Bill O'Reilly: Bill's Column - The Truth About Grit

On April 7, 1970, John Wayne received the Academy Award for Best Actor after wowing them in the movie True Grit. For Wayne, it was really a lifetime achievement recognition, as he beat out the likes of Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole, Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, all considered "serious" actors, unlike the personality-driven performances Wayne specialized in.

Wayne's portrayal of the hard-drinking U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn was a classic. The actor totally blew away his costars Kim Darby and Glenn Campbell (yes, that Glenn Campbell). In one scene, the Duke is riding the range between Ms. Darby and Mr. Campbell, and they look like Lilliputians to Wayne's Gulliver. Whatever else you might think about John Wayne, he dominated the screen whenever he appeared on it.

Forty years later, there is a remake of True Grit starring Jeff Bridges as Cogburn. Bridges is a serious actor and plays the part well. But he can't touch Wayne. By the way, another serious actor, Matt Damon, plays the Campbell part, and Bridges blows him away. Some advice for the younger leading man: Stay away from the old pros; they know how to move the audience in ways you don't.

The True Grit comparison also reflects the times the films were released. Back in 1969, the United States was in turmoil over Vietnam, and the rise of the Woodstock generation. Revered traditions were breaking down fast, confusing and angering many Americans. John Wayne was a throwback to better times, a man respected by traditional folks. And it was Wayne they were watching on the screen, not Rooster Cogburn. It was Wayne who protected the young girl out to avenge her father and it was Wayne who imposed justice on the brutal bad guys. The strong-minded actor brought audiences comfort amidst chaos both on the screen and in real life.

Today we are a country once again experiencing turbulent times. But Jeff Bridges offers no antidote to that; in fact, his portrayal disturbs rather than comforts. Bridges plays the flawed Marshall well, and might very well be nominated as Wayne was, but he revels in Cogburn's neurosis while the Duke used it as a prop. John Wayne was accessible to the audience as basically a good guy. Jeff Bridges puts the troubled character he plays right in your face.

And that's the difference in America over these forty years. We once were a country with boundaries and rules of behavior. Now many of those boundaries are gone. We expect explicit violence and personal angst. Many of us relish seeing that. In 1969, when True Grit played in the theatres, Americans were looking for heroes like John Wayne to show them nobility. Today there are far fewer heroes and we don't expect much nobility, even in the movies.

I liked both True Grits. But for me, it was Wayne who still deserves most of the cheers. The man was larger than life, a symbol of the insurmountable American spirit. Boy, do we need that today.

via billoreilly.com

Interesting point of view.

Post office marks new first-class stamps 'forever' - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON – Postal patron Sean Swilling is tired of the inconvenience that comes with every change in the price of mailing a letter. That makes him just the type of customer the U.S. Postal Service wants to please with a policy designating all new first-class stamps as "forever."

Beginning in January, all new stamps good for 1 ounce of domestic first-class mail will forgo a printed denomination and be acceptable for the typical letter regardless of the current postal rate.

"I think that's a great idea," Swilling, a research analyst for commercial property, said Tuesday during a mail run at a downtown Washington post office. "For me, a guy who uses snail mail regularly, it's a hassle to get 1- or 2-cent stamps. Streamline things — that would be perfect."

The move is designed to help customers cope with postage increases, a Postal Service official told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The official requested anonymity to discuss a policy that hasn't been announced formally.

Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe plans to announce the new policy Jan. 14, the official said.

via news.yahoo.com

Makes sense.

Liberal Give 'Til It Hurts (You) - by Ann Coulter - HUMAN EVENTS

Liberals never tire of discussing their own generosity, particularly when demanding that the government take your money by force to fund shiftless government employees overseeing counterproductive government programs.

They seem to have replaced "God" with "Government" in scriptural phrases such as "love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." (Matthew 22:37)

This week, we'll take a peek at the charitable giving of these champions of the poor.

In 2009, the Obamas gave 5.9 percent of their income to charity, about the same as they gave in 2006 and 2007. In the eight years before he became president, Obama gave an average of 3.5 percent of his income to charity, upping that to 6.5 percent in 2008.

The Obamas' charitable giving is equally divided between "hope" and "change."

George W. Bush gave away more than 10 percent of his income each year he was president, as he did before becoming president.

Thus, in 2005, Obama gave about the same dollar amount to charity as President George Bush did, on an income of $1.7 million -- more than twice as much as President Bush's $735,180. Again in 2006, Bush gave more to charity than Obama on an income one-third smaller than Obama's.

In the decade before Joe Biden became vice president, the Bidens gave a total -- all 10 years combined -- of $3,690 to charity, or 0.2 percent of their income. They gave in a decade what most Americans in their tax bracket give in an average year, or about one row of hair plugs.

Of course, even in Biden's stingiest years, he gave more to charity than Sen. John Kerry did in 1995, which was a big fat goose egg. Kerry did, however, spend half a million dollars on a 17th-century Dutch seascape painting that year, as Peter Schweizer reports in his 2008 book, "Makers and Takers."

To be fair, 1995 was an off-year for Kerry's charitable giving. The year before, he gave $2,039 to charity, and the year before that a staggering $175.

He also dropped a $5 bill in the Salvation Army pail and almost didn't ask for change.

In 1998, Al Gore gave $353 to charity -- about a day's take for a lemonade stand in his neighborhood. That was 10 percent of the national average for charitable giving by people in the $100,000-$200,000 income bracket. Gore was at the very top of that bracket, with an income of $197,729.

When Sen. Ted Kennedy released his tax returns to run for president in the '70s, they showed that Kennedy gave a bare 1 percent of his income to charity -- or, as Schweizer says, "about as much as Kennedy claimed as a write-off on his 50-foot sailing sloop Curragh." (Cash tips to bartenders and cocktail waitresses are not considered charitable donations.)

The Democratic base gives to charity as their betters do. At the same income, a single mother on welfare is seven times less likely to give to charity than a working poor family that attends religious services.

In 2006 and 2007, John McCain, who files separately from his rich wife, gave 27.3 percent and 28.6 percent of his income to charity.

In 2005, Vice President Cheney gave 77 percent of his income to charity. He also shot a lawyer in the face, which I think should count for something.

In a single year, Schweizer reports, Rush Limbaugh "gave $109,716 to 'various individuals in need of assistance mainly due to family illnesses,' $52,898 to 'children's case management organizations,' including 'various programs to benefit families in need,' $35,100 for 'Alzheimer's community care -- day care for families in need,' and $40,951 for air conditioning units and heaters delivered to troops in Iraq."

