Mün's Page: Be Wise.

NEW BLOG: http://munspage.wordpress.com

2012-01-05T11:08:00.002-05:00

http://munspage.wordpress.com

Odd Christmas (Ft. Nicki Minaj, Big Sean, Rick Ross, Beyonce,Jay-Z, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Drake @weelynho

2011-12-30T13:00:00.004-05:00

if youve been under a rock then you missed this!

this is funny as hell! well done

Special Report: Architects of a currency in crisis @reuters

2011-12-30T12:33:00.000-05:00

(Reuters) - Ten years ago Saturday, the European Union celebrated the launch of the first euro coins and notes with fireworks, parties and solemn speeches.
Today, several members are on the edge of bankruptcy. First-world Europe is reduced to asking the IMF and China for help. The euro itself is at risk of unraveling.
How could it all have gone so wrong?
In a series of interviews with architects of the euro - a former president, a former prime minister, two former finance ministers, a former central banker, a former EU commissioner and a former EU Affairs minister - common explanations emerged.
The single currency would not have sparked the euro zone debt crisis, they argued, if the pro-European dynamic that led to its creation had continued into its first decade. But instead of launching an economic and political integration of Europe, the low interest rates and easy money that arrived with the euro led peripheral states on a path of profligacy, widening the gap with frugal, export-oriented economies of the north.
Meanwhile, as rapid enlargement made EU decision-making more cumbersome and as citizens' enthusiasm for Europe waned, EU leaders hollowed out the authority of the European Commission, the union's chief executive body and guardian of its treaties and of fiscal probity.
Most of all, some of the architects now admit that after the first few euphoric years, it became clear the euro itself was a flawed concept, laying a single currency over a group of countries that stuck to national sovereignty over their economies.
The euro was a dare from the get-go. Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher famously spurned the currency as unworkable and a threat to sovereignty; Sweden stayed out, too. Euro boosters themselves pushed ahead with the project despite sharing misgivings about its inherent political and economic flaws.
"One thing was evident to me from the beginning," said Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the European Parliament's Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, Belgian prime minister from 1999 to 2008, and one of Europe's most federalist politicians. "A state can exist without a currency, but a currency cannot exist without a state."
FROM UNION TO DISUNION
One of the driving forces of European integration is former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing. Now 85, he resides in a stately Parisian townhouse filled with museum-quality 18th-century furniture.
As president from 1974 to 1981, Giscard, with German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, helped create the European Monetary System and the European Council summits of EU leaders. Early last decade, he chaired the drafting of the European Constitution that later became the Lisbon Treaty, which governs EU institutions as they function today.
For Giscard, one of the key reasons for today's euro zone debt crisis is the EU enlargement of the past decade, in particular in 2004, when 10 countries - mostly former East Bloc nations - joined the European Union. "By the time the euro was introduced, the group was no longer homogeneous," Giscard said in an interview.
The European Union now counts 27 members and is set to receive a 28th - Croatia - in 2013. Enlargement has made the European institutions hard to govern, he says, notably the executive European Commission, which has a commissioner for every member country.
The crisis erupted first in Greece. Giscard, a hellenophile, did as much as anyone to bring Athens into the European Union. He championed its EU candidacy at a crucial moment in 1979, fending off German objections and European Commission reservations at the time against admitting the country just seven years after the fall of its military junta.
Greece joined what was then called the European Economic Community in 1981. Two decades later, in 2001, it joined the euro.
Standing in his ballroom-sized entrance hall, decorated with deer antlers and two enormous elephant tusks, Giscard now voices the unthinkable: Greece should consider leaving the euro.
Giscard said that a deflation, or economy-wide drop in prices, of 40 or 50 percent would be necessary to restore competitiveness if Greece remains in the euro. That is probably too hard for its citizens to bear, which makes a euro exit and consequent devaluation a more acceptable outcome.
The Greek people need to study "seriously and honestly" whether to go back to the drachma or stay in the euro. "It's a Greek choice."
WALKS WITH A LIMP
On the other side of the French political spectrum is Michel Sapin, 59, who was finance minister in a Socialist government from 1992 to 1993 and dealt with Europe's foreign exchange crisis of the early nineties. He is likely to hold a senior office if Socialist Francois Hollande beats conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in the April-May presidential election.
To Sapin, the euro zone's problems stem from a fundamental design flaw in the 1992 pact that created the European Union and led to the euro, the Maastricht Treaty.
"The Maastricht Treaty was built on two pillars. The monetary pillar has been an extraordinary success, because, say what you want, there is no monetary crisis - the euro is strong," he said. "The second pillar was the economic government. We knew from the start we had to build a second pillar for economic, budget and fiscal matters, because countries cannot share the same currency if they have divergent economic policies."
European Investment Bank President Philip Maystadt, a veteran of EU monetary integration, could not agree more. He took part in the Maastricht Treaty negotiations as Belgian finance minister from 1988 to 1998. He recalls that Germany at the time was suspicious of unified economic government, fearing it would impinge on the independence of the future European Central Bank. But protecting the bank's independence was not a good reason to abandon the concept of economic governance, he said.
