TampaYankee

Tomcal, What a wonderful weekend. No one can accuse you of letting moss grow on you. It is a rare individual client that the boys seek out and show up spontaneously once they hear you are in town. Speaks volumes.

I have lost both of my parents so I appreciate the loss. You have my deepest sympathy.

PA's are a major turn-off or me. I have vivid unpleasant memories of the few times in life I caught my dick in a zipper. I cannot imagine going through the pain of piercing. I was with a dancer once who had one. Had I known I wouldnt have hired him, espcially after he remarked that there was an occasional drip that accompanied it. However he bottomed like a champ. I limit acceptable piercings to ear, navel and suprisingly tongue. I was skittish about the latter until I hooked up with a different dancer with tongue hardware. He was fun.

It is not uncommon for 'stars' to let their egos run away with them. After a while they begin to believe the hype about themselves and don't bother to prepare. Either that or chemical fortification leaves them wanting. Not sure which applies in this case.

Domain Seizures Could Give License To 'Censor The Internet' The Huffington Post Amy Lee First Posted: 02/ 4/11 03:54 PM Updated: 02/ 4/11 05:08 PM Wondering why several sports streaming sites were shut down this week? So is Senator Ron Wyden, who asked whether such domain seizures infringe on free speech. In a letter addressed to Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton, Wyden called for greater transparency about how and why such domain seizures should be allowed to proceed. "These seizures represent a major shift in the way the U.S. government combats copyright infringement in the digital environment," he wrote, as reported by Techdirt, going on to say, "I grow concerned when the methods used may not be effective and could stifle constitutionally protected speech, job-creating innovation and give license to foreign regimes to censor the internet." Wyden raised a number of concerns, asking how the government measured the benefit of domain seizure, whether such sites were given due process, what exact policies regarding seizures were, and a host of questions on whether such sites were protected speech. He also asked for a full list of seized domains. "The domain seizure process does not appear to give targeted websites an opportunity to defend themselves before sanctions are imposed," he wrote. The third round of domain seizures, targeted at sports streaming sites, shut down 10 domain names belonging to 6 sites, including the Spanish site Rojadirecta.org, which is legal in Spain. The sites taken down do not stream sports themselves, but provide links to places where users can watch, leading Wyden to ask, "Does the administration believe that hyperlinks to domain names that offer downloadable infringing content represent a distribution of infringing content, or do they represent speech?" Wyden also called out an instance in the affidavit used to seize the site dajaz1.com, where the Agent downloaded four songs that were legally given to the site for the purpose of distribution. See original article at:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/04/wyden-domain-seizures_n_818844.html

CNN decided to revamp its morning show. He was out. He then decided to take another position that would keep him in ATL near his CNN anchor finace. Then out of the blue came news he would move to FOX. I like Roberts. It will be a challenge for him not to tarnish is news credentials working for that outfit. Shep has managed to pull it off for the most part, although he occasionally gets a little mud on their trouser cuffs from the set ups they pull on him. I suspect Roberts will pull it off too until he decides he has had enough slogging against the tide.