(Rush also once gave $50 to Maxine Waters after mistaking her for a homeless person.)

The only way to pry a liberal from his money is to hold tickertape parades for him, allowing him to boast about his charity in magazines and on TV.

Isn't that what Jesus instructed in the Sermon on the Mount?

"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do ... But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." (Matthew 6:2-4)

In my Bible, that passage is illustrated with a photo of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

At least the hypocrites in the Bible, Redmond, Wash., and Omaha, Neb., who incessantly brag about their charity actually do pony up the money.

Elected Democrats crow about how much they love the poor by demanding overburdened taxpayers fund government redistribution schemes, but can never seem to open their own wallets.

The only evidence we have that Democrats love the poor is that they consistently back policies that will create more of them.

via humanevents.com

No surprise.

Fiat's 500 C Convertible Car - WSJ. Magazine - WSJ

By Kevin Sintumuang

Photograph by Ruy Teixeira

Back in pre–auto bailout 2008, in the darkest of these automotive times, rumors started that European carmaker Fiat Group was toying with the idea of saving beleaguered Chrysler. Some may have thought, “Yes! The Dodge minivan will live on!” (the marriage went through, and it does), but most auto cognoscenti asked, “When will I be able to drive a Cinquecento?” And that time is now. Almost.

The hardtop version of the Fiat 500, the spunky, wildly successful update of the small car that will have Mini/Honda Fit/Smart car owners looking up trade-in values, comes stateside this month. But to experience what midcentury Italians actually fell in love with, you must wait.

The car debuted in 1957 as a convertible, and we’ll get ours, the one you see here, next summer. Back in the day, the 500 C was a symbol of Italian postwar ingenuity. Today, it’s the perfect representation of a different kind of motoring good life in America. One that’s not about SUVs. Or hybrids. Or sports cars. Or hybrid sports cars. It’s about being small and economical while also looking like you’re having the time of your life.

via magazine.wsj.com

Cool.

Digits - WSJ - ‘Merry Christmas’ vs. ‘Happy Holidays’ — a Look at the Numbers By Jennifer Valentino-DeVries

You might not know it, but the phrase “Merry Christmas” is getting more popular, and it completely dwarfs the use of “Happy Holidays” — at least by one measure.

Your Digits blogger has been playing with Google’s Books Ngram Viewer, a tool released last week that lets you search the tech giant’s database of words from more than 5 million books. According to these books, the phrase “Merry Christmas” is a far more important part of our literary culture than “Happy Holidays.” By a large margin. We’re talking 17-to-1, here.

And authors have been writing “Merry Christmas” more of late. In 2008, the latest year for which Google has data — and coincidentally the year in which the Journal’s opinion writers proclaimed that Christmas had lost the “war on Christmas” — the phrase was used more than ever.

via blogs.wsj.com

Yahooooooo!!

Digits - WSJ - Apple Sued Over Mobile App Privacy By Yukari Iwatani Kane

Apple and four app developers have been hit with a lawsuit that alleges violations of computer fraud and privacy laws by allowing ad networks to access users’ personal information.

Zuma Press

The suit was filed on Thursday by the law firm KamberLaw on behalf of Jonathan Lalo, a Los Angeles County resident, in federal court in San Jose, California. It seeks class-action status.

The suit was filed less than a week after the Wall Street Journal published an article raising privacy concerns over the transmission of personal information based on a study of 101 mobile apps on Apple’s iPhone and phones that run Google’s Android operating system. The complaint, which sites the Journal investigation, names app developers Pandora, Dictionary.com, The Weather Channel and Backflip Studios, the maker of the Paper Toss app, as well as Apple

via blogs.wsj.com

???

SEO Ain’t Enough…The 5 Reason Visitors Bail on Your Site

Unless you’ve never read my blog or seen one of my webinars, you’ve already heard me preach that improving your rank in Google search results is the best way to build traffic and generate leads for your online business.

However true this is, the time and money you spend attracting people to your site won’t be worth a handful of common keywords if your landing page practically forces them to click away.

Buyers in competitive markets understand the options they have, so your site needs to make its case in minutes or seconds.  Making the prospect spend that time trying to figure out what you do or how to stop an assault on his senses directly affects your conversion to sales and discourages visitors from exploring resources on your site.

From overly technical language to incoherent design, searchers report a variety of reasons for clicking away. Don’t miss an opportunity to get bookmarked today or to have your page sent by visitor who likes what she sees.  Instead, use a casual visit to establish your credibility because today’s lurkers may become tomorrow’s sales.

The 5 Reason Visitors Bail on Your Site

1. Your Landing Page Makes a Secret of What You Do

Some internet marketers get so focused on educating visitors that the services your online business provides get lost in the clutter.  Ads that make it impossible to tell what product is being promoted may work for selling perfume, but your site shouldn’t make a secret of your product or service, no matter how exclusive your client list.  Don’t make your readers work to find a list of services to learn if your online business offers anything they need.

2. You Offer the Same Information as the Number Nine Ranked Site

Believe it or not, some searchers actually skip the top results because they often present the same information in slightly different forms.  If your strategy involves educating readers, you’ll need to tell them something they don’t already know.

Incorporating data from an independent study that supports your product’s use or an article on new developments in your field builds your credibility and shows you’re keeping up with changes in your service area and industry.

3. You Add Rather Than Evaluate or Group Resources

How often you introduce new resources to your page will depend on the focus of your online business.  Although new links and resources are essential if you want return visits or comments on your site, racking up novel offerings without assessing their value or integrating them with your original design leads to a confusing and disorganized page that will make your visitors click away.

Group new resources in a logical way in tabs or drop-down menus so that visitors and loyal followers of your site can find and use the resources you introduce.

4. Your Language Use Reflects on Your Online Business

Bricks and mortar operations can communicate with customers in a store, but you only have the written word.  Visitors to your site will pick up on spelling errors, dead links and unnecessarily technical language.

While your language use and housekeeping may leave readers wondering if you take any more care with the services you provide, less obvious issues in the copy on your site can drive new readers to click away.

Visitors should be able to glide across your page without having to stop to read the writer’s mind.

5. Primary Colors Are for Primary School

Blinking ads and animations might be perfect for a children’s site, but they don’t always work for promoting financial services.  Leave the moving ads and banners that block text to competitors who don’t mind looking desperate.  Unless your online business has something to do with distracting people when they read, don’t start a Las Vegas light show on your site.

