Final Four

Sad Sad day . . . Last day of March and March madness is coming to a close. . . . Also a tough time during the year. Stay strong and watch thee madness unfold on April 5th for the Final Four showdown and the final disply of passion and glory on April 7th. Clearly at this point im going for UNC, a thick portion of my bloodline is from and lives in North Carolina. Gotta rep hard. My bet is on UNC vs. UCLA and UNC taking thee glory.

Final Four Match ups:

UNC vs. KU
Memphis vs. UCLA

11.5 MILL PENTHOUSE: Westwood

Glory.

"Don Byerly, owner of the penthouse, outside his living room. The penthouse, listed for $11.5 million, has two-story ceilings and occupies half of the top two floors in the building."-LAT

LETS GO DOGDGERS!!!!

Jeff Kent provided the power and Brad Penny the pitching punch in leading the Dodgers to a 4-0 lead over the San Francisco Giants in the sixth inning this afternoon at Dodger Stadium.

In honor of completing 50 seasons in Los Angeles, the Dodgers paid tribute to former greats before the game by having Duke Snider, Carl Erskine, Don Newcombe, Maury Wills, Steve Garvey, Fernando Valenzuela, Sandy Koufax and Tommy Lasorda, among others, emerge from the bullpen and the dugout to the theme song from "Field of Dreams."

Newcombe, Erskine and Koufax simultaneously threw out ceremonial first pitches.]-LAT

Im pumped. Makes me miss my grandpa and going to games with him. RIP grandpa and happy 50th Dodgers!

Up and Up

March 31 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks rose for the first time in four days as lower oil prices, improved business activity and a Treasury plan to help prevent financial crises boosted expectations the economy will weather growing credit losses.

overhaul of U.S. financial regulation

March 31 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson proposed the broadest overhaul of U.S. financial regulation since the Great Depression, saying American capitalism needs to be better prepared for ``inevitable market disruptions.''

``Our current regulatory regime is almost solely focused above ground at the tree level,'' Paulson said in remarks at the Treasury in Washington. ``The real threat to market stability is below ground, at the root level where the health of financial firms is intertwined.''

Paulson's 218-page ``Blueprint for Regulatory Reform,'' commissioned two months before credit markets seized up in August, said more rules aren't the answer to the current period of turmoil. The former chairman of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said the system of regulating banks, securities firms and insurance companies is outmoded, and the Federal Reserve should expand its oversight of financial services beyond banks.

Obama Urges Tighter Regulation

"Senator Barack Obama called Thursday for tighter regulation of mortgage lenders, banks and other financial institutions, even as he spoke of pumping $30 billion into the economy to shield homeowners and local governments from the worst effects of the collapse of the housing bubble.

He laid much of the blame for the current financial difficulties on the industry lobbyists and politicians who dismantled much of the regulatory framework overseeing energy, telecommunications and financial services."-NYT

100 BILLION DOLLLAARRSS!!

One of my favorite movies.

The Law of Attraction

Glorious book. I often blast it in my truck. Books like this are phenomenal to have a hard copy and one on CD. It soon becomes second nature and you begin to wonder how you thought any differently before being exposed to it. INDULGE!

You are what you read.

Book Description
[This book presents the powerful basics of the original Teachings of Abraham. Within these pages, you’ll learn how all things, wanted and unwanted, are brought to you by this most powerful law of the universe, the Law of Attraction. (that which is like unto itself is drawn). You’ve most likely heard the saying “Like attracts like,” “Birds of a feather flock together,” or “It is done unto you as you believe” (a belief is only a thought you keep thinking); and although the Law of Attraction has been alluded to by some of the greatest teachers in history, it has never before been explained in as clear and practical terms as in this latest book by New York Times best-selling authors, Esther and Jerry Hicks.

Learn here about the omnipresent Laws that govern this Universe and how to make them work to your advantage. The understanding that you’ll achieve by reading this book will take all the guesswork out of daily living. You’ll finally understand just about everything that’s happening in your own life as well as in the lives of those you’re interacting with. This book will help you to joyously be, do, or have anything that you desire!]-Amazon

The Great Depression again. . . .??

I know this is a long post. But it such a great article and sooooo important to what is going on currently in the economy. Clearly the snippets only give you a snapshot but this is thee glory.


