UCLA and the FBI Favor Japanese Mobsters over LA Citizens

According to a report that just came out, UCLA, and their top liver surgeon,  gave transplants to four members of the Japanese mob - including a notorious Yakuza  (mafia) leader. 

During this same period, hundreds of LA residents died while waiting for livers.

The Japanese mafia leader was barred from entering the U.S., but the FBI allegedly helped him get in, because he promised to help them crack Japanese gang crime in the U.S.

But it looks like he tricked them - after he got his liver, he supposedly only gave them minor info.

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Lorenzo of "Lorenzo's Oil" Dead At 30

This is an inspiring story about parents' ingenuity in keeping their son alive and extra 20 years...

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Dean Kamen unvails new invention

Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway, has just created a futuristic prosthetic arm for injured veterans.

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Treasure Under the Bed

His "toy" cup turned out to be an ancient Persian cup made from gold - with an estimated worth of nearly $1 million.

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Freedom vs. Equality

From Robert Ringer:

Also, throughout history, utopian thinkers have confused freedom with equality. But nothing could be more incorrect. No matter what one's moral desires, nature has made freedom and equality totally incompatible. "Freedom and equality," wrote Will and Ariel Durant, "are sworn and everlasting enemies, and when one prevails the other dies.''

As governments step up their attempts to defy nature and bring about equality, they find it necessary to employ force. And when force enters the picture, some people are going to come under the control of others.

Thus, you may be surprised, after a little probing, to find that when people espouse freedom, often they are referring to their freedom, not yours. Worse, you are likely to discover that their freedom necessitates the violation of your freedom.

When freedom is subjectively defined by each individual, it is reduced to a meaningless abstract. The only way freedom can be rationally viewed is in its pure, no‑compromise form: human freedom — the freedom for each individual to do as he pleases, so long as he does not commit aggression against anyone else.

Presidential candidates love to talk about freedom, even while telling us how they intend to further enslave us. They do this by manufacturing "rights" out of thin air. This year's crop of candidates has been especially bold in this respect, babbling endlessly about our nonexistent rights and how they intend to fulfill them.

The problem is that all artificially created rights are anti-freedom, because in order to fulfill one person's rights (read, desires), another person's rights must be violated.

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Minor league Baseball Player traded for 10 baseball bats

Now here was a creative deal...

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Alternative to Throwing Your Cell Phone in A Landfill

People are starting to become more aware of all the harmful chemicals and metals in today's electronic products, such as computers and cell phones.

Not only are these products dangerous for landfills (their chemicals can seep into the ground water), but today these products (especially cell phones) are replaced more than ever before, because upgraded models keep being released.

One company that is trying to make it convenient for recycling old cell phones is Cell for Cash.

When you sign up at Cell for Cash, they will send you a postage paid envelope. You simply send your cell phone back, and they will send you some cash for it.

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American Airlines to Charge for First Bag

The airline fallout from high gas prices continues - American will start charging $15 for a first checked bag, $25 for checking a second bag, cut domestic flights, and lay off thousands.

Why does it seem like Southwest is the only well-run airline?

They grapple with the same fuel issues, but they hedged.  Also, they are the only airline that makes money, and they have lead in customer satisfaction for 15 straight years.

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Example of A Strong Economy Without Any Government Intervention

This occurred in the late 1840's during the California Gold Rush.

Some highlights from the article:

They had a bank panic in 1855, "But the difficulties were relatively short-lived, a tribute to the remarkable strength of an economic system that didn't exist before 1848, said noted Gold Rush historian J.S. Holliday."

The discovery of gold spawned the stunningly swift development of a sophisticated market-driven economy run by bankers, venture capitalists, importers, experts and merchants of all kind, including many who once had tried their hands at mining.

It was an economy noteworthy for its lack of government regulation, Starr said. Merchants accepted gold dust as payment; private firms minted their own coins. Banks were formed without state charters.

But for all its frontier flavor, it was also an economy tamed by market forces. When eggs were scarce, they sold for $1 apiece; by the early '50s, when supply lines were established, they were down to $1.50 a dozen, said James Henley, a city of Sacramento historian.

