Top Money Market Funds that are still Glory

[Money market funds are meant to be safe and liquid, but many have been damaged by the rocky credit markets. What's an investor to do?

"People moving from prime to government money market funds or Treasuries are shooting themselves in the foot," he says. "Look at the yield you're going to lose. It's like burning your house down to get rid of a mold infestation.

"It comes back to why you have your money in a money market fund," says Hopwood. "You want liquidity and you want to get your money back. To take on more risk to get an extra 20 basis points of yield is insanity. If you're talking a money fund yield above 4 percent, that's a bit of a yellow flag out there now."

Top 5 weathering the storm:

MONEY MARKET FUND...................... 7-DAY YIELD %
Vanguard Prime Money Market Reserves (VMMXX) 3.84
Thrivent Money Market Fund (AMMXX) 3.74
Fidelity Cash Reserves (FDRXX) 3.64
Schwab Value Advantage Money Fund (SWVXX) 3.52
Fidelity Money Market Fund (SPRXX) 3.52] BankRate

The E! True Hollywood Story: Hugh Hefner: Girlfriends, Wives and Centerfolds

Anyone who knows me, knows I’m obsessed with biographies and I guess this counts. . . . I was randomly surfing the channels the other night and caught it. What a great one it was. Especially for the way they showed how Hef built his empire from the ground up, complete company history, and how he methodically spread his empire throughout the world. With any idea a lot of the time, whether other people are on board or not you have to go with it anyway. And build your empire brick by brick. True GRINDER. Catch it if you can.

Check out Hugh in his prime. Back in thee day!

"What? You have to Pay for gasoline, since when?"-Bush

[WASHINGTON -- The prospect of sharply higher fuel prices, including $4-a-gallon gasoline, may not have made it into Oval Office briefing books, perhaps explaining why President Bush was surprised Thursday when a reporter mentioned what energy analysts are saying could happen soon in many parts of the country.

"Wait, what did you just say? You're predicting $4-a-gallon gasoline?" Bush responded to a reporter who said some analysts expect prices to soon climb that high. "That's interesting. I hadn't heard that. . . . I know it's high now."

But even before the recent surge in oil prices, analysts were predicting that the average price of a gallon of gasoline could reach $3.75 nationwide in the near term and top $4 in states such as California and Hawaii.

"When I hear George Bush say that he doesn't think we're in a recession, when somebody tells him that, you know, gasoline prices might reach $4 a gallon and he says, 'That's interesting. I didn't know that'. . . . That's a sign we have a Washington that is out of touch," the senator [OBAMA] from Illinois said to cheers and laughter from a crowd of about 2,000 at a campaign stop in Beaumont, Texas.]-LAT

November hurry please. . .

1 in 100 in Prison

[More than one in 100 adults in the United States is in jail or prison, an all-time high that is costing state governments nearly $50 billion a year and the federal government $5 billion more, according to a report released yesterday.

About 91 percent of incarcerated adults are under state or local jurisdiction. And the report also documents the tradeoffs state governments have faced as they devote larger shares of their budgets to house them. For instance, over the past two decades, state spending on corrections (adjusted for inflation) increased 127 percent; spending on higher education rose 21 percent.

"The idea is to make a distinction between the people we're afraid of and the ones we're just ticked off at," said Rick Kern, director of the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission. "Not that you shouldn't punish them. But if it's going to cost $27,500 a year to keep them locked up, then maybe we should be smarter about how we do it."]-Washington Post

Pretty intense. . . I included the most hard hitting paragraphs. You would think more money needs to go into our education system in order to prevent so many people going to jail. Thats a deep discussion meant for more than a small space on a blog.

C. Martin

He's pretty cool. . . or whatever. . . . . .

Schwarzenegger's budget plan

Looks like Schwarzenegger's budget plan is terminating schools across the state. Who is going to teach the kids to count now? Not looking good.

"The Long Beach school board voted to close an elementary school this week. The Rialto Unified School District, in what is believed to be the first such action in the state this year, sent notices to 305 employees including teachers, informing them that they may not have a job next fall. The San Francisco school district may take city "rainy day" money to help balance its budget.