[The stock markets are spiraling like whirling dervishes, one of the nation’s largest financial institutions has flirted with bankruptcy and the former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan invoked the ghost of past calamities when he wrote that the current economic turmoil is likely to become the “most wrenching” since World War II. Meanwhile, home foreclosures are at their fastest pace in at least 30 years and in a survey conducted by USA Today and Gallup, more than half of respondents indicated that they had fears the downturn could become a depression.

Well, the economists are here to say that you can dig up the family silver and stop training the kids how to jump onto a moving train. While many who study the nation’s economic health agree that a recession has probably already begun, and that it may be long and severe, they also say the odds of a full-blown depression are almost nonexistent.

Even if consumer confidence hit rock bottom, that most likely would not be enough, by itself, to cause a depression. For things to become really dire, the nation’s financial institutions would have to fail at the same time that unemployment began significantly rising. Only if banks suddenly closed, or it became impossible for companies to access short-term lines of credit, would things begin spiraling out of control.

“To understand the Great Depression is the Holy Grail of macroeconomics,” Mr. Bernanke wrote in a 1994 paper, when he was a professor at Princeton focused on analyzing the financial cataclysm that began in 1929. While economists have made great progress, he continued, “we do not yet have our hands on the Grail by any means.”]-NYT

Toys aka Enzo and McLaren F1

As Ronald B. would say "is this some sort of sick tasteless joke?" lmfao

In my best THICK british accent "GLLLOOOOOOOORRRRRRRYYYYYYYY". You know that part in “Thee Secret” when one of the guys says “ Close your eyes and imagine that you are in thee drivers seat of your dream car!!!!” lol this should help a little. . . .

BMW CS Concept

This is mmeeaann. Makes me giggle a little bit. Pretty exciting. You decide.

Shady Snoopers

"WASHINGTON — The State Department has fired two employees and reprimanded a third for improperly opening electronic information from the passport file of Senator Barack Obama, State Department officials said Thursday night.

On three separate occasions in January, February and March, three employees looked through Mr. Obama’s file in the department’s consular affairs section, violating the department’s privacy rules, the State Department spokesman, Sean D. McCormack, said. Mr. McCormack said the department’s internal controls flagged the breach, which he attributed to “imprudent curiosity.”

Mr. Obama’s campaign said that the breaches were reprehensible.

“This is an outrageous breach of security and privacy, even from an administration that has shown little regard for either over the last eight years,” said Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Obama campaign. “Our government’s duty is to protect the private information of the American people, not use it for political purposes. This is a serious matter that merits a complete investigation, and we demand to know who looked at Senator Obama’s passport file, for what purpose, and why it took so long for them to reveal this security breach.”"-NYT

Stocks Rally

March 21 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks posted their biggest gain in seven weeks after the Federal Reserve injected more cash into the banking system and Wall Street's largest securities firms posted earnings that topped estimates.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. led the largest rally in financial shares since September 2001 after their first-quarter results eased concern a cash shortage at banks will deepen. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac jumped more than 50 percent after the biggest sources of mortgage financing agreed to expand loan purchases. Homebuilders surged.

``It could be a turning point,'' said Jeffrey Kleintop, who helps oversee about $273 billion as chief market strategist at LPL Financial in Boston. ``What we have to get confidence around is that there aren't going to be dominos, there aren't going to be a number of other firms failing.''

"You should tip emmmm"

"LOS ANGELES (AFP) — A San Diego judge on Thursday ordered coffee giant Starbucks to pay more than 100 million dollars in tips and interest owed to staff across outlets in California.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Patricia Cowett ruled in favor of a barista from a store in La Jolla who filed a lawsuit in 2004 arguing that supervisors were unfairly receiving a share of pooled tips from customers"

Rockets fire goes out.

[HOUSTON -- The streak ended with a roar, a grimacing, menacing roar that came from the man who put an emphatic punctuation mark on one of the Boston Celtics' most impressive victories in a season full of them.

"It was an exclamation point," Paul Pierce said of Kevin Garnett's emphatic slam dunk over Luis Scola with 2:08 left. The dunk put the Celtics ahead by 25 points Tuesday night in what ended up as a 94-74 victory over Houston, ending the Rockets' winning streak at 22.

It was the second-longest winning streak in NBA history, but the streak itself was somewhat of an afterthought in each locker room following the game. Instead, the hot topic was the way the Celtics dominated the second half of a game that was tied after two quarters.

"In my 11 years in the NBA, that's the best defense I've ever seen," Tracy McGrady said afterward.