Top ranked sites garner traffic but don’t necessarily convert it to sales, or even build their businesses over time.  Today’s top ten results may fall to page four without the revenue to purchase competitive keywords.  Making the best impression on visitors to your site is as important as getting them there.  You can build your online business one click at a time as long as those clicks are moving in the right direction.

via beonpage1blog.com

Good advice.

Is Matte Finish The 'New Black' For Cars? - Driver's Seat - WSJ

3M Co.

A new 3M film gives this Ford Focus the look of matte paint.

Among car designers and stylists, matte is becoming the new black. The not-so-shiny satin finish (usually in black) popularized by urban hot-rodders, racers and custom-motorcycle builders is going mainstream and upscale.

Ducati famously swathed its Monster Dark motorcycles in matte black. Lamborghini has been selling cars with matte black, white and even blue finishes. We have seen production cars from Audi, Aston Martin, Mercedes-Benz and others with matte paint that harks back to the 1949 Mercuries and ‘32 Ford highboy roadsters that personify the 1950s and 1960s when young hot-rodders on tight budgets often saved the paint for last.

Concentrating on making cars fast before making them good-looking, they drove their ‘rods on the street and the dragstrip covered in primer, which at least kept their bodies from rusting. Now car makers are using the look add edginess to their designs and buyers are paying extra for it. Even the aftermarket has gotten into the act, offering a range of paints, films and other coatings that cut down the shine of traditional auto finishes.

Coating, chemical and adhesive giant 3M Co. is among the latest to enter the matte market with a product called VentureShield Paint Protection Matte Finish Film 7710. It’s a translucent stick-on film that protects the underlying paint and imparts a matte finish. Typically installed by professional shops, the film is meant to stay on the car for years. It can be removed without damaging the paint, but cannot be re-used, the company says.

via blogs.wsj.com

Curious.

PGATOUR.COM - Woods has cortisone shot in right ankle

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Tiger Woods had a cortisone shot in his right ankle 10 days ago to relieve lingering soreness. By Tuesday, he was back to work hitting balls and filming a commercial.

Mark Steinberg, his agent at IMG, said Woods had intended all along to have the shot after the Chevron World Challenge, which ended Dec. 5. Woods has nearly two months off before his next tournament at Torrey Pines.

"This was always the plan," Steinberg said. "He's looking at 2011 as a big year for him."

At this year's Masters, Woods revealed he ruptured the Achilles' tendon in his right leg in December 2008 while recovering from knee surgery. Steinberg says it still causes soreness, prompting the cortisone shot.

Steinberg spoke in response to Internet chatter that Woods had torn his Achilles while skiing. He said Woods has not skied in more than three years.

Woods posted two tweets Tuesday of photos from his EA Sports shoot at Isleworth, referring to one as a "tough day at the office."

Woods is coming off the first winless season of his career, although he showed strong signs of turning his game around at the Chevron World Challenge. He lost a four-shot lead on the final day and was beaten by U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell in a playoff.

via pgatour.com

Oooooo...

Internet Ads Officially Surpass Newspaper Ads | Driving Traffic

Doesn’t come as much of a surprise, but it’s finally in writing that Internet advertising has beat out Newspaper advertising. In 2010, Internet ad spend reached about $26bn while Newspaper ads only hit $23bn.

This is both a result of the increase in internet usage (up 14%) as well as a decrease in newspaper readers (down 8%).

It’s important to note why this change is occurring…marketers are going where the people are. As more newspaper readers migrate to the internet, the ads follow them. And why wouldn’t they when it’s a lot more effective to run and track ads online compared to newspapers.

via drivingtraffic.com

Interesting.

Visualize This...

The U.S. government spends more than the entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Australia, China and Spain combined. If you laid one dollar bills end to end, you could make a chain that stretched from earth to the moon and back again 200 times before you ran out of dollar bills! One trillion dollars would stretch nearly from the earth to the sun. It would take a military jet flying at the speed of sound, reeling out a roll of dollar bills behind it, 14 years before it reeled out one trillion dollar bills.

Osteoporosis Prevention and Treatments

Osteoporosis is a disease characterized by porous and fragile bones. It affects 44 million Americans, striking 1 in 3 women, and 1 in 5 men. Those with osteoporosis are at increased risk of height loss, fractures of the hips, wrists and vertebrae, and chronic pain.

If you've been led to believe that the key to preventing osteoporosis is increasing your calcium intake and starting on a regimen of pharmaceutical drugs, you're not alone.

I'm here to lead you past all of the confusing and conflicting information about osteoporosis and down a safer, more effective road to preventing bone loss and osteoporosis.

Read on to learn the truth about osteoporosis and calcium deficiency, what vitamins can make a real difference, and the surprising connection between bone loss and Alzheimer's disease.

The Truth about Osteoporosis and Calcium Deficiency

I'm sure you've heard that the cause of osteoporosis and the key to its prevention revolve around calcium, right?

Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.

Dr. Robert Thompson, M.D., wrote an entire book on this subject called, The Calcium Lie, which explains that bone is comprised of at least a dozen minerals and the exclusive focus on calcium supplementation is likely to worsen bone density and increase your risk of developing osteoporosis!

As mentioned in this previous article, Dr. Thompson recommends the use of unprocessed salt as a far healthier alternative to calcium supplementation.

I recommend using Himalayan salt as it is an excellent way to feed your body the trace minerals it needs to function optimally.

via articles.mercola.com

Yes.

Did Tim Tebow win the Broncos' starting job full time? - The Huddle: Football News from the NFL - USATODAY.com

Tim Tebow had a solid debut as the Denver Broncos' starter despite a 39-23 loss in Oakland. He ran for a 40-yard TD and threw a 33-yard scoring pass in the first quarter, and had a passer rating of 100.5 while going 8-for-16 for 138 yards.

The Raiders' rushing game -- which produced three TDs -- was too much for the Broncos, but Tebow may have given the Broncos reason to want to see what he can do in the two remaining games.

Tim Tebow

CAPTION

By Cary Edmondson, US Presswire

"If we're going to put him out there, we might as well turn him loose," Broncos WR Jabar Gaffney said, via the Denver Post. "He can throw. We just can't handcuff him. Let him throw. Turn him loose and let him play."

Tebow was filling in for an injured Kyle Orton (ribs). But the 3-11 Broncos have little else to play for other than some building blocks for next season.

Tebow joined Michael Vick and Kordell Stewart as the only QBs in league history to have a rushing TD of at least 40 yards and a passing TD of 30 yards in the same game. And he did it in a hostile environment -- the Black Hole -- where fans were taunting him.

