Thursday 30 December 2010

managing personal finances

I’ve spent hours of my life toiling over virtual cities in Maxis’ Sim City series, and it must have rubbed off after all these years. I still enjoy meticulously planning infrastructure, zoning and carefully tweaking finances to this day.

The other day whilst trying to work, I accidentally (oops) went looking for some online heirs to the Sim City throne. Despite simple Flash games lacking the depth of even the original Sim City, I guessed there had to be a few decent, free city building games out there.

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ElectroCity

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A simple turn-based Flash game created by New Zealand energy company Genesis Energy to give players young and old a shot at managing a town or city’s growth and impact. Players must pay close attention to the levels of energy used, sustainability and environmental factors.

Players are given 151 turns to alter tax rates, build things, destroy things and generally oversee the planning of a city from an environmental point of view. It is up to you to keep your citizens happy, maintain finances and get the highest score possible out of 100 available points.

If you’re seeking inspiration then there’s plenty of completed cities to gawp at, and you can even save your progress and come back to it at a later point. Remember – it’s all about balance.

IBM CityOne

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A very in-depth city management game that allows you to choose one of four aspects of city life to manage – energy, water, retail and banking. This game also uses a turn-based system which scores you after each turn made.

There’s a fairly chunky registration form to fill out before you can play (which asks for all sorts of intrusive data) but the game itself functions well, especially if you’re a business-minded individual.

Your city starts off sketchy and greyscale, with colour gradually introduced as you implement much-needed change. At times it plays like a big advert for IBM, but remains enjoyable and looks pretty good to boot. Probably not great on slower PCs, especially those with an aversion to resource-heavy Flash.

City Creator

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Not necessarily a simulation or a management game, City Creator simply allows you to do just that – create a sprawling landscape from a set of pre-fabricated buildings and features.

The game features charming pixel art from and an isometric viewpoint, which complements the laid back style of play. Simply drag items from the left hand side of the screen to your city on the right and see what you come up with.

There are 3 building sets to choose from, each with their own unique style. If you register on the site you can save your creations and share them with your friends. If you just want to build a city then City Creator should entertain for a while at least. Be sure to check out their other project Castleford.

Zanpo Virtual Cities

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Lovers of Minecraft and pixel art rejoice in this Flash block-based city building game. Instead of building preset structures and features Zanpo Virtual Cities allows you to build fairly detailed city blocks using individual building pieces.

Users then vote on the best ones, and they get added to the virtual city. This one strikes me a bit like online Lego, and the emphasis is very much on building and not management.

You’ll need to register to build, or you can simply choose a city from the drop down list and click City View and see what everybody else has been building.

CityVille

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I know, I know. You’re sick of FarmVille, so why on earth do you want to hear about CityVille? Well considering there’s already more than 20 million people playing it I figured it would be an injustice to not include it on the list.

If you’re fine with yet another application accessing all your personal data and posting whatever it feels like to your wall then CityVille might appeal. The game is a casual Sim City-esque sim in which you take a humble town and turn it into a sprawling metropolis.

Graphically the game looks awesome, and there’s the added social interactions provided by the Facebook platform. If only it didn’t clog up your feeds, eh?

There are a few more Facebook games, that I’ve left out (it’s quite a saturated market, and Facebook isn’t for everyone).  If you’re interested, they were:

  • Social City
  • Millionaire City
  • Hollywood City

Have you found any other cool city building games? Do you prefer building or managing? Let us know in the comments!

Image Credit : Shutterstock

We are mere days away from 2011, and still happily ensconced in the holiday madness of 2010. This jolly season, which usually kicks off at Halloween, is a fast-moving fog of candy, cookies, cards and frenzy at the malls. It is also hopefully full of joy, laughter and quality time with family.

After the season’s last hurrah on New Year’s, what emerges is a renewed sense of spirit for the coming year –- and sometimes a desire to undo everything that has just been done. This is precisely why most people hit the ground running on January 1 with a resolve to lose weight, get in shape, walk the dog more, and so on.

The following roundup contains apps that can serve as trusty sidekicks to help you keep those resolutions you swear you’ll actually follow through on this year. In addition to personal health, other common resolutions include managing finances more efficiently, quitting smoking, finding a better job and finding love. There are obviously many more apps out there for each category, but I’ve hand-picked twelve to help you get 2011 off to a good start. Happy New Year!

Losing Weight/>

Lose It!/>

Lose It is a great, easy-to-use app that provides users with features for managing and tracking their weight loss and fitness goals. With an extensive database of foods and nutritional information available, you can simply scroll through the options and log what you have consumed for the day to get a total calorie count. The app also tracks calories burned through fitness and shows where you’ve gone over or under your caloric requirements for weight loss each day.

Cost: FREE

Go Meals/>

A dieter’s dilemma: You’re eating out at a restaurant and have no idea what the best choices are that are still suitable for your dieting needs. Go Meals is a helpful app for those moments when you’re out at P.F. Chang’s and want to know if the Mongolian Beef is less caloric than the Orange Peel Beef (it’s not). This app also includes thousands of listings for grocery store foods and provides full nutritional information for foods you eat on a daily basis. When an item has been chosen, you can save them to “Today’s Plate” and keep a log of your caloric, fat and protein intake. A very handy tool.

Cost: FREE

Getting in Shape/>

Fitness Free/>

This is a great free app that provides photographs and detailed steps for each of its more than 320 exercises. Essentially every major muscle group is reflected and you can use this app to get good ideas for triceps, quads or any other body part that you want to improve. There is also a section offering a small selection of pre-bundled, three-day workouts, or you can select exercises of your choosing and create your own customized workout.

Cost: FREE

iPersonalTrainer/>

iPersonalTrainer prompts users to create a workout and select which muscle groups they want to work by pointing to them on a (very buff) illustrated man. The app then takes you to a page with instructional videos for each exercise along with tips for good technique. The app also includes a Body Mass Index (BMI) calculator, weight tracker and progress log so you can keep track of your workouts while you get that hard body.

Cost: $.99

Organizing Finances/>

Pay Off Debt/>

Pay Off Debt provides a good template for users to track and manage all current balances and debts. Using an intuitive interface and the debt snowball method, this app lets you prioritize debts and see estimated times left to pay off each one. You can plan monthly payments for each and view progress bars as you begin chipping away at what’s owed. Based on your payment schedule, the app will also provide you with a date for when you are completely debt-free.

