MisSpelling Dictionary

Colorado Woman Wins $42 Million or Did She?

Cited: ABC news

One woman was amazed when the lights and bells went off on a slot machine she was playing at the Fortune Valley Casino in Central city Colorado.  Everything indicated that she had just won the $42 million jackpot!  Then, Louise Chavez was informed by the casino that the machine had malfunctioned.  All she got from the bells and lights going off was a few dollars, some free meals and a room for the night.

Colorado gaming officials are investigating the incident, but said it could be nothing more than an unfortunate computer glitch. Chavez may not see a dime.

“I put my money in there,” Chavez told “Good Morning America.” “Whatever I won, I should get… There are dreams and there are things I’d like to do — helping my family, helping my kids. That’s why I’m disappointed. I just don’t know.”

The Denver woman can remember all too clearly when she thought her life had changed.

“All of a sudden I saw the light come on on top of the machine,” Chavez told “Good Morning America.” “I’m like, ‘Oh, my God! Oh, my God!’ I’d never had this feeling before in my life, never.”

The payout she was expecting, $42,949,673. She said she usually makes about $12,000 per year as an in-home personal care provider.

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But champagne and caviar dreams quickly evaporated. Casino employees told Chavez the slot machine had malfunctioned.

“We’ve been open for 15 years at Fortune Valley and this is the first time we’ve had something of this magnitude,” Fortune Valley communications director Joe Behm said.

Phone calls requesting comment from the slot machine manufacturer, WMS Industries of Waukegan Ill., were not returned to ABC News.

Chavez said the casino offered only to comp her room and meals and give her back about $20 she’d put into the machine.

“My emotions changed from excited, thrilled to very upset,” she said.

“It’s unfortunate when it happens,” said Colorado Division of Gaming spokesman Don Burmania. “We don’t like it to happen, the casinos don’t like it to happen and in this case, the patron didn’t like it, either.”

The disappointed punter said she will continue to push for the jackpot payout: “I played the game, I put my money into the machine, whether it’s $42 million, $42 000 or $4 000, I should get what the machine said,” she asserted.

The Colorado Division of Gaming will now look for forensic information in the machine’s software, and there is a possibility that Chavez could still win some money.  Colorado gaming authorities also stated the casino has no legal obligation to pay the $42.9 million. Don Burmania, a spokesman for the division, said the top prize of $251,000 was clearly posted in the casino and that a software malfunction is to blame for the glitch.

It’s not the first time a Colorado casino has had to fess up to a phony jackpot. In 2008, Burmania said, a penny slot machine at another Colorado casino told a player she’d won $164 million. Her correct prize should have been $6.60.  The lawsuit was settled out of court by the casino with the gambler.

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My Take: I think I would be upset as well.  I wonder what would happen if casinos online had the same or similar problem.  I know you can play free online casino games, but I doubt they get paid for those.  Of course, online casinos probably use software consulting services to make sure that their software is operating correctly.

There are many testing products available today for online casinos to utilize.  I wonder if the regular casinos use any of these products.  It might be wise for them to start anyway.  I know one thing that many casinos have started using and that is metal detectors.  I have noticed that many regular casinos now have security guards at the doors with metal detector equipment.

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Fashion Industry Looks to Streamline with Technology

Cited: Apparel News

The economy has been challenging for many industries including the fashion industry facing many rhetorical requirements.  To navigate the difficult economic terrain, apparel makers need to look to the future and then embraced technology to help smooth the road ahead.

Companies look to technology to navigate the difficult economic terrain.

Amid a challenging economic climate—and facing many regulatory requirements—apparel makers are urged to look to the future and embrace technology to help navigate the difficult economic terrain.

“There is always something that affects the apparel industry,” said Ilse Metchek, president of the California Fashion Association. Issues such as the slowly recovering economy, regulatory issues, two-way trade imbalances and pending regulations continue to challenge the apparel industry, she said.

Software, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) or product lifecycle management (PLM), can help manufacturers streamline their supply chain, eliminate waste in the production process, and adhere to the timetable to efficiently meet deadlines and shorten production turn time.

In addition, developments such as radio frequency identification (RFID) technology can help streamline retail operations through efficient inventory management and timely reorders.

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Challenging landscape

Technology represents the future of the industry, said Metchek, speaking to a group of industry executives and technology providers, “and that’s why you are all here.”

Metchek was serving, for the second year in a row, as the keynote speaker for Apparel magazine’s 2010 Tech Conference West, held March 23 at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles. The event included speakers from various technology providers as well as table-top presentations.

While spending on luxury goods remains down, retailers have been reporting an uptick in spending among middle-income consumers so far this year, Metchek said, but she warned about a stall in sales during March and April when shoppers see their credit card balances from the holidays. The uptick, which Metchek attributes to pent-up demand and “frugal fatigue,” will be evident again in May, she predicted.

Regulatory issues continue to rankle apparel makers and create new technology needs. The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which monitors the amount of lead in consumer products, places the burden of proof on manufacturers or importers to make sure imported or domestic goods do not contain lead. Products must go through a certification process. The “10+2” regulation, which went into effect in April 2009, requires importers and shippers to provide 12 points of information 24 hours before shipments leave port. That information includes the names and addresses of the manufacturer, the buyer and the seller; county of origin; container-stuffing location; commodity numbers; and consignee number. Both of these issues, which were major focuses during the 2009 Tech Conference, are being addressed by a variety of PLM technology providers, but they remain key concerns for apparel makers and importers.