"I like the guy," Raiders DL Tommy Kelly told the Post. "He gets a couple more starts under his belt he's definitely going to keep D-coordinators up at night. He's got a very bright future."

Broncos coach Eric Studesville didn't announce who his starter would be going forward, but had a positive review of the rookie's performance.

"Tim Tebow came in and managed our offense, did a nice job, led our football team, and it was a good start for us with him in there at quarterback," Studesville said.

via content.usatoday.com

Excellent to see.

Adam Carolla, Interior Decorator - WSJ.com

Comedian Adam Carolla co-hosted "The Man Show," a Comedy Central program known for featuring buxom women jumping on trampolines. At home, Mr. Carolla's cartoonishly masculine persona is readily on display.

The eight-car garage, housing part of his collection of historic race-cars, Lamborghinis and Datsuns, has its own sitting room and beer refrigerator. Parked in his office, where four flat-screen TVs are arranged stadium-style, is Mr. Carolla's prized orange 1970 Lamborghini Miura. It sits atop a hydraulic lift so it can be moved down to the garage below.

Inside Adam Carolla's Man Cave

View Slideshow

Ethan Pines for The Wall Street Journal

The large man cave in Mr. Carolla's basement.

Then there's what Mr. Carolla, 46, refers to as his "ace in the hole"—his large man cave in the basement. There's a jukebox, mounted deer head and a pool table. Playing cards depicting nude women and coasters are adhered to the ceiling, and there's a red upholstered bar facing a series of portholes that look directly into the water of his swimming pool.

Jimmy Kimmel, the former "Man Show" co-host who now leads his eponymous late-night talk show, says he likes to tease Mr. Carolla that he would install heated floors in his garage to protect his cars—but not in the bedrooms of his 4-year-old twins. "The truth is," jokes Mr. Kimmel, "you can't drive your kids."

via online.wsj.com

How cool.

The World's Funniest Joke 1/16/02

The Laughlab, at www.laughlab.co.uk, was created by Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire in England for what he calls the most comprehensive study ever on the psychology of humor. Since it was launched in September, the site has collected more than 10,000 jokes and ratings from 100,000 people in 70 countries.

The following joke received the highest rating from 47 percent of people who participated:

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are going camping. They pitch their tent under the stars and go to sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night, Holmes wakes Watson up: "Watson, look up at the stars, and tell me what you deduce."

Watson says, "I see millions of stars and even if a few of those have planets, it's quite likely there are some planets like Earth, and if there are a few planets like Earth out there, there might also be life."

Holmes replied: "Watson, you idiot, somebody stole our tent."

The following joke rated a close second:

A couple of hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn't seem to be breathing. His eyes are rolled back in his head.

The other guy whips out his mobile phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps to the operator: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator, in a calm soothing voice, says: "Just take it easy. First, let's make sure he's dead."

There's silence, then a shot is heard.

The guy's voice comes back on the line. He says, "Okay, now what?"

via articles.mercola.com

What do you think?

Distilled Water Interview with Houston Tomasz

It's a well-established fact that clean, pure water is a foundational cornerstone of good health. What's open for discussion, however, is what constitutes "clean, pure water."

There are many opinions and much confusion about which kind of water imparts the greatest health benefits, particularly when it comes to its pH.

I recently addressed the danger of alkaline water. In this segment I'll address distilled water, and review the pro's and con's of reverse osmosis water filtration. Since most water sources are now severely polluted, the issue of water filtration and purification couldn't be more important.

It's unfortunate, but the value of plain water is vastly underrated by most experts when it comes to achieving optimal health.

I'm convinced that we could prevent many of our chronic health problems if we would simply start replacing all soda and nearly all commercial fruit juices with pure water.

As you may know by now, the number one source of calories in the U.S. comes from high fructose corn syrup primarily in the form of soda. Americans drink an average of one gallon of soda each week, and this excessive fructose consumption is a driving force behind obesity and chronic degenerative disease in this country.

Drinking alkaline or ionized water, however, is not a healthful choice in the long run, and as you will see, neither is drinking distilled water…

Why I Do Not Recommend Drinking Distilled Water

Long before natural health enthusiasts began touting the benefits of alkaline water, there were similarly glowing claims for distilled water.

During distillation, water is boiled and evaporated away from its dissolved minerals, and then the vapor is condensed and the resulting water droplets collected. Distilled water is an active absorber, and when it makes contact with air, it quickly absorbs carbon dioxide and becomes acidic.

Since it is free of dissolved minerals and other particles, it has the ability to absorb toxic substances from your body and eliminate them.

However, although drinking distilled water may be helpful when detoxifying for a week or two, the longer you drink it, the more likely you'll develop mineral deficiencies and an acidic state.

You can rapidly lose electrolytes (sodium, potassium, chloride) and trace minerals, which can cause cardiac irregularities, high blood pressure, and cognitive/emotional disturbances.

In a paper by F. Kozisek of the World Health Organization (WHO), ^[i] water low in calcium and magnesium, such as distilled water, is associated with the following health problems:

• Cardiovascular disease
• Higher risk of bone fracture in children
• Neurodegenerative diseases
• Motor neuronal diseases
• Pre-term births, low birth weights, and preeclampsia
• Various types of cancer
• Increased risk of "sudden death"
• Acute magnesium and calcium deficiency, weakness, fatigue and muscle cramping

Clearly, changing the water you drink can have profound and potentially disastrous effects on your health, as this research shows.

For these reasons, I've been discouraging people from drinking distilled water for well over a decade now, but there are other far more problematic issues with distilled water that make potential mineral deficiencies pale in comparison.

via articles.mercola.com

worth reading...

Phone-Wielding Shoppers Strike Fear Into Retailers - WSJ.com

Tri Tang, a 25-year-old marketer, walked into a Best Buy Co. store in Sunnyvale, Calif., this past weekend and spotted the perfect gift for his girlfriend.

Last year, he might have just dropped the $184.85 Garmin global positioning system into his cart. This time, he took out his Android phone and typed the model number into an app that instantly compared the Best Buy price to those of other retailers. He found that he could get the same item on Amazon.com Inc.'s website for only $106.75, no shipping, no tax.

View Full Image

Brian L. Frank for The Wall Street Journal

Tri Tang uses his mobile phone app, TheFind, to scan product bar codesand immediately troll online for the best price at various retailers.

Mr. Tang bought the Garmin from Amazon right on the spot.

