s “Bush at War,” and “Hank” in others. His full name is Henry A. Crumpton, a wiry Georgian who spent the greatest part of his adult life hidden in the covert world of espionage and counterterrorism in Africa and South Asia.

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You’re going to be seeing Intel’s latest iteration of high-powered processors popping up all over the place soon—specifically, more than 400 PC platform designs and 200 embedded devices. Time to meet your next computer’s guts:

Intel is announcing 27 new Core processors in total, covering the mobile, desktop, and embedded chips developed with Intel’s new 32nm manufacturing process. The flagships have already been benchmarked and so far seem to deliver on the promise of being about twice as fast as comparable PCs currently available. The Core i5-670 desktop processor has been clocked at 3.46GHz, while the mobile Core i7-620M has a listed speed of 2.66GHz. With Intel’s Turbo Frequency mode, they can achieve speeds of up to 3.73HGz and 3.33Ghz, respectively

The energy reductions are described as “significant,” but there’s no real metric to judge it by.

All of the current chips are either currently available or will be in the next two weeks. There’s no word yet on when we might see new 32nm quad core processors, although we’re told it’s going to be in the near future.

Intel’s also rebranded Centrino to cover its wireless products, and today announced three new Intel Centrino Wireless adaptors with dual-band Wi-Fi support and 802.11n multistream capabilities.

Honestly, there’s not a ton of new information being announced this morning, which makes sense with Intel Big Boss Paul Otellini delivering a keynote this afternoon. We’ll be on hand for that as well, looking out for any bombshells. The entire spec rundown can be found here. Full release ahoy!

Intel Unveils All New 2010 Intel® Core™ Processor Family
Industry’s Smartest, Most Advanced Technology Available in Variety of Price Points

INTERNATIONAL CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW, Las Vegas, Jan. 7, 2010 – Intel Corporation introduced its all new 2010 Intel® Core™ family of processors today, delivering unprecedented integration and smart performance, including Intel® Turbo Boost Technology1 for laptops, desktops and embedded devices.

The introduction of new Intel® Core™ i7, i5 and i3 chips coincides with the arrival of Intel’s groundbreaking new 32 nanometer (nm) manufacturing process – which for the first time in the company’s history – will be used to immediately produce and deliver processors and features at a variety of price points, and integrate high-definition graphics inside the processor. This unprecedented ramp and innovation reflects Intel’s $7 billion investment announced early last year in the midst of a major global economic recession.

Intel is unveiling several platform products, including more than 25 processors, wireless adapters and chipsets, including new Intel Core i7, i5 and i3 processors, Intel® 5 Series Chipsets, and Intel® Centrino® Wi-Fi and WiMAX adapters that include new Intel® My WiFi features (see charts below). More than 400 laptop and desktop PC platform designs are expected from computer makers based on these products, with another 200 expected for embedded devices.

New 2010 Intel Core processors are manufactured on the company’s 32nm process, which includes Intel’s second-generation high-k metal gate transistors. This technique, along with other advances, helps increase a computer’s speed while decreasing energy consumption.

“For the first time, there’s a new family of Intel processors with the industry’s most advanced technology available immediately at virtually every PC price point,” said Sean Maloney, executive vice president and general manager of the Intel Architecture Group. “These smart processors adapt to an individual’s needs, automatically providing a ‘boost’ of performance for everyday applications. They become energy efficient to the point of shutting down processing cores or reducing power consumption to provide performance when people need it, and energy efficient when they don’t.”

Speed Meets Intelligence
Based on Intel’s award-winning “Nehalem” microarchitecture, these new desktop, mobile and embedded processors deliver smart performance for music, gaming, videos, movies, photos, social networking and other demanding mainstream applications. In addition, ultra-thin laptops with all new 2010 Intel Core processors inside provide a balance of performance, style and long battery life for sleek systems less than an inch thick.

New Intel Core i7 and Core i5 processors also feature exclusive Intel Turbo Boost Technology1 for adaptive performance, and thus smarter computing. Intel Turbo Boost Technology1 automatically accelerates performance, adjusting to the workload to give users an immediate performance boost when needed. Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology2, available in Intel Core i7, Core i5 and Core i3 processors, enables smart multi-tasking by allowing each processing core to run multiple “threads,” providing amazing responsiveness and great performance, balanced with industry-leading energy efficiency when processing several tasks simultaneously.

