Let me tell you about Notch Grinders

Source: Access Hollywood ()

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (December 25, 2007) – Season 5 of “The Biggest Loser” debuts January 1 and the emotion is sure to be kicked up a notch because for the first time ever, couples will be competing together!

Together they weigh a combined total of over 6,300 pounds, but the 20 contestants for Season 5, competing in teams of two, all share one common goal – to become “The Biggest Loser.”

They hope to not only shed pounds, but the habits that led them to being overweight.

“Food is our addiction,” contestant Jenn Widder said. “It’s our drug of choice. We eat when we are happy, we eat when we are sad, when we are hungry and when we are not hungry.”

And it all boils down to similar food demons.

“Ice cream,” exclaims contestant Mark Kruger. “I am just an ice cream lover. There is no such thing as a bad flavor.”

‘The Biggest Loser’ Season 5 Cast Interviews

“I love chocolate,” contestant Amanda Hammer told Access. “I love bread, I love cookies.”

The contestants will learn how to change their eating habits and they will have to hit the gym… hard!

Trainers Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels return for Season 5 to put the ten teams through the rigors.

“It is very interesting because they are essentially bringing their enabler along with them,” Jillian explained.

But for many, losing the weight could be a life death situation.

“Dad died at 47,” Paul Marks told Access. “Dad’s dad died at 49… I am 43. Do the math.”

Source: Motley Fool ()

I’m beginning to love Ebenezer Scrooge.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m no miser. To the contrary. I believe our annual Foolanthropy campaign is one of the very best things we do at The Motley Fool.

My love for Scrooge derives not from the pearly writings of Charles Dickens, but from the more recent incisiveness of another author: Hewitt Heiserman Jr., the top-notch analyst behind It’s Earnings That Count.

For three years now, I’ve had the good fortune of teaming with Heiserman to create what we call the “Scrooge” screen — a series of criteria for finding stocks that meet the needs of cautiously greedy growth investors like us.

We’re getting richer by the day. Here are the results for the Scrooge screen for 2007 (all dividends were reinvested):

Impressive, no? I’ll say. Miners Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP) and Compania de Minas Buenaventura (NYSE: BVN) more than compensated for huge losses at health-care software provider Streamline.

And remember: this is the third consecutive year of market-beating gains for our miserly screen. Scrooge was up 9.8% on the S&P 500 in 2005 and 10.5% in 2006. Big winners from those years include First American Financial (NYSE: FAF), Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE: TSM), Southern Copper (NYSE: PCU), and POSCO (NYSE: PKX).

Big losers include Cantel Medical, Docucorp, and — wait for it — current Motley Fool Hidden Gems winner II-VI (Nasdaq: IIVI).

From these results, and the limited data they represent, I draw two preliminary conclusions:

How to be a Scrooge
When it comes to large caps, Scrooge usually does an excellent job of handpicking the best. Here’s what it demands. Commentary from Heiserman added for perspective:

No more misers
Who makes Scrooge’s list this year? No one. Not a single stock met our criteria.

Hey, look, bummed too. Scrooge has been so good, so often, that I’d prefer to have his counsel …

Source: Daily Mail ()

Apple to launch iPod with automatic volume control that can protect your hearing
By PAUL SIMS - More by this author »
Last updated at 15:48pm on 23rd December 2007

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Listening to your iPod at high volumes can seriously damage your hearing
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Listening to music non-stop has never been easier with an iPod, but future versions are set to be radically adapted to prevent users from playing tracks at full blast for too long.

Amid growing fears that listeners could cause irreversible damage to their hearing - the highest setting is as loud as a chainsaw - Apple is developing an automatic volume control.

A new patent reveals that the next iPods and iPhones could automatically calculate how long a person has been listening and at what volume, before gradually reducing the sound level.

The device will also calculate the amount of ‘quiet time’ between when the iPod is turned off and when it is restarted, allowing the volume to be increased again to a safe level.

The patent states: “Since the damaging effects on users’ hearing is both gradual and cumulative, even those users who are concerned about hearing loss may not behave in a manner that would limit or minimise such damaging effects.”

Listening to volumes below 70 decibels is considered safe. But iPods can currently reach volumes of over 100 decibels - the equivalent to standing 10ft from a pneumatic drill - and enough to cause permanent damage after just 15 minutes. Some MP3 players can even exceed 120 decibels.

In April, Apple revealed it had sold more than 100 million iPods worldwide and was expecting, by the end of this year, to have sold more than 4.5million iPhones. Of those 200,000 will been bought in Britain.

Its patent application, however, is the first time Apple has acknowledged concerns …

Source: Rotoworld.com ()

As things stand now, the Reds are planning on a four-man competition for center field in March.
"That’s what spring training will determine," GM Wayne Krivsky said. "(Manager) Dusty (Baker) will play the guy who earns it. With (Norris) Hopper, (Ryan) Freel, (Chris) Dickerson and (Jay) Bruce we’re comfortable with the four guys in competition for playing time." The Reds still seem like a nice fit for Mike Cameron now. With Adam Dunn and Ken Griffey Jr. in the corners and a couple of flyball pitchers leading the pitching staff, a top-notch defensive center fielder would help considerably. Bruce isn’t bad, but he lacks range and will soon move to a corner. Dickerson is the best defender in the group, he’s also the longest shot to wind up with the job. Dec. 22 - 1:28 pm et
Source: Cincinnati Post

Source: Sofia News Agency ()

Why are Bulgarian Eyes Nostalgic?