Best Places for Bargain Retirement Homes Baby boomers looking to settle down should check out these affordable locales. By Zack O'Malley Greenburg, Forbes.com Feb 1, 2011 In the suburbs of New York and Los Angeles, a four-bedroom home with a pool, three-car garage and vaulted ceilings could easily set you back $2 million or more. But 20 minutes from downtown Oklahoma City, a 2,800- square-foot house with those amenities at 9201 S.W. 26th St. is listed for a mere $239,500. That may seem like an unusually low price, but it's close to the norm in Oklahoma City, which tops our list of the best places to find bargain retirement homes. "There's just about any kind of home you want around here," says Rick Jackson, the realtor selling the aforementioned home. "There's everything you want within the state, from mountains to casinos. For retirees, the city has a great reputation for health care facilities. It's a great place to live." No. 1 Oklahoma City, Okla. Oklahoma City ranks first on our list because of its low cost of living, stable home prices, low taxes and a very reasonable average home price of $78 per square foot. That's half the cost of square footage in Miami, one-tenth of what you'd pay in Boston and one-fifteenth the greater New York City area. No. 2 Memphis, Tenn. Memphis ranks second on the list, bolstered by square footage rates similar to Oklahoma City's, as well as the absence of state income taxes. Raleigh, N.C., is third, followed by Charlotte, N.C., both held back by higher tax rates than Tennessee's. Indianapolis, Ind., rounds out the top five. The list also includes two perennial Arizona retirement hotspots: Tucson (No. 7) and Phoenix (No. 9). "It's not surprising that the Sunbelt areas made it onto the list," says Tara-Nicholle Nelson, consumer educator for real estate site Trulia.com. "They have been long-time favorites among retirees, which probably contributed to their being overbuilt earlier in the decade, as Boomers looked to relocate in new homes and new communities in those areas, and as investors looked to purchase homes that would be attractive winter rentals." Behind the Numbers To form our list, we used five sets of data compiled by Trulia.com from other sources. These include: median state property taxes, via Bankrate.com; highest state income tax bracket, via TaxAdmin.org; cost of living, via Kiplinger's; price per square foot, via Trulia; and the peak-to-trough median single-family home price change (calculated as the difference in the median price change from the second quarter of 2006 to the second quarter of 2009), via the National Association of Realtors. The 50 largest metro areas in the country were included in the study. No. 3 Raleigh, N.C. Although there are plenty of deals to be had in traditional retirement havens like southern Florida, retirees can get more bang for their buck in states like Oklahoma and North Carolina--welcome news for baby boomers whose nest eggs haven't yet recovered from the financial crisis. "When home values were at their peak, many of today's retirees were counting on their ability to cash out some home equity as a major component of their retirement plan," explains Trulia.com's Nelson. "Now, many have taken hits to both their home values and their retirement portfolios. As a result, retirees are looking to move to less expensive markets and are being extremely deliberate and smart about their target towns." No. 4 Charlotte, N.C. Oklahoma City's median home price held up remarkably well during the national housing bust. In fact, it rose 2% over the housing market's rocky ride from peak to trough. That may be because the city's residents tend to stay put and approach the property market with a long-term perspective. "We've had our dips over the last 100 years, but we usually dip right out," says realtor Jackson. "I can't think of another city where I'd rather live." No. 5 Indianapolis, In. See the original article and the full list of Best Places for Bargain Retirement Homes here: http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/best-places-for-bargain-retirement-homes.html

Your New Smartphone Is Already a Dinosaur by David Goldman Monday, January 31, 2011 Smartphones are continually outdueling one another in terms of performance, and they're coming to market at a breakneck speed. For instance, if you picked up the Motorola Droid when it went on sale in November 2009, you had the best Android device on the market. But then the twice-as-fast Nexus One went on sale in January 2010. Then the HTC Droid Incredible hit the market in April. Then in June, the Evo 4G put the Droid Incredible to shame. The Samsung Galaxy S came out later that month. Then the Nexus S ... You get the point. The average time smartphones spend on the market is now just six to nine months, according to HTC. But it wasn't always this way: Average shelf time was about three years prior to 2007, HTC estimates. "It used to be that we planned phones' obsolescence," said Keith Novak, spokesman for HTC. "Now consumers want more power and faster phones. With increased competition, there's a more pressing reason for shorter lifecycles." Before Apple debuted the iPhone, the hottest selling handset on the market was the Motorola RAZR, which held that position for five years. Five years! Could you imagine anyone buying an original iPhone today -- a phone that debuted less than four years ago? That hunk of junk didn't even have 3G. Or apps. The pace of smartphone innovation has ramped up to ludicrous speed and mobile competition has gone cutthroat thanks to two key factors: The rise of Google's Android operating system and the predominance of Qualcomm processors. The way it was: Just a few years ago, mobile phone makers had to design their devices through and through: The hardware, operating system, chipset and design were all made by LG, HTC, Samsung, Motorola, and their rivals. All that time and effort meant phones took a long time to get to market, and they needed to stay there for years to make back all the investment that went into designing the device. The way it is now: But then along came Android, an open source, free-to-license OS. The availability of Android means device manufacturers can just load the ready-made software onto their phones instead of paying a team of engineers to develop a proprietary OS. And they can customize it as much as they like. "The beauty of Android is that it's completely open," said Marcelo Claure, CEO of Brightstar, a global mobile phone distributor. "All the equipment manufacturer has to do is slap a skin on top of it and market the phone." It's not just the software that's prepackaged: Smartphone chipsets are coming ready-made as well. Seeing the opportunity created by Android, Qualcomm quickly jumped on board and began to make smartphone chips that are specifically optimized for Google's OS and apps. Instead of designing their own chips, manufacturers like LG, Motorola and HTC now simply use Qualcomm's. "What we deliver to the manufacturer allows them to spend their resources in a different way, instead of reinventing the plumbing of each phone," said Jason Bremner, product manager of Qualcomm's CDMA Technologies. The Qualcomm/Android ("Quadroid") standard that has developed over the past couple of years has freed up smartphone manufacturers to focus most of their attention on marketing and making their devices thinner, sleeker and higher-functioning than competitors'. As a result, smartphone manufacturing cycles have doubled in speed in the past two years to just over four months, according to industry consultancy PRTM. That means device makers can churn out smartphones at an incredibly rapid pace, taking the handsets from concept to store shelves in a relative blink of an eye. Android's law: We're calling this new trend "Android's law." It's similar to Moore's law, the 1965 paper by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, which observed a trend that has held true for more than five decades: Microchip manufacturers can double the number of components on a piece of silicon every two years. Though we're not making any technical predictions, the introduction of the Quadroid standard has turned the wireless market on its head -- and this new trend is likely to continue for years to come. Android's law has allowed new, previously unknown competitors like ZTE to double its market share and become the fourth-largest mobile phone vendor in the world. It has led to the quadrupling of phone processor speeds over the past year. And it's helped Google's mobile operating system go from zero to 300,000 activations a day on more than 100 phones in just 26 months. "We're seeing hundreds of new models -- it's crazy," said Will Stofega, analyst at IDC. "Since Android is free, these manufacturers are willing to take some chances. The need to come up with something that's going to stick and be a major player is intense." Analysts agree that the market cycle at some point will stop shortening because customers can't absorb new products so fast. But one lasting change is clear: It's not going back to the way it was. "This will keep going until phones become just thin slabs with a touch screen," said Soumen Ganguly, principal at Altman Vilandrie. "It will be just like the development of the PC industry -- everyone will keep trying to outdo one another to stay alive." See original article at: http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/111990/your-new-smartphone-is-already-a-dinosaur