Audio

• Listen: Smartphones equal smart shoppers, reports Miguel Bustillos.

"It's so useful," Mr. Tang says of his new shopping companion, a price comparison app called TheFind. He says he relies on it "to make sure I am getting the best price."

Mr. Tang's smartphone reckoning represents a revolution in retailing—what Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Chief Executive Mike Duke has dubbed a "new era of price transparency"—and its arrival is threatening to upend the business models of the biggest store chains in America.

Until recently, retailers could reasonably assume that if they just lured shoppers to stores with enticing specials, the customers could be coaxed into buying more profitable stuff, too.

Now, marketers must contend with shoppers who can use their smartphones inside stores to check whether the specials are really so special, and if the rest of the merchandise is reasonably priced.

"The retailer's advantage has been eroded," says Greg Girard of consultancy IDC Retail Insights, which recently found that roughly 45% of customers with smartphones had used them to perform due diligence on a store's prices. "The four walls of the store have become porous."

Some of the most vulnerable merchants: sellers of branded, big-ticket items like electronics and appliances, which often prompt buyers to comparison shop. Best Buy, the nation's largest electronics chain, said Tuesday that it may lose market share this year, a downward trend that some analysts are attributing in part to pressure from price comparison apps.

Smartphone fans such as Mr. Tang are still a small subset of shoppers. It remains unclear whether large numbers of Americans will be willing to take the extra time to compare offers with mobile programs. Some consumers may want to deploy the technology only when buying expensive or unusual items.

via online.wsj.com

Interesting...

Camilo Villegas' caddie decides to play Nationwide Tour - USATODAY.com

ORLANDO (AP) — After eight years as a caddie, and currently working for Camilo Villegas (FSY), Brett Waldman needs one himself now.

Waldman said Wednesday he will play the Nationwide Tour next year instead of working for one of golf's top players. Waldman earned that shot by completing an amazing ride through Q-school and shooting a 68 in the sixth and final round.

It wasn't enough to earn a PGA Tour card, but he is fully exempt on the next best tour in the United States.

AT A GLANCE: This week in golf

The hardest part of his journey was the final decision — give up financial security by working for Villegas, or grind it out on a tour with no guaranteed pay from smaller purses.

"It's just a dream," Waldman said. "I don't want to look back knowing that I had the chance to do it and not doing it, and hating myself for it. I would always look back and say, 'What if?' There's a reason I got to where I am. I might as well chase the dream."

Waldman had not played competitively since he was eliminated from the second stage of Q-school in 2002. He went to work as a caddie for his cousin, Tom Pernice Jr., for Ben Crane (FSY) and eventually Villegas.

On a whim — and with prodding from his wife, Angel — he decided to try PGA Tour qualifying this year and was one of only nine players who made it through a pre-qualifier (four rounds) and the next two stages of four-round tournaments. While trying to advance, he continued to work for Villegas as the Tour Championship and tournaments in China and Australia.

"I'm very happy for Brett," Villegas said. "We had a great talk during the Q-school tournament and then again after he earned his Nationwide card. He is chasing his dream and I fully support him. He knows that I will do everything I can to help him, but he's already taken a very big step on his own. I'm proud of him."

Waldman said he decided to play after talking to his wife, several friends — including Dallas Cowboys quarterback Jon Kitna— caddies and players. Support was one-sided, and he told Villegas of his decision on Tuesday night.

"Camilo was great," Waldman said. "I don't think he was surprised. I think he expected it. I told him I was sorry, because I feel like we've got unfinished business. But all along, he has been unbelievable supportive and respectful."

Waldman will start his Nationwide Tour season the last week of February at the Panama Claro Championship. His next event will be in Colombia, of all places, the home country of Villegas.

"I can't image I'm going to be as popular as he is — even though I did caddie for him," Waldman said with a laugh.

Even so, he has been amazed by the attention he has received. Waldman is not the only caddie capable of golf at a high level, and others have been on the PGA Tour before going to work as a caddie. What made him different was that he never reached the big leagues, and earned Nationwide status despite not having played serious golf in eight years.

"It was overwhelming, the amount of people supporting me," he said. "When you've got the best players in the world pulling for you, it's pretty cool."

The first order of business: the former caddie finding a caddie for himself. He used PGA Tour caddies through Q-school, including the caddie for Matt Kuchar (FSY) in two important stages. Waldman said he probably would ask a former college teammate.

"I'm pretty sure no one on the PGA Tour will want to caddie for me on the Nationwide Tour," Waldman said.

via usatoday.com

Great.

Google Chromebook: Much to rave about at first look - USATODAY.com

USA Today 's Ed Baig looks at the new Google Chromebook laptop

Google Chromebook: Much to rave about at first look

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Enlarge By Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY Google Chromebook, the first notebook to run the much-anticipated Chrome OS, is an "instant-on" computer that comes with 3G wireless and Wi-Fi.

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      Edward C. Baig, USA TODAY
      Most people will never get their hands on the Google Chrome Cr-48 notebook that the search giant started distributing to a chosen few these past several days. The prototype computer is part of a Google pilot program and offered only to selected applicants — anyone can request one online — who Google feels will provide frequent feedback. The machine, however raw, is worth paying attention to for what it says about Google's vision of a mobile computer and, more specifically, the "cloud-based" Chrome operating system software at its core.

      The Cr-48 is the first real accessanyone outside of Google or the development community has had to examine Chrome OS. The software looks and behaves a lot like the Chrome Web browser you can download onto a Windows PC or Mac. The first true Chrome OS-based computers aren't expected to go on sale until the middle of 2011. Acer and Samsung will be the first to sell such machines. Final hardware may look quite different. Google says other PC makers will follow. No pricing has been announced.

via usatoday.com

Cool.

New Weapon Deployed in Afghanistan - HUMAN EVENTS

The Pentagon confirmed on Thursday the secret deployment in Afghanistan over the past several weeks of the XM25, the newest advancement in small arms. The XM25 is a revolutionary new Individual Airburst Weapon (IAW) system that will change the face of war, much like the longbow, gunpowder and nuclear weapons.

The XM25 is a revolutionary next generation of grenade launchers. Unlike the single-shot M-79 "Bloop Tube" of Vietnam era, or the M203 tube slung under M4 rifles, the XM25 is a semi-automatic, 25mm grenade launcher, pinpoint-accurate at ranges at and under 500 meters. The weapon system eliminates virtually all 'cover' behind which an enemy might hide. The maker boasts a 300-500% increase in hit probability over the current M203.