Cost: $3.99

Mintclass="blippr-nobr">Mint/>

Mint is a free app that automatically syncs all of your financial information directly from your online banking accounts, eliminating the need to manually enter all information. You can set up budgets and categories with spending limits on each; track your incoming and outgoing income; track investment accounts and more. The app also alerts you to things like large purchases, when a check clears, or if you go over budget. In addition, security measures are in place to lock iPhoneclass="blippr-nobr">iPhone access if lost or stolen.

Cost: FREE

Quitting Smoking/>

MyQuit Coach/>

MyQuit Coach is a highly-personalizable plan to help smokers quit. Users can set the parameters for the plan and upload personal photos and inspirational motivators to stay on track, and the app awards users with achievement badges when quitting goals have been reached. The app also connects to Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook, Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter and LIVESTRONG for additional moral support and information for users.

Cost: $3.99

Quitter/>

Quitter is an app that takes a slightly different approach. This lets users track progress by reminding them how long they’ve been smoke-free and how much money they have saved thus far. Users can refer to the app on a daily basis and keep track of how long they’ve gone without smoking and what they would have spent if they had continued.

Cost: FREE

Getting a Better Job/>

Monster.com Jobs/>

As one of the largest job search sites available, the Monster.com app is a great complement for anyone with a Monster account (which is free to register) and gives users access to the same listings they’d find online. The app automatically syncs with your web-based account and enables you to access saved job listings, resumes, saved searches and more from your iPhone. You can also use the iPhone’s built-in GPS system to locate jobs near you.

Cost: FREE

What Color is Your Parachute?/>

You’ve found the job you want, but the next step is the interview. The expression, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression,” couldn’t be truer when it comes to this opportunity, which is likely the only time you have to sell yourself and demonstrate why you are a fit for the job. The What Color is Your Parachute? app is a complement to the eponymous job-seekers’ “bible” and walks users through the job interview process and how to nail it. Tips on interview questions and questions to ask are featured, as well as top 10 mistakes to avoid. It’s a good read for anyone who is preparing for a big interview.

Cost: FREE

Finding Love/>

Dating DNA/>

Unlike other dating apps that require you to have an existing subscription to its web-based site, or are sketchier and only use GPS-navigation to track “singles near you,” Dating DNA is a free app and service that matches people based on compatibility scores. When you are deemed compatible by the app, based on both your ratings, you are then able to view each other’s profiles and connect. The app also provides “at-a-glance” compatibility scoring and dating potential indicators to help you determine if your potential mate is worth pursuing.

Cost: FREE

Love Survival Kit/>

If you need help in the love department and are looking for advice on what to do in certain situations, wikiHow’s Love Survival Kit is a good resource to have. There is plenty of information and dating advice for categories like “Awkward Situations” (ex. Escape Cuddling in Bed); “Breaking Up” (ex. Keep a Friendship After a Breakup) or “Relationship Skills” (ex. Stop Being Needy). Some of articles can be more funny than useful, but then again, sometimes with dating, people need all the help they can get.

Cost: FREE

Which apps did you find most useful? How do you plan to jumpstart your New Year’s resolutions? Let us know in the comments below.

More iPhone Resources from Mashable:

- 10 iPhone Apps for the Global Foodie/> - 10 Useful iPhone Keyboard Shortcuts, Tips and Tricks/> - 10 Incredible iPhone Portrait Photographs/> - 10 Incredible iPhone Photographs/> - 10 Ridiculous iPhone Accessories [PICS]

Image courtesy of spapax

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AOL Weird <b>News</b> Top 10: The Best of the Bizarre

What does a one-legged man, a fly-sized frog, a bacon sculpture of Kevin Bacon, conjoined twins who can see out of each other's eyes and a 115-foot Jesus statue have in common? They've all made the list for AOL's Top Ten Weird News ...


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Tuesday 28 December 2010

Making Money Internet




...hopelessly outgunned presidential campaign as if it was a business, not even spending more money than he had in hand. C'mon now, how laughable is that in this day and age in modern America that someone who wants to run the federal government should live within his own campaign means? Just like normal people who live on a real budget with no ability to vote themselves a pay raise and a higher debt ceiling when no one is watching C-SPAN!


When the ultimate Democratic winner, in league with the extraordinary gentleman Harry Reid and the tough-talking San Francisco grandma who's House speaker, has decided to spend a gazillion more dollars than any non-federal calculator has digits to display.


These people, for Nancy's sake, are already spending the income taxes of the unborn grandchildren of those 4,000 babies that Paul delivered. A shocking realization that may be helping to fuel the recent re-examination of Ron Paul, who never met a federal dollar that needed spending -- unless it was going back to his district near Houston.


Ron Paul came within something like 1,000 delegates of catching John McCain for the Republican nomination in St. Paul. But when he finally gave up, Paul still had about $5 million left over. He's been investing it traveling around the country to speak and helping like-minded RFR's (Republicans For Real) organize all over. And, who knows, maybe sell a few books.


But now, just as his fierce supporters fearlessly predicted all along, many in American politics are coming around to think that maybe RP's crazy ideas, for example, of auditing and controlling the Federal Reserve, are maybe not quite so crazy.


Our news colleague in Washington, Don Lee, details the sea-change in opinion in a comprehensive look at the old guy's rebirth for weekend print editions, which we're sharing here this morning as a distinguished guest post for Ticket readers around the world.


And for any surviving Ron Paulites, who won't dare leave their typically snippy comments below because that would require them acknowledging that their favorite fiction about a MSM conspiracy to ignore the old guy is fiction.


-- Andrew Malcolm


Because no federal funds are involved, Ron Paul would want you to click here for Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or follow us @latimestot. Or join us over here on The Ticket's new Facebook FAN page.


Here's Lee's reported news item:


For three decades, Texas congressman and former presidential candidate Ron Paul's extreme brand of libertarian economics consigned him to the far fringes even among conservatives. Not a few times, his views put him on the losing end of 434-1 votes on Capitol Hill.


No longer. With the economy still struggling and political divisions deepening, Paul's ideas not only are gaining a wider audience but also are helping to shape a potentially historic battle over economic policy -- a struggle that will affect everything including jobs, growth and the nation's place in the global economy.

Already, Paul's long-derided proposal to give Congress supervisory power over the traditionally independent Federal Reserve appears to be on its way to becoming law.

His warnings on deficits and inflation are now Republican mantras.