Blo who?

Congrats to all you guys!! You are now officially known as the MER Chatty Kathy Quorum. Now, you will get real linen at your tables set either by the latino bus boy or the Scandanvian bouncer -- your choice.

Mount Shinmoedake erupts in Japan Volcanic lightning is seen above Shinmoedake ... Volcanic lightning or a dirty thunderstorm is seen above Shinmoedake peak as it erupts, between Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures, in this photo takenfrom Kirishima city and released by Minami-Nippon Shimbun January 28, 2011. Ash and rocks fell across a wide swathe of southern Japan straddling the prefectures of Miyazaki and Kagoshima on Thursday, as one of Mount Kirishima's many calderas erupted, prompting authorities to raise alert levels and call on for an evacuation of all residents within a 2 km (1.2 miles) radius of the volcano. REUTERS/Minami-Nippon Shimbun/Handout Shinmoedake peak erupts, as seen from Takaharu Town Office, Miyazaki prefecture early morning January 27, 2011. Ash and rocks fell across a wide swatheof southern Japan straddling the prefectures of Miyazaki and Kagoshima on Thursday, as one of Mount Kirishima's many calderas erupted, prompting authorities to raise alert levels and call on for an evacuation of all residents within 2 km (1.2 miles) radius of the volcano. Picture taken by long exposure. Picture taken January 27, 2011. REUTERS/Takaharu Town Office/Handout See many more photos at original article: http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Mount-Shinmoedake/ss/events/wl/013111shinmoedake/im:/110128/ids_photos_wl/r1903951109.jpg/

I've seen worse make it to TV, tens of em. So TV has sunk much lower than this, for the uninformed.

lurkerspeaks, Thank you for your kind words. It's people like you and Mark and many others who post here that make this effort not only worthwhile but fun and interesting on a continuing basis. I concur with Mark Anthony's thoughts. My particpation in HooBoy's forum changed my life beyond the obvious and and permitted me to meet some wonderful fellow posters who have become very good friends including Mark and Oz and whose associations gave me some of the best times of my adult life. It is also the reason I am here now. It has also permitted me to meet online several interesting and witty intellects that provide humor and provoke thoughtful exchanges and stoke my imagination about other places and peoples. All in all not a bad stop off every day. Your post points out the very best of forums like this and why positive energy and participation far outshine negative energy that sometimes washes ashore.