"(Former European Commission President) Jacques Delors said the single currency walked with a limp - it had one strong leg, the monetary part, and one weak leg, the economic governance," he said. "Clearly, this ersatz economic government was utterly insufficient."
TURNING POINT
European leaders were aware of the shortcomings of Maastricht. They spent two years negotiating the 1997 Stability and Growth Pact, which threatens escalating sanctions on states that fail to limit annual deficits to three percent of GDP and outstanding debt to 60 percent of GDP.
But the focus on these two indicators meant that other measures of economic health, such as private debt, wage costs and the current account balance, were ignored.
As a result, EU finance ministers overlooked the build-up of tensions in the Irish and Spanish economies. Their public finances looked to be in excellent shape by Maastricht Treaty standards, until Ireland's banking crisis and the Spanish real estate collapse. Those implosions forced authorities to turn private debt into public debt, wrecking their nations' finances.
Imperfect as it was, the Stability Pact was the one mechanism that could have kept the single currency on the rails. But it was discarded the first time it was tested.
When the 2002-2003 economic crisis pushed French and German public finance indicators beyond Maastricht limits, the two big EU nations cast it aside. Exceptions were made, and in 2005 the pact's provisions were watered down further.
"That was a real turning point. When the other finance ministers saw what France and Germany were getting away with, that's when they said, 'Ah, ok, we don't have to respect the Stability Pact'," Maystadt said.
In the debt-fueled prosperity of the first half decade of this century, this did not seem to matter. Euro zone interest rates were low, growth was fast, stock markets went up. At the start of the decade it looked like the lack of policy coordination would only cause member states' economies to be a bit out of sync.
From around 2004 that changed. It became obvious that two very different models were cutting Europe in two: export-oriented manufacturing with strong wage control in the north, and debt-financed consumption in the south.
Books have been written about this trend, but a picture says more than a thousand words: the charts of net foreign assets and current account balances in north and south look like mirror images.
The combined net foreign assets of Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Finland grew more than four-fold to nearly two trillion euros by the end of the decade, as their current account surplus swelled to more than six percent of GDP, according to figures from Thomson Reuters Datastream and French investment bank Natixis.
But net foreign debt in France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal and Ireland grew to more than 1.5 trillion euros as the southern zone's current account deficit widened to around four percent.
"When we voted the Maastricht Treaty, it was with the firm intention to continue on the path of political integration. Then there was a sort of sigh of relief when we saw that, actually, the single currency could work without it," said Sapin, the former French finance minister. "It has taken us ten years to understand that it could not."
After a decade of defying common sense and with their countries' credit ratings crumbling, euro zone leaders are finally admitting that Maastricht was flawed.
In a letter to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy before the December 9 EU summit, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a remarkable admission: "The current crisis has uncovered the deficiencies in the construction of (European monetary union) mercilessly."
COMMISSION DEFANGED
The letter does not mention how Sarkozy and Merkel, and their predecessors Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroder, gradually undermined the foundations of economic governance that earlier generations of EU leaders built.
One of the oldest debates in the European Union is over who should drive EU affairs: the supranational body that is the European Commission or by the heads of state or government of its member nations, represented in the European Council. First created as an informal discussion forum in 1974, the Council formally became an EU institution in 2009 as part of the Lisbon Treaty reforms.
During the long reign of Jacques Delors - three successive terms, from 1985 to 1994 - the Commission played a leading role. With the backing of socialist French President Francois Mitterrand, under whom he had been a finance minister, Delors drove a strong federal agenda, often clashing with eurosceptic EU leaders, most famously with Margaret Thatcher.
The Delors Commission created the single market, shepherded the Maastricht Treaty and set the continent on track for the single currency. None of his successors would have that kind of influence again.
"After Delors' departure, the EU leaders did not want such an active Commission president again. They wanted someone who would not bother them," said Yves-Thibault de Silguy, who was commissioner for economic, monetary and financial affairs in the 1995-99 Jacques Santer commission.
Santer, then prime minister of Luxembourg, was chosen after the UK had vetoed the candidacy of Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene, saying he represented an outdated tradition of centralism and "big government".
"What happened was a progressive loss of confidence in the very thing that had made Europe successful: the community method," de Silguy said.
Under this method, an independent European Commission makes proposals to the Council and the European Parliament, and implements them once they are approved.
But in the past decade, governments clipped the Commission's wings year after year, in favor of an "intergovernmental" approach whereby governments make decisions for the Commission to execute, often in ad-hoc summits that rubber-stamp decisions prepared in an even closer circle of French and German leaders.
