10 things not to buy in 2010

Like Betamax videotapes and rotary phones before them, these are the products and services that soon will go the way of the dodo.

By SmartMoney

Ten years ago, most homes relied on dial-up connections to access the Internet, and iPods, flat-screen TVs and the Nintendo Wii didn't exist.

As we begin 2010, consumers should expect to see more revolutionary products supplanting old mainstays. In media, DVDs, books, newspapers and magazines will continue to lose ground to services like in-home movie rentals and gadgets like the Amazon's Kindle electronic book reader. For big-ticket items, the push for energy efficiency will continue to influence consumer decisions on cars and home upgrades.

As a result, some consumer products appear poised for sales drops, which could be a prelude to obsolescence. Here are 10 items not to buy in 2010.
DVDs
The days of going to a video store to rent a movie are near an end. Blockbuster has said it plans to close more than a fifth of its stores by the end of 2010. (The company didn't return calls for comment.)

Looking ahead, DVD purchases could turn cold as well. An average DVD sells for around $20. That's pricier than signing up for Netflix or renting movies from cable providers' on-demand channels. Netflix charges as little as $8.99 a month to rent one DVD at a time -- with no limit to the number of monthly rentals.
Home telephone service
It will probably take a while, but home land lines could become as rare as the rotary phone.

According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, more than one in five U.S. homes (22.7%) had cell phones -- and no land lines -- in the first half of 2009, up from 10.5% during the same period in 2006.

Ditching your home phone is easier now than it has been in the past, as cell phone companies compete for greater market share and alternatives to the home land line continue to grow. For example, magicJack provides phone service when it's plugged into a computer’s USB port and a home phone. It costs $39.95 and includes a one-year license for calls in the U.S. and Canada; after that, service costs $19.95 per year. (By contrast, Time Warner Cable's digital home phone service costs $39.95 per month.)

And consider Skype, which is free when you communicate with other Skype users. The software application uses the Internet as a platform to make calls, hold video conferences and send instant messages.
External hard drives
Consumers who keep their computers for years and upload thousands of songs, videos, movies and photos at some point find that they need to get more space.

External hard drives are one option, but they can crash, too. An up-and-coming alternative might be simpler and save you another transition down the road. Online backup services, like Carbonite and Mozy, allow users to back up data over the Internet.

These services quickly become more expensive than purchasing an external hard drive, which typically starts at around $70. At Carbonite.com, a one-year subscription starts at $54.95, and at Mozy.com monthly subscription costs total $54.45 for a year (although you can get 2 gigabytes of storage for free).
Smart-phone also-rans
In the past few years, several smart phones have hit the market with features similar to the iPhone and BlackBerry, but they haven't generated the same buzz.

As a result, fewer developers are likely to create applications and other products that cater to those phones.
Today, the BlackBerry dominates the smart-phone market with 40% market share, followed by the iPhone with 25%, according to data released by comScore in December. In the near term, both are expected to stay at the top. ComScore found that most consumers who will be shopping for a smart phone in the next three months plan to purchase a BlackBerry (51%) or an iPhone (20%).

By contrast, only 5% of respondents said they planned to purchase T-Mobile's MyTouch. The Palm Pre and Palm Centro received 2% and 1% of the vote, respectively.
Compact digital cameras
For nearly a decade, compact digital cameras were must-haves for most consumers. But during the past several years, another type of digital camera has been slowly rising in popularity: the single-lens reflex (SLR) camera, from manufacturers including Nikon, Canon, Sony and Olympus. Although bulkier, these cameras produce pictures that more accurately represent what's in their viewfinders than those that use older technology.

They are also pricier. For example, Canon's digital compact cameras start at $110, while the SLRs start at $570.
Newspaper subscriptions
The past few years have been unkind to the publishing industry.

In 2008, newspaper advertising revenues declined by 17.7%, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Meanwhile, average daily circulation at 379 newspapers fell 10.6% from April through September 2009, compared with the same period a year ago, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Magazines haven't fared any better. In 2009, more than 360 magazines shut down. During the first half of 2009, ad pages fell 27.9% when compared with the same period in 2008, according to Publishers Information Bureau.

The morning newspaper has been replaced by a growing online media presence -- much of which is accessible for free. Amazon's Kindle -- even with its price tag of around $250 -- and other e-book readers could increasingly become one-stop sources to access newspapers, magazines and books.
CDs
When was the last time you bought a CD or even walked into a record store?

The past decade has been devastating to the record industry. At its start, there was Napster. Then came iTunes, which was introduced in 2001 and offered affordable pricing and easy accessibility. Face it, CDs aren’t coming back.

Record stores are feeling the pinch. Most Virgin Megastores in the U.S. have shut down following declines in sales and revenues. In 2004, Tower Records entered bankruptcy, and by 2006 most locations had closed.
New college textbooks
Unless a student absolutely needs brand-new textbooks, she can use several alternatives to save.

Shop for used textbooks, which can help you save 70% to 90% off the retail price, says Mike Gatti, the executive director at the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association, a trade group. Check out Web sites like CheapestTextbooks. com, BooksPrice or Amazon. Many college bookstores also sell used texts.

Another option is downloading books online. Sites like CourseSmart sell subscriptions to digital copies of more than 7,000 textbooks. TextbookMedia allows students to download textbooks for free. You can also rent textbooks on Chegg.
Gas-guzzling autos
Skyrocketing gasoline prices made headlines late in the decade, and they remain volatile.

The Energy Information Administration estimates that crude oil prices averaged around $77 a barrel for the fourth quarter of 2009, up from $42.90 in the first quarter. The EIA also projects prices will rise in 2010 to their highest point in more than two years: $81.33 a barrel.

