Hot Trends Newsletter and Information

DAVOS, Switzerland (AFP) – Perched high above the five-star hotels and heated debate amongst global leaders in the Swiss resort of Davos, an igloo hotel offers the chance to chill out and enjoy life as an Eskimo might.

Set in the midst of the groomed, snow-clad ski slopes 2,600 metres up (8,500 feet), where temperatures sometimes hang around minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus four Fahrenheit) during the daytime, the cluster of igloos nonetheless takes a few liberties with the genuine polar experience.

Iglu-Dorf is built out of packed snow, but the network of 15 igloos linked by tunnels looks more like a cross between neolithic caves and an eco-housing complex perched in the Alps.

They also offer some creature comforts that are not so common on the wild expanse of polar icecap, such as a sauna and whirlpool bath. And they were not hewn out of ice.

"We built the complex in five weeks using giant inflatable balloons which were then covered with snow," explained Alexander Lau, one of the staff at the Davos igloos.

"Building in a traditional manner would have taken us all winter," the tanned snowboarder grinned.

The balloons were covered by the snowploughs used to prepare the ski runs every night, and the cold did the rest.

Once the purpose-built plastic moulds were deflated, the ideal home appeared: rooms, bathrooms, bar, restaurant, an even a conference room.

Inside, four Swiss couples were enjoying a rather more manageable minus five degrees (23 Fahrenheit) as they embarked on their overnight stay.

"I was expecting anything but this," said Marc, whose wife offered him the frozen night out as a present.

"I'm surprised by the beauty of the decoration and the size of the rooms, I never imagined you could build such enormous igloos," he added, sitting on a chamois leather-clad bench carved with a chainsaw.

The igloo hotel was born out of a bet. Adrian Guenter, a Swiss snowboarding fanatic, swore he would be the first on the slopes in the morning so he built an igloo nearby. Over the years, it turned into a lucrative business.

Thirteen years on, Guenter presides over Iglu-Dorf, a thriving company that now has four village-hotels in Switzerland, one in Germany and, for the first time this season, a hotel in the tiny principality of Andorra in the Pyrenees.

Last year, 9,000 people spent a night in accommodation ranging from a more summary standard igloo (119 euros on weekends) to the "romantik-iglu plus" (339 euros) complete with candles, carved features, animal skins, a private whirlpool and even the luxury of a toilet.

While the wind howled relentlessly outside, the last guests left the bar or sauna for their private igloos, to slip into sleeping bags fit for a polar expedition - "minus 50 certified" according to Lau.

The next morning, the first clients emerged from an icy night. "I didn't manage to sleep," muttered a bleary-eyed Conny, while her husband, Fredi, claimed he had spent "a very good night."

The prospect of the bitter cold seems to do little to deter the more adventurous winter holidaymakers.

"The demand for our igloo stays is growing," said Joern Grundmann, the manager of the Davos igloo hotel.

As a result, the Swiss luxury igloos are on their way to the mountains behind the Russian city of Sochi, the Black Sea resort that will host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.

by Andre Lehmann, AFP

Labels: davos, hot trends 2009, iglu-dorf

WASHINGTON - The number of people receiving unemployment benefits has reached an all-time record, the government said Thursday, and more layoffs are spreading throughout the economy.

The Labor Department reported that the number of Americans continuing to claim unemployment insurance for the week ending Jan. 17 was a seasonally adjusted 4.78 million, the highest on records dating back to 1967. That's an increase of 159,000 from the previous week and worse than economists' expectations of 4.65 million.

As a proportion of the work force, the tally of unemployment benefit recipients is the highest since August 1983, a department analyst said.

The total released by the department doesn't include about 1.7 million people receiving benefits under an extended unemployment compensation program authorized by Congress last summer. That means the total number of recipients is actually closer to 6.5 million people.

Businesses continued to hemorrhage jobs Thursday. Ford Motor Co. reported a fourth-quarter loss of $5.9 billion and said its credit arm would cut 20 percent of its work force, or 1,200 jobs.

Eastman Kodak Co. said it's cutting 3,500 to 4,500 jobs, or 14 to 18 percent of its work force, as it posted a $137 million quarterly loss on plunging sales of photography products.