And as we've seen over the course of this season, the Boston Celtics at their best are one hell of an impressive team. Not only did they shut down the Rockets, they buzzkilled the team with the monster winning streak that everyone in the NBA couldn't stop talking about. So if this one game was a precursor of what's in store in the next couple months, we're all going to be talking about the Celtics a lot more than we'll be discussing the Rockets.]-ESPN

Wow. It was a good run. Gotta respect thee road to 22 straight wins and ofcourse the team who broke that streak. Its like in NBA Jam super nintendo version when someone got on fire, it was serious labor to get them off of "fire".

Obama: Philadelphia, PA

Bush still lovin the Iraq war

[“Five years into this battle, there is an understandable debate over whether the war was worth fighting, whether the fight is worth winning, and whether we can win it,” he said. “The answers are clear to me. Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision, and this is a fight that America can and must win.”

At a community college in Fayetteville, N.C., Mr. Obama drew the opposite conclusion. He noted that the war in Iraq had now lasted longer than the Civil War, World War I and World War II, though it has been fought on a scale far below those conflicts. “And where are we for all of this sacrifice?” he said. “We are less safe and less able to shape events abroad.”]-NYT

Hey pal this isnt warhawk for PS3. People's family members and friends are really dying out there. . . .I support our troops for supporting their commitment they made to America.

Restart the Housing Engine

March 19 (Bloomberg) -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac agreed to expand their purchases of U.S. mortgages and related securities after the Bush administration reduced the amount of capital the companies are required to hold as a cushion against losses.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac headed toward their biggest two- day gains on record in New York Stock Exchange trading as their surplus capital requirement was cut to 20 percent from 30 percent by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. The government-sponsored enterprises, the largest sources of money for home loans, also agreed to raise ``significant'' new capital.

The goal is to ``help restart the housing engine that powers our economy,'' Fannie Mae Chief Executive Officer Daniel Mudd said at a news conference in Washington today. Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron added: ``This is what the GSEs were put in place for, to deal with situations like this and we will deliver.''

The initiative may immediately pump $200 billion into the mortgage-backed securities market, Ofheo Director James Lockhart said. Combined with a lifting of portfolio caps on March 1 and the companies' existing capabilities, this should allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy or guarantee $2 trillion in mortgages this year, Ofheo said.

4 Signs Financials are in Trouble

"Todd Harrison, CEO and founder of Minyanville.com

Harrison names four keys to his view the financials are (finally) finding a bottom:

1. Time and price, meaning several months have passed since the 'credit crunch' issues first came to light and most financial stocks have fallen at least 40% in the past year.
2. The sell-side analysts becoming very bearish on the financials after being largely bullish a year ago.
3. Traders' sentiment on financials also turning from the hunt for a bottom to a rush for the exits.
4. A high-profile bankruptcy, which hasn't technically occurred. But the Fed-brokered bailout of Bear Stearns is close enough for government work."-YFinance

Multimillion dollar camel breeding industry

"The days are long past when camels were used for transportation. Today, they are raised more for their milk and meat, for racing and, yes, for their beauty. Camel beauty pageants, in which camels are judged on their looks and dressage, are held all over Saudi Arabia. They have become so popular in recent years that a respected Saudi cleric recently issued a fatwa against them, saying that they encouraged pride.

The death in January of Mashoufan - a male camel who earned celebrity status after winning first prize in a number of pageants and was said to be worth more than $4.5 million - was widely reported, and his owner received condolences from around the country.

Camel breeding is a multimillion dollar industry in Saudi Arabia, and late winter is an especially popular time for wealthy Saudi camel owners to arrange parties in the desert to spend time with their favorite camels."-IHT

JP Morgan to the rescue.

[NEW YORK (AP) -- With a deal in place to save Bear Stearns from bankruptcy, the company's shares traded above the offer price Monday even as investors began turning a critical eye to other investment banks amid worries about how far the credit contagion could spread.

"One reaction is shock that a company that reaffirmed its book value at around $84 on Wednesday can be worth $2 per share four days later on Sunday," said Deutsche Bank analyst Mike Mayo.

JPMorgan announced Sunday night that it would acquire Bear Stearns for $236.2 million in a deal that was fast-tracked by the federal government to avoid a bankruptcy. The price represents roughly 1 percent of what the investment bank was worth just 16 days ago.