                                                                 The IAW uses laser to determine the range to the target, up to 700 yards away for airburst, wide-area coverage. The weapon integrates ballistics computation within a full-solution computer program known as Target Acquisition/Fire Control (TA/FC). After calculating the inputs, the IAW immediately provides the operator with the proper aiming point through the sight. It instantaneously programs a microchip in the 25mm grenade to explode a meter or so past the cover point, showering all taking refuge there with lethal fragmentation. The operator simply selects the type rounds required aims and fires the grenade launcher. The flat trajectory is also unlike the previous high-arc, low-velocity grenade launchers resulting in a far more accurate delivery of munitions.

Featuring a bull-pup design, the Individual Airburst Weapon's near half-mile effective range is well beyond that of most small arms, keeping the user safer. The XM25 is able to place the grenade with laser precision reducing "collateral damage" as well, the army believes.

The weapons system is a development by a partnership of Alliant Techsystems (ATK) and Heckler and Koch Manufacturing (H&K). Guns and Patriots readers will recognize H&K as the successor to Mauser, rising from post WWII ashes to become a leading German small arms manufacturer. ATK is a United States defense contractor with assets around $3.5billion (US) that manufactures everything from primers and bullets to the lifting rockets for the Trident D5 Missile.

The total deployment costs for the XM25 could reach as high as $375million (US) if plans to deploy over 12,500 IAW's come to fruition. Pentagon planners envision one IAW per rifle squad or Special Forces Team. The weapon is the most expensive shoulder fired weapon ever deployed at $25,000 to $30,000 (US) per copy.

High Explosive, Flechette Fragmentary, Thermobaric, Armor Piercing, along with Non-Lethal grenades are currently available. This is an impressive armory for an infantry weapons system to reach out and touch someone.

The army describes the weapon system as a "game-changer" and indeed, it appears so. The effect upon humanity of this new weapon may be even greater than that of nuclear weapons, for it is in the hands of the basic infantry soldier, charged with forcibly taking ground from others. This weapon – unlike nuclear arms – is likely to find widespread use, despite its initial secret issue.

via humanevents.com

Excellent.

LEE Jeans - Unbelievable Sub-Par Customer Service

I purchased a pair of LEE jeans on 11-24-10 just before Thanksgiving - online since I hate to shop.

I went out of town on business the first of the following week and expected my jeans to be waiting for me when I returned.  Upon returning, I checked my P O Box and... no jeans.  No problem just delayed because of the busy season.

Then much to my surprise on 12-01-10 I receive an email from LEE telling me that my jeans are out of stock and they have canceled my order.  Unbelievable - 7 days after placing my order they email me to tell me that the jeans are out of stock.  It takes 7 days to determine inventory levels?... unbelievable.  In today's age of technology that is unacceptable and surely puts LEE at a competitive disadvantage.

As an aside - I ordered LEE jeans because that is what I have worn for years.  Since I needed some jeans right away, I went to the mall (Horrors!!).  Ended up with LEVIS...

Super Bowl ads play the social-media game - USATODAY.com

By Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY

The Super Bowl used to be a football game, but advertisers are turning the upcoming gridiron event into a high-stakes social-media game.

Today, rivals Mercedes-Benz and Audi will unveil separate plans to launch high-profile social-media contests that offer hefty prizes to consumers who best use unconventional social-media tactics to tweet and digitally tout the foreign brands before the Super Bowl.

"We're using the 2011 Super Bowl as our head-long plunge into committing to social media," says Stephen Cannon, marketing vice president at Mercedes-Benz. "It's our strategic leap of faith."

SUPER BOWL ADS: Pepsi returns with ads for Max

TWEETING: KFC offers $20,000 to high school senior who tweets best

Most major marketers in the 2011 Super Bowl will have strong social-media components in their campaigns. It's all about establishing relationships that go far beyond the 30-second TV slots selling for $3 million each. All 68 slots for the Feb. 6 contest on Fox have sold out — months earlier than in the past few years.

Social media, however, is this year's biggest driver. But watch out. "Most efforts won't be able to stand out amidst the flood of 'Let's Do a Facebook Contest About the Super Bowl' marketing lemmings," warns social-media consultant Jay Baer.

Even so, "The ones that don't do it will be left behind," says Pam Moore, a social-media consultant. But, she adds, the tweets and Facebook "likes" that Super Bowl marketers all are glomming onto today will seem archaic in just a few years.

Some social-media moves by the automakers:

•Mercedes-Benz. It will unveil plans to launch "The World's First Twitter-Fueled Race," which awards two new cars to the two-person team of social-media wizards that garners for Mercedes-Benz the most tweets, Facebook "likes" and social-media currency by game day.

Today, on its Facebook page, Mercedes-Benz USA issues a casting call for social-media users who want to compete in its Twitter-Fueled Race.

Besides rolling out new models in the game, in the next few years Mercedes plans to create cars targeting a much younger demographic, Cannon says. It wants to be much more social-media savvy long before that, he says.

•Audi. The carmarker, in its fourth Super Bowl with a 60-second spot, will host an Audi Inner Circle social-media contest open to everyone.

Audi will seek out — and reward — its 10 "most active" social-media fans before the Super Bowl. It will award glitzy trips and other prizes to the fans whose social-media posts are most original and most numerous. "We're trying to use social media to glue everything together," say Scott Keough, chief marketing officer at Audi of America.

via usatoday.com

Cool.

Produce by ‘Prescription’ Seeks to Address Childhood Obesity - NYTimes.com

The farm stand is becoming the new apothecary, dispensing apples — not to mention artichokes, asparagus and arugula — to fill a novel kind of prescription.

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 The Takeaway: Natasha Singer on 'Prescription' Produce

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Morgan Lichtenstein, a worker in the healthy weight program, shopping with Deannah Ryner, 8.

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A sample farmers market coupon.

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Doctors at three health centers in Massachusetts have begun advising patients to eat “prescription produce” from local farmers’ markets, in an effort to fight obesity in children of low-income families. Now they will give coupons amounting to $1 a day for each member of a patient’s family to promote healthy meals.

“A lot of these kids have a very limited range of fruits and vegetables that are acceptable and familiar to them. Potentially, they will try more,” said Dr. Suki Tepperberg, a family physician at Codman Square Health Center in Dorchester, one of the program sites. “The goal is to get them to increase their consumption of fruit and vegetables by one serving a day.”

The effort may also help farmers’ markets compete with fast-food restaurants selling dollar value meals. Farmers’ markets do more than $1 billion in annual sales in the United States, according to the Agriculture Department.