On the horizon are more regulatory issues that could affect California’s apparel makers—including two pieces of legislation that could have an impact on apparel manufacturers shipping to stores in Illinois or Washington state. Illinois’ Lead Poisoning Prevention Act applies to all children’s products and requires a warning label on those products containing more than 40 parts per million of lead. Adult products containing more than 600 parts per million of lead come under the regulation, as well. The LPPA, Metchek said, requires the same testing certification as the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act with additional labeling. Washington’s Children’s Safe Product Act, which is currently a “pilot ruling,” requires the disclosure of “chemicals of concern” on all children’s products and requests that manufacturers file a report of all the children’s products they sell to Washington-state retailers.

Metchek said apparel manufacturers will find it difficult to comply with these regulations because the 32 laboratories in the country certified to perform the required tests are back-logged.

Technology in action

Technology providers partnered with local apparel companies to showcase their offerings and provide real-life examples of their technologies in action. Mark Burstein of New Generation Computing, which produces PLM and sourcing solutions, discussed how the surfwear giant Billabong implemented NGC’s products on a global scale. Billabong, which had revenues of $1.67 billion in 2009, used NGC’s PLM program to shorten lead times, integrate line planning, monitor production activities and plan material requirements.

Brea Haley, an associate designer at Guess, spoke to attendees about Enovia, Dassault Systemes’ PLM program. Guess, which grew to a $2.1 billion company in 2009 from $637 million in 2003, implemented Enovia five years ago. “We needed flexibility, ready access to information, a single version of the truth and more collaboration between departments,” Haley said. The program also helped unify Guess’ three international offices, which are located in Los Angeles, Italy and China.

Owning the most advanced software does not always mean a company’s information-technology workers use it. During the “MRP as Your Primary Engine: How High 5 Sportswear Drove Home Success” seminar, Stillman Saunders, information-technology director of High 5 Sportswear, said his Seattle-based company had advanced material requirements planning (MRP) software last year but the company rarely used it. Instead, High 5 used Excel spreadsheets for much of its planning instead of an MRP program. The company recently installed a new MRP system from St. Paul, Minn.–based Lawson Software. Saunders said Lawson’s M3 system is more efficient than the Excel spreadsheets and offers a more thorough way to plan inventories and match demand for a product with its supply.

Since switching all of its planning functions to Lawson’s software, Saunders said, High 5 does a much better job of forecasting its needs to stock certain inventory for its sportswear, which results in less-stressed employees and more sales opportunities.

However, MRP is not a proverbial silver bullet for a company’s planning issues. “MRP is not a decision-making tool,” he said. Rather, it only provides information.

Technology for radio frequency identification, or RFID, has improved enormously recently, according to Jim Caudill, a senior vice president of marketing and strategy for Texas-based technology company Xterprise.

During his “Lean Retail: Cutting The Fat With RFID” seminar, Caudill said RFID was formerly considered as a technology targeted for manufacturers. Improvements in RFID’s capabilities have opened up new uses for retailers. Radio-frequency tracking takes human error out of crucial retail goals, such as reducing inventory loss or shrinkage, increasing store operational efficiency, and improving responsiveness to consumer demands. Xterprise will debut a new program called Clarity ARS Mobile in the second half of 2010.

Companies Honored for Their Sustainability Efforts

Apparel magazine presented five Sustainability All-Star awards during the 2010 Tech Conference to companies that have taken significant steps toward incorporating sustainable best practices in their businesses.

The five honorees were Nike, Cintas, Intradeco/Dana Undies, GoLite and Hanna Andersson Corp.

Nike was honored for its sustainable practices, including its “Considered Design” program, which strives to reduce or eliminate toxic materials and waste and increase the use of environmentally friendly products in its footwear and apparel.

Cintas nominated itself for the award after launching the “Regeneration Suiting Collection,” coordinated tailored pieces made of 100% recycled polyester made from post-consumer waste.

GoLite, which makes high-performance sustainable apparel for outdoor athletes, was nominated by Outside PR because it has replaced its use of virgin petrochemical-based materials in one of percent of its main pack fabrics, sleeping bags and luggage with recycled nylons and polyesters.

Hanna Andersson Corp., a maker of children’s clothing, was honored for its eco-friendly headquarters and business practices, which include recyclable shipping materials made of post-consumer waste and use of Oeko-Tex Standard 100–certified organic cotton in its entire line.

Intradeco/Dana Undies is an El Salvador–based vertical supplier of knit apparel and is the only vertical resource in Central America that spins certified raw bales of organic cotton.

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My Take: I thought the fashion industry had already embraced technology with online showrooms.  Apparently, I was wrong.  I know the work fashion industry is embraced technology because they are coming out with better flame resistant clothing.  I believe that it is Carhartt that produces the best fire retardant clothes in a market.  I have read that many firemen purchase Carhartt clothes because of this.

Even T shirt design is now accomplished by using computers.  Tee shirt designers now have access to some of the best graphics programs available.  Of course, like everybody with a computer, they need to protect their designs and work.  They need managed security services that will do just that.  With good intrusion prevention management, their designs are safe.

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High Court of Justice Declares Winner

Cited: Variety

London’s High Court of Justice heard the opening statements in the case of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation & ors v Newzbin Ltd. on February 2. Invite-only Newzbin is part of the huge and growing Usenet phenomenon, indexing posts made to Usenet and helping to download large collections of files in one swoop.

Hollywood started to target Usenet with a first round of lawsuits against Usenet-indexing sites all the way back in 2006 and was able to shut down a number of sites similar to Newzbin as well as receive at least one judgment for $15 million in damages. However, the recent court victory of a UK torrent site admin could help Newzbin in its defense.