"This is going to go down in very historic terms," said Peter Dunay, chief investment strategist for New York-based Meridian Equity Partners. "This is about credit being overextended, and how bad it is for major financial institutions and for individuals. This is why we're probably heading into a recession."]

Intense.

PREPARE FOR GLLOORRYYYYY!!

This workout is dope its been up for a while. Summer is right around the corner again. So it’s a mandatory post. Who doesn’t want to look like King Leonidus?? Try at your own risk.

"For a Spartan-sized challenge to your daily routine, consider this your new fitness gauntlet:

a) Pullups - 25 reps
b) Deadlifts with 135lbs - 50 reps
c) Pushups - 50 reps
d) 24-inch Box jumps - 50 reps
e) Floor wipers - 50 reps
f) Single-arm Clean-and-Press with 36lbs Kettlebell - 50 reps
g) Pullups - 25 reps

All exercises are done without scheduled rest between moves. Obviously this is an advanced workout...you shouldn't do it unless you are already in great shape.

Fortunately, this can all easily be adapted. Appropriate exercises can be subbed in: Drop down to 150 total reps, or 4-6 exercises of 15-25 reps each. For example, you might try this workout, great for a guy with moderate fitness:

15 bodyweight rows
25 bodyweight squats
15 pushups
50 jumping jacks
20 mountain climbers
10 close grip pushups
15 bodyweight rows"-Mens Health

Mad Money Widget: Jim Cramer

As you can all see I added the Mad Money widget.

If you don’t know, Mad money is a show [All Glory] that comes on CNBC weekdays. Its stock analysis and he takes calls and off the top of his head. From there he will analyze the stock and suggest whether it should be bought or sold. Its not your normal stock analysis show, he takes it to THEE next level with sound effects and his set is no average set, his sleeves are rolled up and he’s standing/ moving around rapidly the whole time. Gotta love it!! Check out a clip on the widget and you will see what I mean.

Jim Cramer is so rad. BOOOYYAAHHHH! Today is actually the 3 year anniversary of his show, so it should be a special episode. He has written several books. My favorite is “Confessions of a Street Addict”. Its pure glory and gives a candid look into his life through the up’s and downs. Most importantly makes sense of how he got to where he is. Which is an estimated net worth of 100million. . . could be higher or lower. Either way he’s makin dough!

The economy may be able to see a little light

"NEW YORK (AP) -- A fractious Wall Street rebounded from an early plunge to finish moderately higher Thursday, after Standard & Poor's predicted financial companies are nearing the end of the massive asset write-downs that have devastated the stock and credit markets.

The S&P projection gave investors some hope that the seemingly unrelenting losses from the mortage and credit crisis might indeed be bottoming out. Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it estimates writedowns of subprime asset-backed securities could reach $285 billion globally, up from its previous projection of $265 billion, but added that "the end of write-downs is now in sight for large financial institutions."

"The S&P comment was a positive for the market because investors were relieved to think that the subprime problem may be behind us," said Al Goldman, chief market strategist at A.G. Edwards."

At least there's some positive news with this whole mess.

Bear Stearns taking a deep dive

"March 14 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks plunged for the third day this week after Bear Stearns Cos. required a bailout from the Federal Reserve and JPMorgan Chase & Co. to avoid collapse.

Bear Stearns, the second-largest underwriter of U.S. mortgage bonds, tumbled the most ever after the brokerage said its liquidity deteriorated in the past day. The announcement overwhelmed economic reports that showed inflation ground to a halt and consumer confidence unexpectedly rose.

``The real problem is the uncertainty,'' said John Kattar, who oversees about $2 billion as chief investment officer at Eastern Investment Advisors in Boston. ``The fact that the issue is so serious that the New York Fed directly has to intervene demonstrates that there are pretty big problems here with pretty big uncertainties.''

Never good.

New $5 Bill

"WASHINGTON -- Sprinkled with pastel colors and armed with new features to thwart counterfeiters, the latest version of the $5 bill went into circulation Thursday with a gift-shop purchase at President Lincoln's newly renovated summer cottage at the Soldiers' Home.

The portrait of Abraham Lincoln remains front and center on the new bill, and the image of the Lincoln Memorial is still on the To honor the 16th president, Federal Reserve Board Assistant Director Michael J. Lambert undertook the first transaction by buying a book of Lincoln's speeches for $2.88."-LAT

Hey Buddy Pay Up

"CHICAGO — Just in time for a recession, the debt collection industry is working to shed its reputation for remorselessly hounding people.