In another sign of the deepening recession, the Commerce Department said Thursday that new orders for durable goods dropped by 2.6 percent last month, even worse than the 2 percent decline economists expected. Orders fell 5.7 percent for the year, the second biggest drop on government records, exceeded only by a 10.7 percent plunge in 2001.

The financial markets fell on the news. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped about 110 points in morning trading.

The tally of Americans filing new jobless benefit claims rose slightly to a seasonally adjusted 588,000 last week, from a downwardly revised figure of 585,000 the previous week. That also was worse than analysts' forecast of 575,000 new claims.

The number of initial claims is close to the 26-year high of 589,000 reached in late December, though the work force has grown by about half since then.

The record number of ongoing benefit claims is an indication that laid-off workers are having a difficult time finding new jobs, economists said.

"This highlights the key point that the trend in gross hirings has slowed as abruptly as the trend in gross firings ... has risen," Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist for High Frequency Economics, wrote in a research note.

A year ago, continuing claims stood at about 2.7 million, less than half their current level when the extended unemployment program is included.

Abiel Reinhart, an economic analyst at JPMorgan Chase, said the report indicates the unemployment rate likely rose this month. January's figure will be released Feb. 6.

The rate jumped to 7.2 percent in December, a 16-year high. Employers cut an average of 510,000 jobs in the last three months of 2008, and may cut a similar amount in January, Reinhart said.

The crush of new and continuing claims has overwhelmed many states' ability to process them all. Electronic filing systems crashed in three states earlier this month, and last week Michigan said it would hire 276 workers and open a fourth call center to handle increased phone traffic.

President Barack Obama's $819 billion economic stimulus package, approved by the House Wednesday and now on its way to the Senate, would provide $500 million to the states to upgrade their unemployment insurance systems. The measure also continues the extended unemployment compensation program, which adds up to 33 weeks of benefits, until the end of the year.

Companies have announced a huge number of layoffs this week as they prepare for an extended period of economic weakness. Economists expect the current recession, which began in December 2007, to be the longest since World War II.

Starbucks Corp. on Wednesday said it would cut 6,700 jobs. The coffee company also said it would close 300 underperforming stores, on top of 600 it already planned to shut down.

Time Warner Inc.'s AOL division is cutting up to 700 jobs, or about 10 percent of the online unit's work force. And IBM Corp. has cut thousands of jobs in its sales, software and hardware divisions in the past week, without announcing specific numbers.

Boeing Co., Pfizer Inc., Home Depot Inc. and other U.S. corporate titans also have announced tens of thousands of job cuts this week alone.

Companies have announced about 130,000 layoffs in January, according to an Associated Press tally.

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

Labels: hot trends 2009, layoffs, unemployment

Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You" vaults from #97 to #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 this week.

That sets a new record for the biggest leap into the top spot in the chart's 50-year history.

The old record was held by Britney Spears' "Womanizer," which shot from #96 to #1 in October. Clarkson's song also enters the Hot Digital Songs chart at #1, after selling 280,000 downloads in its first week. "My Life Would Suck Without You," the lead single from Clarkson's upcoming fourth album All I Ever Wanted, is her second #1 on the Hot 100.

"A Moment Like This," her American Idol victory song, shot from #52 to #1 in October 2002. (At the time, that was the biggest leap into the top spot in Hot 100 history.) "Suck" is Clarkson's first #1 on Hot Digital Songs. Her 2004 smash "Since U Been Gone" just missed the top spot, though it has sold more than 2 million cumulative downloads.

(Incidentally, Clarkson's use of the word "suck" in the title is cheeky, but not unprecedented. The Rolling Stones titled a 1981 hits compilation Sucking In The Seventies. Primus titled its 1990 breakout album Suck On This. The Murmurs had a Hot 100 hit in 1994 titled "You Suck," which does make the point succinctly.)

Paul Grein in Chart Watch

Labels: hot digital songs, hot trends 2009, kelly clarkson, my life would suck without you

CAIRO, Egypt - President Barack Obama chose an Arabic-language satellite TV network for his first formal television interview as president, delivering a message Tuesday to the Muslim world that "Americans are not your enemy."