Usenet was long considered an underground phenomenon, but downloading movies and TV shows from Usenet servers has become both fashionable and easy in recent years, thanks in part to indexing sites like Newzbin. Large files posted on Usenet are typically split up in dozens, if not hundreds, of segments. Usenet-indexing sites publish so-called .NZB files, which basically contain an index of all the segments needed to reassemble the original video file.

Sites like Newzbin don’t publish movies themselves, and users still need to obtain a Usenet account from a separate hosting provider to actually start downloading. One could compare a site like Newzbin to a torrent index like The Pirate Bay, even though there are some technical differences.

Those similarities and differences could play a big role in the court case that kicks off tomorrow. Newzbin’s owner has stated in the past that he considers his site to be perfectly legal because it doesn’t actually publish any copyrighted material. His lawyers will probably point to the recent court victory of Allan Ellis, former owner of the now-defunct BitTorrent site Oink, who was found not guilty of conspiracy to defraud the music industry just two weeks ago.

However, there’s an important difference between the two cases: Ellis won a criminal court case, whereas Newzbin has to defend itself in civil proceedings aimed at shutting the site down through an injunction. Hollywood has had more success with these kinds of cases in the past, if only in the U.S. Major studios were able to obtain a permanent injunction against a similar site called Binnews.com in 2007, which included awarded damages worth $15 million.

Hollywood has so far abstained from actually taking a Usenet hosting provider to court. The music industry sued newsgroup hoster Usenet.com in 2007 and won that case last summer. The site has since shut down.

On March 29 Hollywood studios got a winning victory from the High Court of Justice in London when it ruled that the website Newzbin Ltd. where users sought out links for pirated movies on its website.  The lawsuit was concerning liability for copyright infringement of movies that have not been released.

In his judgment, Justice David Kitchin wrote that Newzbin “engaged in a deliberate course of conduct well knowing that the vast majority of materials in the Movies category of Newsbiz are commercial and so likely to be protected by copyright and that the users of Newzbin who download those materials are infringing that copyright.” The precise terms of a court order are expected to be announced later this week, although Kitchin indicated that an injunction would extend only to protecting studio movies and not other potentially copyrighted material.

Newzbin had argued that it was a “passive” service, and that it was “merely acting as an intermediary in providing a link to sites” where studio films could be downloaded.

The six major studios in the suit were represented by the Motion Picture Association.  The association stated that the ruling was a significant implementation of European legislation of the UK for the reason that it showed Internet intermediaries “are increasingly being used by third parties to infringe copyright, and that such parties are in the best position to bring such illegal activities to an end.”

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My Take: I wonder if they are going to start charging the people who downloaded the movies.  That means some people might need a Dallas criminal defense attorney or even Nashville TN criminal attorneys if they do decide to prosecute.  Los Angeles Court reports just might increase with all the people that have downloaded pirate movies!  There are thousands of people that have downloaded movies and music from the Internet before was actually released.

Of course, a Los Angeles court reporter would not be able to reveal any information about any criminal action if it were taken against any movie pirates.  That is just like any Dallas DUI attorney or Murfreesboro TN family attorney not being able to reveal information about his or her client.

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Chocolate Good for You?

Cited: Associated Press

Did the Easter Bunny lower your chances of having a heart problem?  It appears in small doses of chocolate, preferably dark chocolate, each day just might decrease your risk of having a heart attack or stroke by almost 40% according to a new study anyway.

Researchers in Germany followed 19,357 people, aged between 35 and 65, for at least ten years and found that those who ate the most amount of chocolate – an average of 7.5 grams a day – had lower blood pressure and a 39% lower risk of having a heart attack or stroke compared to those who ate the least amount of chocolate.  That is an average of 1.7 grams a day. The difference between the two groups amounts to six grams of chocolate, which is the equivalent of less than one small square of a 100g bar. German researchers sent them several questionnaires about their diet and exercise habits.

They found people who had an average of six grams of chocolate per day — or about one square of a chocolate bar — had a 39% lower risk of either a heart attack or stroke. The study was published March 30 in the European Heart Journal.

Previous studies have suggested dark chocolate in small amounts could be good for you, but this is the first study to track its effects over such a long period of time. Experts think the flavonols contained in chocolate are responsible. Flavonols, also found in vegetables and red wine, help the muscles in blood vessels widen, which leads to a drop in blood pressure.

“It’s a bit too early to come up with recommendations that people should eat more chocolate, but if people replace sugar or high-fat snacks with a little piece of dark chocolate, that might help,” said Brian Buijsse, a nutritional epidemiologist at the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Nuthetal, Germany, the study’s lead author.

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The people tracked by Buijsse and colleagues had no history of heart problems, had similar habits for risk factors like smoking and exercise, and did not vary widely in their Body Mass Index.

Since the study only observed people and did not give them chocolate directly to test what its effects were, experts said more research was needed to determine the candy’s exact impact on the body. The study was paid for by the German government and the European Union.

Doctors also warned that eating large amounts of chocolate could lead to weight gain, a major risk factor for heart problems and strokes.

“The biggest problem with this is not to gain weight,” Buijsse said. “Eating too much chocolate will have negative effects that far outweigh the positive effects of cocoa.”  People hoping to benefit from chocolate’s heart healthy effects should cut out other snacks and sweets if they wanted to eat chocolate.

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My Take: Maybe that is why it I have a regular blood pressure while being overweight.  I do not eat much candy, but I do get at least a small piece of chocolate every day to curb my sweet tooth.  I have been having most of my life and now I’m unable to exercise due to disability.  Yes, when I was a child I had a very, very large sweet tooth.  Not anymore!