Oh, the collectors still want the money. But now they would like to be seen as helpful and sympathetic, even a force for good.

They have started calling the indebted “our customers.” They are pushing consumer tips on the ideal way to respond when a collector comes calling (basically: pay up). They note that debt collecting is an old American tradition. (Abraham Lincoln was a debt collector, some histories say.) They point out how, in a time of rising unemployment, they are hiring."-NYT

Oil Prices up to $110

[Gasoline and oil prices extended their record-setting streaks Wednesday, with gas at the pump reaching a new high of nearly $3.25 and crude surpassing $110 for the first time.

The gains came as a weakening dollar led investors to shrug off an Energy Department report that crude oil and gasoline supplies jumped last week.

For consumers also facing rising food prices and a drop in housing values, the dollar-fed oil rally simply means more pain at the pump. Analysts see little reason for the dollar to stop falling, or for oil and gas prices to stop rising, any time soon. And with gas prices certain to rise as the summer driving season approaches, consumers will be even more cash-strapped.]-Forbes

The World's Billionaires: #6 A. Ambani

[The year's biggest gainer, Anil Ambani, is up $23.8 billion in the past year, and is closing gap with estranged brother, Mukesh, who ranks one spot ahead of him in the world at number five. The sons inherited their fortune from their late father, renowned industrialist Dhirubhai Ambani. But they couldn't get along and in 2005 their mother brokered a peace settlement breaking up the family's assets.]-Forbes

One of my favorite times of thee year: The release of the richest people in the world Forbes Issue. Very interesting to read. Gotta love it. 23 Billion in one year. . . not too shabby at all.

French authorities have arrested a broker at Société Générale involved in 7 Billion dollar scandal

[PARIS — The French authorities have arrested a broker at Société Générale in connection with the trading scandal that the French lender says cost it more than $7 billion, the French prosecutor’s office said Wednesday.

Société Générale disclosed in January that it sustained the losses when it unwound 50 billion euros, or $76.6 billion, worth of unauthorized bets that it said Mr. Kerviel had hidden through a series of fictitious transactions.

The disclosure has also prompted talk of a possible takeover bid for the 144-year-old lender.]-NYT

Spitzer Resigns

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Trading desks across the United States stopped on Wednesday to watch the resignation speech of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, fascinated by the downfall of the man who built a career on investigating Wall Street crimes.

This is bigger than (Fed Chairman Ben) Bernanke, bigger than oil, and it may be even bigger than the Super Bowl," said Brian Taylor, head currency trader at M&T Bank in Buffalo, New York.

"Everybody is glued to their desks. No one has made as many enemies on Wall Street as Spitzer did -- The Street is loving it and I wouldn't be surprised to hear a big cheer throughout the trading desk when he goes," Taylor added.

Gotta Love thee traders perspective.

IF

IF- R. Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!



Pure GLORY! Classic Poem.

The boat is my refuge.

[Blake Mycoskie figures he spends only about 10 days a month at home in Los Angeles. His job as founder and CEO of Toms Shoes keeps him on the move, visiting factories in Argentina and Brazil, meeting with overseas distributors, and delivering shoes to poor children in Argentina and South Africa. (For every pair of shoes Toms sells, it donates a pair; since its founding, in 2006, Toms has donated 60,000 pairs.) Because he wasn't spending many nights in his apartment anyway, Mycoskie recently decided to sell it and use the money to buy a boat. "I figured, why not have something I can also use for recreation?" he says.

"If I am in L.A., I won't go into the office until 11, because I don't want to deal with traffic. I'll do e-mail and phone calls from 6 to 10 right in my captain's chair. It's a nice, quiet space."]-inc.

Living theeee DREAM! Got to love it. Its amazing how “Thee workspace” is changing to thee most creative environments at a rapid pace for the younger generations. I also love my Tom's!

Ever wonder who created the whole blog movement?

Ever wonder who created the whole blog movement? Super rad story in the latest edition of inc. Magazine. One of my favorite magazine’s by thee way. Its hard not to copy and paste the whole article into this post. I chopped and pasted some parts I couldn’t leave out. You can read the rest on their website or at any magazine stand.