Intergovernmental decision-making itself is a source of delay and dilution, as it requires unanimity, giving each member state a blocking veto.
De Silguy said the intergovernmental approach explains a lot of today's problems and is particularly inappropriate for economic matters.
"Europe needs fluid and homogenous markets, with a policeman to make sure the rules are obeyed, and that policeman is the European Commission. The entire European construct is based on that premise," he said.
In October 2001, a group of elder statesmen led by Delors and including former German chancellors Helmut Kohl and Helmut Schmidt raised the alarm, criticizing their successors' growing tendency to bypass the Commission and micro-manage EU affairs. To no avail.
Giscard sums it up like this: "The Commission murmurs in Brussels and nobody listens."
EUROPEAN HANGOVER
The German and French leaders who bucked Brussels, to be sure, had a sound argument for doing so.
Their nations have the euro zone's largest and second-largest economies and populations, respectively. But the European Commission gives each of the 27 nations one representative. That ties down Germany and France like Gulliver to their Lilliputian neighbors - a non-starter for their peoples.
"The problem with the Commission is that the Baltic states have a bigger weight than Germany," said Giscard. "That is not reasonable."
Indeed, the EU leaders' increasingly nationalistic stance went hand in hand with a growing disenchantment of the European public with the federal ideal, as can be read from the EU's "Eurobarometer" opinion polls.
Since 1974, the EU has asked citizens twice a year whether they think their country's EU membership is "a good thing". The percentage of people agreeing with that slipped from 63 percent in 1975 to 50 percent in 1981, the year Mitterrand was elected French president.
From 1981, positive feeling about European integration rose non-stop for a decade, to hit an all-time high of 71 percent in 1991, the year before the Maastricht Treaty was signed.
But in 60 years of European construction, the eighties and early nineties were the exception to a general climate of reluctant stop-and-go integration.
After Maastricht, pro-European feeling fell off a cliff, with the number of people considering their countries' EU membership a good thing falling to an all-time low of 46 percent in the spring of 1997.
The launch of the euro as an accounting currency in 1999 and the arrival of the euro notes and coins in 2002 restored good feeling for a few years. But the rejection of the European Constitution in French and Dutch referendums in 2005 showed the tide had turned again.
Pro-European feeling slid from 59 percent in a Continent-wide poll in autumn 2004 to 50 percent in autumn 2005 and to 47 percent in spring 2011. It will likely hit a new all-time low in the next wave of measurement, according to an official involved with the poll.
BRIDGE OF DISCORD
With a flawed single currency, an emasculated EU Commission, and an increasingly eurosceptic public, the euro zone would have hit a bump sooner or later.
But there was one euro side-effect that magnified all the other problems.
Besides being a medium of exchange, an accounting unit and a store of value, a currency is also a feedback mechanism for economic policy.
If a country's policies are lax, and spending and wages are out of control, then its currency weakens and its interest rates rise, forcing the government to correct course with a devaluation or austerity programs. With one currency for many states, devaluation is no longer an option.
The introduction of the euro brought a stable exchange rate, low interest rates and a flow of money to southern European countries that for decades had used devaluation as their main policy adjustment factor.
This caused speculative bubbles in real estate and banking, pushed up wages to uncompetitive levels, and led to a build-up of debt that in 2010 began to collapse.
One of the few founding fathers to have clearly articulated the euro's flaws was Otmar Issing, the German former European Central Bank chief economist and board member. In a 1996 paper, he warned that inherent in the currency was the potential for requiring transfers of cash from wealthier states to poorer ones. That could spark political tensions, he warned. "There is no example in history of a lasting monetary union that was not linked to a state entity," Issing wrote.
Fifteen years later he recalls that the warning signals appeared very early in the euro's life - divergences in labor costs among euro members, the violation of the budget-deficit cap. "What I didn't foresee was the dimension of the crisis," he told Reuters.
Another thing few forecast was the degree of discord the euro-zone crisis would engender: the EU flag being burnt in Athens, Greek street theatre portraying German leaders as Nazis, and a French socialist politician comparing Angela Merkel to Otto von Bismarck, who unified Germany by waging war on France.
In this climate, Europe's far-right parties have flourished, and few more than France's Front National, led by Marine Le Pen. She is running for president in the 2012 election on a pledge to take France out of the euro.
With an acute sense of history, Le Pen organized a little ceremony at the river Seine. On September 6 this year, Le Pen and activists of her party threw fake 500 euro notes off the Pont de la Concorde, which connects Place de la Concorde, site of the guillotine used for public executions during the French Revolution, to the French parliament.
"I will put an immediate end to all bail-outs of countries that have fallen victim to the euro," said Le Pen in front of a wall of cameras. "It is time for France to rediscover its national interest."
In the months ahead, as today's leaders hammer out a new treaty for deeper integration, they will have the voices of their predecessors ringing in their ears.
"The call for a more federal Europe has never been stronger than today, not out of conviction, but out of necessity," said Verhofstadt, the former Belgian prime minister. "I hope we make the jump. If we dither, we'll end up in the ravine."
(Additional reporting by Yves Clarisse, Elizabeth Pineau, Anna Maria Jakubek, Eva Kuehnen and Jonathan Gould; editing by Paul Taylor and Michael Williams)