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10 Businesses You Can Run in Your Pajamas

Here is a slideshow

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Millionaire Success Stories

Drug addict to multi-million dollar software company

Building a natural-food brand through guerrilla marketing

Mena and Ben Trott

Josh Abramson and Ricky Van Veen

Catherine, Dave, and Geoff Cook

Richard and Betty James

Thales Panagides

Carole Nash

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10 Secrets to Business Success

Below are 10 tips for entrepreneurs. They are taken from the best-selling book The Breakthrough Company: How Everyday Companies Become Extraordinary Performers by Keith McFarland:

1. The sexiest businesses don't always win - the list of top growing companies included a nuts-and-bolts distributor, a snowmobile maker, and a payroll processor.

2. It's not all about the entrepreneur - leaders work hard to put the company's vision (and not their own personality) at the center of things.

3. Entrepreneurs aren't always risk takers - contrary to conventional wisdom, entrepreneurs are actually distributed evenly across the risk-taking spectrum.

4. Founders don't need to let go - rather than letting go, founders and founding teams need to redefine their roles as the business grows.

5. You don't necessarily have to stick to your knitting - companies need to be constantly scanning the changing needs of the customer and developments in the industry.

6. You don't need OPM (other people's money)- the right investor at the right time can be crucial, but outside money is far from a requirement.

7. It's not all about hiring the right people - successful companies focus more on making the people already in the company productive through intense training and education.

8. It doesn't matter where you went to school - among 500 top performing companies, one company was run by a Ph.D in statistics and former college professor; another was run by a person who hit the bricks right out of high school.

9. You don't have to let the MBAs take over - companies large and small alike should strive to create an entrepreneurial enterprise that combines the quickness and customer focus of an entrepreneurial firm with the systems and processes of a more mature organization.

10. Strategy isn't just the job of the CEO - successful companies strive to get people throughout the organization thinking about and debating strategy.

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Need to Re-Design U.S. Paper Currency?

A Federal Appeals court just agreed that the U.S. currency discriminates against blind people.

So, unless they appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, the Treasury may have to redesign the currency to make it easy to distinguish bills by touch or size.

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How to Screen Stocks With Yahoo Finance

The best indicators on Yahoo Finance are price/sales and 5 year growth. 

Price/sales is a more accurate indicator for value than price/earnings, because sales are more straightforward and less manipulated than earnings.

The way I would screen stocks is to sort the companies on the price/sales column from lowest to highest, because lower is better.

First, look at the top 40-50 companies (the ones with the lowest price/sales). 

Then, out of these 40-50, focus on the companies with the highest 5 year growth.

This way, you will choose stocks that are growing, but still have value because they are relatively lower-priced.

These stock selections will work great with any system, including buy and hold.

You can get a great return if you manage these picks with my investment system.

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Cindy McCain Sells Sudan-Related Investments

Even indirect investments in Sudan are now politically incorrect. 

Cindy McCain has just sold about $2 million worth of two funds (American Funds Europacific Growth fund and American Funds Capital World Growth and Income fund) that are listed by the Sudan Divestment Task Force.

Both funds have positions in Oil & Natural Gas Corp., an India-based company that does business in Sudan. The American Funds Capital World Growth & Income Fund also holds Petrochina, a Chinese oil company that is investmented in Sudan.

Last year, four presidential candidates (Barack Obama, John Edwards, Sam Brownback, and Rudy Giuliani) divested themselves from Sudan-related investments.

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Brazil the Next China?, Part II

Brazil might be the place to be if you want to make money on land and agriculture.

I read in 2005 in Forbes that there is a land rush like the 1800's going on over in Brazil.

They call it a potential land arbitrage bonanza.

A lot of farmers and speculators from the U.S. and Europe will sell over-priced farm land and going to buy under-priced farm land there.

Brazil is the same size as the U.S., but the % of land developed is a lot lower.

But, there is a lot of lawlessness (triple the U.S. homicide rate), and you risk claim jumpers shooting you in the back...