The interview taped Monday underscored Obama's commitment to repair relations with the Muslim world that have suffered under the previous administration.

The president expressed an intention to engage the Middle East immediately and his new envoy to the region, former Sen. George J. Mitchell, was expected to arrived in Egypt on Tuesday for a visit that will also take him to Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

"My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy," Obama told the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya news channel, which is privately owned by a Saudi businessman.

Obama said the U.S. had made mistakes in the past but "that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there's no reason why we can't restore that."

During his presidency, former President George W. Bush gave several interviews to Al-Arabiya but the wars he launched in Iraq and Afghanistan prompted a massive backlash against the U.S. in the Muslim world.

Al-Arabiya has scored interviews with top U.S. officials in the past, including Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The channel is seen by some in Washington as more balanced in its coverage than its Qatar-funded rival Al-Jazeera, which the previous White House administration complained had an anti-American bias.

Obama called for a new partnership with the Muslim world "based on mutual respect and mutual interest." He talked about growing up in Indonesia, the Muslim world's most populous nation, and noted that he has Muslim relatives.

The new president said he felt it was important to "get engaged right away" in the Middle East and had directed Mitchell to talk to "all the major parties involved." His administration would craft an approach after that, he said in the interview.

"What I told him is start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating," Obama told the interviewer.

The president reiterated the U.S. commitment to Israel as an ally and to its right to defend itself. But he suggested that both Israel and the Palestinians have hard choices to make.

"I do believe that the moment is ripe for both sides to realize that the path that they are on is one that is not going to result in prosperity and security for their people," he said, calling for a Palestinian state that is contiguous with internal freedom of movement and can trade with neighboring countries.

On Tuesday, Gaza's fragile truce was threatened when a bomb detonated by Palestinian militants exploded next to an Israeli army patrol along the border with Gaza, killing one soldier and wounding three.

Obama also said that recent statements and messages issued by the al-Qaida terror network suggest they do not know how to deal with his new approach.

"They seem nervous," he told the interviewer. "What that tells me is that their ideas are bankrupt."

In his latest message on Jan. 14, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden said Obama had been left with a "heavy inheritance" of Bush's wars.

Shortly after the election, the network's number two, Ayman al-Zawahri used a demeaning racial term for a black American who does the bidding of whites to describe Obama.

The message suggested the terror network was worried Obama could undermine its rallying cry that the U.S. is an enemy oppressor.

By PAUL SCHEMM, Associated Press Writer Paul Schemm, Associated Press Writer

Labels: al-arabiya, george mitchell, hot trends 2009, muslim world, obama

Katie Stam of Indiana was crowned Miss America on Saturday night, fighting off a throat infection, laryngitis and 51 other contestants to win the 88-year-old pageant.

The 22-year-old University of Indianapolis student became the first Miss America winner from the Hoosier State. She drew loud applause for her rendition of "Via Dolorosa" during the talent portion of the beauty pageant at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

Stam said she had trouble sleeping one night this week while she took prescription medicine to fight the infection, but got her voice back by Thursday.

"I was feeling like myself again -- I will never take my health for granted," she said.

The Seymour native also strutted onstage in a black bikini and an off-the-shoulder, white lace evening gown. During the interview portion of the competition she decried the use of performance-enhancing drugs among professional athletes and discussed the definition of glamour.

"That beauty that you feel on the inside, it's that confidence, that radiance inside of you, that's what glamour is," Stam said.

Stam won a $50,000 scholarship and hopes to obtain a bachelor's degree in communications and become a television news anchor. She began competing in pageants at age 15.

Stam was crowned by reigning Miss America Kirsten Haglund of Michigan and will soon embark on a year of travel and public appearances.

She said she had one semester left in school -- but didn't know when she would finish -- and already was graduating debt-free without the $50,000 prize. Stam said she might use the money for graduate school.

The first runner-up was Miss Georgia Chasity Hardman, who took home a $25,000 scholarship.
The 52 young women took to the stage in blue jeans, bikinis and ballgowns following a mini-reality series on pageant prep work and a week of preliminary competition.