Recent announcements by car manufacturers that they plan to mass-produce fuel-efficient cars could help push consumers away from gas-guzzling vehicles.

According to the Department of Energy, the most efficient cars include the Honda Civic Hybrid, which gets 40 miles per gallon in the city and 45 mpg on the highway, and the Toyota Prius hybrid (51/48 mpg). Also getting good marks for their efficiency are the diesel-fueled Volkswagen Jetta and Golf.
Energy-inefficient homes and appliances
Ten years ago, shopping for home upgrades involved looking at a product’s functionality and aesthetics. Now, there's a third consideration: energy efficiency.

Today, the products most touted by manufacturers and retailers are those that are Energy Star-certified and those that meet new federal environmental standards.


Most of these appliances and other products come with higher price tags than their counterparts but help lower heating and cooling bills.

In addition, the government is offering a federal tax credit of up to $1,500 on energy-efficient home upgrades. Many of the tax breaks -- including those on eligible insulation, roofs and windows and doors -- are set to expire at the end of this year. But others run through Dec. 31, 2016.

Modern Economy

It is the month of August, on the shores of the Black Sea . It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. These are tough times, everybody is in debt and everybody lives on credit. Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town.

He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 Euro note on the reception counter and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to choose one.

The hotel proprietor takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the pig farmer.

The pig farmer takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel.

The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the town's prostitute, who in these hard times offered her "services" on credit.

The prostitute runs to the hotel, and uses the 100 Euro note to settle her debt with the hotel proprietor for the rooms she rented when she brought clients there.

The hotel proprietor then lays the 100 Euro note back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything.

At that moment, the tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms and takes his 100 Euro note, saying that he did not like any of the rooms and leaves town.

No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism.... .

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how modern company is doing business today.

Happiness

Everybody want to have a happy and comfortable life. Here is the list of things that you should do to achieve that happy life.....

• Sing in the shower
• Treat everyone you meet like to want to be treated
• Watch a sunrise at least once a year
• Leave the toilet seat in the down position
• Never refuse homemade brownies
• Strive for excellence, not perfection
• Plant a tree on your birthday
• Learn three clean jokes
• Return borrowed vehicles with gas tank full
• Compliment three people everyday
• Never was and opportunity to tell someone you love them
• Leave everything a little better than when you found it
• Keep it simple
• Think big thoughts but relish small pleasures
• Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know
• Floss your teeth
• Ask for a raise when you feel you've earned it.
• Be forgiving of yourself and others
• Overtip breakfast waitresses
• Say "thank you" a lot
• Say "please" a lot
• Avoid negative people
• Buy whatever the kids are selling on their card table
• Wear polished shoes
• Remember other people's birthday
• Commit yourself to constant improvement
• Carry jumper cable in your trunk
• Have a firm handshake
• Send lots of Valentine cards. Sign them:"Someone who thinks you're terrific
• Always look people in the eye when talking to them
• Be the first to say "hello"
• Use the good silver
• Return all things that you've borrowed.
• Make new friends, but cherished the old ones
• Keep secrets
• Sing in a choir
• Plant flowers every sprint
• Have a dog
• Always accept an outstretched hand
• Stop blaming others, take responsibility for every area of your life
• Wave at the kids on the school buses
• Be there when people need you.
• Feed a stranger's expired parking meter
• Don't expect life to be fair
• Never underestimate the power of love
• Drink champagne for no reason at all
• Live your life as an exclamation, not an explanation
• Don't be afraid to say "I made a mistake"
• Don't be afraid to say "I don't know"
• Compliment even a small improvement
• Keep your promises (no matter what)
• Marry only for love
• Rekindle old friendship
• Count your blessing
• Call you mother

The value of time

To realize the value of TEN YEARS : Ask a newly divorced couple.

To realize the value of FOUR YEARS : Ask a graduate.

To realize the value of ONE YEAR : Ask a student who has failed a final exam.

To realize the value of NINE MONTHS : Ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn.

To realize the value of ONE MONTH : Ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.....

To realize the value of ONE WEEK : Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize the value of ONE DAY: Ask the student who just miss the paper dead-line.

To realize the value of ONE HOUR : Ask someone who's late for a meeting with a prime client.

To realize the value of ONE MINUTE : Ask a person who has missed the train, bus or plane.

To realize the value of ONE SECOND : Ask a person who has survived an accident.

Time awaits for no one                                                                                                               

Treasure every moment of it or YOU'LL BE LEFT OUT cause IT CANNOT COME BACK. Treasure it even more with someone special.

John C Maxwell

Dumped? Ten Healthy Ways to Heal

Ice cream, alcohol, meaningless hookups: the go-to antidotes for a bad breakup are often about distraction rather than relief. What’s more, they tend to injure more than assuage, as if the breakup itself didn’t cause enough pain. Here, we’ve identified ten healthy ways to deal with getting dumped that don’t include booze, food, or flings:
1. Buy the Dumped! Fun and Games Activity Book, which offers such whimsical games as “I Cried to Smell Few (I Tried to Tell You).” Help broken-hearted “Sam” decipher what his friends have been telling him about his now ex-girlfriend in lines such as “Why stink clue fan screw fetter.” Translation: “I think you can do better.”
2. Surround yourself with happy people. Recent research from Harvard and the University of California, San Diego shows happiness is “infectious,” so take up with a group of friends or organization that you know is high on life.
3. Log on to justbeendumped. wordpress. com and submit your breakup emails or IM conversations. The names are changed, so it’s an anonymous way to have complete strangers tell you what a jerk he was. Your friends need a break anyway.
4. Listen to these ten breakup songs of the year. From Pink to Kanye, these tunes are all about getting back on your feet.
5. Learn boxing. Boxinggyms.com lists location around the country. Get angry—then get ripped.
6. Give your home a makeover. Following feng shui principles can help you clear out the emotional and physical clutter from your previously shared space. 7. Get even without getting a restraining order: practice your frustrations on a voodoo doll instead.
8. Write. Whether on a blog, in a journal, or in a letter you may decide never to send, getting the words from brain to paper or screen can improve your mental and physical health.
9. Volunteer for a cause you feel passionate about or to help those whose plight might give you a new perspective on your own. VolunteerMatch can help you find the right place and the right time.
10. Fall in love with a new scent. Learn to associate the smell of a new perfume, candle, flower, or detergent—even— with your new, improved, and single self. Take a sniff every time the breakup blues arise.
Of course, sometimes a glass (okay, or a bottle) of wine, meeting someone new, or buying a hot new dress is the just what the doctor ordered. Ultimately, do what feels right to you.