I wish I could utilize Pilates exercise to lose weight, but I have myasthenia gravis.  In simplest terms, it is like having muscle fatigue 24/7.  If I could afford a personal trainer to give me Pilates instruction, I would.  Unfortunately, SSA does not pay enough.  I have even considered Alexander Technique because it is not really an exercise so much as learning to control your body.  If you would like to find out what is the Alexander technique, you can easily do a search on the Internet or click this link.

Now, most exercise I get is cleaning house.  Maryland House cleaning is not easy when you’re disabled.  Maybe I should look into Maryland maid services!  I probably couldn’t afford that either.  Then again, I look at it positively, I am getting some exercise!

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McStay Family, Missing or Not?

Cited: ABC news

According to authorities, a California family that is missing for two months may have left San Diego for Mexico on their own accord.  And according to ABC News’ San Diego affiliate KP TV, evidence shows Joseph and Summer McStay had been researching travel to Mexico via their computer.

“They were making inquiries concerning travel in Mexico and passports which would indicate there was some type of planning ahead that we weren’t aware of before today,” San Diego Sheriff’s Lt. Dennis Brugos told KGTV.

Joseph McStay, 40, and his wife, Summer, 43, disappeared along with their two children, Gianna, 4, and Joseph, 3, from their serene San Diego-area community in early February.

Brugos said the computer search was done about one week prior to when the family’s white 1996 Isuzu Trooper, with the children’s car seats still intact, was found near the Mexican border and nearly 80 miles from the family’s Fallbrook, Calif., home.

The findings in the family computer support what Brugos has said he already believed: that the family may have crossed into Mexico willingly and were not victims of foul play.

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Surveillance footage of a family of four walking over the U.S.-border and into Mexico, fitting the description of the San Diego family, was recorded on Feb. 8, four days after the family was last heard from.

“We had been somewhat focused on the fact there’s a high probablity they had entered Mexico on their own volition and this somewhat reinforces that,” Brugos said.

The video was shot at the San Ysidro Port of Entry and, according to San Diego Sgt. Roy Frank’s interview with KGTV, the family spotted on the video seemed to be “casually strolling into Mexico” and that each adult was holding hands with one of the toddlers. There was no sign any of the family members were in distress.

Brugos urged the McStay family to contact someone if they are safe and alive.

“Law enforcement has put in a great deal of time and effort trying to locate them and if they could simply contact someone and let us know they’re all right that would be a huge relief to a lot of people,” said Brugos.

Earlier in March, McStay’s brother, Mike McStay, told ABCNews.com that he doubted the family shown on the surveillance tape is his missing relatives. He has also steadfastly argued that his brother and his family would not just pick up and leave without telling him.

“The video quality is very poor. I personally could NOT make a positive identification,” Mike McStay wrote on a blog dedicated to his missing family.

“Careful reviews of the video, shows that there are two or three different families passing by, and one with a little girl actually, and the other with a man who walks nothing like my brother,” wrote McStay.

Family Members Disagree Over McStay’s Ties in Mexico

McStay and his father Patrick McStay have disagreed since the family vanished in early February as to whether Joseph McStay might have any reason to travel to Tijuana, the Mexican border town closest the Southern California.

Joseph McStay is the owner of Earth Inspired Products, a company that designs interior decorative fountains, according to its Web site.

His brother said the fountain business shipped worldwide regularly, but he was unsure whether the two young children even had passports.

Their father, Patrick McStay, said he believes his son had done business in Tijuana, possibly as recently as December.

“I know he does business periodically,” said Patrick McStay. “Some of the smaller fountains he offers are manufactured in Mexico, so he calls down there and has them sent to him.”

According to Patrick McStay, he knew his son’s business received merchandise for Mexico and his son had been to Mexico or the nearby border towns because he was the initial investor in the company.  Last year, his son picked up granite countertops for his home kitchen but he was renovating.

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My Take: I would have to say it would depend on how close the man is to his brother as to whether he is actually missing.  It is as close to his brother as he says, then his brother’s family could be missing right along with his brother.  Maybe his brother couldn’t get a Paramus NJ divorce attorney, so he went to Mexico.  Maybe he wanted to get some vinyl wall lettering that he could only get in Mexico.  There could be 1000 reasons why his brother and family went to Mexico.

I am sure that he didn’t go to get vinyl lettering in Mexico because he can get it right here in the US.  And it probably didn’t go to Mexico because he couldn’t get in NY divorce mediator either.  The worst-case scenario, the family was killed or kidnapped.

If they were killed or kidnapped, whoever did it will need a Bucks County criminal lawyer.  Because neither of these crimes would require Philadelphia County PA white collar crime attorney.

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Do Crazy Diets Work? Part 2

Cited: ABC News

Continued from “Do Crazy Diets Work Part 1”

Kate Winslet — The Facial Analysis Diet

Five years ago Kate gave birth to a healthy baby boy before she won her 2008 Oscar.  She gained more than 50 pounds just like many women she kept the weight after the birth of her son.  Elizabeth Gibaud, a nutritionist, met Kate and told her what minerals she was lacking to lose weight.  Gibaud has developed a revolutionary weight loss program just by looking at your face she can tell you what minerals you need.

“I look for markings, facial color and skin texture,” Gibaud told the U.K.’s Daily Mail. “This tells me which minerals are lacking.”

For example, according to Gibaud, open pores means there is too much acid in your system, and having stress lines means you are lacking mineral salt.

In her book, “The Facial Anayalsis Diet,” Gibraud outlines the six face categories that most people fall into and then lists the foods to eat and the foods to avoid. The book promises that if you modify your diet based on your specific face category, you will see results.

“My prognosis is 95% successful,” Gibaud told the Daily Mail. “Once I have designed a package suited to your needs, all you have to do is stick to it, and like Kate you’ll soon see immediate results.”