After an opening dance number and the traditional parade of states, judges and fans immediately trimmed the field to 15 finalists. Five more were trimmed based on swimsuit and evening gown competitions, while the remaining 10 went on to showcase their dancing, singing and other skills during the talent portion.

"This gown nearly blinds people," Miss Arkansas Ashlen Batson said in a video clip played as she walked onstage in a silver dress with beading. Batson was eliminated before she could play her flute in the talent competition.

Miss Hawaii Nicole Fox drew cheers as she performed a traditional Tahitian dance, wearing a huge white feathered headdress and skirt to match. After she exited, part of her skirt remained on the stage.

In a new twist, viewers of a lead-in reality show, "Miss America: Countdown to the Crown" voted in four of the 15 finalists, while the judges announced the other 11 during a live TLC television broadcast.

The four finalists chosen by viewers were Stam, the eventual winner, and Hardman, the first runner-up, as well as Miss South Dakota Alexandra Hoffman and Miss Alabama Amanda Tapley.

The other 11 women remaining after the opening number were: Batson, Fox, Miss Michigan Ashlee Baracy, Miss Delaware Galen Giaccone, Miss District of Columbia Kate Marie Grinold, Miss Iowa Olivia Myers, Miss New York Leigh-Taylor Smith, Miss California Jackie Geist, Miss Florida Sierra Minott, Miss Kentucky Emily Cox and Miss Tennessee Ellen Carrington.

The viewer interaction to name four contestants as "America's choice" was Discovery-owned TLC's attempt to stoke interest in this year's contestants. Once an American icon, the shine on Miss America's crown has been dimmed by slipping ratings and the popularity of more salacious reality shows.

The pageant was dropped from network television after the 2004 pageant drew a record low viewership. It found a home in Las Vegas after moving from its longtime location in Atlantic City, N.J., but it has struggled to get its footing on cable.

In its second year on TLC, Mario Lopez, of "Extra," hosted with an assist from Clinton Kelly of TLC's "What Not to Wear." Judges include actress Laura Bell Bundy, Miss America 1999 Nicole Johnson, hairstylist Ken Paves and Olympic swimmer Cullen Jones.

As always, the women competed in swimsuit, evening gown and talent competitions, as well as a short "interview," in which they were asked their thoughts on a current event or hot topic. TLC has tried to dash the days of answers that declared that "children are the future." Questions came from average people and were intended to put the contestants on the spot.

TLC also had some fun with the cliches of pageants past. For example, in its scorecard for home viewers posted online, it asked viewers to count the number of mentions of world peace and to name the contestant with best spray tan.

By OSKAR GARCIA, Associated Press Writer

Labels: hot trends 2009, katie stam, miss america

While industry executives and shoppers will remember 2008 as the year the party ended, figure 2009 to be the year of the hangover. Already, Circuit City, Linens 'N Things and Mervyn's stores are going away. Sharper Image is too, though the company will continue to sell some of its high-end gadgets through license agreements with other retailers.

More pain is on the way. One-third of U.S. women recently surveyed by America's Research Group said they plan no clothing purchases--none--in 2009. Normally, it's just 4%. That means the market is still far too saturated with stores.

Expect closings and bankruptcies to rattle the likes of Lane Bryant, Gap, and Starbucks. It's the inevitable counterpunch to the days of retailers fighting hand over fist for market share during an era of loose credit and minuscule interest rates.

Those days are over, probably for a long time. While accelerating unemployment will only last so long, consumers' debt loads and credit access don't figure to recover to pre-party levels for quite awhile.

"I don't think we will live the same way for 10 years," says Howard Davidowitz, chairman of New York-based retail consultant and investment bank Davidowitz & Associates. "People are so scared they're starting to save."

Retailers at risk in 2009, he thinks, include outerwear specialist Eddie Bauer and teen-apparel-seller Pacific Sunwear, along with Zales, the big jewelry chain. All three shuttered at least 8% of their U.S. stores last year, with many more closings expected.

The same is largely true of Charming Shoppes, the owner of Lane Bryant, which closed 150 stores last year. With a mountain of debt and losses totaling over $260 million over the most recent 12-month reporting period, the company will close another 100 locations this year.