Supporting the all new 2010 Intel Core™ processors, the Intel 5 Series Chipset is the company’s first single-chip chipset solution, evolving from simply connecting components to providing a range of platform innovation and capabilities. The Intel Core family also has power-saving techniques like one Intel calls “hurry up and get idle” or “HUGI,” which enable processors to finish tasks quickly, while preserving battery life.

The all new 2010 Intel® Core™ processor family is the first to integrate graphics into mainstream PC processors. With Intel® HD Graphics, the processors deliver stunning visuals and smooth high-definition (HD) video playback. It’s also the industry’s first integrated solution to deliver multi-channel Dolby* TrueHD and DTS* Premium Suite home theater audio. In addition, Intel HD Graphics support mainstream and casual 3-D gaming without the need for an add-in video card, and offer full support for the new Microsoft Windows* 7 operating system.

Another intuitive feature available to mainstream notebook buyers includes Intel Switchable Graphics, which allows users who play very graphics-intense games to automatically switch between Intel’s integrated graphics to a discrete version on the fly, without having to re-boot, for optimal battery life and performance.

Beyond Laptops and Desktops – Embedded Processors
The new 2010 Intel® Core™ embedded processors target devices that leverage PC-like operations in the smarter connected world, including ticket kiosks and self check-out machines, ATMs, digital signs, medical equipment, communications gear and industrial machines. For example, system owners at a bank or retail store can better manage their ATMs, kiosks or a smart register using these processor platforms. These embedded devices can optimize workloads, conserve power consumption, remotely manage their connected network, and even gather metrics based on video analytics for more effective advertising campaigns.

Intel also expanded the performance-per-watt platform choices for embedded by adding error correcting code memory for applications that require a higher data integrity standard. The embedded processors, together with Intel 5 Series chipsets, offer an extended, seven-year life cycle that better matches how long these devices are in the marketplace.

Wireless Products, WiMAX and More
The Intel Centrino® brand now represents Intel’s wireless products, targeting a broader range of users than ever before. Three new Intel® Centrino® Wireless adapters feature advanced 802.11n multi-stream capabilities and dual-band support for WiFi, offering users up to 8 times greater speed3, consistent coverage and reliable connectivity while consuming minimal power.

Intel offers a complete line of high-quality adapters and its integrated WiMAX/WiFi adapter supports 2.3, 2.5 and 3.5GHz WiMAX bands delivering up to 20Mbps on the go.

All the adapters support Intel® My WiFi® Technology, which allows users to turn their laptop into a virtual hotspot and directly connect wireless devices to their laptop. Remote WiFi client management with Intel Embedded IT and Intel® Active Management Technology 6.0 also helps enable remote client management for the enterprise.

In addition, entry-level workstations now available based on Intel Core i5 with Intel HD graphics or an Intel® Xeon® 3400 series processors and the Intel® 3450 Chipset give users access to a workstation platform built around the efficiency, power and reliability demanded of a professional workstation. Intel will also offer the new 2010 Intel Core processor family on Intel® vPro™ Technology later in the quarter to help IT managers and corporations take advantage of hardware-assisted security and manageability capabilities.

Published Jan. 7, 2010
By the Tri-Ctiy Herald staff

PASCO — Columbia Basin College’s Student Employment office is putting on a series of free career development workshops to prepare job seekers for the Career Expo in February.

The first workshop is 9 a.m. Friday at the Pasco campus.

The workshops will cover topics from writing a resume to interviewing. They’re free and open to the public.

Details on the workshops are online at jobs.columbiabasin.edu/workshops

The Career Expo is Feb. 18 at CBC. Students and community members can explore careers, meet employers and hand out resumes during the job and internship fair.

Additional news stories can be accessed online at the Tri-City Herald.

design calendar 2010 is a project by designcollector, asking twelve talented artists to come up with their dreams about the year 2010. the collaborated artists are xavier bourdil, chelsea greene lewyta, art zu, wa11, albicocca, evgeny kiselev, cansu cender, zhenya vasilchenko, loic sattler, sarah france, alexey malina, and andrei robu.

every 30 days they will release a new calendar wallpaper in various high resolutions, the first month is the work by xavier bourdil. calendar can be download from 2010.designcollector.