Massachusetts was one of the first states to promote these markets as hubs of preventive health. In the 1980s, for example, the state began issuing coupons for farmers’ markets to low-income women who were pregnant or breast-feeding or for young children at risk for malnourishment. Thirty-six states now have such farmers’ market nutrition programs aimed at women and young children.

Thomas M. Menino, the mayor of Boston, said he believed the new children’s program, in which doctors write vegetable “prescriptions” to be filled at farmers’ markets, was the first of its kind. Doctors will track participants to determine how the program affects their eating patterns and to monitor health indicators like weight and body mass index, he said.

“When I go to work in the morning, I see kids standing at the bus stop eating chips and drinking a soda,” Mr. Menino said in a phone interview earlier this week. “I hope this will help them change their eating habits and lead to a healthier lifestyle.”

The mayor’s attention to healthy eating dates to his days as a city councilman. Most recently he has appointed a well-known chef as a food policy director to promote local foods in public schools and to foster market gardens in the city.

Although obesity is a complex problem unlikely to be solved just by eating more vegetables, supporters of the veggie voucher program hope that physician intervention will spur young people to adopt the kind of behavioral changes that can help forestall lifelong obesity.

Childhood obesity in the United States costs $14.1 billion annually in direct health expenses like prescription drugs and visits to doctors and emergency rooms, according to a recent article on the economics of childhood obesity published in the journal Health Affairs. Treating obesity-related illness in adults costs an estimated $147 billion annually, the article said.

Although the vegetable prescription pilot project is small, its supporters see it as a model for encouraging obese children and their families to increase the volume and variety of fresh produce they eat.

“Can we help people in low-income areas, who shop in the center of supermarkets for low-cost empty-calorie food, to shop at farmers’ markets by making fruit and vegetables more affordable?” said Gus Schumacher, the chairman of Wholesome Wave, a nonprofit group in Bridgeport, Conn., that supports family farmers and community access to locally grown produce.

If the pilot project is successful, Mr. Schumacher said, “farmers’ markets would become like a fruit and vegetable pharmacy for at-risk families.”

via nytimes.com

That's creative.

Banned: New Fast Food Restaurants in South L.A. | The Blaze

The Los Angeles City Council has banned new stand-alone fast food restaurants from opening within half a mile of each other* in South L.A., citing rising health concerns and the need for more food choices in the area.

“This is not an attempt to control people as to what they can put into their mouths. This is an attempt to diversify their food options,” councilmember Jan Perry told KABC in a seemingly contradictory statement.

KABC reports:

New stand-alone fast food restaurants have been banned from setting up shop in South Los Angeles, due to rising health concerns by the city council.

How many fast food eateries does one area really need? The Los Angeles City Council thinks South Los Angeles and South East Los Angeles need new choices as these regions face an over-concentration of such restaurants.

“This is not an attempt to control people as to what they can put into their mouths. This is an attempt to diversify their food options,” said councilmember Jan Perry.

Perry’s new plan bans new so-called “stand alone” fast food restaurants opening within half a mile of existing restaurants.

Such stand-alone establishments are on their own property, but those same restaurants are OK if they’re a part of a strip mall, according to the new rules.

“Give a grocery store and a housing combination a chance to come in,” Perry said.

The city says around 72 percent of restaurants in South L.A. are fast food establishments, which is much higher than West L.A. and countywide averages which range in the 40s

via theblaze.com

Isn't that greaaaaat.

More consumers let their smartphones do the shopping - USATODAY.com

When Te-kai Shu got to the register at Best Buy on Black Friday, he didn't pull out a rewards card or coupon to rack up extra savings.

"I whipped out my smartphone ... to make sure (the cashier) credited my purchase to my Reward Zone account," say Shu, 29, of Bristol, Tenn.

Shu is part of a growing group of consumers who look to their smartphones — Internet-enabled mobile phones — to save money and stay informed when buying. Nearly six in 10 mobile users say they'll be using their phones for holiday shopping, and retailers are falling all over themselves to offer applications and mobile websites to meet the demand. With smartphones, shoppers can compare prices, store loyalty and gift cards, make wish lists and get discounts at their favorite stores.

But retailers also risk alienating customers if the apps and mobile websites fail to deliver. More than half of customers surveyed say they won't return to a mobile site if they've had a poor experience, according to a study by Gomez, Compuware's unit that studies website performance.

And performance expectations are high: Nearly 60% of people anticipate mobile sites will run as smoothly as or better than sites they visit on their computers, the Gomez study showed. Meeting the challenge has been difficult. Consumers ranked the performance of mobile sites of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend's 15 largest retailers as "tolerable," compared with the retail websites overall.

via usatoday.com

How interesting...

Google: More than 300,000 Android Phones Activated Each Day - Digits - WSJ

Android seems to be having a good holiday season.

AFP/Getty Images

Google’s Nexus S

Google’s Andy Rubin tweeted last night that there are now more than 300,000 Android phones activated every day. That’s about 27 million phones a quarter, or twice the iPhone’s best quarterly haul of 14 million. It’s also about twice the rate Mr. Rubin announced in late June.

Given that smartphone buyers immediately get to work building hard-to-transfer ecosystems of games and content around their phones, this has to be bad news for BlackBerry maker Research In Motion and Nokia. Gartner reported last month that Android jumped to No. 2 in the smartphone OS race in the third quarter. Nokia’s Symbian platform hung on to the top spot, but if Gartner’s estimate of 328,000 or so daily Symbian activations is accurate, Nokia has a fight on its hands.

Meanwhile RIM, already slipping in the ranks, is having trouble explaining how it will catch up.

IPhone fans are probably about to point out that it’s easy to get big when you give away your product for free (Apple pulls down something like $610 per phone and is surely seeing a holiday sales boost as well). But free doesn’t mean profitless. As Google senior VP Susan Wojcicki told us at D: Dive Into Mobile, the company is processing four times the number of mobile searches it did a year ago, and its AdMob business has doubled and is doing more than a billion ad requests a day.

via blogs.wsj.com

Oooooooo!

Consumer Reports Says AT&T 'Worst-Rated' U.S. Carrier - WSJ.com

Consumer Reports, the influential product review publication, says AT&T Inc. is again the worst-rated cellular service provider in the U.S., a blow to the carrier's effort to rehabilitate its network and reputation.