Of course the original writer of the above short essay is a girl, but it should apply a guy as well

Soft Drink

The regular consumption of sugar-laden soft drinks could boost a person's risk of developing pancreatic cancer. The results of a new study found that individuals who consumed 2 or more soft drinks per week had an 87% increased risk for pancreatic cancer, compared with those who did not.
Even after taking factors such as smoking, caloric intake, and type 2 diabetes mellitus into account, the authors found that consuming soft drinks might play an independent role in the development of pancreatic cancer.
The finding is reported in the February issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
Both soft drinks and fruit juices have a high glycemic load relative to other foods and drinks, and it has been hypothesized that both are risk factors for pancreatic cancer. The high levels of sugar can increase levels of insulin in the body, and this can contribute to pancreatic cancer cell growth, the researchers explain.

Association Not Seen With Fruit Juice
However, this study did not find an association between consumption of juice and an increased risk for pancreatic cancer.
"There are several plausible explanations why fruit juice was not significantly associated with pancreatic cancer," said first author Noel Mueller, MPH, a research associate at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington , DC .
One reason is that the finding was based on a relatively small number of cases, so there might have been too few cases to detect an effect with fruit juice, he explained. Another is that there are differences between soft drinks and fruit juice — fruit juice is lower in sugar, includes many nutrients, and is typically served in smaller portion sizes.
A third explanation is that fruit juice intake is associated with healthier lifestyle characteristics than soft drink intake, he said.
The consumption of soft drinks coincided with a number of other unhealthy lifestyle characteristics, making it somewhat difficult to separate smoking, caloric intake, body weight, and type 2 diabetes mellitus from soft drink consumption. "But the findings from our study suggest that soft drinks may play an independent role in the development of pancreatic cancer," Mr. Mueller told Medscape Oncology.
"The influence of soft drink intake on the risk of pancreatic cancer remained virtually unchanged after adjustment for smoking status, energy intake, body weight, and type 2 diabetes mellitus," he added.

Results Statistically Significant for Soft Drinks
The current study examined the association between the consumption of soft drinks and juice and the risk for pancreatic cancer among Chinese people residing in Singapore . The data came from the Singapore Chinese Health Study (n = 60,524), and information regarding the consumption of soft drinks, juice, and other dietary items, along with lifestyle factors and environmental exposures, was collected at recruitment to the study. The participants were followed for up to 14 years.
At the start of the study, 9.7% of the participants consumed at least 2 soft drinks per week and 10.2% consumed at least 2 servings of juice per week. The authors note that, compared with those who did not consume soft drinks, those who consumed 2 or more soft drinks per week were younger, were more likely to be men, and were more likely to smoke cigarettes. They also had higher levels of education, alcohol consumption, and total energy intake; lower levels of physical activity; and consumed more total carbohydrates, fat, added sugar, and red meat.
Individuals who reported consuming 2 or more juice drinks a week had lifestyle and dietary habits that were similar to those who consumed soft drinks. However, there was no association between juice intake and cigarette smoking, and body mass index (BMI) was comparable across different categories of soft drink and juice consumption.
At 14 years and a cumulative 648,387 person-years of follow-up, 140 incident pancreatic cancers developed in people who were cancer free at baseline. After adjustment for confounders such as BMI, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and fruit juice intake, the authors found that those consuming 2 or more soft drinks per week experienced a statistically significant increased risk for pancreatic cancer (hazard ratio [HR], 1.87; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.10 - 3.15).
Although people who consumed 2 or more juice drinks a week had an increased risk for pancreatic cancer of approximately 30%, elevated HR was not statistically significant after adjustment for variables.
However, in an age-adjusted analysis, smoking was also a risk factor. After excluding former smokers, the authors found that current smokers had a 49% increased risk for pancreatic cancer, compared with never smokers (HR, 1.49; 95% CI, 0.98 - 2.27). This risk factor remained unaffected after adjustment for diabetes and BMI.

Can Be Extrapolated to United States and Europe
Singapore is a highly industrialized nation with lifestyle and nutritional patterns reminiscent of many westernized countries. In that sense, these findings could be extrapolated to the United States and Europe , explained Mr. Mueller. Soft drinks are the leading source of added sugar in the American diet, the authors note.
"However, there are inherent differences between Singaporean Chinese and Caucasians, which is why one must be cautious when generalizing these results to the United States and Europe," he said. "But it is important to note that other studies in Caucasian populations have suggested that soft drink intake may increase risk for pancreatic cancer."
Because pancreatic cancer is a relatively rare disease, the number of cases in this study was relatively small, the authors point out. This limited the statistical power of the study. Another limitation was the inability to collect repeated dietary measurements during the course of the study; therefore, they could not account for changes in consumption of soft drinks and juices.
However, this study adds to the evidence that soft drink consumption plays a role in the development of pancreatic cancer, they conclude, and that "clinical studies examining biomarkers for glycemia and insulinemia and taking a mechanistic approach to the question of soft drink consumption and pancreatic cancer are warranted."
There is "still much to understand on the link between sugar-sweetened beverages and pancreatic cancer," the authors write.
The study was supported by a grant from the National Cancer Institute. The researchers have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2010;19;447-455. Abstract