via Reuters

At least 11 killed as cyclone hits India – USATODAY.com

2011-12-30T12:28:00.000-05:00

At least 11 killed as cyclone hits India – USATODAY.com

NEW DELHI (AP) – A cyclone brought heavy rains and gale-force winds to India's southeastern coast, killing at least 11 people, uprooting trees and damaging homes.

The India Meteorological Department said Friday morning that Cyclone Thane was centered in the Indian Ocean, 22 miles southwest of the town of Pondicherry, also known as Puducherry. The weather office said it was likely the storm would weaken and move west.

Heavy rains and winds of speeds reaching 85 miles per hour uprooted trees and damaged homes and resulted in 11 deaths, an official in the coastal town of Cuddalore said on condition of anonymity because he wasn't allowed to speak to reporters. The deaths were caused mostly by wall collapses and electrocution, he said.

The bad weather hit trains and flights in the region, Press Trust of India reported.

The weather office said that the seas were expected to be very rough along the coast of Pondicherry and its neighboring areas of southern Andhra Pradesh and the northern coast of Tamil Nadu. Fishermen have been warned not to venture out.

TopBrewer Coffee Faucet Controlled By An iPhone

2011-12-29T14:26:00.001-05:00

Danish company Scanomat has introduced the TopBrewer, an iPhone-controlled coffee faucet. The tap is part of an advanced brewing system that can be built into any tabletop.

The company has patented the world's smallest milk foamer which heats milk on-demand and foams it to the correct texture. The brewer cleans itself after each cup, and can dispense drinking water, cold or hot milk, steam, or a wide variety of coffee drinks; all of which can be ordered up from an iOS app or a touch-screen panel built into the tabletop.

Quote:
Envision being able to control your coffee machine with a device you already have in your pocket. With TopBrewer this is made possible with our smartphone application for your iPhone.

Quickly connect to the machine and select from the available drinks - or have your own favorite coffee pre-programmed and dispense it just the way YOU like it.

The app gives you full control of the machine and displays status messages when woken up from standby till it's ready to brew.

Have complete control of your TopBrewer and experience a new sensation when selecting your coffee. You can even explore our model lineup and order more coffee when you run out.

thx macrumor

Drake's OVO Line Releases $5,000 Luxury Jacket

2011-12-29T09:37:00.000-05:00

Drake is amping up his OVO label, as he just released a $5,000 limited edition luxury jacket sporting his October’s Very Own branding logo.
The Chilliwack coat is a collaboration with Canada Goose, and features a buffalo leather exterior, silk-lined interior, removable arctic fox fur trim, and 24-karat gold-plated hardware.
If you're interested in purchasing the jacket, then you can pick it up in Toronto, New York, Osaka, and Tokyo.
Would you buy this jacket?

Source: rap-up.com via hollywoodheavy

$130k Monopoly Set?

2011-12-29T09:35:00.002-05:00

Designed by luxury goods brand Pemberton and Milner, this Monopoly board has to be the most lavish ever created.
The board is a military version, with street names replaced with the likes of Royal Navy ships, Army units and Royal Air Force stations.
Funds raised from the sale would benefit The Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity, ABF The Soldiers' Charity and The RAF Benevolent Fund.
source: luxurylaunches.com via hollywoodheavy

Kanye West Moving To London For Fashion Career?

2011-12-29T09:33:00.000-05:00

Sources say that Kanye West will be packing his things and moving to Paris to work on his DW fashion line. A line dedicated to his late mother, Donda West.
Kanye premiered the Spring/Summer 2012 line earlier this year at Paris Fashion week, so it comes to no surprise that he rapper would decide to relocate for his newest career choice.
Kanye already has fashion experience as he has collaborated on two shoe lines. A luxury line with Louis Vuitton. As well as, a sneaker collection with Nike.
Kanye West was in London prior to returning to the states to celebrate the Holidays. The Sun reports, while there he threw a party in honor of his line. In which he disclosed to the people in the VIP area of the party "that he is now based in the capital and would return in early January."
Kanye is not new to the world of fashion in Paris. He studied there for a year in between making albums. It will also be a great move because Katy Eary, the contributing designer to DW resides in the UK.
Looks like Ye took that "n***as in Paris" literal.

source: dailymail.co.uk via hollywoodheavy

Kim Jong Il Spent $720K Per Year on Hennessy

2011-12-29T09:32:00.000-05:00

Kim Jon Il was known for a lot of things- nuclear weapons, harsh dictatorship and die-hard Michael Jordan fan. However, most didn't know his ultimate love for cognac alcohol.
The fallen North Korean leader reportedly spent $720,000 per year on Hennessy, with bottles averaging about $630 per bottle in the country.
Don't think that the French luxury brandy maker will be heartbroken over the loss of his business, as they recently released a statement.
"I don't usually get someone of his notoriety, in more ways than one. I just know that cognac in general is extremely popular among the Asian community. It's a very large status symbol, and we're one of the premier luxury cognacs in the world, and it's not surprising that he would gravitate towards that."