But the plan is more shady from a nutritionist’s perspective.

“A lot of this is marketing,” said Lawrence. “All you have to do to lose weight is to get more fruits and vegetables into your diet and keep processed foods to a minimum.”

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Reese Witherspoon — The Baby Food Diet

Hollywood is always trying to look younger, but now it seems some of them are even eating younger — a lot younger.

The Baby Food Diet consists of substituting one or two meals a day with a jar of baby food. The other one to two meals a day can be regular “adult meals.”

Lawrence thinks that this is one of the better weight loss ideas out there because baby food is just mashed fruits and vegetables.

“It is the least processed of the processed foods,” he said.

“I love looking at baby food containers,” Lawrence said. “If the flavor is apple berry, you turn the bottle to the other side and the ingredients are just apple, raspberries and blueberries.”

“If you want to eat tons of baby food,” Lawrence added, “Go for it. It is much healthier than what most people are eating, and the best part is there is not a need for extreme portion control. If you want to eat tons of baby food you are most likely not going to gain weight.”

He said that because infant digestive systems are immature, the baby food is fairly free of additives and fillers.

And the best part, lunch can cost as little as 60 cents.

Kim Cattrall  — The Facelift Diet

Can you erase facial lines and depuff your eyes by eating just fish?

Dr. Nicolas Perricone, creator of the the Perricone Weight Loss Diet, thinks so. And so do Kim Catrall and Julia Roberts, who are two of the many celebrities that have been on the Perricone diet.

Perricone believes a diet high in proteins, which according to him have natural anti-inflammatory properties, can decrease the skin’s wrinkling and other signs of aging.

His favorite source of protein is organic, wild salmon. In fact, for the first three days of his 28-day plan, the dieter is supposed to eat a four- to six-ounce filet of salmon at every meal. So those who don’t like fish need not apply.

The diet also calls for followers to cut out foods that cause water-retention such as refined sugars and fats.

Lawrence said that on a theoretical level Omega 3 does help with skin.

“Having a healthy intake of Omega 3 does lead to less wrinkling,” he said. “What you eat can, of course, affect your skin. For example, carotene-rich foods help prevent sunburn naturally. That said, no study has linked this diet to a significant amount of weight loss.”

Gwyneth Paltrow — The GOOP Diet

In 2008, Paltrow started her own personal lifestyle Web site called GOOP. The Web site includes diet recommendations, exercise ideas and ways to get yourself moving.

GOOP’s tag line is “nourish the inner aspect,” and it allows readers to sign up for weekly newsletter that focus on one of the subjects: make, go, get, do, be or see.

After the holidays, Paltrow sent out a GOOP newsletter telling readers how she was going to “lose a few pounds of holiday excess.”

“You can detox easily and effectively while you continue to eat,” Paltrow wrote, “as long as you are cutting out the foods and other substances that interfere with the detoxification process.”

The newsletter then went on to describe a seven-day detox diet that has almost every day starting with a smoothie and ending with a dinner of soup.

“I will be suffering along with you to kick-start my year a bit lighter,” Paltrow wrote. “Good luck to us all!”

“If possible, I like to see food with fiber being eaten, instead of liquid,” Lawrence said. “But honestly, in the end, a healthy diet is not about detoxing, it is about eating unprocessed foods. Eat unprocessed and you will be OK.”  He also said that he was not a big fan of liquid diets.

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My Take: As I stated at the end of the first part of this two-part article, I am not into fad diets!  If I had no other choice, I would rather go to Alameda CA liposuction surgeon.  It might be painful, but it will be quicker and healthier.  I understand the Brentwood CA arm reduction surgery can even reduce the amount that you have in your arms.

If you’re not into pain, and your patient person, you might talk to your doctor.  They will use glucose analyzers to check your blood sugar.  And they will probably do further blood testing with a hematology analyzer to check your triglycerides.  Then they will use a few pharmaceutical diagnostics to beat you on your right path to losing weight.  Your doctor might even suggest herbal remedies to help you lose weight.

Many men today are using a safe impotence treatment that many doctors recommended a.  It is called herbal Viagra.  Then again, many go to a doctor for this kind of treatment.  Just as you do to lose weight safely.

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Google Pulls Out of China Part 2

Cited: MSNBC.com

Continued in “Google Pulls Out Of China Part 1”

After 100 years of British control Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.  However, it still operates under different rules than the mainland with almost complete press freedom and unfettered access to the Internet as well as multiparty elections.  As material enters China’s domestic Web network, Internet companies in Hong Kong are treated like foreign companies that are subject to filtering and blocking by the “Great Firewall” of China.

Business as usual

To be sure, most of China’s 384 million Internet users log on for mundane reasons that don’t challenge the limits of free speech. A lot of Chinese citizens also accept the notion that stability and continued economic growth depend on government controls, including censorship.

And Beijing has been largely successful at keeping a lid on sensitive information while using the Internet to fuel economic development.

“Lack of free information will catch up with China in the end, hobbling the spirit of free inquiry at the heart of science and of innovation,” said Kaiser Kuo, an American writer and independent tech consultant in Beijing. “The indirect effects, and the long-term impact, are profound, but I think it’s only fair to point out that the direct effect is relatively small.”

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Blog madness

Even with censorship, the free-wheeling Internet— especially user-generated content — is a dramatic departure from tradition inside China, where the state has controlled news and information with an iron grip for decades. Under that system, the central government disseminated the party line to state-owned newspapers, radio and television, which reported accordingly. Circulation of foreign papers in China was restricted.

As the Internet became available to the public in the early 2000s, at first through cybercafé’s that proliferated in cities, and then through widely available in-home and office connections, the government’s ability to control the flow of information began to unravel. When Web 2.0 arrived, allowing ordinary citizens to publish independently, Chinese people jumped at the opportunity.