And with this year's congressional election campaign looming, the Texas congressman's deep-seated distrust of activist government has helped fuel protests such as the tea-party movement, harden partisan divisions in Washington and stoke public fears about federal spending and the deficit.

"People are wondering what went wrong. And they're not happy with what the....



....government is offering up," said James Grant, editor of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, offering an explanation for why seemingly wonkish arguments over interest rate policy and the money supply are spilling over onto ordinary Americans.

Some of Paul's most extreme views are still beyond the pale for most economists. Despite the eroding value of the dollar, no one expects the U.S. to return to the gold standard, as Paul advocates; most economists think that could wreck the economy.

In their less drastic forms, however, Paul's ideas are being welcomed by conservatives and viewed with foreboding by liberals. For conservatives, runaway inflation constitutes the biggest potential threat to the nation's future. Liberals worry that cutting back stimulus efforts too soon could slow or even halt the current recovery.

The debate over that question -- what the basic thrust of U.S. economic policy should be -- is likely to dominate the coming elections and Washington policymaking.

And so far, Paul and his fellow conservatives are on the offensive. President Obama and congressional Democrats are repeatedly pledging not to increase the deficit and to begin cutting back soon.

"I think we're going to be in for more revival of fiscal responsibility," said William Niskanen of the Cato Institute, who headed the Council of Economic Advisors under President Reagan.

Niskanen sees the Texas Republican's increasing influence as stemming from the continued economic weakness. "To this extent, Ron Paul gains voice," he said.

Paul would go a lot further in cutting back the government's role than even free-marketers like Niskanen support. If Paul had it his way, for instance, he would do away with the Fed entirely. In his bestselling book "End the Fed," he lambasted the central bank as an "immoral, unconstitutional . . . tool of tyrannical government."

Such rhetoric might once have been dismissed as extremism.


But Paul's anti-Fed message has drawn broad support because of the central bank's failure to restrain the flood of cheap money and excessive risk-taking in the years leading up to the financial crisis.

It has stirred rallies on college campuses and supportive commentaries from Wall Street pundits. More than 300 representatives in Congress have embraced Paul's ideas for reining in the Fed.

The response "is even more than I ever dreamed," Paul said in an interview, reminiscing about one evening during his 2008 White House run when University of Michigan students chanted "End the Fed" and burned dollar bills.

Paul, a skinny 74-year-old with a hangdog expression, understands that historical circumstances have thrust his ideas to the fore. "An intellectual fight is going on," he said.

Paul traces his economic views to his frugal upbringing in Pittsburgh at the tail end of the Depression. He saved pennies from delivering newspapers and helping out his father's small dairy business.

And his first economics class at Gettysburg College was an eye-opener, Paul said. When a professor explained how banks keep only a tiny part of their deposits on hand and earn money by lending out the rest, Paul discovered one of the "tricks" of the financial system.

Beyond that, Paul's ideas are grounded in the work of economic thinkers from an earlier era who focused on problems similar to those besetting the U.S. today.

In particular, Paul is a disciple of Ludwig von Mises, an Austrian theorist born at the end of the 19th century who contended that government intervention in an economy would fail because free markets were better at allocating resources and fueling growth.

Having lived through Germany's devastating hyperinflation in the early 1920s, which helped pave the way for Hitler, Mises wrote long before the Great Depression that over-generous credit policies would encourage excessive borrowing, creating a boom and then a bust.

Mises' ideas became central to what is known as the Austrian School of economics, which emphasized tight controls on credit and money supply, a strategy that discouraged financial ups and downs but tended to slow growth.

By 1940, when Mises arrived in America, most Western economists had embraced the competing theories of Britain's John Maynard Keynes, who called for government to stimulate the economy by spending on infrastructure and cutting interest rates.

Obama has largely followed the Keynesian script, as President George W. Bush did when the economic crisis broke.

Paul's once-lonely espousal of the Austrian School's ideas has gotten new impetus from conservative economists and Republican political strategists.

"A lot of good ideas were shoved aside because of the Depression and the rise of the Keynesian view of the world," said George Selgin, an economics professor at the University of Georgia.

Paul contends that Austrian economics explains the most recent financial meltdown: "It says if you inflate too much, if you have no restraint on monetary authorities, you're going to bring on a crisis." Now, Paul says, administration policies are leading the country toward disaster.

Selgin and many mainstream economists agree that pumping too much money into the economy can lead to trouble, but they say Paul goes too far.

In the 1930s, say Selgin and many other economists, including Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, the U.S. economy began pulling out of the Depression thanks to federal easing of monetary policy.

The economy tipped back into depression after the reins were tightened too soon.

"In this aspect of the monetary system, he's just blown it," Selgin said of Paul.

However, like Mises, whose portrait hangs on his Washington office wall, Paul is intransigent, and that has earned him an ardent following.


"His views are strong and hardheaded, but you've got to stand firm or you'll get blown over in this world," said Mark Skousen, editor of the newsletter Forecasts & Strategies and a former economics professor at Columbia University.


-- Don Lee


Photo: Larry Downing / Reuters; Orlin Wagner / Associated Press; Associated Press (Paul argues with Mike Huckabee in a GOP primary debate).


 


I wanted to learn how to breakdance so I paid some kid $15 to teach me out of my hard-earned newspaper route money. I saw him in the street, spinning on a piece of linoleum. He had three friends with him, all of them were good at their own particular style of breakdancing. One kid was good doing the backspins, windmills, and headspins. Another kid was good at doing all the above floor stuff: like popping, etc. Another kid was good at waving. Like his body was made out of rubber.  I had lost a contact lens and was afraid to tell my parents they needed to spring for a new pair. So for the entire summer, way back in the mid 80s, I practiced breakdancing every day and I could only see out of one eye. Maybe the best summer of my life. Certainly the most embarrassing when I now think back on it.


In every spare moment I either hung out with my new friends, having no issues abandoning my other friends who weren’t cool enough to understand the finer subtleties of the windmill, or I practiced in front of a mirror. Its even embarrassing writing these words down.


Of course, like in all my remembrances, I thought that by learning how to spin on my back and do other random contortions with my body I would , of course, meet girls in clubs. I had gotten rid of my glasses and braces a year earlier so now I was ready. I was the new me. That’s what the braces were for, right? Now my teeth were straight and shiny. Good for kissing. But it didn’t happen because I still had “me” to deal with. The me that couldn’t talk to anyone or was too shy to ask anyone for their number.