School districts across California have begun trimming services and preparing to lay off teachers in response to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget, which could cut about $4.8 billion in education funding this year and next year. Educators say it's the worst financial crisis they can remember."-LAT

First Ever BET Honors

"BET is set to deliver the next breakthrough award show. THE BET HONORS celebrates black achievement in business, entertainment, social justice and philanthropy while providing the kind of award-winning, show-stopping musical performances that make BET specials deliver huge results. During Black History Month, BET will celebrate the achievement of black Americans by honoring the brightest, the most talented, the most ambitious, the most generous and the most crusading members of the African-American community. THE BET HONORS will celebrate the best in the black community with electrifying performances by the biggest names in music including John Legend, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott and more."-BET

First ever BET honors is airing tonight on BET. Should be pretty rad. Congrats Auntie. Massive motivation. Check your local listings. . . .

My mum said it works. . . .

I think the world is sick. Mucinex is thee jam it should be kicking in pretty soon and they have pretty rad commercials. . . I present to u Ladies and Gents: THEE GLORY

School shootings

There have been 4 in the U.S. this month that we know of. Pretty disgusting.

Feb. 8, 2008
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
A nursing student shot and killed two women and then herself in a classroom at Louisiana Technical College in Baton Rouge.

Feb. 11, 2008
Memphis, Tennessee
A 17-year-old student at Mitchell High School shot and wounded a classmate in gym class.

Feb. 12, 2008
Oxnard, California
A 14-year-old boy shot a student at E.O. Green Junior High School causing the 15-year-old victim to be brain dead.

Feb. 14, 2008
DeKalb, Illinois
Gunman kills seven students and then himself, and wounds 15 more when he opens fire on a classroom at Northern Illinois University. The gunman, Stephen P. Kazmierczak, was identified as a former graduate student at the university in 2007.

Morgan AeroMax

Cruella de ville, cruella de ville
If she doesn’t scare you, no evil thing will
To see her is to take a sudden chill
Cruella, cruella de ville

101 dalmatians anyone?

Yessirrrr. I remember seeing a different model at Platinum a few years back and it is pure art on 4 wheels. So well done. Gotta love Cars. This one is a Morgan AeroMax, Only 100 will be made this month. Pretty meannn. I can hear it growling at me a little bit if I stare for too long. . . . .

Obama Winning streak - 10 straight.

Obama Extends Streak to 10, Makes Inroads Among Women

[Senator Barack Obama decisively beat Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Wisconsin primary and the Hawaii caucuses on Tuesday night, accelerating his momentum ahead of crucial primaries in Ohio and Texas and cutting into Mrs. Clinton’s support among women and union members.

For Mr. Obama, Hawaii was his 10th consecutive victory, a streak in which he has not only run up big margins in many states but also pulled votes from once-stalwart supporters of Mrs. Clinton, like low- and middle-income people and women.

“Houston, I think we achieved liftoff here,” Mr. Obama told a crowd of 20,000 people in that city as he hailed the voters of Wisconsin. “The change we seek is still months and miles away, and we need the good people of Texas to help us get there.”]-NYT

Chicka yea chicka yea!!! (Lol McLovin) and ofcourse the first victory cheer that came to mind was “BALLLLLIINNNNN” lol. Lets see what little sly move Mrs. Clinton will try to pull now. YES WE CAN!!!!

Daytona 500

Pretty rad weekend. Did some community service for the glory of making the world a better place with my brothers from Delta Sigma Pi, Attended a Daytona 500 party at my best pals house, ate grapes by the pool, enjoyed some gumbo. . . etc.

A little gem can be taken away from the win of the Daytona 500. . . Keep going hard and never give up.

“For the second straight year, The Great American Race came down to the last lap. This time the drama rewarded Ryan Newman, who hadn't won in 81 races over more than two years, and team owner Roger Penske, long the king at Indianapolis but never a winner at Daytona.”-ESPN

Ah yes and there is a business lesson in every breath of life. . . . NASCAR is a multi-billion dollar business. It has been stated that more Fortune 500 companies sponsor NASCAR than any other sport. Nice little Hustle if you ask me. . . .

BILLIONS ALL DAY!

Obama's 210 Billion Economic plan.

Thee economy is pretty important. . . .

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrat Barack Obama said Wednesday that as president he would spend $210 billion to create jobs in construction and environmental industries, as he tried to win over economically struggling voters.

Obama's investment would range over 10 years as part of two programs. The larger is $150 billion to create 5 million so-called "green collar" jobs to develop more environmentally friendly energy sources.