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NBA Star Dwyane Wade Bought His Mother A Church For Mother's Day

It's a nice story.  She turned her addicted life around 7 years ago - at the urging of her kids.

She started her first ministry in prison.

Now, she has her own church.

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Brazil the Next China?

The Brazilian stock market is booming and just reached a new high.  But it looks like the long-term fundamentals are good, so this article recommends some stocks if they pull back.

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Wealth and Luxury in Ordos, China

The world is really changing quickly.

Last week, I was reading in the Chicago Tribune real estate section about how American architects are having a tough time right now.

Then this rich guy in Ordos, China - in the Outer Mongolian desert - brought over 100 American architects for a design competition. The winning architects get to build a luxury subdivision of multi-million dollar homes.

This article is also available on the New York Times website.

It turns out that, a few years ago, these people were all living in tents called yurts. Then, these guys got rich because there is a world-wide commodities boom, and they have all these natural resources.

They now use chauffeured Mercedes' instead of yaks - talk about culture shock.

The article went on to say that Outer Mongolia is now like Texas in the oil boom days. Wide open areas and wildcatters with lots of cash and swagger.

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Free Visa Gift Cards

Are you looking for free visa gift cards, or other free merchandise?

Are you willing to fill out a survey or two, and don't mind receiving email offers?

Then, you can find some of the hottest free survey offers here.

Notice that I am not designing attractive landing pages or promoting these offers individually.

I am targeting people who love the game - that are willing to be rewarded for filling out surveys and receiving email offers.

I know they don't need a hard sell or fancy landing page - the offer pages themselves are simple and self-explanatory.

Instead, I am serving them by continually updating the offer page as deals expire - to keep providing the highest paying free gift cards and free merchandise.

It looks like I'm targeting correctly - I've had 70 people sign up in the last 2 weeks! These offers are hot!

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If You Can't Be The Best At Something...

Perhaps you should be the worst at something...

excerpt:

If the collection goes for its estimated price it would be in the same league as first edition copies of Harry Potter books signed by author J. K. Rowling, according to The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

The poet -- full name William Topaz McGonagall -- was nicknamed the "The Tayside Tragedian" in his home city of Dundee, where laughing locals would throw fruit and vegetables at him.

Critics have awarded him the "world's worst" label because of the crashing lack of subtlety in terms of rhyme, imagery, vocabulary or repetition.

His most famous poem is about the Tay Bridge disaster of 1879, in which 75 people died:

"So the train mov'd slowly along the Bridge of Tay,

"Until it was about midway,

"Then the central girders with a crash gave way,

"And down went the train and passengers into the Tay."

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Girl Scout Has a Future in Sales and Marketing...

This Michigan girl scout sold 17,328 boxes of cookies this year...

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Whatever Happened to Ron Paul...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20080515/pl_politico/10353

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Bob Barr - Libertarian Candidate?

So, they say that Bob Barr is now the front runner over Wayne Root...

Here is an interesting interview with Bob Barr and the Village Voice.

Notice how they ask him how he can be a libertarian when he was a social conservative, and he tried to dance around.

Also, the comments are interesting.

A surprising number of Wiccan libertarians in the army who remember him attacking them

Here's a link one of them provided in a comment.

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Using Long Tail Keywords to Help Create Blog Posts and Articles that Attract Search Engine Traffic

1. Identify some keywords that you would be interested in writing an article about.

2. Type your keywords into the free Wordtracker tool to find a long tail keyword (phrase with multiple words) that gets at least 2,000 searches per month.

3. Do a Google search on your long tail keyword.  Put quotes around your long tail keyword.  You want Google to return 10,000 pages or less.

4. If a Google search for the long tail keyword in quotes gets more than 10,000 pages, then repeat steps 2-3 until you find a long tail keyword that gets 2,000 searches and returns less than 10,000 search results.

5. Use this long term keyword phrase as the subject and in the title of your article.

You can use this system to write blog posts, Ezine articles that link back to your blog, etc.

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Who Did More Damage...