Source: smokingsection.com

Notre Dame researchers develop paint-on solar cells // News // Notre Dame News // University of Notre Dame

2011-12-29T09:14:00.000-05:00

Notre Dame researchers develop paint-on solar cells // News // Notre Dame News // University of Notre Dame

IPad 3 out in Feb 2011

2011-12-15T09:46:00.001-05:00

According to IPAD 3 Info:

-Coming out Feb 2011
What can we expect from the new iPad 3?

Retina Display, HD screen or AMOLED screen?
A Retina Display may be be one of the features Apple is preparing and that would be very appreciated by all the fans. But there has been rumors (and reports from Digitimes) that Apple is looking to provide screens capable of displaying higher image quality than the iPad 2.Some conversation with Samsung executives may also have happens what indicates the possibilities of an AMOLED screen…

Higher resolution
In the opinion of FBR Capital Markets analyst Craig Berger, the iPad 2 Plus (or iPad 3) will have a much higher resolution display than the iPad 2. Apple shell increase the device’s pixel density and bump the device up to 2.048 x 1.336 resolution (the actual one has 1.024 x 768 resolution.)

An NFC chip and a Thunderbolt port
Apple has shown interest in the Near Field Communications that may be included in iPad 3 and also on the new iPhone 5. Thunderbolt port are also expected in the Mac computers, so…

More storage and a SD card slot
Much more than the 16/32/64GB storage options of the iPad 2 is expected.

Lighter
A carbon fiber case would be a way to get some advantage, using this lightweight material.

At least a dual, mas possibly a quad-core processor

A better camera and flash

[Video] - Apple's Siri Raps Biggie's "Hypnotize"

2011-12-15T09:27:00.000-05:00

New Age Tires: No more Air Filled Tires

2011-12-07T08:30:00.001-05:00

According to Diginfo:

Bridgestone has developed the Air-Free Concept, a tire technology that uses a thermoplastic resin as it's support structure instead of air.

"Because there's no air in these tires, there's no worry about punctures. Also, there's no need to check the pressure in them, so they're easy to maintain, too."

"A feature of these tires is, they have spokes with a special curve, arranged in an interlacing fashion. This enables them to flex effectively without twisting, and behave just like ordinary tires, without producing a horizontal force."
The spoke material is a reusable thermoplastic resin, meaning that the tires can be easily recycled, making them environmentally friendly.

"In an electric cart, the load on each wheel is about 50 kg. We've checked that these tires can amply support three times that load."

"Regarding specific applications, we'd like to start with small-scale uses, such as personal mobility, and gradually move up to standard vehicles."
The spokes, with their special curve, have a functional beauty. So Bridgestone expects that these tires will be used with the spokes revealed.
"If something becomes caught in the spokes, it'll make them get stuck, and unable to change their shape. So we need to check how to avoid that, but we hope we can find a good way."

Smoking can make your nipples fall off -CNN

2011-12-06T16:03:00.001-05:00

According to CNN Blog:

Anthony Youn, M.D., is a plastic surgeon in Metro Detroit. He is the author of “In Stitches,” a humorous memoir about growing up Asian American and becoming a doctor.

I cringe every time I see a patient for a breast lift who is a smoker. I’m deathly afraid that despite my warnings, she will smoke before or after surgery and cause her nipples to turn black and fall off.

Yes. Smokers who undergo breast lifts are at great risk of losing their nipples.

I’ve seen it before.

The nicotine in cigarettes and the carbon monoxide contained in cigarette smoke can diminish blood flow to various parts of the body. These toxins act as a virtual tourniquet. If the blood flow to a particular body part becomes greatly reduced or halted, that body part dies.

In my memoir “In Stitches,” I told the story of a smoker whose nipples turned purple while undergoing a breast lift surgery. Purple is the precursor to black. Black is the precursor to falling off. To save the patient—and her nipples - we turned to the only treatment available.

We went medieval. We used leeches.

Because of the mechanics of blood flow, when the blood supply is inadequate, which occurs with smoking, the tiniest veins often fail. This insufficiency results in a backup of old (venous) blood in the body part, causing it to turn purple. If the backup of old blood is serious enough, the purple color may eventually turn black. That’s when we know the body part - toe, finger, or nipple - is dead.

We use leeches to literally suck out the excess venous blood from the body part, acting as an attachable vein. The leech drains the old blood, causing it to turn from unhealthy purple back to healthy pink. We place leeches intermittently until the body part grows new blood vessels to do the leeches’ work. This can take several days.

Not long ago, during a consultation for a breast lift, a patient, Susan, admitted to being a pack-a-day smoker. I informed her that smoking can cause difficulty in healing and instructed her to quit smoking at least one month before surgery and to stay off cigarettes for at least a month afterward. Several months later, when she arrived at the hospital for her breast lift, she smelled like an ashtray.