Much later, when I applied to colleges I never mentioned this little episode in my life.  I focused on things like “chess” and my stupendous performance as a “mathlete”.


But its all related to making money. I wanted to make money for the same reason I wanted to breakdance: because of lack of self confidence I felt I needed a crutch of sorts to increase my attractiveness to women.  My insecurity was so high that only by being the best at something could I muster the confidence to say, “this is me, this is what I do.”  If I wanted to pursue ANYTHING (and it has to be something I’m passionate about or it won’t work), I had to apply the following principles. Who knows if I ever really got good at anything, or mastered anything worth telling people about. But at the very least, I applied the principles below and got good at a few things. Good enough to make some money, good enough to have fun, good enough to have some interesting experiences along the way.


A)     Teacher: Get a teacher/mentor. I’ve done this with everything from chess, to stockpicking, hedge funds, entrepeneurship, etc. You absolutely need a teacher in anything you do to help you quickly jump over the basic mistakes.


B)      Read. Read everything you can. I have over 200 books about chess. I’ve read over 2-300 books on investing. In the early stages of the Internet I read every book that Tim O’Reilly ever published.  I learned every programming language, everything about networking and security, everything about design. I read everything I could on entrepeneurship. I read so many books about Warren Buffett I wrote my own book about Warren Buffett (“Trade Like Warren Buffett” (2005) ) 200 books on a topic seem to be about the right number. You need to also study the present. Every day new things are developing in your field. You need to know all of them. If you are a lawyer, you need to follow every case. If you’re a doctor, every new breakthrough technology. If you are an Internet entrepreneur, every new twist on website development, on business model innovations, on the new businesses being started every day, etc.


C)      History. You need to know the history of what you are doing. When Bobby Fischer was about 14 years old, after already proving he was a talented chess prodigy, he disappeared for about a year and studied every game played in the 1800s. By the time he reappeared he had developed some critical innovations to games played a hundred years earlier and handily won the US Championship, the youngest champion ever. In investing there are tons of books written in the 60s, 70s (Adam Smith’s “Supermoney” is a great example) and even in the early part of the century (Baruch’s autobiography, anything by LeFevre). I would study all of the so-called bubbles (I do not believe there ever was a tulip bubble or South Sea Bubble, for instance). Get software to model the markets so you can see the subtleties in the data over the past 100 years. It’s the only way to understand what is happening now.


D)     Fail. Study your mistakes. Repeatedly. You can’t improve by only studying your wins. In poker, you have to analyze every hand you lost and why. In chess, you have to run your losses thorugh the computer, through your teacher, you have to spend hours studying the games and looking for your weaknesses: the weaknesses in your knowledge and the weaknesses in your psychology, which are part of every loss. Ditto for investing. You’ll always have losses. But the second you blame it on “bad luck” then you’ve gone from having a loss to becoming a loser. You don’t want to be a loser.  Same goes for relationships. When it doesn’t work out, its just as much your fault as the other persons. Where did you go wrong? How can you be better?  There’s a corollary to this, which is that in order to succeed, you have to fail at many things (not always, but most likely). You will probably fail dozens of times. There’s countless examples in history (Edison, Einstein, Lincoln).


E)      Ideas. Generate new ideas. When you work at a company, its not enough that you be a good employee of that company (i.e. you do everything well that your boss asks you to do). You must actually BECOME the company. You need to act as if you are the force that brings that company to life. And every company, just like every endeavor you embark on, needs new ideas. Once you inject your own life force into an endeavor, then you inevitably will bring to it new ideas. You’ll develop new chess openings that match your style. You’ll discover a new risk arbitrage technique that matches the type of risk profile you’re comfortable with. You’ll bring a company or academic discipline into a new direction that nobody’s ever thought of before. You’ll start a new company where everyone says, “gosh, that was so easy. Why didn’t I think of it?”  But in order to do that you have to first do all of the techniques above, then do everything you can to develop the idea muscle. Every day, making a list of ten to twenty new ideas in your chosen field.


F)      Do. You need to not just “read” and “study” but “do”. If you want to write a screenplay, every day you need to write. If you want to be an entrepreneur, you must start write away thinking of services or products you can provide and sell people. If you want to invest, open an account and start buying stocks. Nobody is going to do it for you.


G)     How long does it take? You need to be patient. I think to properly follow the steps outlined above its at least a three to five year process. Three years before you can say, “I understand this field”, five years before you can say “I can make a living doing this”, and eight years before you can say, “I’m one of the best in the world at this.” Its ok not to be the best in the world at something. But if you want to make a difference you need to put in the time, whether its art, internet, sports, etc.


Finally, you need to maintain. Everything I’ve ever done, I still keep track of and stay in at least “maintenance” mode.  I’m not saying I’ve mastered anything. And I haven’t created billions in value. But if you threw out a piece on linoleum and wanted me to spin on my back, I can probably still do that, although when I do it in front of my kids they laugh at me.


p.s. My current favorite breakdancing video:





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NJ Gov. - AOL <b>News</b>

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bench craft company scam

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Chicago Tribune takes a dig at the cable news channel for the second year in a row.

Neanderthals Enjoyed Home-Cooked Meals, Study Finds - AOL <b>News</b>

Even Neanderthals understood the value of a diverse diet. Researchers have identified strong evidence that the Neanderthal diet, previously thought to be almost exclusively meat-based, also included a nutritious portion of cooked ...

NJ Gov. - AOL <b>News</b>

There's no word on whether New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and his family visited Disney World's Blizzard Beach water park this week as his state was buried in a real blizzard, but the rising Republican rock star may have seen his ...


bench craft company scam

&#39;You lie!&#39; Clarence Page calls Fox <b>News</b> Channel&#39;s &#39;fair and <b>...</b>

Chicago Tribune takes a dig at the cable news channel for the second year in a row.

Neanderthals Enjoyed Home-Cooked Meals, Study Finds - AOL <b>News</b>

Even Neanderthals understood the value of a diverse diet. Researchers have identified strong evidence that the Neanderthal diet, previously thought to be almost exclusively meat-based, also included a nutritious portion of cooked ...

NJ Gov. - AOL <b>News</b>

There's no word on whether New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and his family visited Disney World's Blizzard Beach water park this week as his state was buried in a real blizzard, but the rising Republican rock star may have seen his ...


bench craft company scam

&#39;You lie!&#39; Clarence Page calls Fox <b>News</b> Channel&#39;s &#39;fair and <b>...</b>

Chicago Tribune takes a dig at the cable news channel for the second year in a row.