The conclusion, based on a survey of 58,000 readers, shows customers continue to hold AT&T's service in low regard even after the carrier boosted its wireless spending by $2 billion this year in an effort to correct what it has acknowledged were weaknesses in its network.

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The results bode poorly for AT&T as it faces possible competition for Apple Inc.'s iPhone, a device it carries exclusively now and relies on for much of its subscriber growth. In fact, Consumer Reports found "iPhone owners were, by far, the least satisfied with their carrier."

"We take this seriously, and we continually look for new ways to improve the customer experience," AT&T said in an emailed statement. The carrier pointed to its success attracting customers and claimed its dropped-call rate is only slightly worse than the best in the industry.

Apple is making a version of the iPhone that Verizon Wireless, the country's largest wireless carrier, will sell early next year, people familiar with the matter have said.

Verizon came in second in Consumer Reports' ratings of cellphone carriers, behind U.S. Cellular Corp., which has just 6.1 million customers, compared with Verizon's 93.2 million.

One company to come out well from the survey was the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier, Sprint Nextel Corp. Its overall satisfaction rating pulled nearly even with Verizon's, an indication the company's effort to improve service and build up its device lineup is getting through to consumers.

via online.wsj.com

Interesting.

Why Do the Poor Stay Poor? - by John Stossel, HUMAN EVENTS

Of the 6 billion people on Earth, 2 billion try to survive on a few dollars a day. They don't build businesses, or if they do, they don't expand them. Unlike people in the United States, Europe and Asian countries like Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, etc., they don't lift themselves out of poverty. Why not? What's the difference between them and us? Hernando de Soto taught me that the biggest difference may be property rights.

    I first met de Soto maybe 15 years ago. It was at one of those lunches where people sit around wondering how to end poverty. I go to these things because it bugs me that much of the world hasn't yet figured out what gave us Americans the power to prosper.

    I go, but I'm skeptical. There sits de Soto, president of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy in Peru, and he starts pulling pictures out showing slum dwellings built on top of each other. I wondered what they meant.

    As de Soto explained: "These pictures show that roughly 4 billion people in the world actually build their homes and own their businesses outside the legal system. ... Because of the lack of rule of law (and) the definition of who owns what, and because they don't have addresses, they can't get credit (for investment loans)."

    They don't have addresses?

    "To get an address, somebody's got to recognize that that's where you live. That means ... you've a got mailing address. ... When you make a deal with someone, you can be identified. But until property is defined by law, people can't ... specialize and create wealth. The day they get title (is) the day that the businesses in their homes, the sewing machines, the cotton gins, the car repair shop finally gets recognized. They can start expanding."

    That's the road to prosperity. But first they need to be recognized by someone in local authority who says, "This is yours." They need the rule of law. But many places in the developing world barely have law. So enterprising people take a risk. They work a deal with the guy on the first floor, and they build their house on the second floor.

    "Probably the guy on the first floor, who had the guts to squat and make a deal with somebody from government who decided to look the other way, has got an invisible property right. It's not very different from when you Americans started going west, (but) Americans at that time were absolutely conscious of what the rule of law was about," de Soto said.

    Americans marked off property, courts recognized that property, and the people got deeds that meant everyone knew their property was theirs. They could then buy and sell and borrow against it as they saw fit.

    This idea of a deed protecting property seems simple, but it's powerful. Commerce between total strangers wouldn't happen otherwise. It applies to more than just skyscrapers and factories. It applies to stock markets, which only work because of deed-like paperwork that we trust because we have the rule of law.

    Is de Soto saying that if the developing world had the rule of law they could become as rich as we are?

    "Oh, yes. Of course. But let me tell you, bringing in the rule of law is no easy thing."

    De Soto started his work in Peru, as an economic adviser to the president, trying to establish property rights there. He was successful enough that leaders of 23 countries, including Russia, Libya, Egypt, Honduras and the Philippines, now pay him to teach them about property rights. Those leaders at least get that they're doing something wrong.

    "They get it easier than a North American," he said, "because the people who brought the rule of law and property rights to the United States (lived) in the 18th and 19th centuries. They were your great-great-great-great-granddaddies."

    De Soto says we've forgotten what made us prosperous. "But (leaders in the developing world) see that they're pot-poor relative to your wealth." They are beginning to grasp the importance of private property.

    Let's hope we haven't forgotten what they are beginning to learn.

via humanevents.com

What to you think?

Yahoo CEO: Email Users Spending More Time On Facebook's Wall - WSJ.com

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)--The amount of time users spend using Yahoo Inc.'s (YHOO) key email service is declining because more people are using social network site Facebook Inc.'s "Wall" to communicate with each other, Yahoo Chief Executive Carol Bartz said on Tuesday.

But Bartz did not provide specific user engagement data and she stressed that the number of Yahoo Mail users continues to grow. She added that Internet users will continue to share their time on Yahoo, Facebook and Google Inc. (GOOG) as they seek out information, navigate the Web and communicate with each other.

"Google, Yahoo and Facebook are 'ANDs' and not 'ORs'," she said during an appearance at a UBS media and communications conference that was webcast on the Internet.

Bartz offered a spirited defense of the beleaguered Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Internet giant, which is in the midst of turnaround effort that has seen it strike a search pact with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and shed non-core properties so it can focus on its key Web pages and display advertising business.

Yahoo is under increasing pressure from Facebook, which has surpassed 500 million users worldwide and is rapidly become the de facto home page for a growing number of Internet users. Facebook's key social features include the Wall, a space on every user's profile page that allows friends to post messages for the user to see.

The social network recently unveiled a new messaging system that combines email, instant messenger and text messages, a move many observers believed is aimed at pulling users away from Google's and Yahoo's email services.

Yahoo Mail is the leading U.S. email service, with more than 94.6 million unique visitors in September, roughly twice the audience of second-ranked Gmail, with 48.9 million, according to data from research group comScore.

Bartz declined to comment on struggling Internet rival AOL Inc. (AOL), which has recently been rumored to be pushing for a merger with Yahoo.

via online.wsj.com

Interesting.

Are You Operating at Maximum or Optimum? :: Mental Toughness Blog

Dr. Nido Qubein, President of High Point University, posed this question to an audience of high-level business professionals last week in North Carolina. I was speaking at the event and decided to stay and listen to Dr. Qubein dazzle the audience with his wisdom. This is a great question all of us in the mental toughness community should be asking ourselves on a regular basis. Watch this short video I taped today from San Diego and see what you think. I’ll look forward to your comments.   Steve Siebold   ( 3:50 )

via mentaltoughnessblog.com

Interesting.