“Susan, I thought you quit smoking.”
“I did. OK. For a while. It’s really hard to quit, Dr. Youn.”
“I know,” I said. “But this is a big deal. There could be major healing problems if you smoke before or after surgery.”
“I understand. But I want to go ahead with the surgery anyway. It’ll be fine.”

She wasn’t hearing me. I needed to get through to her. “Susan, listen to me. If I operate on you, your nipples could turn black and fall off.”
Her eyes widened. “You mean… I’d have no nipples?”
“No nipples. That’s what smoking can do.”

Susan flushed. She raised her voice. “Dr. Youn, I took a week off work for this surgery. I had to put my whole life on hold for an entire week. If you told me I’d lose my nipples from smoking, I would’ve quit for good. This is your fault.”

Yes. Seriously. Susan blamed me for the inconvenience.

Thanks to her, I’ve changed my policy. In addition to the Surgeon General’s Warning that appears on cigarette packages, I now offer the Plastic Surgeon’s Warning to all my patients who smoke: If you are having a breast lift or reduction and you smoke, your nipples could turn black and fall off. If you are having a tummy tuck and you smoke, you may get an infection resulting in a big gross open wound that will take three months to heal. If you are having a facelift and you smoke, the skin of your cheek could turn black and slough off, leaving exposed fat.

Imagine yourself looking like “Two-Face” from “Batman: The Dark Knight.”

And do you really want me to reach for the jar of leeches?
Smokers, you have been warned.

Street King Energy Drink Commercial - @50cent @DeepakChopra

2011-12-05T09:39:00.001-05:00

Jim Jones TMZ Hanukkah songs @jimjonescapo

2011-12-05T09:35:00.001-05:00

video platform video management video solutions video player

Bill would end overtime pay requirement for many more IT workers

2011-12-02T12:53:00.001-05:00

Hopefully this helps all my ppl working in IT... tell me what you think of this

According to ArsTechnica:

A bill recently introduced in Congress would greatly expand the exemption to the Fair Labor Standards Act for IT employees, ending overtime benefits for many more types of workers, including network, database and security specialists.
Among other things, the FLSA mandates that employees get time-and-a-half overtime pay for working more than 40 hours in a week, unless they are executives or specifically exempted from the law's protection. There are already many exemptions, and the current text related to IT workers exempts "any employee who is a computer systems analyst, computer programmer, software engineer, or other similarly skilled worker," whose primary duties fall under categories including "systems analysis techniques and procedures," and "design, documentation, testing, creation, or modification of computer programs."
But a bill sponsored by Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC), titled the "Computer Professionals Update Act," takes the exemption's 131-word text and bumps it up to 205, adding job classes such as database and network specialists and security professionals along the way. The proposed text exempts "any employee working in a computer or information technology occupation (including, but not limited to, work related to computers, information systems, components, networks, software, hardware, databases, security, internet, intranet, or websites) as an analyst, programmer, engineer, designer, developer, administrator, or other similarly skilled worker," with primary duties including "the application of systems, network or database analysis techniques and procedures, including consulting with users, to determine or modify hardware, software, network, database, or system functional specifications."
The bill would also label all employees listed in the exemption as part of the "bona fide executive, administrative, or professional" class exempt from overtime and minimum wage laws. However, the proposed modification keeps the exemption's current text limiting affected employees to those who are on salary or make at least $27.63 an hour.
An IT administrator who blogged about the bill notes that "I think that I may have originally underestimated the importance of this bill to us SysAdmins in the United States…see, I was under the impression that we were almost all salaried and exempt—in other words, that overtime wasn’t an option anyway. I’ve been informed by a couple of friends of mine that this isn’t the case at all, and that there are a lot of hourly SysAdmins who get overtime."
According to Govtrack.us, Hagan's bill was referred to the Committee on Health Education, Labor, and Pensions, on Oct. 20, helpfully noting that "the majority of bills and resolutions never make it out of committee." But if you want to tell Sen. Kagan what you think about limiting overtime pay for IT pros, a contact form is on the senator's website.

Vybz Kartel has reportedly broken out of prison

2011-11-30T08:33:00.001-05:00

According to MTV UK:
Dancehall star Vybz Kartel has reportedly broken out of prison in his native Jamaica after holding an officer at gunpoint.

Kartel, real name Adidja Palmer, allegedly started a riot at the Horizon Adult Remand Centre, where he was being held whilst under investigation over his possible involvement in up to seven murders.

It is reported that Kartel and several other prisoners managed to take control of the prison shortly after 1am local time this morning (30/11/11), taking clothes and keys from guards before escaping in a prison maintenance pickup truck at approximately 1.45am.

One police officer is thought to have died of a heart attack during the escape with at least twelve others injured, including two who were shot with guns apparently smuggled into the prison ahead of the raid.

The Force Commissioner of Jamaica's Criminal Investigations Branch has confirmed that Kartel, who has previously worked with the likes of Eminem, Jay-Z and Akon, is on the run and that he and the other escapees are now on the island's most wanted list.