Neanderthals Enjoyed Home-Cooked Meals, Study Finds - AOL <b>News</b>

Even Neanderthals understood the value of a diverse diet. Researchers have identified strong evidence that the Neanderthal diet, previously thought to be almost exclusively meat-based, also included a nutritious portion of cooked ...

NJ Gov. - AOL <b>News</b>

There's no word on whether New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and his family visited Disney World's Blizzard Beach water park this week as his state was buried in a real blizzard, but the rising Republican rock star may have seen his ...


bench craft company scam

&#39;You lie!&#39; Clarence Page calls Fox <b>News</b> Channel&#39;s &#39;fair and <b>...</b>

Chicago Tribune takes a dig at the cable news channel for the second year in a row.

Neanderthals Enjoyed Home-Cooked Meals, Study Finds - AOL <b>News</b>

Even Neanderthals understood the value of a diverse diet. Researchers have identified strong evidence that the Neanderthal diet, previously thought to be almost exclusively meat-based, also included a nutritious portion of cooked ...

NJ Gov. - AOL <b>News</b>

There's no word on whether New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and his family visited Disney World's Blizzard Beach water park this week as his state was buried in a real blizzard, but the rising Republican rock star may have seen his ...


bench craft company scam

&#39;You lie!&#39; Clarence Page calls Fox <b>News</b> Channel&#39;s &#39;fair and <b>...</b>

Chicago Tribune takes a dig at the cable news channel for the second year in a row.

Neanderthals Enjoyed Home-Cooked Meals, Study Finds - AOL <b>News</b>

Even Neanderthals understood the value of a diverse diet. Researchers have identified strong evidence that the Neanderthal diet, previously thought to be almost exclusively meat-based, also included a nutritious portion of cooked ...

NJ Gov. - AOL <b>News</b>

There's no word on whether New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and his family visited Disney World's Blizzard Beach water park this week as his state was buried in a real blizzard, but the rising Republican rock star may have seen his ...


bench craft company scam

&#39;You lie!&#39; Clarence Page calls Fox <b>News</b> Channel&#39;s &#39;fair and <b>...</b>

Chicago Tribune takes a dig at the cable news channel for the second year in a row.

Neanderthals Enjoyed Home-Cooked Meals, Study Finds - AOL <b>News</b>

Even Neanderthals understood the value of a diverse diet. Researchers have identified strong evidence that the Neanderthal diet, previously thought to be almost exclusively meat-based, also included a nutritious portion of cooked ...

NJ Gov. - AOL <b>News</b>

There's no word on whether New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and his family visited Disney World's Blizzard Beach water park this week as his state was buried in a real blizzard, but the rising Republican rock star may have seen his ...


bench craft company scam

&#39;You lie!&#39; Clarence Page calls Fox <b>News</b> Channel&#39;s &#39;fair and <b>...</b>

Chicago Tribune takes a dig at the cable news channel for the second year in a row.

Neanderthals Enjoyed Home-Cooked Meals, Study Finds - AOL <b>News</b>

Even Neanderthals understood the value of a diverse diet. Researchers have identified strong evidence that the Neanderthal diet, previously thought to be almost exclusively meat-based, also included a nutritious portion of cooked ...

NJ Gov. - AOL <b>News</b>

There's no word on whether New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and his family visited Disney World's Blizzard Beach water park this week as his state was buried in a real blizzard, but the rising Republican rock star may have seen his ...


bench craft company scam

Thursday 23 December 2010

Making Money Quickly


Jake Bernstein and Jesse Eisinger:




The ‘Subsidy’: How Merrill Lynch Traders Helped Blow Up Their Own Firm: Two years before the financial crisis hit, Merrill Lynch confronted a serious problem. No one, not even the bank's own traders, wanted to buy the supposedly safe portions of the mortgage-backed securities Merrill was creating. Bank executives came up with a fix... a new group within Merrill, which took on the bank's money-losing securities. But how to get the group to accept deals that were otherwise unprofitable? They paid them....



Within Merrill Lynch, some traders called it a "million for a billion" -- meaning a million dollars in bonus money for every billion taken on in Merrill mortgage securities. Others referred to it as "the subsidy." One former executive called it bribery. The group was being compensated for how much it took, not whether it made money. The group, created in 2006, accepted tens of billions of dollars of Merrill's Triple A-rated mortgage-backed assets, with disastrous results. The value of the securities fell to pennies on the dollar.... What became of the bankers who created this arrangement and the traders who took the now-toxic assets? They walked away with millions. Some still hold senior positions at prominent financial firms....



Banks like Merrill bought pools of mortgages and bundled them into securities, eventually making them into CDOs. Merrill paid upfront for the mortgages, but this outlay was quickly repaid as the bank made the securities and sold them to investors.... Executives producing the securities were not allowed to buy much of their own product... decisions to hold a Merrill-created security for the long term were made by independent traders who determined, in essence, that the Merrill product was as good or better than what was available in the market....



A month before the group was created, Merrill Lynch owned $7.2 billion of the seemingly safe investments, according to an internal risk management report. By the time the CDO losses started mounting in July 2007, that figure had skyrocketed to $32.2 billion.... The origins of Merrill's crisis came at the beginning of 2006, when the bank's biggest customer for the supposedly safe assets -- the giant insurer AIG -- decided to stop buying the assets, known as "super-senior," after becoming worried that perhaps they weren't so safe after all.... By the middle of 2006, the Merrill traders who bought mortgage securities were often clashing with the powerful division, run by Harin De Silva and Ken Margolis, which created and sold the CDOs. At least three traders began to refuse to buy CDO pieces created by De Silva and Margolis' division, according to several former Merrill employees....



In late September, Merrill created a $1.5 billion CDO called Octans, named after a constellation in the southern sky. It had been built at the behest of a hedge fund, Magnetar, and filled will some of the riskier mortgage-backed securities and CDOs.... In an incident reported by the Wall Street Journal ($) in April 2008, a Merrill trader looked over the contents of Octans and refused to buy the super-senior, believing that he should not be buying what no one else wanted. The trader was sidelined and eventually fired.... The difficulty in finding buyers should have been a warning signal: If the market won't buy a product, maybe the bank should stop making it.