The first blogs in the country appeared in 2004, and there were 47 million Chinese bloggers just three years later, according to official statistics.

The way blogs are handled suggests that the blog-hosting sites have broad discretion over censorship, apparently by using various combinations of keyword flagging and human monitoring, according to MacKinnon, the Princeton fellow and former journalist.

On some blogs, politically sensitive posts are blocked at the publication stage, she said, while others are delayed for “moderation” and then posted — or not. Some are posted only in private view, so only the author can view them.

In 2005, in one display of “self-discipline,” the staff of Microsoft Live Spaces in China deleted the entire blog written by Zhao Jing, under the pseudonym Michael Anti, sparking an international outcry over the move.

More commonly, single blog entries disappear 24 hours or so after they are posted. That has created a tendency among knowledgeable Chinese Web surfers to quickly squirrel away potentially sensitive information that they encounter.

“People who have been around Internet in China will quickly save an item offline, because the link might disappear,” said MacKinnon. “The same goes for photos and so on.”

In some cases, Beijing turns from the high-tech to the blunt old-fashioned instruments of censorship — arrest and intimidation, as it did in the case of writer Liu Xiaobo.

In 2008, Liu co-authored a manifesto calling for democracy in China, which was signed by 303 prominent Chinese intellectuals. Police arrested Liu at his Beijing home just as the document was released on the Internet. Censors quickly went to work expunging material about Liu and the document from the Internet, but not before the manifesto circulated widely and garnered some 10,000 signatures of support.

In December, after Liu had spent a year in prison, a Chinese court convicted him of subversion and sentenced him to 11 years in prison.

The digerati fight back

Free speech advocates, human rights activists and liberal intellectuals in China have developed a bevy of ways of getting around Internet controls.

In posting comments and blogs, they alter spellings, substitute acronyms for sensitive words, or substitute Chinese characters that sound the same but are written differently than the sensitive term they are trying to use. As the censors catch on, they move on to new strategies.

Using VPNs (virtual private networks) and proxy servers, tech-savvy Chinese users also can access materials that are otherwise blocked by the Great Firewall.

Despite being barred in China, Twitter is growing fast among people who can circumvent the firewall. According to Zhao Jing, the journalist and former blogger, he had 3,000 followers on Twitter before Twitter was officially blocked in July. Now, he said, he has 17,000. Throughout China, he said, there are 50,000 Twitter users, including many activists, liberal lawyers, professors and journalists.

Meanwhile, he said, even the domestic micro-blog services, though subject to controls, are delivering unvarnished news so quickly that it is difficult to censor. What’s more, news from remote parts of the country that once could have been easily suppressed now finds its way into the state-run press, he said.

“In 2009, we saw that many local events, protests, complaints were conveyed by cell phones and text messages and email from ordinary people, from non-profit organizations …  to friends, and then Tweeted and reTweeted,” and sometimes picked up by reporters in the state press, said Zhou. “A local protest can easily become a national issue.”

“The Internet was the Gods’ first gift to China,” he said. “Twitter is the second.”

In the hands of a few Chinese, Zell believes it Web 2.0 may pave the way for the birth of a free press and democracy in China.

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My Take: Just because they get democracy doesn’t mean they get a free press to go with it.  The Chinese government has had control of the press for too long and may be reluctant to let go.  However, I do agree that it is wrong that businesses can search the Internet for promotional products like poly bags and the average citizen is restricted in what they can search, read or post on the Internet.

The Internet has so much to offer people, even the Chinese.  I wonder if the Chinese can even avail themselves the services of a remote backup service that is not within their own country, probably not.  I just cannot understand how a government can restrict people from getting personalized shopping bags on the Internet.  Maybe that is because I live in America.

We Americans take for granted what we have!  That is true!  We have the ability to get hard drive recovery were ever we want, even if it is in China.  But the opposite is not true; the Chinese cannot get data recovery wherever they want.  They must go to government approved businesses where such things.  I bet they even have their new and used copy machines rigged so that they can tell where the copies were made and by whom.  One thing is for sure, if they need Canon copier accessories, they do have to search the Internet and will probably have to go outside China to get them.

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Jobs Now Available on Wall Street

Cited: Time

It seems that Wall Street is saying, “Buy, Buy, Buy,” again, but not where stocks are concerned.  Wall Street is hiring again!  It seems that investment banks and brokerages are adding to their ranks after nearly 2 years of layoffs.

Recruiters say this is the busiest hiring season in two years, and not just of top employees. A recent survey from financial training company 7city Learning found that 75% of all Wall Street firms planned to add more recent graduates to their ranks in the next few months than they did a year ago.

“At the end of last year there was a lot of hiring talk but firms were still reluctant,” says top Wall Street recruiter Gary Goldstein of Whitney Group. “Now there is activity. Employers seem much more secure that the market is in recovery.”

The increased hiring activity is coming at a time when a number of firms are repositioning themselves in the wake of the financial crisis. The nation’s largest banks are exiting such risky businesses as derivatives and proprietary trading, and adding to their lending operations. At the same time, smaller financial firms are building up their practices to pick up the trading and underwriting businesses the larger firms are leaving behind.

That’s not to say that layoffs are not still happening. Earlier this week, UBS reportedly made cuts in its wealth management division. And overall, the number of workers in the financial services business in New York State fell by 2,800 in February to 659,800. But that was after two months of gains in employment in the industry. And February’s drop was much smaller than the losses the industry had a year ago.