At 12.20pm GMT today (30/11/11), a tweet purporting to be from Kartel's Twitter account hit the micro-blogging site, cryptically just saying "Ahoee'.
It has yet to be confirmed whether the tweet was genuinely sent by Kartel, or whether his account has been hacked.

[Video] Drake SNL Skit: Digital Short With Andy Samberg

2011-11-23T11:34:00.001-05:00

this is funny as hell

[Video] Drake SNL Skit "Bag Jackin'" With Jay Pharoah

2011-11-23T11:33:00.001-05:00

lol!

Become part of the Green Monster Movement for the new year @ohsheglows

2011-11-21T13:53:00.001-05:00

Green Monster Movement:

Now, I blend together kale or spinach, milk (almond or soy), fruit, seeds, powders, etc. and come up with some amazing Green Monster drinks! I have noticed a HUGE increase in my energy, along with a decrease in cravings for sweets.

Check out recipes like this:

Virgin Green Monster
Ingredients:

2 cups organic spinach

1-1.25 cups milk (your choice of cow’s milk, soy, hemp, almond, rice, etc)

1 tablespoon flax (optional)

1 banana

ice

Directions:
Hi there, Are you a Green Monster first-timer? Have no fear! This recipe is fool proof. Even the biggest skeptic will love this one. Place the ingredients into the blender in the following order: 1) Flax, 2) spinach, 3) banana, 4) milk. The reason for this order is so the heavier ingredients weigh down the flax and spinach and keep it from flying up around the blender and sticking to the side. Blend everything on the highest setting for 1 minute or so. Finally, add ice and blend on the ice setting. Pour into a large, fancy glass. Sit back, gulp it down, and be prepared to have endless energy!

[Video] - Justin Bieber Hot 97 Exclusive Freestyle

2011-11-21T08:56:00.001-05:00

Justin does it well. He's not that bad of a rapper; kid got talent.

AK47 Cufflinks!!

2011-11-21T08:51:00.001-05:00

Thx Blogtoread

That latter part is no joke. Fonderie 47 items will all contain metal from AK-47s. In fact, the purpose of the brand is help rid Africa of assault rifles – the most common of which is the Russian-made AK-47. The durable and universally known machine gun that takes a lot of abuse will now find its way into high-end men’s and women’s items. For launch the brand is starting with a couple of rings and these cufflinks. Overtime they will release more items – all done as partnerships with some of the world’s best designers and craftspeople. And yes, at least one watch is coming.

The idea is simple. The sales of these high-end items will help raise funds that will go to organizations to be used to literally buy and destroy guns in Africa that are often used as currency. The availability of the guns had numerous negative effects ranging from violence to the abuse of woman and children. Since they are often used in trade, Fonderie 47 learned a while ago that in Africa you could literally buy up gun in exchange for currency, and then destroy them.

They claim that the sale of one pair of cufflinks is enough to fund the purchase and destruction of 100 assault rifles in Africa. Fonderie 47 was started by John Zapolski and Peter Thum. I actually sat down for a while with John last year to interview him about Fonderie 47, its products, and all the nitty-gritty details about guns in Africa

Express from Sprint™

2011-11-21T08:48:00.001-05:00

Specs:

Operating system
Android 2.3

Battery information
1500 mAh

Talk time
6.0 hours

Dimensions
4.47" x 2.47" x 0.46"

Display
2.6" QVGA 240x320

Weight
4.76 oz

Memory
512MB ROM user memory / 512 RAM / Allows up to 32GB SD card storage

Bluetooth profiles
A2DP, AVRCP, GAVDP, HFP 1.5, PBAP, GOEP, SDAP/SDP, DUN, OPP, vCard3, SPP, PAN

Motorola Mobility Stockholders Approve Merger with Google

2011-11-21T08:47:00.001-05:00

Motorola Mobility Stockholders Approve Merger with Google

Nov. 17, 2011
LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. – Nov. 17, 2011 – Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MMI) (“Motorola Mobility”) today announced that at the Company’s Special Meeting of Stockholders held today, stockholders voted overwhelmingly to approve the proposed merger with Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) (“Google”).
Approximately 99 percent of the shares voting at today’s Special Meeting of Stockholders voted in favor of the adoption of the merger agreement, which represented approximately 74 percent of Motorola Mobility’s total outstanding shares of common stock as of the October 11, 2011 record date for the Special Meeting.
Sanjay Jha, chairman and CEO of Motorola Mobility, said, “We are pleased and gratified by the strong support we have received from our stockholders, with more than 99 percent of the voting shares voting in support of the transaction. We look forward to working with Google to realize the significant value this combination will bring to our stockholders and all the new opportunities it will provide our dedicated employees, customers, and partners.”
As previously announced on August 15, 2011, Motorola Mobility and Google entered into a definitive agreement for Google to acquire Motorola Mobility for $40.00 per share in cash, or a total of approximately $12.5 billion. The Company previously disclosed that it expected the merger to close by the end of 2011 or early 2012. While the Company continues to work to complete the transaction as expeditiously as possible, given the schedule of regulatory filings, it currently believes that the close is expected to occur in early 2012. It is important to note however, that the merger is subject to various closing conditions, and it is possible that the failure to timely meet such conditions or other factors outside of the Company’s control could delay or prevent the Company from completing the merger altogether.