Instead, a Merrill executive, Dale Lattanzio, called a meeting, attended by among others the heads of the CDO sales group -- Margolis and De Silva -- and a trader, Ranodeb Roy. According to a person who attended the meeting, they discussed creating a special group under Roy to accept super-senior slices. (Lattanzio didn't respond to requests for comment.)... Roy had reservations about purchasing the super-senior pieces. In August 2006, he sent a memo to Lattanzio warning that Merrill's CDO business was flawed. He wrote that holding super-senior positions disregarded the "systemic risk" involved. When younger traders complained to him, Roy agreed it was unwise to retain the position. But he also told these traders that it was good for one's career to try to get along with people at Merrill, according to a former employee.... Roy and his team needed to be paid....



The agreement, according to a former executive with direct knowledge of it, generally worked like this: Each time Merrill's CDO salesmen created a deal, they shared part of the fee they generated with the special group that had been created to "buy" some of the CDO. A billion-dollar CDO generated about $7 million in fees for Merrill's CDO sales group. The new group that bought the CDO would usually be credited with a profit between $2 million and $3 million -- despite the fact that the trade often lost money.... [I]t is not typical, or desirable, to pay a group to do something against their financial interests or those of the bank....



Eventually, Merrill would write down about $26 billion worth of CDOs, including most of the assets that Ranodeb Roy and his team had taken from De Silva and Margolis...





You wanna know what the mother of all bubbles was? Us. The human race.”


That’s Gordon Gekko in the distinctly-mediocre Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.


This weekend brought a rush of stories about a “bubble” that may or may not be re-inflating in Silicon Valley. The New York Times kicked it off, venture capitalist Fred Wilson (who is featured prominently in the story) quickly responded, and then Newsweek weighed in just to make sure the “Bubble 2.0″ moniker was secure. Uh oh, right? Not so fast.


One giant nugget of information in the NYT piece (co-written by TechCrunch alum Evelyn Rusli) is a bit buried:


For starters, this is not a stock market bubble. None of the companies are publicly traded.


In other words, if this “bubble” were to pop, it wouldn’t be the mothers and fathers of the world hoping to put their children through school who would be getting screwed. It would be the private investors. It would be a handful of (mostly) rich people who would be out of some of their money.


I suppose the employees of the collapsing startups could also be screwed somewhat. But they’d undoubtedly find work again quickly. And the founders would start new companies. Just like after the first bubble.


Business Insider has a good rundown of the actually public tech companies — you know, the kind mom and pop can and do actually invest in. The consensus there? Pretty wonderful, actually. Not over-the-top outrageous, just very solid for the most part.


Now, that doesn’t mean a “Bubble 2.0″ couldn’t pop and adversely affect the overall ecosystem. In fact, I’m sure it would to some extent, mainly because less money coming in would mean less innovation across the board. But it wouldn’t cause everything to collapse.


We all just lived through a very real bubble. The housing bubble. The results of it popping almost completely brought down not only our own economy, but much of the world’s economy as well. Real people lost their life savings. People went to jail. More people should have been locked up forever. It’s almost insulting to mention this supposed new web bubble in the same breath as that.


Again, this “Bubble 2.0″, if it does exist, is mainly just troublesome for investors. Smaller angel investors, in particular, are getting squeezed out of deals because early stage valuations are getting ridiculously high in some cases.


Undoubtedly it’s true that some of those startups should not be accepting so much money at such valuations, but that’s on them. If they fail, it will be a lesson to other startups. Maybe the motto is: go big and go home (at least in the early stage).


Another underlying current here is that many private investors aren’t comfortable with the state of the startup ecosystem. And yet many of them continue to do deals that they may not be comfortable with. Again, that’s on them. They’re all doing due diligence. If they don’t think a deal is worth it, they obviously shouldn’t do it. But some don’t seem to be able to turn down their name being attached to a high-profile investment — even if projections have it panning out to be a 2x exit. (The horror!)


Maybe some of them would actually be more comfortable investing in what Wilson calls “The Mess“. That is, startups in their awkward years. They’re neither new and sexy nor mature and money-making. Not surprisingly, no one seems to want to invest in those, besides current investors. But maybe those are where some deals are to be found.


In the press, there are two kinds of sexy stories to write: over-exuberance and death. We just got done with a week’s worth of over–exuberance surrounding the Google/Groupon deal. Holy shit, $6 billion dollars for a company that has only really been at it for a little over a year? That’s awesome! Let the good times roll.


The deal ultimately fell apart and in came the death stories. There needs to be balance in the world, after all. We know this just as well as anyone. The $6 billion Groupon deal made web investing as hot as the sun for a few days. And now it’s a bubble.


But wait. “Bubble 2.0″ has existed before. Here it is in 2005 — with Wilson worrying about some of the same things he’s still worried about. And here it is again in 2007 — with John Dvorak worrying that social media among other things would pop the bubble. And wasn’t it for sure a bubble later that year when Microsoft invested in Facebook at a $15 billion valuation? I was sure I heard that over and over and over again. Turns out, that was a pretty damn awesome investment, strategic or not.


There are dozens of other examples as well.


So maybe this is actually “Bubble 4.0″ or “Bubble 5.0″. Or maybe it’s not a big bubble at all. After all, if it pops and gum gets over only a few faces, will anyone do anything other than point and laugh, then go on with their lives?


[image: 20th Century Fox]



bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> Corp. Sells Fox Mobile Group To Investment Firm Jesta

It looks like News Corp. has unloaded its Fox Mobile Group division. According to a release, investment company Jesta Group has acquired Fox Mobile Group (FMG) from News Corporation. Terms of the deal were not disclosed in the release.

Digital <b>News</b> Platforms Still Present Opportunity For Marketers <b>...</b>

News sites are a good place to advertise since 92% of consumers use multiple platforms to get news.

CLASSIC: Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Headline FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - CLASSIC: Probably Bad News: Headline FAIL.


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> Corp. Sells Fox Mobile Group To Investment Firm Jesta

It looks like News Corp. has unloaded its Fox Mobile Group division. According to a release, investment company Jesta Group has acquired Fox Mobile Group (FMG) from News Corporation. Terms of the deal were not disclosed in the release.

Digital <b>News</b> Platforms Still Present Opportunity For Marketers <b>...</b>

News sites are a good place to advertise since 92% of consumers use multiple platforms to get news.

CLASSIC: Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Headline FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - CLASSIC: Probably Bad News: Headline FAIL.