Another possible casualty: Sears Holdings, operator of Sears and Kmart stores. A key to hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert's 2005 merger of the two chains was in the underlying real estate. But with those values down 30% or so since then, slumping sales hit even worse.

"I'd be surprised if Sears-Kmart makes it through the year," says Britt Beemer, who runs retail market-research firm America's Research Group.

Non-apparel specialists like Starbucks and Sprint Nextel won't be going away, but they will close hundreds more stores during the coming year, Davidowitz predicts.

Narrow specialties (Sprint's cellphones) and high prices (Starbucks' coffee) are tough sells as the consumer mood turns thrifty. What plagues Starbucks will also affect other upscale goody chains like Mrs. Fields' Cookies, and causal dining outlets like Applebee's and Cheesecake Factory. Any of the neighborhood outlets for those restaurant chains could be a casualty this year. For too many customers now, it's McDonald's or bust.

Davidowitz doesn't think a huge government stimulus will help. Better to let things bottom out naturally before regrouping. "Obama's plan will make it worse," he says. "We got into this by borrowing and stimulating, now he wants to borrow and stimulate more."

by Tom Van Riper, Forbes.com

Labels: business, hot trends 2009, retail, retailers, shopping

Labels: cobra, hot trends 2009, venom spitting

NEW YORK - Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. sold more cars and trucks last year than General Motors Corp., stripping the Detroit automaker of the No. 1 global sales crown for the first time in 78 years.

GM said Wednesday it sold 8,355,947 cars and trucks around the world in 2008, falling about 616,000 vehicles short of the 8.972 million Toyota announced Tuesday.

GM, which posted an 11 percent drop in global sales for the year, blamed the decline on the steep drop in vehicle demand in its key North American and European markets.

North American sales dropped 21 percent for the year. GM Europe sales fell 6.5 percent, including a 21 percent plunge in the fourth quarter.

Toyota's sales fell 4 percent for the year, marking that automaker's first global sales decline in 10 years.

Toyota's move into the top sales spot wasn't a huge surprise. The automaker nearly topped GM in 2007, selling only about 3,000 less vehicles than the U.S. company did that year.

GM Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson told a group of industry insiders Tuesday night that it's not a big deal if GM is passed by Toyota Motor Corp. as the global sales leader.

"To me the most important thing to make GM successful," he told the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit. Any time spent on worrying about being passed by Toyota is "time wasted," he said.

GM, which received a $13.4 billion lifeline from the federal government last month, has been closing plants and laying off workers to cut production as it faces the worst U.S. auto market in more than 25 years.

GM shares fell 22 cents, or 6.3 percent, to $3.28 in morning trading, while Toyota's U.S. shares rose 38 cents to $66.28.

By BREE FOWLER, AP Auto Writer

Labels: car sales, general motors, gm, hot trends 2009, toyota

Text of President Obama's inaugural address on Tuesday, as prepared for delivery and released by the Presidential Inaugural Committee.

OBAMA: My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because we the people have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents.
So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.
These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America - they will be met.
On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted - for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely passed.

Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day - because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control - and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart - not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort - even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment - a moment that will define a generation - it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence - the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed - why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

"Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it)."

America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Labels: hot trends 2009, obama inaugural speech, obama inauguration speech

REALITY: It's Safer In the Back.

The funny thing about all those expert opinions: They're not really based on hard data about actual airline accidents. A look at real-world crash stats, however, suggests that the farther back you sit, the better your odds of survival. Passengers near the tail of a plane are about 40 percent more likely to survive a crash than those in the first few rows up front.

That's the conclusion of an exclusive Popular Mechanics study that examined every commercial jet crash in the United States, since 1971, that had both fatalities and survivors. The raw data from these 20 accidents has been languishing for decades in National Transportation Safety Board files, waiting to be analyzed by anyone curious enough to look and willing to do the statistical drudgework.

And drudgework it was. For several weeks, we pored over reports filed by NTSB crash investigators, and studied seating charts that showed where each passenger sat and whether they lived or died. We then calculated the average fore-and-aft seating position of both survivors and fatalities for each crash.