Mün's Page: Be Wise.

NEW BLOG: http://munspage.wordpress.com

Odd Christmas (Ft. Nicki Minaj, Big Sean, Rick Ross, Beyonce,Jay-Z, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Drake @weelynho

Special Report: Architects of a currency in crisis @reuters

At least 11 killed as cyclone hits India – USATODAY.com

TopBrewer Coffee Faucet Controlled By An iPhone

Drake's OVO Line Releases $5,000 Luxury Jacket

$130k Monopoly Set?

Kanye West Moving To London For Fashion Career?

Kim Jong Il Spent $720K Per Year on Hennessy

Notre Dame researchers develop paint-on solar cells // News // Notre Dame News // University of Notre Dame

IPad 3 out in Feb 2011

[Video] - Apple's Siri Raps Biggie's "Hypnotize"

New Age Tires: No more Air Filled Tires

Smoking can make your nipples fall off -CNN

Street King Energy Drink Commercial - @50cent @DeepakChopra

Jim Jones TMZ Hanukkah songs @jimjonescapo

Bill would end overtime pay requirement for many more IT workers

Vybz Kartel has reportedly broken out of prison

[Video] Drake SNL Skit: Digital Short With Andy Samberg

[Video] Drake SNL Skit "Bag Jackin'" With Jay Pharoah

Become part of the Green Monster Movement for the new year @ohsheglows

[Video] - Justin Bieber Hot 97 Exclusive Freestyle

AK47 Cufflinks!!

Express from Sprint™

Operating system
Android 2.3

Battery information
1500 mAh

Talk time
6.0 hours

Dimensions
4.47" x 2.47" x 0.46"

Display
2.6" QVGA 240x320

Weight
4.76 oz

Memory
512MB ROM user memory / 512 RAM / Allows up to 32GB SD card storage

Bluetooth profiles
A2DP, AVRCP, GAVDP, HFP 1.5, PBAP, GOEP, SDAP/SDP, DUN, OPP, vCard3, SPP, PAN

Motorola Mobility Stockholders Approve Merger with Google

Mün's Page: Be Wise.

NEW BLOG: http://munspage.wordpress.com

Odd Christmas (Ft. Nicki Minaj, Big Sean, Rick Ross, Beyonce,Jay-Z, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Drake @weelynho

Special Report: Architects of a currency in crisis @reuters

At least 11 killed as cyclone hits India – USATODAY.com

TopBrewer Coffee Faucet Controlled By An iPhone

Drake's OVO Line Releases $5,000 Luxury Jacket

$130k Monopoly Set?

Kanye West Moving To London For Fashion Career?

Kim Jong Il Spent $720K Per Year on Hennessy

Notre Dame researchers develop paint-on solar cells // News // Notre Dame News // University of Notre Dame

IPad 3 out in Feb 2011

[Video] - Apple's Siri Raps Biggie's "Hypnotize"

New Age Tires: No more Air Filled Tires

Smoking can make your nipples fall off -CNN

Street King Energy Drink Commercial - @50cent @DeepakChopra

Jim Jones TMZ Hanukkah songs @jimjonescapo

Bill would end overtime pay requirement for many more IT workers

Vybz Kartel has reportedly broken out of prison

[Video] Drake SNL Skit: Digital Short With Andy Samberg

[Video] Drake SNL Skit "Bag Jackin'" With Jay Pharoah

Become part of the Green Monster Movement for the new year @ohsheglows

[Video] - Justin Bieber Hot 97 Exclusive Freestyle

AK47 Cufflinks!!

Express from Sprint™

Operating systemAndroid 2.3

Battery information1500 mAh

Talk time6.0 hours

Dimensions4.47" x 2.47" x 0.46"Display2.6" QVGA 240x320

Weight4.76 oz

Memory512MB ROM user memory / 512 RAM / Allows up to 32GB SD card storage

Bluetooth profilesA2DP, AVRCP, GAVDP, HFP 1.5, PBAP, GOEP, SDAP/SDP, DUN, OPP, vCard3, SPP, PAN

Motorola Mobility Stockholders Approve Merger with Google

Operating system
Android 2.3

Battery information
1500 mAh

Talk time
6.0 hours

Dimensions
4.47" x 2.47" x 0.46"

Display
2.6" QVGA 240x320

Weight
4.76 oz

Memory
512MB ROM user memory / 512 RAM / Allows up to 32GB SD card storage

Bluetooth profiles
A2DP, AVRCP, GAVDP, HFP 1.5, PBAP, GOEP, SDAP/SDP, DUN, OPP, vCard3, SPP, PAN