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> Corp. Sells Fox Mobile Group To Investment Firm Jesta

It looks like News Corp. has unloaded its Fox Mobile Group division. According to a release, investment company Jesta Group has acquired Fox Mobile Group (FMG) from News Corporation. Terms of the deal were not disclosed in the release.

Digital <b>News</b> Platforms Still Present Opportunity For Marketers <b>...</b>

News sites are a good place to advertise since 92% of consumers use multiple platforms to get news.

CLASSIC: Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Headline FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - CLASSIC: Probably Bad News: Headline FAIL.


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> Corp. Sells Fox Mobile Group To Investment Firm Jesta

It looks like News Corp. has unloaded its Fox Mobile Group division. According to a release, investment company Jesta Group has acquired Fox Mobile Group (FMG) from News Corporation. Terms of the deal were not disclosed in the release.

Digital <b>News</b> Platforms Still Present Opportunity For Marketers <b>...</b>

News sites are a good place to advertise since 92% of consumers use multiple platforms to get news.

CLASSIC: Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Headline FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - CLASSIC: Probably Bad News: Headline FAIL.


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> Corp. Sells Fox Mobile Group To Investment Firm Jesta

It looks like News Corp. has unloaded its Fox Mobile Group division. According to a release, investment company Jesta Group has acquired Fox Mobile Group (FMG) from News Corporation. Terms of the deal were not disclosed in the release.

Digital <b>News</b> Platforms Still Present Opportunity For Marketers <b>...</b>

News sites are a good place to advertise since 92% of consumers use multiple platforms to get news.

CLASSIC: Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Headline FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - CLASSIC: Probably Bad News: Headline FAIL.


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> Corp. Sells Fox Mobile Group To Investment Firm Jesta

It looks like News Corp. has unloaded its Fox Mobile Group division. According to a release, investment company Jesta Group has acquired Fox Mobile Group (FMG) from News Corporation. Terms of the deal were not disclosed in the release.

Digital <b>News</b> Platforms Still Present Opportunity For Marketers <b>...</b>

News sites are a good place to advertise since 92% of consumers use multiple platforms to get news.

CLASSIC: Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Headline FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - CLASSIC: Probably Bad News: Headline FAIL.


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> Corp. Sells Fox Mobile Group To Investment Firm Jesta

It looks like News Corp. has unloaded its Fox Mobile Group division. According to a release, investment company Jesta Group has acquired Fox Mobile Group (FMG) from News Corporation. Terms of the deal were not disclosed in the release.

Digital <b>News</b> Platforms Still Present Opportunity For Marketers <b>...</b>

News sites are a good place to advertise since 92% of consumers use multiple platforms to get news.

CLASSIC: Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Headline FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - CLASSIC: Probably Bad News: Headline FAIL.


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> Corp. Sells Fox Mobile Group To Investment Firm Jesta

It looks like News Corp. has unloaded its Fox Mobile Group division. According to a release, investment company Jesta Group has acquired Fox Mobile Group (FMG) from News Corporation. Terms of the deal were not disclosed in the release.

Digital <b>News</b> Platforms Still Present Opportunity For Marketers <b>...</b>

News sites are a good place to advertise since 92% of consumers use multiple platforms to get news.

CLASSIC: Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Headline FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - CLASSIC: Probably Bad News: Headline FAIL.


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> Corp. Sells Fox Mobile Group To Investment Firm Jesta

It looks like News Corp. has unloaded its Fox Mobile Group division. According to a release, investment company Jesta Group has acquired Fox Mobile Group (FMG) from News Corporation. Terms of the deal were not disclosed in the release.

Digital <b>News</b> Platforms Still Present Opportunity For Marketers <b>...</b>

News sites are a good place to advertise since 92% of consumers use multiple platforms to get news.

CLASSIC: Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Headline FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - CLASSIC: Probably Bad News: Headline FAIL.


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> Corp. Sells Fox Mobile Group To Investment Firm Jesta

It looks like News Corp. has unloaded its Fox Mobile Group division. According to a release, investment company Jesta Group has acquired Fox Mobile Group (FMG) from News Corporation. Terms of the deal were not disclosed in the release.

Digital <b>News</b> Platforms Still Present Opportunity For Marketers <b>...</b>

News sites are a good place to advertise since 92% of consumers use multiple platforms to get news.

CLASSIC: Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Headline FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - CLASSIC: Probably Bad News: Headline FAIL.


bench craft company scam

<b>News</b> Corp. Sells Fox Mobile Group To Investment Firm Jesta

It looks like News Corp. has unloaded its Fox Mobile Group division. According to a release, investment company Jesta Group has acquired Fox Mobile Group (FMG) from News Corporation. Terms of the deal were not disclosed in the release.

Digital <b>News</b> Platforms Still Present Opportunity For Marketers <b>...</b>

News sites are a good place to advertise since 92% of consumers use multiple platforms to get news.

CLASSIC: Probably Bad <b>News</b>: Headline FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos <b>...</b>

epic fail photos - CLASSIC: Probably Bad News: Headline FAIL.


bench craft company scam

Wednesday 8 December 2010

Making Money Your




How to Get Student Discounts Forever





Holiday discounts be damned, nothing saves you money like an old fashioned student discount. Here's how to continue making use of those discounts long after your time as a student has passed.

Before we get started, let's considere the ethical implications. Using a student discount when you're not a student is a little dishonest, so if you're a sparkling example of morality you might want to forget this method and keep paying full price. If you live life in the more common moral gray area, you might want to consider the following excuses. First of all, student discounts are most commonly awarded to college students who either are wealthy enough to afford college or are able to incur a massive amount of debt (scholarship folk—congrats, but you're a rare breed and therefore do not count). The idea here is that college students aren't necessarily stricken with poverty or will be more so after finishing their education. For that reason, the student discount might actually be better applied after a student has graduated. If you agree with this reasoning, welcome to the forever student discount club.


The Sticker Method




Some colleges update their student ID cards every year with a date as proof of current enrollment, but that's an added and unnecessary expense for most. Some just don't bother with dates at all, but a more common compromise is the sticker. Many colleges will provide a dated sticker each semester so students can prove they're up-to-date on their tuition and prove enrollment to companies offering discounts. Fortunately, these stickers are incredibly easy to forge after you've graduated.


If you just need a digital photo of your ID (for online shopping), Photoshopping a forgery is pretty simple. The example above is just a simple Photoshop forgery. If you need the actual ID card in all its physical glory (for in-store shopping), you can easily take your Photoshop forgery and recreate it with a regular inkjet printer and some sticker paper. You can get sticker paper in all colors and finishes at your local office store, and if you find it's too hard to recreate a sticker you can just remove the existing stickers to make your own version.