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Among experienced bankers, Goldstein says those who work with clients in the energy and healthcare sectors have the best chance of snagging a job. Many firms are betting those sectors recover first. But top to bottom, financial firms are significantly adding new staff for the first time since the fiscal crisis. Big, guaranteed paychecks are back as well.

Earlier this week, E-Trade hired Steven Freiberg to be the online broker’s chief executive. Freiberg will get paid $1 million a year for his new position plus bonus, which the firm has guaranteed will be $3 million a year for the first two years. Mid-sized investment firm Jefferies has hired nearly 50 bankers in its healthcare industry practice in the past few months. Goldman Sachs, too, says it expects to hire 60% more recent graduates this year than it did a year ago. Even Citigroup, which a year ago looked like it was headed for Wall Street’s dustbin, is on a hiring binge. The bank is reportedly looking to a add workers in trading and hedge fund services.

A number of company’s clients are doubling the length of their new employee development programs to accommodate more people according to 7city Learning, a company that assists in training recruits for financial firms.  In a recent survey completed by 7city, half of the 36 large financial firms plan to hire 20% more junior employees than they did a year ago.

“It’s a pretty good indication that the firms are investing in their people and in their future,” says 7city’s Bob Wieczorek, who works with investment firms.

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My Take: Well, that should reduce the percentage of unemployment, maybe not by much, but at least a little bit.  Of course, that will also mean that Manhattan discrimination lawyers will probably be getting more clients.  If recent news is correct about the moms that are suing.  Of course, I think they may be using New York sexual harassment lawyers.  I could be wrong.

One thing is for sure, any women naked hire will need to find daycare.  I would highly recommend that they get licensed daycare for the safety of their children.  I’m sorry, no job is as important as keeping your children safe.  I don’t care if it’s a new job or an old job, children come first.  That’s one of the problems with this world, families are alienating each other.

Back to the article, these people do need new clothes for work.  And most offices now have casual wear so they can wear Greek clothing to work.  I know there’re some great deals on women’s Greek tees online.  You could probably also find great deals on men’s Greek tees.

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Another Group of Paranoid Americans Arrested

Cited: Time

Why would any armed militia call themselves Hutaree?  No one seems to know why this group is the middle of the latest armed militia controversy has this name.  In Montgomery Alabama group that monitors malicious extremists groups, Southern Poverty Law Center, does not know why because they know very little about Hutaree.  Many bloggers that have been following the raids in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio during the weekend of March 24 and 25 speculated that the name was made up.  Some bloggers believe that it came out of the groups intimate dialect, which includes military ranks with bizarre names of etiology.  In fact, the leader is known as “Captain Hutaree,” and apparently is sometimes referred to as “Joe Stonewall”.

But while the name Hutaree may have a mysterious flavor, the plot its members were reportedly hatching was part of a familiar form of American paranoia. On Monday, federal authorities charged nine alleged Hutaree members with seditious conspiracy and attempted use of weapons of mass destruction. The government believes the group — which apparently espouses an extreme form of fundamentalist Christianity — may have been plotting to kill law enforcement officers to help spark a broader armed conflict. According to court documents, the Hutaree deemed police “foot soldiers” of the federal government — which in turn was part of the New World Order, a perpetual bogeyman of militia groups.

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While training, Hutaree members reportedly wear tiger-stripe camouflage uniforms, with shoulder patches bearing a black cross, two brown vertical pillars that form the letter “H.” All part, it seems, of “Preparing for the end time battles to keep the testimony of Jesus Christ alive,” as a slogan on the Hutaree’s website declares (it has a background of military fatigue). A photo on the site shows 18 men holding rifles in a wooded area. There’s also a two-minute YouTube video showing men running through woods, wearing fatigues, shooting rifles.

The group’s alleged plot appears to have required killing a cop at a traffic stop, or after a faked 911 call. Then, the group planned to attack the funeral of that officer — in order to wreak further havoc by killing even more government and law enforcement officials who would have gathered to mourn. According to court documents, Hutaree members met in February in Lewanee County, Mich., a rural county of barely 100,000 about a 90 minute’s drive southwest of Detroit, to train for just such an April exercise. The Hutaree website has a message urging members to contact headquarters immediately for an April 24 training exercise. In court documents, federal authorities said the Hutaree leader may have already identified the initial law enforcement target.

So far, the authorities have charged nine alleged Hutaree members. On March 26, some of those defendants appeared in a Detroit courtroom. Among them was David Brian Stone Sr., 45, identified by the feds as the Hutaree leader. Wiry with close-cropped silver hair, he appeared in a green Wayne County, Mich., jail uniform. He barely uttered a word throughout the proceeding. The authorities said the group was apparently formed in August 2008, and was divided into separate units led by Stone and one of his sons, Joshua, 21, who remains at large. The proceeding also included the lone woman in the case so far, Tina Stone, 44, believed to be the Hutaree leader’s current wife.

The family members who made it into the courtroom gave the impression that Hutaree was more rag-tag than a fearsome killing machine. Brittany Byrant, 18, the fiancée of Stone’s son David Jr., said the FBI was gruff during the raid, pointing guns to her head and ordering her to put her six-month old child on the floor.

“He wasn’t racist,” Bryant said of her fiancé, as she sat in the last row of the courtroom. “I have friends who are Arabic and colored, and David didn’t care.” Next to her was Donna Stone, the elder man’s former wife and the mother of David Jr. She said her ex-husband lived in two single trailers — “a hillbilly double-wide” — and related how he tried to recruit her into the Hutaree, saying, “‘You pray as a family, you stay together as a family.’” She added: “Once he got into the big guns, I said, ‘No.’” She left him.