Sixty billion would go to a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to rebuild highways, bridges, airports and other public projects. Obama estimated that could generate nearly 2 million jobs, many of them in the construction industry that's been hit by the housing crisis."-CNN

Read full article at CNN.com

Building a life on $25 and a gym Bag

“College Graduate leaves comfortable life for poverty environment”

This was a pretty interesting article I read. Most people aren’t really “volunteering” to “see what poverty feels like”. Not sure if this young man’s motive was to do it just to write a book and make a profit from that or to motivate people in these situations. Either way I cant knock his hustle and I cant knock the fact that he achieved exactly what he set out to do and more.

“Alone on a dark gritty street, Adam Shepard searched for a homeless shelter. He had a gym bag, $25, and little else. A former college athlete with a bachelor's degree, Mr. Shepard had left a comfortable life with supportive parents in Raleigh, N.C. Now he was an outsider on the wrong side of the tracks in Charles¬ton, S.C.

But Shepard's descent into poverty in the summer of 2006 was no accident. Shortly after graduating from Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass., he intentionally left his parents' home to test the vivacity of the American Dream. His goal: to have a furnished apartment, a car, and $2,500 in savings within a year.

But Shepard's descent into poverty in the summer of 2006 was no accident. Shortly after graduating from Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass., he intentionally left his parents' home to test the vivacity of the American Dream. His goal: to have a furnished apartment, a car, and $2,500 in savings within a year.”ABC News

Bush Signs plan into law

"President George W Bush has signed off the two-year bipartisan $167bn US economic stimulus plan.
It aims to bolster the world's largest economy and avoid a recession, and will lead to millions of US homes getting tax rebates from May.

The package includes one-off rebates of up to $600 for individuals and $1,200 for couples, plus $300 for each child."-BBC

Sick Tasteless Joke

A little pony called "motivation" also known as THEE Lamborghini Reventón. Nothing more to say about it. It is mean and dis-respectful. lol

Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia

VIIICCTOOORRRYYY!! (In my best spartan voice)

If I’m in not in class or at thee office most likely I’m glued to CNN. I love it. This race is history in so many ways. Go OBAMA!

Re-Cap:

“In Tuesday’s contests, Mr. Obama showed impressive strength among not only the groups that have backed him in earlier contests — blacks, younger voters, the affluent and self-described independents — but also among older voters, women and lower-income people, the core of Mrs. Clinton’s support up to now, according to exit polls. Mr. Obama also won majorities of white men and Hispanic voters in Virginia, though not in Maryland.


With almost all precincts reporting, Mr. Obama won 75 percent of the vote in the District of Columbia and 64 percent in Virginia. He had 60 percent of the vote in Maryland with results from 67 percent of the precincts.”- NYT

Grammy Thoughts

The Grammy’s was dope. Kanye has some serious strength to get through “Hey Mama”. Who in the world didn’t cry? I know I did. Cheers to finally have a show people don’t mind sitting through. My favorite part was seeing Thee Time! Gotta love Morris Day. The most important part to me was when the honored legends we have lost. R.I.P. grandpa “The Father of Billboard” (The guy who created the Billboard 100 chart. . . and discovered Michael Jackson . . . yea him).

Thee Strike is Ova

Some great excerpts from LA Times. Way to go to the strikers to stick it out and grind out there. They deserve different contracts given where entertainment is going. Everything is distributed digitally on the web now its only right that compensation is realistic with technological advances.

“The strike is over.

Hollywood's costly 100-day walkout came to a widely welcomed end Tuesday after members of the Writers Guild of America voted overwhelmingly to go back to work.

More than 90% of the 3,775 writers who cast ballots in Los Angeles and New York voted to immediately end the work stoppage, capping the entertainment industry's most contentious labor dispute in recent history.

"It was a defining moment," said economist Harley Shaiken, a professor at UC Berkeley who specializes in labor issues. "It showed that a very disparate group of individuals could act with real solidarity -- and that packed real economic power."


Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., estimates the walkout cost the local economy more than $3 billion. Of that total, an estimated $772 million came from lost wages for writers and production workers, $981 million from various businesses that service the industry, including caterers and equipment rental houses, and $1.3 billion from the ripple effect of consumers not spending as much at retail shops, restaurants and car dealers.

Still, the total is relatively small considering that the L.A. economy generates $1.3 billion a day.”

Unknown Billionaires

This is interesting info. I would much rather prefer people not know how wealthy I am.