What if my ID has no sticker?


Maybe your student ID doesn't use a sticker at all. If this is the case, you're actually in a better situation because you can design your own. The important thing is to make a few fake stickers so it looks like you've been using them for awhile. Put one on, rub some dirt on it, wipe the dirt off with water, add the next sticker, do the same, and then put the clean one on top. Make it look used, and whatever sticker you design with be as believable as a real one.


The Unofficial Class Schedule


Some retailers require a class schedule or other proof of enrollment, or there may be situations where you just can't or don't want to use your student ID as proof. In those cases, it's incredibly easy to fake a class schedule. The best way to go about this is keep a copy of your class schedule when you're actually in college so you can refer to it when making the forgery. Most times it's nothing more than a text document and a college logo in the background (which is something you can easily acquire via Google image search). If you're sending the schedule via email and it needs to come from your school, it's pretty easy to spoof an outgoing email address. Overall this is a pretty simple undertaking, but, in general, you'll be fine with just an ID card.


Enlist the Youth of Tomorrow


Just like underage kids try to get older folks to buy them beer, you can enlist the help of college kids to get you a student discount. If you haven't made a little student of your own yet, or have relatives who can help you for free, you can often find students on Craiglist who are willing to loan out their student ID for a small fee. For $20 (give or take), you can get a college kid to accompany you to, say, the Apple Store, to pick up a new laptop. If you can't find such a posting, post yourself. Chances are you at least know a friend of a friend who knows someone in college, so if you ask nicely you should be able to get this service for free. Unlike the other suggestions, this tip will work for the rest of your discount-necessitating life.


Go Legit On the Cheap


If you feel bad about getting a student discount long after your time has passed, maybe it's time to become a student again. You don't have to go back for a degree, but local community colleges offer a lot of night classes you can take. If you have time, it's a chance to learn something you've always wanted to learn and you will—in most cases—wind up with a student ID. When you go to get a student discount you won't have to cheat the system because you're technically a student, even if it's not a full-time gig.



Got any other tips to prolong the life of your expired student ID card? Let's hear 'em in the comments!




Send an email to Adam Dachis, the author of this post, at adachis@lifehacker.com.










As 2010 winds down, your April 2011 self will thank you for making some moves to lighten your tax bill and set your finances in order for the year ahead. Decisions you make in the next few weeks will have implications that last for months.



Yahoo Finance dishes up some savvy choices that will pay off as Father Time finally pulls the plug on the tortured year.



The article recommends maxing out charitable giving and contributions to retirement accounts in order to decrease your exposure to higher tax brackets, as well as maxing out tax-free retirement contributions and taking any vacation days that won't roll over into the next year.



Perhaps the most valuable piece of advice is to get organized. Culling together appropriate receipts and statements and setting them aside so they aren't mixed with stuff from next year will pay off when the tax crunch arrives.



What will you do the rest of the month to make sure you get off to a great start in 2011?



Smart money moves for the end of the year [Yahoo Finance]







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autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...

PokerNews Gift Guide | PokerNews

If your making a list and checking it twice, check out what Rich Ryan thinks you should by for your poker playing friends and family members.


bench craft company scam

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...

PokerNews Gift Guide | PokerNews

If your making a list and checking it twice, check out what Rich Ryan thinks you should by for your poker playing friends and family members.


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autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...

PokerNews Gift Guide | PokerNews

If your making a list and checking it twice, check out what Rich Ryan thinks you should by for your poker playing friends and family members.


bench craft company scam

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...

PokerNews Gift Guide | PokerNews

If your making a list and checking it twice, check out what Rich Ryan thinks you should by for your poker playing friends and family members.


bench craft company scam

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...

PokerNews Gift Guide | PokerNews

If your making a list and checking it twice, check out what Rich Ryan thinks you should by for your poker playing friends and family members.


bench craft company scam

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...

PokerNews Gift Guide | PokerNews

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autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...

PokerNews Gift Guide | PokerNews

If your making a list and checking it twice, check out what Rich Ryan thinks you should by for your poker playing friends and family members.


bench craft company scam

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...

PokerNews Gift Guide | PokerNews

If your making a list and checking it twice, check out what Rich Ryan thinks you should by for your poker playing friends and family members.


bench craft company scam

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...

PokerNews Gift Guide | PokerNews

If your making a list and checking it twice, check out what Rich Ryan thinks you should by for your poker playing friends and family members.


bench craft company scam

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...

PokerNews Gift Guide | PokerNews

If your making a list and checking it twice, check out what Rich Ryan thinks you should by for your poker playing friends and family members.


bench craft company scam

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...

PokerNews Gift Guide | PokerNews

If your making a list and checking it twice, check out what Rich Ryan thinks you should by for your poker playing friends and family members.


bench craft company scam

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...

PokerNews Gift Guide | PokerNews

If your making a list and checking it twice, check out what Rich Ryan thinks you should by for your poker playing friends and family members.


bench craft company scam

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...

PokerNews Gift Guide | PokerNews

If your making a list and checking it twice, check out what Rich Ryan thinks you should by for your poker playing friends and family members.


bench craft company scam

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...

PokerNews Gift Guide | PokerNews

If your making a list and checking it twice, check out what Rich Ryan thinks you should by for your poker playing friends and family members.


bench craft company scam

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...

PokerNews Gift Guide | PokerNews

If your making a list and checking it twice, check out what Rich Ryan thinks you should by for your poker playing friends and family members.


bench craft company scam

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...

PokerNews Gift Guide | PokerNews

If your making a list and checking it twice, check out what Rich Ryan thinks you should by for your poker playing friends and family members.


bench craft company scam

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...

PokerNews Gift Guide | PokerNews

If your making a list and checking it twice, check out what Rich Ryan thinks you should by for your poker playing friends and family members.


bench craft company scam

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...

PokerNews Gift Guide | PokerNews

If your making a list and checking it twice, check out what Rich Ryan thinks you should by for your poker playing friends and family members.


bench craft company scam

autosport.com - F1 <b>News</b>: Lotus unveils F1 plans with Renault

Group Lotus has ramped up its involvement in Formula 1 by becoming title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...

PokerNews Gift Guide | PokerNews

If your making a list and checking it twice, check out what Rich Ryan thinks you should by for your poker playing friends and family members.