This group is just another symptom of the continuing militia phenomenon that seems to have gained momentum since Barack Obama was elected as the first African-American President of the United States.  The Southern Poverty Law Center stated that the number of patriot and militia groups increased by 244% last year alone up to 512.  Many of these groups fiercely oppose federal government and are not necessarily racist groups.  They recent health care debate is fueled antigovernment sentiment in recent weeks that is different from the last rise in extremist activity, which was after the 1992 election of Bill Clinton.

“These shifts are a little more than some people can take,” says Heidi Beirich, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s director of research.

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My Take: This should make the politicians stop and think.  If there is an increase in extremist groups that are against the government, maybe that’s because there’s something wrong with the government and these people want to make it noticeable.  Of course, they may not be going about it the right way, the government might want to take a look at themselves.

These people go through all kinds of military and stealth training to be prepared.  That includes lock picking practice and target practice.  That means renege on maneuvers they carry guns and lock tools.  Of course, if they’re caught carrying lockpicks, they may have need for Cornwall criminal lawyer because they are termed burglary tools if they don’t have a locksmith license.

I have heard that many of these extremist groups make money selling guns and drugs, which means they would need of Toronto drug lawyer if caught.  This new group doesn’t seem to fit that category.  One thing is for sure the leader is going to need a divorce lawyer.  To make a joke, I doubt that they will ever get disability if they are injured on the job even if they hire a Social Security disability attorney.

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2009 Fourth-Quarter Growth Spurt May Not Repeat

Cited: AP

In the fourth quarter of last year, the economy experienced a 5.6% growth spurt that is unlikely to be repeated this year.  On March 26, the Commerce Department made this report about the October to December quarter and gave a final estimate of economic activity during.

Even though growth turned out to be a tad less than the government’s prior two estimates for the quarter, the new reading still marked the strongest showing in six years.

Many economists, however, think the economy has slowed in the current quarter to about half the pace seen at the end of last year.

Why won’t the big growth spurt be repeated? Because the main force behind it is already ebbing.

Most of last quarter’s growth came from a large bump up in manufacturing — but not because consumer demand was especially strong. In fact, consumer spending weakened at the end of the year, even more than the government previously estimated, contributing to the slightly lower reading on overall economic growth.

Instead, factories were churning out goods for businesses that had let their stockpiles dwindle to save cash. If consumer spending remains lackluster as expected, that burst of manufacturing — and its contribution to economic activity — will fade.

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Analysts predict the economy will expand at only a 3% pace in the first quarter of this year. The next two quarters should log similar growth, they say.

In normal times, such growth would be considered respectable. But the nation is emerging from the worst recession since the 1930s. Sizzling growth in the 5% range would be needed for an entire year to drive down the unemployment rate, now 9.7%, by just 1 percentage point.

Unlike past rebounds driven by the spending of shoppers, this one is hinging more on spending by businesses and foreigners.

Businesses in the fourth quarter boosted spending on equipment and software at a pace of 19%, the most in 11 years. Foreigners snapped up U.S.-made goods and services at a pace of 22.8%, which propelled exports to grow at the fastest pace since 1996. Both export growth and spending on equipment and software turned out to be stronger than the government’s previous estimate last month.

The slower drawdown in businesses’ stockpiles accounted for nearly 4 percentage points of the fourth-quarter’s overall growth.

But consumers didn’t spend as much.  They increased their spending at a pace of just 1.6%. That was weaker than the government’s prior estimate and was down from a 2.8% growth rate in the third quarter.

Although consumer spending is shaping up to be somewhat better in the current quarter, Americans aren’t in the mood to go on a spending spree, one of the reasons why the pace of the recovery will be more subdued than in the past. High unemployment, sluggish wage gains, hard to get credit and record-high home foreclosures are all expected to keep consumers relatively cautious.

The government first estimated that the economy grew at a 5.7% pace in the fourth quarter. Then last month it boosted that estimate to a 5.9% pace. On Friday it shaved it a bit, mostly reflecting slower consumer spending as well as more weakness in the commercial real-estate market.

Economists had expected that the fourth-quarter reading would stay at 5.9%.

Still, the new reading of 5.6% growth marked a big improvement from the 2.2% growth rate logged in the third quarter. That’s when the economy started growing again after a record fourth straight quarters of declines racked up from the recession.

As government stimulus wanes and Federal Reserve economic-support programs end, the economy — especially the fragile housing market — could suffer.

Improvements in the housing market tailed off at the end of the year — despite massive government support. There are fears the housing recovery could stall out once a homebuyer tax credit ends in the spring and the Fed stops a mortgage-securities buying program at the end of this month that has lowered mortgage rates and boosted sales.

The report on March 26 also showed a slowing of operations profits after taxes.  The after-tax profits rose at a rate of 6.5% in the fourth quarter, which was down from 812.7% growth rate of the previous quarter according to one measure.  Corporations may be flush with cash, but they are not inclined so far to increase hiring until economy is on firmer ground.

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My Take: Of course, there would be a growth spurt at the end of the year.  That is the biggest spending period of the year because of Christmas.  That is the one time of year that credit card terminals get the most use.  That is the season of giving and peoples and their money to give.  They should not be measuring the economy at that period of the year.  Now if that growth spurt had been in the first, second or third quarter it might be different.

When it gets close to the end of the year business owners make sure that their retail merchant accounts are in good order because of all the credit card processing that they will be doing over the holiday season.  They also make sure that their answering service is ready for the influx of complaints.  That is something else that happens during the holiday season, complaining.  It’s a known fact that every call center provider will warn their operators at the beginning the holiday season to be extremely polite even if they are yelled at.  That is one thing about the holiday season; it brings out both the good and bad.  But, it has nothing to do with how bad or good the economy is or isn’t.

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