We also compared survival rates in four sections of the aircraft. Both analytical approaches clearly pointed to the same conclusion: It's safer in the back.

In 11 of the 20 crashes, rear passengers clearly fared better. Only five accidents favored those sitting forward. Three were tossups, with no particular pattern of survival. In one case, seat positions could not be determined.

In seven of the 11 crashes favoring back-seaters, their advantage was striking. For example, in both the 1982 Air Florida accident in Washington, D.C., and the 1972 crash of an Eastern 727 at New York's Kennedy Airport, the handful of survivors were all sitting in the last few rows. And when a United DC-8 ran out of fuel near Portland, Ore., in 1978, all seven passengers who died were sitting in the first four rows.

Oddly, the five accidents that favored front-cabin passengers all occurred between 1988 and 1992. In the 1989 United DC-10 accident in Sioux City, Iowa, for example, the majority of the 175 survivors sat ahead of the wing.

There was just one crash in which passengers in the front had a pronounced survival advantage. The only two fatalities in a 1989 USAir runway accident at LaGuardia were both sitting in Row 21 in the 25-row Boeing 737-400.

Where detailed seating charts were available, we also calculated survival rates for various parts of the passenger cabin. Again, the trend was clear: The rear cabin (seats located behind the trailing edge of the wing) had the highest average survival rate at 69 percent. The overwing section had a 56 percent survival rate, as did the coach section ahead of the wing. First/business-class sections (or in all-coach planes, the front 15 percent) had an average survival rate of just 49 percent.

So when the "experts" tell you it doesn't matter where you sit, have a chuckle and head for the back of the plane. And once your seatbelt is firmly fastened, relax: There's been only one fatal jet crash in the U.S. in the last five-plus years.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4219452.html

Labels: hot trends 2009, plane crash, safest passenger seat

Hi,

Did you know that online spending is predicted to INCREASE by 14% this year?

So despite what you're hearing about the current economy, this is still an EXCELLENT time to start or grow your Internet business!

And I've arranged to get you some FREE help doing it...

You've probably heard of Derek Gehl, right?

He's the Internet marketing guru that's made over $100 MILLION in online sales as head of the Internet Marketing Center.

Derek's been hard at work, researching and identifying the BIGGEST online trends for 2009, and coming up with strategies that ANYONE can use to take advantage of these trends to make more money online this year than ever.

And now he's turned all of his research, predictions, and strategies into a two-hour online presentation … and he's given me permission to give you unrestricted access to the whole thing for FREE!

But I know first-hand that, due to the time-sensitive nature of this information, Derek's only going to make it available for a short time, so if you want to find out how to not just survive in 2009, but actually THRIVE, you need to check it our right away:

http://www.internetmarketing.com/2009-goals/789606

Best wishes for 2009,

Ave Ramel

Labels: hot trends, hot trends 2009, internet marketing, online trends 2009

New tech promises on-tap assistance for stuck gamers. The days of getting stuck in games could be gone altogether, if a patent filed recently by Nintendo comes to fruition.

Nintendo's idea, made public in a patent application this week, hinges on making demonstration videos available to players while they're playing the game, either as a thumbnail view or a full-screen animation.

Players could interrupt the demonstration at any point, taking control back to continue playing without assistance. Think of it as a tutorial guide that lasts throughout the entire game.

It also proposes to let players start playing at any point during a game -- a feature that's in many games already, but typically only unlocked once a player has already completed those levels.

Just like skimming a newspaper article for the juicy bits, this would allow players to tackle games, in their entirety, at their own whim.

Although the patent application is chock full of grade-A lawyerspeak, it summarizes the technology as "allowing a player to freely play and enjoy the game to the end... a [system] for preventing a player who desires to clear a game by him/herself from losing his/her interest in the game."

Even experienced players resort to looking up cheats, online guides, or gamer messageboards for help when they're stuck, but Nintendo's system could remove the need to even step away from the console -- and enable less committed console owners to enjoy epics like Nintendo's own Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess without becoming bored or discouraged.

Sounds like a winner to us.