“Birgit Rausing & Family
Net Worth: $11 Billion

Country: Sweden


Source of Wealth: When her husband Gad Rausing died in 2000, Rausing and their three children inherited ownership of Swedish packaging giant Tetra Laval. All three children sit on the company's supervisory board, and son Jörn is the company's head of mergers and acquisitions. The family has kept a low profile following a kidnapping attempt on Jörn in 1989. Birgit lives quietly in Switzerland, while daughter Kirsten, a big horse enthusiast, lives in the U.K. Son Finn is chairman of the Swedish R.R. Institute of Applied Economics.

Susanne Klatten
Net Worth: $9.6 Billion

Country: Germany

Takemitsu Takizaki
Net Worth: $2.8 Billion

Country: Japan

John Sall
Net Worth: $4.4 Billion

Country: United States”-Forbes

60 mins

This was a solid episode I caught a few hours ago. Great inspiration.

NH Speech

YES WE CAN

I have wanted to post this for a few days now.

Translation

Making MOVES! Thee Grind neeevvveerrr stops!!! From thee projects to MILLION dollar projects. Cheers.

“JAY-Z is a Grammy-winning rapper, a club owner, a clothier, a fledgling hotelier, the part-owner of a basketball team and the former president of a record label. Now, he gets to add adman to his résumé.

Jay-Z — real name, Shawn Carter — is joining forces with another African-American entrepreneur, Steve Stoute, to open Translation Advertising in New York, an agency that will help marketers reach multicultural consumers.

One reason is the growth of the African-American, Hispanic and Asian-American populations in the United States, which together account for an estimated $2 trillion in consumer buying power.

Despite those demographic and cultural changes, Ms. Skriloff said, estimates are that ads aimed at minority consumers account for less than 4 percent of the total ad spending in the United States.”-NYT

Family Affair

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- Brian McNamee told congressional investigators he injected Roger Clemens' wife with human growth hormone as she prepared for a Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition photo session five years ago, the New York Daily News reported Friday."

I guess whey protein didnt do it for her. . .

Top 10 Women in Mathematics

Random facts that I enjoy. Mathematics is the one universal language. I think it’s a pretty rad subject. Through research for other projects I came across this. I thought It’d be cool to share. It would be too much to post all the mini bio’s, so I just posted the one for the first notably female mathematician. Google the rest if your interested.

“Mathematics as a field of science or philosophy was largely closed to women before the twentieth century. However, from ancient times through the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth century, a few women have achieved notably in mathematics. Here are ten women of note in early math -- their life stories and their achievements documented on this site.

1. Hypatia of Alexandria
(355 or 370 - 415) - Greek - philosopher, astronomer, mathematician - She was the salaried head of the Neoplatonic School in Alexandria, Egypt, from the year 400. Her students were pagan and Christian young men from around the empire. She was killed by a mob of Christians in 415, probably inflamed by the bishop of Alexandria, Cyril.

2. Elena Cornaro Piscopia
3. Maria Agnesi
4. Sophie Germain
5. Mary Fairfax Somerville
6. Ada Lovelace (Augusta Byron, Countess of Lovelace)
7. Charlotte Angas Scott
8. Sofia Kovalevskaya
9. Alicia Stott
10. Amalie Emmy Noether” –about.com

W. Smith

I love interviews. Especially with thee ridiculously interesting/Successful

John R. Wooden

Pure Glory

Countdown is on leading up to Super Tuesday.

We all finally have a chance to contribute to change in our country and who will lead the country next. I think this is a great gem to think about, said by the first lady of California yesterday at UCLA Pauley Pavilion.

"Every single person can come to you and tell you, 'You should vote for this person' or 'You should vote for that person.' `It's not right to speak up. It's not right to speak out,' " Shriver said, her voice echoing through the arena. "But this is a moment to have a conversation with yourself, not anyone else. Have a conversation with your own heart. And ask yourself, 'What kind of America do I believe in?' "

It is estimated that on the democrats side it is a dead heat between Clinton and Obama. On the Republican side you have Romney and McCain going for the gold. Big day tomorrow! Keep the eyes glued to CNN and whatever other news you trust.

60 Minutes: Dubai

Very interesting interview I caught about Dubai last night on 60 Minutes. View the videos after the link.

"Dubai is a tiny sheikdom with big dreams. Thanks to a combination of extraordinary wealth and vision, it has transformed itself from desert sand into an international business center and tourist destination. The man behind Dubai's rise is its leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Steve Kroft introduces us to the Sheikh and his desert oasis."-60Mins