Clinical Context

Carcinoma of the pancreas has high metastatic potential and poor prognosis because of lack of good treatment options and late presentation, with a 5-year survival time of less than 5% and no specific primary preventive strategies available. Smoking, obesity, and diabetes mellitus have been reported as risk factors for pancreatic cancer. Also, high glycemic foods that may predispose to diabetes may predispose to pancreatic cancer.
This is a prospective, 14-year cohort study of Chinese people living in Singapore to examine the association between consumption of soft drinks and fruit juice and the risk for the development of pancreatic cancer.

Study Highlights

• The Singapore Chinese Health Study is a population-based, prospective cohort study of diet and cancer risk conducted in permanent residents from government-built housing estates where 86% of the population resided.
• This study involved 2 dialect groups: the Hokkien and Cantonese originating from the southern part of China .
• Participants were men and women aged 45 to 74 years without preexisting pancreatic cancer.
• Recruitment was by letter, and staff went from door to door inviting participation with each subject.
• A trained interviewer then interviewed the participants face-to-face using a structured scanner-readable questionnaire.
• The interviewer asked subjects about demographics, lifestyle, diet, and medical history.
• Diet was elicited with a semiquantitative 165-item food frequency questionnaire.
• The questionnaire included commonly eaten food from Singapore , with 3 portion sizes and frequency in 8 categories ranging from never or hardly ever to 6 or more times daily.
• Photographs of foods were presented to identify the food groups.
• The questionnaire was validated against 24-hour recall in at least 1000 participants.
• Soft drink portions were defined as 1 glass.
• 1 glass was designated as 237 mL and was equivalent to 1 cup.
• Juices were categorized into specific drinks that included sugarcane, honeydew melon, apple, watermelon, carrot, pineapple, star fruit, and lemon juices.
• The Singapore Food Composition Table was developed to analyze the nutritional content of food types.
• Other risk factors for pancreatic cancer were assessed, including BMI, smoking, and physical activity.
• Pancreatic cancer cases were ascertained by linkage to the population-based cancer registry and registry of births and deaths.
• 142 incident cases were identified, of which 56.4% were histologically confirmed, 38.8% were by clinical and radiologic findings, and 4.8% were identified by death certificates.
• Rate of loss to follow-up was only 0.03%.
• Mean age was 56 years, 55% were women, mean BMI was 23 kg/m², 30% were ever-smokers, and 10% had type 2 diabetes.
• At baseline, 9.7% of participants consumed at least 2 soft drinks per week and 10.2% consumed at least 2 servings of juice per week.
• Those who consumed 2 or more soft drinks or juices weekly were likely to be younger, men, smoke, have higher levels of education, consume alcohol, and have higher energy intake and lower physical activity vs those who consumed no soft drinks or juices.
• They also had a higher consumption of total carbohydrates, sugar, and red meat.
• After 14 years and 648,387 person-years of follow-up, invasive exocrine pancreatic cancer developed in 140 persons .
• Smokers had a 49% increased risk for pancreatic cancer.
• BMI and a history of diabetes were not associated with an increased risk for pancreatic cancer.
• Results for all risks were similar for men and women, and analysis was combined for the 2 sexes.
• Drinking 2 or more soft drinks per week was associated with more than 80% increase in risk for pancreatic cancer after adjustment for other risks (HR, 1.87).
• This risk was independent of diabetes and smoking and persisted after excluding those who had pancreatic cancer within 5 years of baseline.
• After adjustment, juice intake of 2 or more drinks per week overall was not associated with increased risk, but when smokers were excluded, there was an association between juice intake and pancreatic cancer risk (HR, 1.60).
• The authors concluded that soft drink consumption was positively associated with pancreatic cancer risk but that juice consumption was associated with risk among nonsmokers only.

The Men Behind Indonesia's ‘Massage’ Parlors

Seedy business is good business. At least that’s what the owners of many of Jakarta’s massage and spa parlors believe, with some reason.

It’s no secret that there are many venues offering far more than just the advertised services — clients head there with one thing, and one thing only, in mind. Raids take place once in a blue moon, usually during religious holidays, and for the rest of the time this shady sector remains Jakarta’s elephant in the room. Everybody knows it happens, though officially it is illegal.

The history of what Indonesians refer to as “Massage Parlor Plus Plus” goes back a long way. No one interviewed for this piece knew exactly when the trade emerged, but all agree it has been a thriving industry in Indonesia for at least 20 years.

The nattily dressed Randy (not his real name) is the 31-year old co-owner of a successful parlor in North Jakarta. He’s suffering from a bad cold, but is still eager to talk to me about the trade he has been involved in since late 2008. He even brings along one of the women who work for him — a Sundanese woman in her early 20s. Although he had said she would be happy to be interviewed and photographed, she is reluctant to do so.

Randy entered the industry by investing in a parlor owned by one of the city’s largest massage groups.

“They’ve been around for about 23 years, I think,” Randy says. He adds that the group owns most of the city’s well-known parlors, and he became acquainted with the association through friends.

Bobby (also not his real name), the co-owner of a parlor in the Kota area of Central Jakarta, says he is “a fan of girls foremost and a businessman second.”

Profusely sweating when we meet, the thin-haired Bobby is in his early-50s and says he has been in the business almost seven years. “I used to go to [parlors] when I was in my 20s and 30s, which is how I learned about the trade and management of places like this.”