By Mike Smith http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/nintendo-planning-friendlier-approach-to-game-difficulty/1278610

Labels: games, hot trends 2009, nintendo

What say we kick off 2009 on a positive, hopeful note?!

Thing is, right now, we're being so heavily bombarded by facts and figures pointing out how bleak this year is expected to be, that we're overlooking the GOOD things that are projected to happen in 2009.

Case in point?

According to eMarketer reports, this year, online sales in the US alone will jump from $136.8 BILLION to $142.4 BILLION (that's an INCREASE of nearly $6 BILLION in online spending).

Or how about this statistic: Nielsen Consumer Insight reports that in 2009, consumers will spend 17% MORE time on eCommerce websites every DAY!

That's a whole lot MORE people shopping online, and spending a whole lot MORE time doing it!

So there's no doubt in my mind that there will be plenty of opportunities for you to earn a good income online during 2009, no matter whether you've already got a website up, or you're just getting started ...... but you're going to need to be pretty savvy about how you spend your time, energy, and resources.

To help you not just survive 2009, but actually THRIVE, I've rolled up my sleeves and gone to work, researching the biggest emerging trends in online business for this year.

I'll show you FIVE of the trends that I think are MOST significant for your business... then show you what you need to do with your website to capitalize on all five of these trends.

You can watch the details here.

Emerging Trend #1:

Consumers Are Increasingly Turning To The Internet As A Way To Save Money

You know all those people I just told you about who are coming online to shop? Well, according to this survey, 80% of them say they're now shopping online to save money.

And further, 95% of these people report that they're motivated to buy by offers of free shipping, and 83% are motivated to buy by special prices.Clearly, 2009 will be the year of the deal!

So if you currently offer special discounts on your site, get them up front and center, so your visitors can find them instantly. Do NOT wait for them to dig around your site and possibly stumble across them.

And if you offer free shipping, don't hide that fact away on your order form. Shout it from the rooftops! It could well be the detail that pushes your visitors into making that crucial buying decision.

BUT ...Before you put all of your eggs in the "special deal" basket, there's one other related trend you should know about ...

This same survey reports that 88% of people are shopping online in order to save time, and 83% say that they do it because it's less hassle than hitting the malls.

So not only are your visitors coming to your site trying to save money, they're also looking for ease and convenience.

So make sure you're giving it to them, by offering the best customer shopping experience possible.As we'll all soon discover, it's the websites that offer a combination of pricing and IMPECCABLE customer service that will continue to thrive this year.

Emerging Trend #2:

Consumers Are Making More And More REPEAT Purchases Based On Automated Recommendations.

This recent 2008 Razorfish Consumer Experience report shows that a whopping 65% of online buyers made additional purchases from a website based on automated recommendations the site gave them.

That's 6 out of 10 of your customers buying MORE, based purely on your suggestions for other products they might like.Sounds like the perfect job for email marketing, right?!

I strongly believe that the people who thrive in 2009 will be those who spend a LOT of time using email marketing to nurture the relationships they have with their customers and subscribers.

But to be really effective in building these relationships -- and in recommending the products people will be MOST interested in -- you're going to need to be smart about your list.

Gone are the days when having a BIG list was your main goal! It's time to think "quality" rather than "quantity."

If you build a huge list filled with people who couldn't care less what you're offering them, then all your email efforts will be wasted.

It's far better to have a smaller list of highly qualified subscribers.

The other thing to pay attention to as you focus on your email efforts in 2009 is the kinds of emails you're sending out.

I'm finding that shorter, more concise promotional messages are far more effective than long, drawn-out emails that bombard the reader with information.

Finally, the savvy email marketer will spend a lot of time TESTING in 2009.

Currently only about 40% of marketers do any testing at all, which is practically criminal, because those who do test are twice as likely to get email marketing conversion rates of 3% or MORE!

So make sure you test different kinds of offers, different subject lines, different times of day and week for mailing, etc., to make sure you're really capitalizing on your email.

Emerging Trend #3:

Shoppers Are Making More Purchases Based on Recommendations Received Through Social Media Sites.

Here's a surprising statistic: 49% of Web users now make a purchase based on a recommendation they received through a social media site (like Facebook, MySpace, and so on).