America's Richest Small Towns By Venessa Wong, Bloomberg Businessweek Jan 21, 2011 Want to buy Billy Joel's Sagaponack home? Last month the piano man dropped the price on his oceanfront house on Long Island's East End again, this time from $19.9 million to $18.5 million. It started out at $22.5 million when he first listed the property in 2009. And Joel is not alone. Across the U.S., prices last year continued to decline even in the richest neighborhoods. Sagaponack, a village with a population of only 582 (it swells during the summer), saw home values drop 14.5 percent from 2009 to 2010-yet it once again earned the No. 1 position on Businessweek.com's ranking of the Most Expensive Small Towns in the U.S. It held on to the top spot because, despite the dip, median home values were $3,406,640, the highest in the nation, according to real estate website Zillow.com. Working with the website, Businessweek.com identified the 50 most expensive small towns (populations less than 10,000) nationwide where median home values are the highest. We evaluated data on 4,624 cities and census-designated places from November 2010, the most recent available. Some expensive communities, such as Bel Air, Calif., were not included as they are neighborhoods rather than cities or census-designated places. Of the 50 most expensive places-many of which are second-home markets-nearly half are in Long Island's Nassau and Suffolk counties and about one-quarter are in California. None of the towns in the ranking had a median home value of less than $1 million. Biggest Price Declines Values dropped in 33 of the 50 most expensive small towns. The biggest decline, 15.7 percent, came in Woodside, Calif., home to such tech billionaires as Oracle's (ORCL) Larry Ellison and Apple's (AAPL) Steve Jobs. Values in the second-most expensive town, Jupiter Island, Fla., were down 11.3 percent from a year ago, to just over $2.8 million, and in No. 4, Los Altos Hills, Calif., they were down 13.6 percent, to a bit more than $2.1 million. In eight of these towns (five of which are among the top 10 most expensive), values were more than 10 percent below levels of a year ago. Nationwide, home values were down 5.1 percent, Zillow.com's data indicate. Only 17 places experienced increases in home values. The winner was Kings Point, N.Y., a wealthy suburb of New York City on Long Island's Gold Coast, where prices rose 13.5 percent. In the Hamptons, "prices have not yet rebounded," says Michael Schultz, vice-president in Corcoran's East Hampton office. With prices down, he expects activity to pick up in the first quarter this year. Fewer High-End Sales Home to wealthy Wall Streeters, corporate executives, and celebrities, the Hamptons saw both unit sales and prices down year-on-year after rising in early 2010. The third-quarter drop in the median sale price in the Hamptons-North Fork market was due to a shift away from high-end sales-only 11 homes sold at or above $5 million in the third quarter, down from 20 sales a year earlier, according to a report by Miller Samuel, a New York real estate appraisal services firm. "Across the board, everyone brought their homes down 15 percent to 20 percent. Sellers are becoming more realistic" and buyers are more conservative, says Harald Grant, senior vice-president in Sotheby's International Realty's Southampton office. After a strong first half in 2010, unit sales in Sagaponack and nearby Bridgehampton were down 18 percent year-on-year in third quarter, and the median sale price was down 53 percent, according to a report from real estate brokerage Corcoran. Despite this short-term softness, "Sagaponack is a strong market because it has cachet," Grant says. A Premium to Rub Elbows What makes small towns such as Sagaponack attractive is their proximity not just to natural beauty and first-class golf courses but also to other wealthy people. That's why the most expensive small towns often cluster around major financial centers. A survey of U.S. metropolitan statistical areas by consultancy Capgemini shows that New York City had 667,200 high-net-worth individuals, or people with investable assets of $1 million or more, in 2009-far more than any other metro in the country. Other wealthy areas include the Los Angeles metro area (235,800), Chicago (198,100), Washington, D.C. (152,400), and San Francisco (138,300). Of the 50 most expensive small towns, 22 are in New York-namely, Long Island-and 13 are in California. Others were in Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, Washington. Making the ranking for the first time was even one town in Tennessee. Belle Meade (a very rich town in Tennessee). Some well-known markets are less active. "Our really high-end market is almost frozen," and buyers do not seem to want to buy above the $6 million level, says Paul Grover, a partner in Robert Paul Properties, a Cape Cod brokerage. With Wall Street turning around, he anticipates that demand will pick up, "but we'll see it in New York first." That note of hope is one that many real estate brokers and home sellers across the U.S. share. In expensive small towns like Sagaponack, however, even the battered prices might strike many Americans as wealth beyond the dreams of avarice. It's hard for someone who lives in a house valued in the mid-six figures-or less-to empathize with sellers asking prices in the seven- or even eight-figure range. But no owner likes to take a haircut when selling his home. Just ask Billy Joel. Here's America's Five Most Expensive Small Towns No. 5: Water Mill, N.Y. Median Home Value: $2,111,688 Price change '09-'10: -10% Population: 2,137 2010 Rank: 6 Water Mill, about 90 miles from Manhattan, offers riding stables, golf courses, and some of the finest sailing and fishing waters in the Northeast. The town has been home to actor Richard Gere, fashion designer Adrienne Vittadini, publishing heiress Anne Hearst, and real estate investor Andrew Borrok. No. 4: Los Altos Hills, Calif. Median Home Value: $2,161,255 Price change '09-'10: -13.6% Population: 7,981 2010 Rank: 4 The elite town of Los Altos Hills, a wealthy Silicon Valley community 35 miles south of San Francisco and 17 miles north of downtown San Jose, encompasses 8.4 square miles. It has 65 miles of trails and off-road paths for walking, running, bicycling, or even horseback riding. Residents have included Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang, Hewlett-Packard co-founder David Packard, and venture capitalist Kelly Porter. Median household income is $218,922, estimates the U.S. Census Bureau. No. 3: Kings Point, N.Y. Median Home Value: $2,379,905 Price change '09-'10: +13.5% Population: 5,132 2010 Rank: NA This Long Island village, home of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, is reputed to be the inspiration for West Egg in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (Kings Point even has a road named Gatsby Lane). The area has two main parks: Steppingstone Park, which offers mooring for more than 300 boats, and the 175-acre Kings Point Park. Kings Point was home to Chrysler founder Walter Chrysler, retailer Henri Bendel, and comedian Alan King, according to longislandexchange.com. No. 2: Jupiter Island, Fla. Median Home Value: $2,810,434 Price change '09-'10: -11.3% Population: 875 2010 Rank: 2 The town of Jupiter Island, which developers in the 1920s originally envisioned building into a Hollywood-like center for production companies and movie stars, is well-known as one of the wealthiest places in the country. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates per capita income to be $235,758. It has a permanent population of 584, with a seasonal population of approximately 1,775, according to the town website. Jupiter Island has been a second home for many old wealthy American families such as the Doubledays, Fords, Heinzes, and Mellons, and residents have included golfers Greg Norman, Nick Price, and Tiger Woods, President George H.W. Bush, actor Burt Reynolds, and baseball star Mike Schmidt, according to Corcoran. No. 1: Sagaponack, N.Y. Median Home Value: $3,406,640 Price change '09-'10: -14.5% Population: 582 2010 Rank: 1 Southampton's ritzy village of Sagaponack maintains its rank as the country's most expensive small town in 2011. The village, which covers eight square miles, has been home to musician Billy Joel, Apollo Management Chief Operating Officer Henry Silverman, and former Kinray Chief Executive Officer Stewart Rahr. It is also the site of Fair Field, the 63-acre oceanfront estate of Renco Group Chief Executive Officer Ira Rennert, who owned military Humvee maker AM General. At 6,000 square feet and with a 164-seat theater, three swimming pools, and a two-lane bowling alley, Fair Field is one of the largest private houses in the country. Click here to the original article and read the entire list of America's 50 Most Expensive Small Towns 2011: http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/americas-richest-small-towns.html