By Milena Hristova21 December 2007, Friday

Photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia Photo Agency)
| buy photo |

One year after joining the European Union, Bulgarians are the poorest and least content with their life, while nostalgia for communism is growing, polls told us in the past week.

These words should cut Bulgaria’s politicians deep. But they would not. Because politicians would just say nostalgia is due to the crude comparisons between the periods of communism, its fall, and the accession to the European Union.

Among the factors that people feed into their equation of how happy they are money, naturally, matters most. Interestingly, politicians would be quick to point to us that figures do not bear out the "poor Bulgarian" theory - a survey from the beginning of December shows that consumer spending has not slowed down a notch in the wake of the hikes in prices of basic goods and services in the summer…

What we actually have is the following: Bulgaria has the lowest GDP per head among EU members, low unemployment as only as far as the figures in politicians’ rattling off are concerned, economic sluggishness, breakdown of traditional institutions and erosion of family values.

With a legacy of strong Soviet dominance throughout its communism period and deep roots of friendship with Russia, Bulgaria was the biggest loser of Eastern Europe’s catch-up with the Western countries mainly as far as mentality is concerned.

Bulgarian politicians did throw their full weight behind the pro-EU campaign, but hardly talked about the sacrifices and the tough times that the average Bulgarian have to wade through, offsetting thus much of the positive effects.

Now we see that the poorest have not been convinced by the campaign, while the emerging is worried sick how they will fare under EU standards. Those at the top find out …

Source: Sofia News Agency ()

Bulgaria’s bTV Starts Work on New EUR 23 M Headquarters

20 December 2007, Thursday

The building, located on the Sofia orbital motorway near the Boyana suburb of the capital, has been designed by US firm Rees Associates Architects, while Bulgarian company AT Engineering 2000 was picked to build it. Photo by btv.bg

Bulgaria’s bTV private television channel, owned by News Corp, said on Thursday it has begun work on new headquarters, which will cost EUR 23 M and be completed in mid-2009.

The five-floor building will have a total area of 22 000 square metres, including 200 parking slots.

The building, located on the Sofia orbital motorway near the Boyana suburb of the capital, has been designed by US firm Rees Associates Architects, while Bulgarian company AT Engineering 2000 was picked to build it.

The new headquarters will also be furnished with top-notch television equipment, which will allow bTV, Bulgaria’s first private channel, to begin broadcasting in the High Definition (HD) format.

Some of its shows already come in HD, but it will be able to switch all its shows to HDTV when it moves headquarters, bTV said.

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Source: PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung) ()

- Innovative Card Technologies, Inc Marketing Manager Stephanie Edwards, 310-312-0700 stephanie@incardtech.com or Public Relations Susan Roush, 818-222-8330 pr@incardtech.com or Investor Relations Jose Castaneda, 720-733-0052 ir@incardtech.com Innovative Card Technologies, Inc (NASDAQ:INVC), developers of the ICT DisplayCard for e-banking, e-commerce and data access authentication, today announced the departure of founder Alan Finkelstein. Finkelstein most recently served

as a Director and Chief Strategic Officer of the company he founded in 1993. He will remain one of Innovative Card Technologies’ largest shareholders.

“It has been exciting to work with the team at Innovative Card Technologies to develop the cutting-edge technology of the ICT DisplayCard - the world’s first display-bearing card in a payment card form factor,” said Finkelstein. “The technology is proven, the product is in production, the market is ready, and the company’s focus must now be on execution of its commercialization strategy. I am confident that the ICT DisplayCard will continue to gain market acceptance and, as one of the company’s largest shareholders, I look forward to sharing in Innovative Card Technologies’ future success.”

The ICT DisplayCard integrates the security of a one-time password token and the RFID capabilities of an access card directly into a card the size of a standard payment card. At the push of a button on the card, a one-time password is shown on the card’s integrated display. During an online transaction, this number is entered into a user interface with other information (such as the user’s login name and static PIN) for multifactor authentication.

“On behalf of the company’s management and the entire Innovative Card Technologies team, I would like to thank Alan for his unique vision and tireless persistence developing the breakthrough ICT DisplayCard; for assembling our top-notch team; and for his years of service …

Source: Earthtimes ()

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Source: Gizmodo Australia ()

If you went to the movies this weekend, you might have seen the new Dark Knight trailer that we posted yesterday. You probably didn’t see this new 6-minute Dark Knight trailer, however, as it only showed before IMAX screenings of I Am Legend. It hasn’t been posted to the internet yet in anything other than a cam recording from a theatre, so the isn’t top notch, but it is a full bank heist scene from the movie, so who are you to complain?

Source: Financial Times (subscription) ()

Four of the world’s largest financial guarantors risk losing their top-notch credit ratings unless they strengthen their capital reserves and review their business strategies, Moody’s said late on Friday.

Moody’s put and Security Capital Assurance on watch for possible downgrade, and cut its ratings outlook on MBIA and CIFG to negative.