By his early 40s, it became Bobby’s goal to run such a venue. He begun saving money and building connections. In just a few years he achieved his dream, buying a stake in an established venue which he now owns with three other people.

Michael, 38, (who repeatedly reminds me not to mention his real name), owns a massage parlor in one of Indonesia’s biggest cities — “Don’t mention which, because the sheer mention of it tips people off,” he says. He was handed the business by his wife, of all people.

Michael’s wife is the step-daughter of a prominent “businessman,” which ensures that all Michael has to do is manage an already well-maintained machine.

When it comes to running the venue, Randy claims that contrary to what some investigative reports about trafficked women might indicate, most women who work in the industry do so willingly. He says he does not consider himself a pimp, but rather an entrepreneur.

“We have around 200 girls in our place now. And all of them we got through the six or seven agencies that specialize in tracking down girls that are interested in this line of work,” he says.

“The agencies provide a hostel for them to live in. Sometimes the senior girls choose to live by themselves, which is something [the parlors and the agencies] don’t like, since it means they can earn money [independently],” Randy says.

He adds that most of the girls hail from small towns with few prospects, and that they are open to any kind of work available.

Certainly, the worker who accompanied him at the interview did not seem to be under any duress. She said she had been working at his parlor for over a year.

Michael’s description of sourcing workers is less benign than Randy’s. He uses the word “indoctrinate” to explain how he manages to turn often-naive village girls into sex workers.

“The ‘training’ session is challenging,” he says. “Firstly, we indoctrinate the girls into believing that [hand relief] is not a sin. After they do this, the rest tends to progress more naturally through their experiences with clients. We let the market do the talking,” Michael says.

“Eventually some of them resign themselves to the sexual nature of the job, while the ones that don’t eventually leave.”

Many parlors also employ women from mainland China, who are considered more exotic and can command Rp 2 million ($216) per client — almost four times the price of local women. The owners and clients refer to them as chungkuo girls, Chinese for China. These imported employees do not only earn more, but are given more luxurious accommodations and other perks.

“They earn us more, but they also cost much more to employ,” Bobby says. “We have to take care of their visas, as well as renting them a house or apartment to live in. Sometimes, to keep them happy, we have to give them extra shopping money to satisfy their expensive habits.

“They think they’re divas,” he laughs.

Randy, Bobby and Michael make a good living out of their business, and they insist that their female employees earn a decent amount of money, too.

“We have different systems of payment,” Michael says. “There is the ‘include all’ package, which lets you order the whole deal through the receptionist, for which we charge Rp 300,000 to Rp 600,000, depending on the girl. They get 30 percent [of this fee and tips].”

Michael explains that a client can also request a massage then make a private deal with the girl once inside the room. “They receive incentives for those kinds of deals, which give them a lot more — around Rp 500,000 to Rp 700,000,” he says.

He acknowledges that women who are initially unwilling to engage in sex often eventually do so because of the money they are offered by clients.

Randy and Bobby, however, refuse to divulge details of their workers’ fees or payments.

“They make good money, plus they get a lot of tips from satisfied customers,” Bobby says without elaborating.

Dani, 30, an unmarried branch manager of an internationally branded car dealership in Central Jakarta, is one of those satisfied customers. He frequents the parlor owned by Bobby, and spends around Rp 1 million a month on one or two visits with local women.

“Sometimes I spend more, like on chungkuo girls, but that is only if I’m being treated by someone else,” Dani says.

Like Dani, many of these venue’s visitors are clients that are being “treated” by marketing officers from a partner company eager to secure a deal.

“Sometimes marketers treat me to fancy dinner, and sometimes they treat me to girls,” Danny says, laughing.

Michael tells the story of a father and son who unknowingly visited his parlor at the same time.

“The father was upstairs with one of the girls when the son came in for a visit. I told him that his father was there. But instead of leaving, he asked me to show him to his father’s room. Then, instead of being angry at the father, [the son] gave him some recommendations regarding our best girls,” he says.

Dion, 25, is a bank employee who regularly visits sex workers. “I’m young and not in a committed relationship. This is the modern age, and I think it’s archaic to consider these kinds of activities a sin. Illegal maybe, but not a sin,” he says.

When asked about the challenges of running a business that is officially illegal, Bobby grins knowingly.

“Let’s just say that you need to send certain groups of people their monthly allowance,” he says.

“If you don’t have the connections to engage in businesses like this, then don’t,” Michael advises.

Then there is also the issue of safety and security — Randy says they get aggressive customers about twice a week.

To ensure the protection of the workers, Randy, Bobby and Michael employ neighborhood toughs, who are feared and respected in the local area. Michael says a good relationship with the neighborhood is crucial.

Neither Randy, Bobby or Michael seems to harbor any regrets about their line of work.

“If it’s not me who runs this, then somebody else will,” Michael says.

And what about temptation at the work place? Randy says he doesn’t even think about it, while Bobby says he indulges “once in a while.”

But Michael says, “Are you crazy? My wife would literally kill me. Everybody is scared of her.”

George Soros's piece - There is more than meet the eye

The corruption of Mahathir: by George Soros - published by Bangkok Post

George Soros is not only one of the best investors in the world but very well informed too. He has spelt clearly what Malaysians have known all the while. Malaysia with all the riches in raw materials should have a stronger currency but what started one for one equivalent with S'pore 30 yrs ago now has lost out to S'pore currency by 2.3 times. Now Malaysians know why.......

Soros has explained in very great detail..... Of course one cannot get to read this in the main media in Malaysia .