Thanks for posting this. I'm appreciative as I am of their frank response. I was totally unaware of their view. I'm unsure if I ever patronized them in the past. I am sure that I certainly won't in the future.

I thought the title of the thread made clear that attribution of the posted comment. A hiatus is standard for BBB when he gets a new bf.

See copyright report here: http://www.opendns.com/pdf/opendns-report-2010.pdf

And so it begins...

See the article here... http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/26/google-begins-soft-censorship-of-arbitrary-piracy-related-queries/

Another report: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/27/david-kato-uganda-gay-act_n_814775.html

The Best and Worst Cities for Home Values in 2011 by Morgan BrennanMonday, January 24, 2011 California is rebounding, but Florida, not so. Poor Florida. The state that is home to Disney World, key lime pie and the Daytona 500 hasn't had much to crow about when it comes to real estate in recent years. Sorry to break it to Sunshine Staters, but they shouldn't be expecting a rebound anytime soon either. That's according to Local Market Monitor (LMM), a Cary, N.C.-based real estate research firm that crunched the numbers for our list of the best and worst cities for home values in 2011. One list includes the 10 cities where home values are expected to rise the most in 2011, and the other the 10 cities where they are expected to fall the most. LMM tracks 315 American real estate markets, assessing values and applying Investment Suitability ratings based on multiple factors. For the Forbes lists, LMM President Ingo Winzer and his researchers started with a U.S. Census-defined list of Metropolitan Statistical Areas with populations of 500,000 residents or more. They then analyzed key economic factors that directly affect housing markets: unemployment and job growth rates, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. LMM tracks real estate markets' valuations based on the theory that markets go through cycles. "We see a predictable pathway that home prices follow," explains Winzer. "If you know where in the cycle a market is, you can make some predictions about where it will go in the next one, two, three years." Assessing the progression of those market cycles means comparing average "actual" home prices to equilibrium home prices--meaning where prices should be in the absence of market distortions that result from speculation and mismatches between population growth and new home construction. Another tool is peak-to-trough analyses, which factors in the number of single-family and multi-family housing permits active in each city, as recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau. The result is a Top 10 list made up of cities boasting an outlook for job growth and rebounding economies in 2011. Not surprisingly then, Washington D.C. (No. 7), and its nearby hubs make this list, thanks to a steady supply of government jobs. California touts the most metros on the Top 10 list. San Jose (No. 1), Santa Ana (No. 2) and San Diego (No. 5) offer housing markets where property prices are expected to rise steadily over the next three years. Los Angeles didn't crack the top 10, but this sprawling metropolis does offer the prospect of appreciation, despite a building boom and bust that was similar to Florida's. "The big difference between Florida and Southern California ... is people are moving into Southern California, but they're not moving to Florida," asserts Winzer. "It was speculative retirement and vacation condos--things that were bought by people not living there and now not moving there, wanting to sell their empty condos because they can't rent them out." Unfortunately for these snowbirds, seven Florida cities land on the Bottom 10 list. Deltona-Daytona Beach, Lakeland and Orlando take the top three spots. Expect further home price drops in all of these markets over the next two years, leveling out by 2014. A lack of jobs--the construction industry had a huge job market presence here--coupled with a deluge of homes on the market, both from owners and banks, means these markets will take a long time to recover. Many Western states are in the same bind as Florida, thanks to building boom and busts centered around retirement and vacation home speculation. Arizona metros like Tucson (No.8) and Nevada's Las Vegas (No.5) likely have a few years to go before prices stop dropping. "In general they're attractive markets for retirement, and eventually they'll recover ... but over the next five years or so they're going to have a tough time filling all the empty pieces of real estate built there," says the LMM president. What does all of this news mean for you, the homeowner? If you are living in a market that's still depreciating in value and intend to stay in that market, don't panic and sell your home. Wait it out instead. However, if you live in one of these depreciating markets and already plan on scramming in the next few years, do it now--it's probably going to get worse before it gets better. Just don't plan on your property selling quickly, since these markets are suffering from an abundance of inventory. If you've had hopes of setting up new digs in one of these rebounding markets, do it now. Prices are only going to go up. "There are going to be very few markets over the next five years that will be good investment markets, and few to no markets where prices will go up 10% per year," stresses Winzer, emphasizing that no market has a shortage of real estate. "We are probably at a point now where we [LMM] are underestimating how well the Top 10 markets are going to do. ... What you might see in some of these markets are fair, steady gains of 4% or 5% a year, the way they used to before there was a real estate boom. " Cities Where Home Values Will Rise in 2011 These are the Metropolitan Statistical Areas where home values are expected rebound the most this year, based on data compiled by Local Market Monitor. San Jose, Calif. Average Home Price: $511,186 12-Month Forecast: 3% increase Three-Year Annualized Forecast: 2% increase Santa Ana, Calif. Average Home Price: $449,396 12-Month Forecast: 3% increase Three-Year Annualized Forecast: 2% increase Bethesda, Md. Average Home Price: $384,775 12-Month Forecast: 2% increase Three-Year Annualized Forecast: 2% increase Pittsburgh, Pa. Average Home Price: $168,762 12-Month Forecast: 2% increase Three-Year Annualized Forecast: 2% increase San Diego, Calif. Average Home Price: $336,679 12-Month Forecast: 2% increase Three-Year Annualized Forecast: 2% increase Cities Where Home Values Will Fall in 2011 These cities appear to be in for further home price drops this year, according to data from Local Market Monitor. Daytona Beach, Fla. Average Home Price: $146,234 12-Month Forecast: 11% decrease Three-Year Annualized Forecast: No change Lakeland, Fla. Average Home Price: $139,734 12-Month Forecast: 7% decrease Three-Year Annualized Forecast: 2% increase Orlando, Fla. Average Home Price: $180,900 12-Month Forecast: 6% decrease Three-Year Annualized Forecast: 2% increase Boise City, Idaho Average Home Price: $162,016 12-Month Forecast: 7% decrease Three-Year Annualized Forecast: 3% increase Las Vegas, Nev. Average Home Price: $144,636 12-Month Forecast: 5% decrease Three-Year Annualized Forecast: 2% increase See original article and full list of Cities Where Home Values Will Rise and Fall in 2011: http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/111915/the-best-and-worst-cities-for-home-values-in-2011?mod=realestate-buy