The first thing you should know, if you don’t already, is that women LOVE to be touched. Touch is very important to all humans, but it is, generally, much more important to women, and they respond very strongly to touch. It is a powerful reward to a woman when you touch her, and it can instantly make her feel great.

Now, of course, some women are more reserved about it…some are more formal and are not comfortable feeling such good feelings with someone until they know them well. Some women are just closed off and don’t like anyone to enter their space, and even in a relationship, they resist having another person touch them so easily…And some women simply do not like being touched. They find it unpleasant and they recoil from it. But the truth is, women in those last two categories (ABSOLUTELY those in the last one) have had some trauma in their lives, probably child sexual abuse, that has damaged them to the extent that they can’t accept this natural and beautiful form of shared pleasure. That’s a sad truth of the world.

For the other women, depending on their degree of shyness, touch is always a pleasure and a treat…assuming they like the guy that is touching them, and it’s appropriate to the relationship. By appropriate, I mean, a female friend might love it if you rub her shoulders, but might be uncomfortable with something more “romantic,” like caressing her hair and cheek.

I am going to talk about touching in a romantic context, whether it be on a first date or with your wife of 20 years. And I’m not talking about directly sexual touching.

Sensual touching is an art that you should definitely spend some time mastering — because it will be incredibly rewarding to both you and the woman in your life.

1.  Touch her more. However much you are already touching your girlfriend, wife, or lover…you can do it more often. I can’t emphasize enough how much of an emotional connection and bond can be formed by this simple action. Women link many feelings of sexuality,love, and trust with the sensations that are aroused in them when a man puts his hands on her.

It can make her feel both sexually excited and safe at the same time. It can also make her body release certain chemicals into her blood that make her feel more attraction to and more comfort with the man that she is with.

How’s that for the simplest tip ever?

Try it out. I promise that it is as effective as it is simple.

2. Look into her eyes. Well, here’s one that’s even more simple…but again…it’s so much more powerful than it sounds. When you are putting your hand on her, whether you are caressing or squeezing…or petting or holding or any other kind of touching…Look into her eyes as you are doing it.

You will find that if you hold eye contact with a woman — even if she looks down for a moment — she will be drawn into your gaze and that you can hold her there. This will add an amazing amount of emotional intensity to your touch. She will feel it deeply in her body.

You may think, heck, I already look at her when I touch her…But just try this — try being aware of intentionally holding her eye contact as you touch her.

I think you will find that it makes a very big difference.

3.Try touching her in new ways. There are particular types of touching that women find more romantic, more sensual, and more arousing than others. And, of course, since all women are different, you’re going to have to do some experimenting to find out what the woman in your life responds to most. The key is to really tune in to her and notice how she is responding. That tuning in or “Paying Attention” that I always talk about, is actually the really important part of this tip…

But here are a few ways you should try touching her — most women respond very positively towards ALL of them.

Pay attention to see which ones your girl goes for:

# Use the very tips of your fingers and run them very, very lightly, so that it is almost a tickle, anywhere (or everywhere) on her skin.

# Stroke her gently, but not tentatively with the entire face of your hand. Try running it up her back, her neck, her legs, arms, or the side of her face.

# Just hold her firmly. This can be such a powerful feeling for a woman. Just place your hand on her shoulder, the back of her neck, her thigh, arm, or hand…and just hold her. Let her feel your masculine strength, but don’t, obviously, hurt her. If you do this right, she should feel the tenderness and protectiveness behind your touch.

# Cup her with your hand, and stroke gently with your thumb…This combines the first idea of gentle finger tips with the last one of holding her firmly…

I particularly like to hold the back of her neck and then gently stroke her cheek with my thumb…while looking into her eyes. Also try holding the back of her head and stroking her temple, or hold her arm and stroke her shoulder, or her thigh and stroke her knee.

Add eye contact to all of these and she will melt.