Taxpayers and voters were made to pay for his visionary expenses enriching selected vendors along the way all paid by taxpayer or rakyat's money. The corruption of Mahathir:  SOROS' REPLY TO MAHATHIR - Adapted from Bangkok Post (Not published locally)

I have always said Dr Mahathir is a menace to his own people. Now onlyyou can see the effects of his foolishness when the ringgit has halved its value overnight and your economy goes kaput. Single handedly you have caused hardship to millions of your own people. You have built useless mega projects at tremendous cost to the country.

The telecoms tower in Kuala Lumpur and the highest building in the world show how stupid you are. Not only does it cause massive traffic jam, it has totally no purpose.If you need high ground for telecoms antennae a nearby mountain is there for free.This tower has no purpose from the ground up to 300 metres. The satelites make this totally unneccesary. A fool and his money are soon parted. The only thing is you are the fool and the money belongs to Malaysians. You make 20% in every project, you have real estate in Japan and billions of shares corruptly acquired.

Your 3 sons are worth 8 billion US$. Where do they get this money? Of course,  corruption. You are known as the Marcos of Malaysia, having enriched yourself to the tune of billions. You dare to shed crocodile tears during UMNO delegates meeting about the ills of corruption. Yet you are the most corrupt of all the prime ministers before you. A thief is crying thief and hopes people look the other way. Who dares to say anything when the chief is caught with his hands in the candy jar?

You said wisdom is not the monopoly of the West.  So is foolishness. You have more foolishness than most people would believe.  Billions are used to build two high rise Petronas buildings that benefit nobody. They now stand tall, a symbol of stupidity and irresponsibility.  Instead they just add on to traffic jams. What is this reclamation of 10 islands off Kedah? Totally absurd and stupid. Of course your benefit is 20%. And the bridge across from Malacca to Sumatra across international waters?
 
Why not build a bridge to the moon?  I am sure you still can get your 20%. You called me a Moron . How can a Moron make so much money. By allowing short selling and borrowing millions of shares  from your banks we fund managers made millions out of your inexperience and poor regulations.
You lose all Malaysians' money, therefore you are the Moron . Now you know too late and start crying over spilt milk.

In Australia you are known as *the recalcitrant ego maniac*; in UK *the corrupt bastard* because of your stupid purchase of our movie studio and the 290 million ringgit Lotus racing car plant and the shady Pergau dam loans from the UK . They are useless to us and you still want to buy them.
What about buying British reject submarines through your agent, of course. The agent/ broker is designed to make millions out of the Malaysian government..

Your purchase of our battleships is at least 50% more than others are paying. Your purchase of 9 hospitals from UK lock, stock and barrel does not support your local architects or your industry and the British send you obsolete medical equipment. The design is atrocious, one end to the other is half a kilometer and there is no CT-scan, an absolute necessity.

In the UK your face appears in no less than 17 newspapers as a corrupt dictator. In Malaysia you are known as *the (IBM) International Big Mouth.* In Japan they call you *the 'smallest one' (brain size)*. In Pacific islands, *the Santa Claus (giving advice left and right). * In south America they call you *the parrot (he talks a lot but does not know what it is about)*. *In Manila the living Marcos**.*
In Malaysia they are spending millions to lure tourists and you talk rubbish scaring every foreigner away. When he is dumb he is doubted a fool, when he opens his mouth it removes all doubt."

While I agree the West does not have the monopoly to wisdom, your actions are not the wisest either. Your EAEC has totally no support even in Asean. Your South-South dialogue meets with the same fate and what is this I hear of the Bridge from Peninsula Malaysia to Sumatra covering 20 miles across International shipping lane?
  
How crazy can one get? Even the Japanese don't have the money.  This world's stupidity seems to be concentrated in one man's mind - yours.
* The multimedia super corridor - MSC -. Well in USA its Most Stupid Concept *because we Americans, would have thought of it light years before. Even if it makes money, we can copy this concept can't we?
 
Why do you want to spend your hard-earned money doing questionable projects? It will be like the Bakun project. Abandoned fund wasted and another white elephant. I always say politicians should not be involved in business. Your ministers are also businessmen and almost every official is enriching himself. Look at *Rafidah Aziz*, selling  thousands of Approved
Permits (APs) for cars each worth 20-30 thousand Malaysian dollars. Why not your government sell them and make the money? She has acquired millions of shares meant for bumis for free before she agrees to list them.

Look at *your Selangor Chief Minister *collecting millions for approving high rise buildings from businessman. He is worth a few billions. Unfortunately he was caught with a few million pocket money in Australia. Every Chief minister is awarding useless projects to his cronies then collecting secret pay offs on the side. The Land Development Boards and the Economic Development Boards are used to bail out any loses suffered by politicians. The profits they keep, the loses they force the Government bodies to absorb. How can your poor ever close the gap when every good deal is snatched by your politicians? How can your country get out of poverty if all the billions of corruption money is taken out of the country?
 
Look at *the Sarawak Chief Minister *selling billions worth of timber concessions under the table; selling every piece of state land to businessmen without tender; using his own companies to obtain lucrative government contracts; selling approval  signatures for a fee 'you pay I approve'. He has 8 billion US stashed overseas. Thousands of acres of land are given to one or two companies while thousands of poor people still live in cardboard makeshift homes; have no water and shit into the river...

Thousands of acres of land are sold to companies for plantations while the natives do not have even one acre to their name. He is selling sand near the beaches to one company for earth filling and then ask the government to spend millions to protect the coastline when erosion occurs.

He lost 300 million of the Sarawak government money trying to make computer chips. He has built a port in Northern Sarawak town in water so shallow it needs dredging every year. The Prime Minister built highways without tender, your cronies get the deal and the price double. Your Langkawi airport runway was built double the cost by your own company, Ekran.
 