All carbs break down to glucose through the digestive process. That includes sugars and starches. Glucose in the blood is what is called blood sugar. Many carbs are only marginally better than sugar, only because a few more calories are burned cleaving the starch molecules to glucose compared to the cleaving the sugar (sucrose) molecule. Carbs come in two varieties: high and low glycemic index (GI). The GI is a measure of how fast the carbs are broken down to glucose and absorbed in the blood. The glucose GI is 100 and defines the baeline of how fast glucose is abosrbed directly in the blood. A smaller GI is better. Lowest GIs are found in nonstarchy vegetables and fruits. Starches like beans, sweet potato, brown rice are in the moderate range of the GI. White potato, white rice, white bread, flour etc... are have higher GI values. Food GI's are tabulated and can be found on the web. The GI is an indication of the speed that your blood sugar rises after eating that particular starch. Slower sugar loading is better in that it avoids a sharp blood sugar spike which wreaks havoc with your system and can cause coma in extreme cases. A related measure is Glycemic Load (GL) it is a measure of how much sugar is dumped in your blood and how fast. Basically GL is a measure of GI x calories/serving. For example, compairing a half-cup serving of sweet potato and bread-based stuffing. Again, smaller GL's are better. In this match up the sweet potato is the winner. Food GL's are also tabulated and found on the web. Dietary nutritonists make recommendations and mail-order diebetic food businesses base their menus on the GI and GL values for foods. Individuals can do the same when armed with the data.

Thai 'red shirts' protest and demand leaders' release 23 January 2011 Last updated at 12:42 ET Anti-government "red-shirt" activists have protested in the Thai capital Bangkok, and called for the release of their imprisoned leaders. Police say around 27,000 people marched peacefully from the site of last year's protests to Democracy Monument. The red-shirts plan to keep up the pressure on the Thai government with regular protests Nineteen of the group's leaders and dozens of supporters remain in detention after protests and clashes with security forces last year. More than 90 people were killed in the violence and hundreds injured. Sunday's demonstration marked the second big gathering by the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) since the government lifted a state of emergency in Bangkok on 22 December. Rallies to continue A rally on 9 January in the upmarket central shopping district of Ratchprasong - an area blockaded and occupied by red-shirts last year - was followed by complaints and protests from local businesses and traders. The traders are not happy about the potential loss of business through future demonstrations. The Ratchaprasong Square Trade Association says more than 2,000 businesses lost 11bn baht ($362m; £226m) last year due to the red-shirt protest. Dozens of buildings in the area were attacked and set on fire by militant protesters after the army crackdown. The red-shirts agreed to spend only two hours in the area on Sunday before moving on. One of the leaders, Jatuporn Prompan, said the group was trying "to make less trouble for people who live and work around the protest sites". At the rally on Sunday, Mr Jatuporn also announced that the group would only hold one demonstration a month, as opposed to the two which had been planned. The latest protest shows the continuing strength of the movement, which draws much of its support from the rural and urban working class. Many followers are also supporters of the former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006. They say red-shirt activists involved in protests have been treated much worse than so-called "yellow-shirt" protesters involved in demonstrations against allies of Thaksin Shinawatra who were then in power. The UDD also wants the completion of an inquiry into deaths during the protests. See original article at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12262439

I suspect that management intiated the action at this time. Whether it was a firing or not depends on what one thinks that means. I view firing as an involuntary separation, against the employee's will. In this case, I suspect that Olbermann was ready to go. I think he had been close to quitting in the recent past. I suspect he saw no chance for better relations with management after the merger. I don't think he was averse to a change at this time, under the right conditions. Better to walk away with his contract payoff than to quit and have to sit out anyway without the benefits. Yes, this merger is very bad for viewers and just another example of how business pretty much runs the system. Obama is sucking up to corporate America in anticipation of the next election. It's the way American politics works. It sucks. He wants to win. I want him to win. It sucks. That is the American way.