The skunk or the insurance company?

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He Lost Two Homes in Huricane Katrina...

...but he just won the $97 million PowerBall lottery.

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Iron Man vs. Grand Theft Auto IV

The Iron Man movie took $200 million in its opening weekend, but the video game Grand Theft Auto IV took in $500 million in its first weekend of sales...

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114 Year Old Man...

He just died on the Spanish island of Minorca...

But his 101 year old brother, his two daughters (77 and 81), and an 85 year old nephew are still alive.

I think they have good genes.

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Chrysler's Innovative $2.99 per Gallon Sales Incentive

Chrysler just announced a sales incentive where purchasers of new Dodge, Jeep, and Chrysler vehicles will get to fill up with $2.99 per gallon gas for the next 3 years.

Here's how this will work:

Customers who choose the gas deal instead of a cash rebate will get a gas card that is linked to their credit card.  Whenever they buy gas with the gas card, the first $2.99 will be billed to their credit card.  The rest will get billed to Chrysler. 

One catch is that this is limited to 12,000 miles per year.  Thus, if the vehicle gets 28 miles per gallon, the customer will be able to purchase 428.5 gallons of gasoline per year at $2.99.

Chrysler says it had a team of experts and consultants evaluate the deal, and they will use hedging to minimize the impact.

I think this is an example of innovative, out of the box thinking.

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John and Cindy McCain: Married Filing Separately

Today, I read this article about John McCain's wife, Cindy, not releasing her tax return.

It turns out that, while both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama filed joint returns with their spouses, the McCains filed separately.

In America, a married couple can either file a joint tax return, or else file separate returns.

I always wondered why a couple would decide to choose a status of "married, filing separately".   As this Quicken article points out, there are a lot of disadvantages for filing separately from your spouse.

In the McCain's case, it looks they have kept their finances separately all their lives because Cindy McCain is much richer than her husband.

In fact, while he had income of $405,409 in 2007, she is an heiress to a $100 million fortune.  In fact, the article mentions that he signed a prenuptial agreement when they got married.

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Baskin-Robbins and Business Lessons

Irvine Robbins, co-founder of Baskin-Robbins, died Monday at age 90.

Some business lessons:

1. Get publicity by piggybacking on important events.  Baskin-Robbins created short lived flavors like Lunar Cheesecake for the moon landings and Valley Forge Fudge for the 1976 bicentennial.

2. Be ready to improvise. When the Beatles came to the United States in 1964, a reporter called to ask whether Baskin-Robbins was going to commemorate the event with a new flavor.  Robbins didn't have a flavor planned but quickly replied, "Uh, Beatle Nut, of course."  The flavor was created, manufactured and delivered in just five days.

3. Don't let egos get in the way of partnerships.  When he partnered with his brother-in-law, the late Burton Baskin, Robbins recalled they used a flip of the coin to decide which name came first.

4. Don't be afraid to try new concepts.  Baskin-Robbins decided to sell their stores to managers, pioneering the franchise concept for ice cream stores.

5. Treat your employees well.  As corporate policy, employees were allowed to eat all the ice cream they wanted, because, Robbins said, "I don't want my employees stealing."

6. Focus on quality metrics. Robbins was dedicated to upholding the quality of his ice cream regardless of the cost, his daughter said.

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Iron Man Mania - Downey going to be in Hulk and Iron Man 2

The movie Iron Man did good this weekend, and they announced Iron Man2 will be out April 30, 2010.

And Iron Man / Robert Downey Jr. will appear in the Edward Norton's Hulk movie later this summer.

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"Biography" of Ben and Jerry

Who Says That Business Can't Be Fun?

Fun and business was the mantra for Ben and Jerry - after all, they have flavors like Cherry Garcia, Phish Food and Karamel Sutra.

The Biography Channel episode on ice cream makers Ben and Jerry is available as a download on Amazon.com.

Here are some interesting facts:

1. They met in gym class in 1963.

2. They both hated running and loved food.

3. They started in the ice cream business in 1977 by taking a $5 correspondence course on making ice cream.

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