# Pet her hair. I have never met a woman who does not enjoy having her hair stroked. For girls with straight hair, you can let your fingers run through it. If she has curly hair, just pet, so that you don’t get stuck and start yanking on her knots!

To really send her into orbit, start at her neck and use your fingers to pet upwards into her hair along her scalp. You can bring a woman very close to orgasm with this one.

4.Feel With Your Feelings. I saved the best one for last…but it is also the one that is most complicated to explain, and can be more challenging for some men to master. That’s because, as guys, we’re just not as “in touch with our feelings” as women are. But this is of HUGE importance if you really want to rock her world in ways that will make her forget any other guy she has ever been with.

The basic truth is: A woman can FEEL, not just the physical sensation of your hand on her skin, but also she can FEEL the emotional content of your touch.

I know this sounds a little bit “out there,” but again, as always, I challenge you to TRY it before you dismiss it because this is really an incredibly powerful truth. When you touch a woman while thinking sexual thoughts about her, and when you focus that intent into your touch, she will FEEL it very strongly… and her body will respond to it. That sexual energy will flow from you and into her.

Likewise, when you feel tender feelings of attraction and protectiveness for your woman, and you stroke her hair, it makes her feel loved and safe. And there is nothing that will provide you both with a more amazing night of mind-melting sex than when the woman in your arms feels loved and safe.

I know that I’m leaving a lot out here, and that, especially this last tip is kind of hard to wrap your brain around. The truth is, that this issue of touching with emotion is part of a MUCH bigger picture of understanding women and female sexuality, and just too big a topic for this article.

However, don’t hesitate to get started by using the great tips above. You will be amazed that even these brain-dead simple tips
can make a huge difference in how women respond to you sexually.

If you are in a relationship, you will be even more amazed at the positive changes that just a tiny bit of information can cause. You can go to a marriage counselor, or talk to a therapist, or read books on “communicating” better, but there is NOTHING in my experience that improves a relationship more or strengthens the bond between a man and a woman than touch and sex.

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Fresh outta Evolution Robotics is Mint, an automated vaccuum with a difference, the difference being that it uses Swiffer’s cleaning cloths to dry. Oh, and the $250 machine is good in corners – rather like Jennifer Gray in Dirty Dancing.

Mint dusts and mops using the Dry and Wet Cloths of Swiffer (not to be confused with Walt Mossberg’s All Things D co-host) – as you can’t really see from this divinely antiseptic promo from its makers. Having listened to the voiceover, all I can say is, you were brave to go with a British voice. There’s a dirty bitch joke there, but I’m not going to make it. Instead, you can come up with a better one in the comments.

A boom in Chinese wind investments helped Asia top the Americas in clean energy spending last year, but Europe-Africa-Middle East remained the top region, according to data out this morning from consultant New Energy Finance.

Totalling up spending by venture capitalists, governments, asset financiers and so forth, the green eye shades at NEF found $37.3 billion invested in Asia-Oceania, versus $32 billion for the Americas. Europe plus got $42.2 billion.

Overall, considering that 2009 was the depth of the Great Recession and credit markets were chilly, clean energy investments continued to do well. Total new investments were $145 billion, down only 6.5% from all-time high of $155 billion in 2008. Increases in government spending and small-scale (think rooftop solar) projects rose, while spending by venture capitalist and private equity firms plunged.

Most of the money that NEF tracked went to asset financing — building wind farms, solar arrays and what not. And as you drill down into the data, things get interesting. We totalled up data from all four quarters and found that the European Union led the pack with $33.6 billion in asset investments, China came in next with $13.6 billion, followed by South America ($11.3 billion) and then North America ($7.9 billion.) Globally, most money went to the most mature renewable energy — wind — then solar and biomass in a distant second and third.

The one place where North America is clearly tops: it was far and away the top region for venture capital and private equity investments in small companies trying out new ideas.

Just to keep things in perspective, Exxon Mobil and Shell spent about $55 billion and change on new oil and natural gas projects last year.

Q: On a whim, I purchased a 1/3 lb. bag of organic cacao nibs. They smell delicious; almost savory.

I’ve had them in chocolates before, but other than making my own, what can I use them for?

Sent by PepperReed

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