Terrorism directed at 'liberal' and 'government' targets since July 2008: An interactive map By David Neiwert January 21, 2011 11:29 AM Since all those isolated incidents involving terroristic violence directed at "liberals" and the "government" keep adding up into a serious trend, we've decided it's time to start keeping systematic track of the problem -- especially because mainstream media seem intent on refusing to recognize the trend. Here's the text for the 20 events we've enumerated so far: -- July 2008: A gunman named Jim David Adkisson, agitated at how "liberals" are "destroying America," walks into a Unitarian Church and opens fire, killing two churchgoers and wounding four others. -- October 2008: Two neo-Nazis are arrested in Tennessee in a plot to murder dozens of African-Americans, culminating in the assassination of President Obama. -- December 2008: A pair of "Patriot" movement radicals -- the father-son team of Bruce and Joshua Turnidge, who wanted "to attack the political infrastructure" -- threaten a bank in Woodburn, Oregon, with a bomb in the hopes of extorting money that would end their financial difficulties, for which they blamed the government. Instead, the bomb goes off and kills two police officers. The men eventually are convicted and sentenced to death for the crime. -- December 2008: In Belfast, Maine, police discover the makings of a nuclear "dirty bomb" in the basement of a white supremacist shot dead by his wife. The man, who was independently wealthy, reportedly was agitated about the election of President Obama and was crafting a plan to set off the bomb. -- January 2009: A white supremacist named Keith Luke embarks on a killing rampage in Brockton, Mass., raping and wounding a black woman and killing her sister, then killing a homeless man before being captured by police as he is en route to a Jewish community center. -- February 2009: A Marine named Kody Brittingham is arrested and charged with plotting to assassinate President Obama. Brittingham also collected white-supremacist material. -- April 2009: A white supremacist named Richard Poplawski opens fire on three Pittsburgh police officers who come to his house on a domestic-violence call and kills all three, because he believed President Obama intended to take away the guns of white citizens like himself. Poplawski is currently awaiting trial. -- April 2009: Another gunman in Okaloosa County, Florida, similarly fearful of Obama's purported gun-grabbing plans, kills two deputies when they come to arrest him in a domestic-violence matter, then is killed himself in a shootout with police. -- May 2009: A "sovereign citizen" named Scott Roeder walks into a church in Wichita, Kansas, and assassinates abortion provider Dr. George Tiller. -- June 2009: A Holocaust denier and right-wing tax protester named James Von Brunn opens fire at the Holocaust Museum, killing a security guard. -- February 2010: An angry tax protester named Joseph Ray Stack flies an airplane into the building housing IRS offices in Austin, Texas. (Media are reluctant to label this one "domestic terrorism" too.) -- March 2010: Seven militiamen from the Hutaree Militia in Michigan and Ohio are arrested and charged with plotting to assassinate local police officers with the intent of sparking a new civil war. -- March 2010: An anti-government extremist named John Patrick Bedell walks into the Pentagon and opens fire, wounding two officers before he is himself shot dead. -- May 2010: A "sovereign citizen" from Georgia is arrested in Tennessee and charged with plotting the violent takeover of a local county courthouse. -- May 2010: A still-unidentified white man walks into a Jacksonville, Fla., mosque and sets it afire, simultaneously setting off a pipe bomb. -- May 2010: Two "sovereign citizens" named Jerry and Joe Kane gun down two police officers who pull them over for a traffic violation, and then wound two more officers in a shootout in which both of them are eventually killed. -- July 2010: An agitated right-winger and convict named Byron Williams loads up on weapons and drives to the Bay Area intent on attacking the offices of the Tides Foundation and the ACLU, but is intercepted by state patrolmen and engages them in a shootout and armed standoff in which two officers and Williams are wounded. -- September 2010: A Concord, N.C., man is arrested and charged with plotting to blow up a North Carolina abortion clinic. The man, 26-year--old Justin Carl Moose, referred to himself as the "Christian counterpart to (Osama) bin Laden” in a taped undercover meeting with a federal informant. -- January 2011: A 22-year-old gunman named Jared Lee Loughner with a long grudge against Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and a paranoid hatred of the government walks into a public Giffords event and shoots her in the head, then keeps firing, killing six people and wounding 14 more. Gifford miraculously survives. -- January 2011: A backpack bomb with the potential of killing or injuring dozens of people is found along the route of a Martin Luther King Day “unity march” in downtown Spokane. We'll update as the incidents occur. Also, readers should feel free to contribute potential additions. Remember, these incidents involve more than simple threats or assaults but rather constitute incidents of actual domestic terrorism. See original article with interactive map at:http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/violence-directed-liberal-and-govern