The Malaysian nation has lost at least 30 billions during your last 10 years of corrupt rule. One billion lost from t*he purchase of phantom Skyhawk** war planes* nobody has ever seen (are they still in the Nevada desert, USA?). 3 billion lost from the London tin scandal (you thought you could corner the *London tin market* without knowing the Americans have a stockpile!  Stupidity at its best.  6 billion Perwaja steel mill where nobody even knows where the money goes, 3 billion* bank Bumiputra scandal*when George Tan bribed all the bank officials to lend him the money..  6 billion *forex lost by Bank Negara (*the fool and his money are soon parted) and 6 billion to* build three of the world's tallest buildings* (built by Japanese and Koreans and furniture imported from France - not Malaysia) and 1 billion lost from *purchase of British warships* including fees paid to the broker and under the table..  *Add the 10 billion you stole and 5 billion taken by Ministers.*

In the 1997 the World Journalists meeting voted Dr Mahathir the Prime Minister of the Decade. It sounded strange to everybody until it was revealed those who voted against are threatened by IRD officers and with losing their jobs.  In New York the United Nations 1997 meeting, the most corrupt Prime Minister of the decade is President Suharto and second Dr Mahathir (Actually Dr Mahathir should take first place but bribed the Indonesians  to take honour of Number One.

There are Fifty thousand of your university students not given places in Malaysia but are good enough for places overseas resulting in billions of dollars lost. The British and the Australians are thinking how stupid. Your best students are sent overseas raising their standards while as in most countries the best are kept in local universities and the rejects sent overseas..A university student in Hong Kong is much more prestigious than any Australian counterpart. You have been colonised by the British so long you cannot even educate your own people. Look at Hong Kong or Singapore, less than 5% study overseas. All the money saved. Your country could save billions if every student overseas is recalled to a local university, and at the same time raising your own standards.

Your people are still without shoes, without land to farm, without homes, bathing in rivers shitting in holes in the ground, without water and electricity. Your cities are concrete jungles without greenery and open spaces. Your KL is jammed with traffic. Yet you still keep on building high rises. You should  come down from the clouds and stop daydreaming and firmly plant your feet in the ground. Your schools are cramped 500 students to an acre and thousands of acres are given free to some  politicians who leave them idle. Your parks are being taken by politicians to build shophouses and every cabinet minister is a land-grabbing businessman who builds roads only to their cronies' land.

The Malaysians' Prayer, "Ya Allah, we thank you for your gifts of timber, oil and grain. But then the devil sent us corrupt Mahathir without a Brain and look we are back to square one again. So just take Dr Mahathir back to Hell And we will be alive and well."

In China people have been shot for embezzling one thousand dollars.With 8 billion you have stolen, therefore you would be shot 80 thousand times. Now you are leading an anti-corruption campaign. We all know what you should do. Look yourself in the mirror. You see the crooked you. Then use your left hand and handcuff your right hand. You have put the opposition leader
and his son in jail when they said in parliament you are the richest PM in the world. And his colleague Mr Karpal Singh too for 2 years.

So I get a reward or bribe if I now  say you are the poorest PM in this world? Your 3 sons are sitting on the board of directors of more than 200 companies. They must have been educated in Harvard school of business and obtained distinctions?  Or is it "you don't know me, you don't do business in Malaysia"  law that applies.  Billions of ringgit of Employee's Provident Fund and public Petronas funds are used to bail out your sons who make losses investing in every venture you thought you  could make money. How unethical and corrupt. Every one of your politicians is sitting on the board of tens of companies making thousands without any effort, lending their VIP names to borrow millions from local banks without collateral. Now these have become non- performing loans. Now you want 20 million Malaysians to sacrifice for the folly of ONE man? Why not the fool resign and admit he wasted and took most of the money. I could teach you how to put your economy on track but first you must apologize to the Malaysian people.

Sincerely,

George Soros

The science of kissing

A good research subject, just in case somebody looking for a title for their thesis; although I am not sure about the major of study..... However, I am sure that he or she will not be short of volunteers.. . ;-)

Why We Kiss

The first study to indicate that chemical signals play a role in attraction was conducted by Claud Wedekind over a decade ago. Women sniffed the worn t-shirts of men and indicated which shirts smelled best to them. By comparing the DNA of the women and the men, researchers found that women didn’t just chose their favorite scent randomly. They preferred the scent of man whose major histocompatibility complex (MHC)—a series of genes involved in our immune system—was different from their own. Having a different MHC means less immune overlap and a better chance of healthy, robust offspring. Kissing may be a subtle way for women to assess the immune compatibility of a mate, before she invests too much time and energy in him. Perhaps a bad first kiss means more than first date jitters—it could also mean a real lack of chemistry.

Men Sloppy, Women Choosy
Behavioral research supports this biological reasoning. In 2007, researchers at University of Albany studied 1,041 college student and found significant differences in how males and females perceived kissing. Although common in courtship, females put more importance on kissing, and most would never have sex without kissing first. Men, on the other hand, would have sex without kissing beforehand; they would also have sex with someone who wasn’t a good kisser. Since females across species are often the choosier ones when it comes to mate selection, these differences in kissing behavior make sense.

Men are also more likely to initiate French kissing and researchers hypothesize that this is because saliva contains testosterone, which can increase libido. Researchers also think that men might be able to pick up on a woman’s level of estrogen, which is a predictor of fertility.

Crazy for Canoodling
But kissing isn’t all mating practicality; it also feels good. That’s because kissing unleashes a host of feel-good chemicals, helping to reduce stress and increase social bonding. Researcher Wendy Hill and colleagues at Lafayette College looked at how oxytocin, which is involved in pair bonding and attachment, and cortisol, a stress hormone, changed after people kissed. Using a small sample of college couples that were in long-term relationships, they found cortisol levels decreased after kissing. The longer the couples had been in a relationship, the farther their levels dropped. Cortisol levels also decreased for the control group—couples that just held hands—indicating that social attachment in general can decrease stress levels, not just kissing.