[This is odd. Williams is the sort of person who can't seem to do anything, no matter how trivial, without blogging, photo-sharing, or text-messaging the news. He founded Blogger, the website that introduced the world to blogging and now attracts some 163 million visitors each month. He has maintained a detailed personal blog for more than a decade--posting pictures, explaining his latest theories on business, and huffing about the cable company. His new business, called Twitter, takes it a step further: It lets exhibitionists, techies, and--a hint of things to come--marketers blast their latest doings to cell phones. So he's not just a practitioner of hyperconnectedness; he practically invented the concept.

And it's not as if Williams doesn't have the money (he made a reported $50 million selling Blogger to Google) or the connections (Twitter's angel investors read like a who's who of Silicon Valley) to attempt something more ambitious.

Williams grew up on a corn farm in Clarks, Nebraska (population 379). He's a self-taught coder, having dropped out of college after only a year to start a company. But this wasn't Bill Gates dropping out of Harvard to start Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). The college was the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the companies--there were three failures in five years--were un-ambitious, money losing, and admittedly dopey. Williams's most successful product was a CD-ROM for fans of the Cornhuskers football team. Finally, convinced he still knew little about how to run a business, he cut his losses, took a Web development job in California, and started writing about it.

The experience of shepherding Blogger through growth, then hardship, until he finally turned it into a real company cemented Williams's philosophy of business. He would be an entrepreneur who looked for value in things that seemed worthless. Faith--in one's ability, in one's chosen path, and, above all else, in the fact that there are always opportunities ahead--was a company's greatest need. Stick to your product, forget about scrambling for deals, and good things will happen.]-inc.

Youngest Billionaire

[Mark Zuckerberg, U.S.

Age 23

$1.5 billion, self-made
Tech's newest golden boy founded addictive social-networking site Facebook in February 2004 from his Harvard dorm room. He left school for Silicon Valley that year. Microsoft paid $240 million last October for a 1.6% stake, giving the company an implied valuation of $15 billion. Some analysts and a few Facebook investors think that's high. We think Zuckerberg's stake is worth $1.5 billion. Regardless, Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire on earth and possibly the youngest self-made billionaire ever.]-Forbes


Looks like I better hurry up to beat this record. lol

W. Buffet: Top Billions

Warren Buffett Back at the top of the worlds richest list!!


[Despite being worth $58 billion, $2 billion more than last year, Gates is now just the world's third-richest person, ceding the top spot ranking to his good friend and partner in philanthropy, Warren Buffett, whose net worth jumped $10 billion to $62 billion. (All stock prices and net worth valuations were locked in on Feb. 11.) Ranked No. 2 is Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helú, whose fortune has doubled in just two years to $60 billion.

For the first time ever, the number of billionaires Forbes could identify crossed into four figures, reaching 1,125. The total net worth of the group is $4.4 trillion, up $900 billion from last year. Despite the turbulence in the U.S. markets, Americans account for 42% of the world's billionaires and 37%, of the total wealth; those shares are down two and three percentage points, respectively, from last year.

It is also a record-breaking year for young billionaires, with Forbes finding 50 under the age of 40, 25 of whom are new to the list. Sixty-eight percent of these under-age-40 tycoons built their 10-figure fortunes from scratch, including Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page; former Enron trader John Arnold, who now runs a hedge fund; India's Sameer Gehlaut, who started online brokerage Indiabulls; and, last but not least, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who at age 23 might just be the youngest self-made billionaire in history.]-Forbes

Americans Sleepier Than Ever

(HealthDay News) -- Americans are working later and sleeping less, a dangerous combination which can cause drowsiness at the wheel, loss of productivity and a lack of interest in sex.

"Economic loss from sleep deprivation or sleep disorders generally is huge," said Dr. Samir Fahmy, director of the sleep lab at Kings County Hospital in New York City. "It's not just loss of money for medical care, it's loss of money for days off the job, accidents, lawyers for accidents, doctors, hospital stays, decreased productivity. It's like a chain reaction."

More than 70 million Americans are affected by sleep problems, according to the National Institutes of Health. The problems are worse in women, and they worsen for both genders with age.

"No one likes them (America)"-M. Ahmadinejad

[BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, heading home after a two-day visit to Iraq, again touted his country's closer relations with Iraq and reiterated his criticism of the United States.

"No one likes them," Ahmadinejad told reporters prior to returning to Iran, referring to the predominantly U.S. makeup of coalition forces in Iraq.

"We believe that the forces which crossed oceans and thousands of kilometers to come to this region should leave this region and hand over the affairs to the peoples and government of this region," Ahmadinejad said.]-CNN