This is the first part, but somehow I can not send it earlier. So read this one first....

Pecking, smooching, Frenching, and playing tonsil-hockey— there are as many names for kissing as there are ways to do it. Whether we use it as an informal greeting or an intensely romantic gesture, kissing is one of those ingrained human behaviors that seems to defy explanation. Its many purposes—a blow and peck for good luck on dice, lips to ground after a rocky boat ride, kisses in the air to an acquaintance, and the long slow smooches of Hollywood—have different meanings yet are similar in nature. So why is it that we love to pucker up?

A Kiss Isn’t Just a Kiss
Philematologists, the scientists who study kissing, aren’t exactly sure why humans started locking lips in the first place. The most likely theory is that it stems from primate mothers passing along chewed food to their toothless babies. The lip-to-lip contact may have been passed on through evolution, not only as a necessary means of survival, but also as a general way to promote social bonding and as an expression of love.

But something’s obviously happened to kissing since the time of the chewed-food pass. Now, it’s believed that kissing helps transfer critical information, rather than just meat bits. The kissing we associate with romantic courtship may help us to choose a good mate, send chemical signals, and foster long-term relationships. All of this is important in evolution’s ultimate goal—successful procreation.

Kissing allows us to get close enough to a mate to assess essential characteristics about them, none of which we’re consciously processing. Part of this information exchange is most likely facilitated by pheromones, chemical signals that are passed between animals to help send messages. We know that animals use pheromones to alert their peers of things like mating, food sources, and danger, and researchers hypothesize that pheromones can play a role in human behavior as well. Although the vomeronasal organs, which are responsible for pheromone detection and brain function in animals, are thought to be vestigial and inactive in humans, research indicates we do communicate with chemicals.

Looking at oxytocin levels, the researchers found that they increased only in the males, whereas the researchers thought it would increase in both sexes. They hypothesized that it could be that women need more than a kiss to stimulate attachment and bonding, or that the sterile environment of the research lab wasn’t conducive to creating a feeling of attachment.

Kissing, therefore, plays a role not only in mate selection, but also in bonding. At an Association for the Advancement of Science meeting on the science of kissing, Helen Fischer, an evolutionary biologist, posits multiple reasons for lip locking. She believes that kissing is involved in the three main types of attraction humans have: sex drive, which is ruled by testosterone; romantic love, which is ruled by dopamine and other feel-good hormones; and attachment, which involves bonding chemicals like oxytocin. Kissing, she postulates, evolved to help on all three fronts. Saliva, swapped during romantic kisses, has testosterone in it; feel-good chemicals are distributed when we kiss that help fuel romance; and kissing also helps unleash chemicals that promote bonding, which provides for long term attachment, necessary for raising offspring. 

Sniff, Snuggle, and Turn Right
Yet, not all cultures or mammals kiss. Some mammals have close contact with each others’ faces via licking, grooming, and sniffing, which may transmit the necessary information. And although chimps may pass food from mother to child, the notoriously promiscuous bonobos are apparently the only primates that truly kiss. And while it’s thought that 90 percent of the human population kisses, there’s still the 10 percent that doesn’t. So it seems that as much as we use kissing to gather genetic and compatibility information, our penchant for kissing also has to do with our cultural beliefs surrounding it.

Whether we live in a place where kissing is reserved for close acquaintances, or somewhere where a casual greeting means a one, two, or three cheeker, one thing does remain highly consistent: the side to which people turn while kissing. It’s almost always to the right. A 2003 study published in Nature found that twice as many adults turn their heads to the right rather than the left when kissing. This behavioral asymmetry is thought to stem from the same preference for head turning during the final weeks of gestation and during infancy.

The last part and the most important step......

One of the best things about kissing, however, is that we don’t have to think about any of this. Just close eyes, pucker up, and let nature takes its course.

Move Over Law

A Move over law is a law which requires motorists to move over and change lanes to give safe clearance to law enforcement officers on roadsides. Forty three U.S. states have passed “Move Over” laws, which were created in response to officer roadside fatalities in the line of duty.

Most Move Over laws require drivers to move over or slow down (note: 20 miles lower than the speed limit at the area) for emergency vehicles with their lights flashing. This includes police cruisers, Sheriff's or Highway Patrol vehicles, fire trucks and ambulances.

Currently Hawaii, Maryland, and New York are the only states, as well as Washington, D.C., that do not have a "Move Over" law. On June 17, 2009, Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell signed House Bill 5894, establishing a Move Over requirement in the state. Connecticut' s Move Over law took effect on October 1, 2009.


In California, the "Move-over" law became operative on January 1, 2010.

The cost of the ticket was $754,  with 3 points on your license and a mandatory court appearance

My family experience:

I wanted to let my Medlock Bridge neighbors know about the CA move over law. My son got a ticket on Pleasant Hill coming back from Wal-Mart. A Duluth police car (turned out it was 2 police cars) was on the side of the road giving a ticket to someone else. My son slowed down to pass but did not move into the other lane. The second police car immediately pulled him over and gave him a ticket. My son and I had never heard of the law. It is a fairly new law that states if any emergency vehicle is on the side of the road, if you are able, you are to move into the far lane.

The cost of the ticket was $754, with 3 points on your license and a mandatory court appearance.

Please let everyone you know that drives about this new law.
It is true (see details at the following web address). It states that except two states, all the other US states (even Canada ) enacted similar kind of law.

http://www.moveoveramerica.com/
www.snopes.com/politics/traffic/moveover.asp