Okay, maybe that's not so surprising, but you know what is? Apparently only 25% of online retailers created a Facebook page this year!

Despite its clear success rate, marketers have generally been slow to make the leap to social networking.

So if you haven't tested the social media waters, NOW is the time to get started!

Social networking is the perfect way to develop your online presence, and continue to cultivate lasting relationships with your potential customers. It's also, as the statistics show, a great way to start generating extra income!

I recently wrote an article that explains the basics of getting started with social networking. You can read it here.

But before you run off and start building your social networking profiles and pages, you should know that other forms of social media sites will also be crucial tools for your business in 2009.

Take the social bookmarking sites, for instance (like Digg, Delicious, and StumbleUpon).

Currently, 52% of people are using these sites as they search for information online, and a full 81% of users read the links marked as "most popular" or "most emailed."

So what does this mean for you? Another key strategy for you in 2009 will be to create lots of content, and get it to appear on these sites.

You're going to want to write articles that are relevant and useful... and that your readers will want to pass along to their friends, family, and colleagues, and recommend on the social bookmarking sites.

In doing so, you'll continue to raise your online profile, establish yourself as an expert in your field, and build those all-important relationships with your potential customers.

Emerging Trend #4:

A Typical Internet User Is Spending 20% MORE Time Each Day Reading Blogs.

Nielsen Consumer Insight reported in December that people are now spending 20% more time EACH DAY reading blogs.

Do YOU have a blog yet? Do you add new posts to it on a regular basis?

If you haven't started a blog yet -- or if you haven't been giving yours the attention that it deserves -- TODAY is the day you should start!

As with social media, blogging is GREAT for establishing your reputation online, for building relationships with your market, for creating new content for your site, and can even help you get a TOP ranking in the search engines (which in turn can generate up to 7 TIMES more sales).

And you don't need to be a "natural-born writer" to create your own blog, nor do you need to be a technical wizard!

There are plenty of places where you can even get FREE blogs to get yourself started...... and as for the actual writing, a blog is all about showing YOUR personality, and sharing your opinions and ideas.

So don't sweat it if you're not a word nerd. Just write from the heart, and your readers will love it!

Emerging Trend #5:

Web Surfers Are Spending 46% MORE Time Watching Online Videos.

Finally, a trend that will continue to have a HUGE impact on Internet marketers everywhere -- and really change the way we sell online -- is the growing popularity of online video.

Check this out: 94% of Internet users now watch online video with some level of frequency, and people now spend a whopping 46% MORE time each DAY watching videos, compared to last year!

So if you haven't dipped your toe into the online video world, you'd better get cracking!

Video, like blogging, has multiple benefits for your business:You can use video in your salescopy in order to more effectively sell your product... you can use it for SEO purposes and traffic generation (Google LOVES video!)... to create informative or educational videos for your niche... and to spread the word about your business.

And you don't need to have a lot of complicated equipment or technical expertise to produce your own quality videos.

If you'd like to learn how to create your own simple videos, and get them up on sites like YouTube, check out this brief "how-to" article I wrote a while ago. It explains all of the basics for you, and gives you a few other resources to give you extra help.

There's no denying that 2009 is going to present some challenges for ALL of us, but you don't have to hide your head in the sand and wait for the recession to blow over!

You can still make serious money online despite the economic downturn, just as long as you focus your efforts on a few key areas, like those I've described.

To give you even MORE help, I've identified a number of other important online trends for 2009, and made some predictions about how to take advantage of them, and put it all into a free two-hour video presentation for you to watch.

And when you watch the video, you'll also discover why 2009 is actually a GOOD time to START a new Internet business, and I'll explain -- in detail -- how you can do it in just FIVE DAYS!

You can watch the details here.

To your success,

Derek Gehl

Labels: hot trends, hot trends 2009, internet marketing, online marketing

Congratulations, Fergie and Josh!

Fergie and Josh Duhamel were married in a Catholic ceremony in front of 200 to 300 people, a wedding guest revealed to Radar.

"They were married as a 14-piece classical orchestra played in the background," the source said. "It was beautiful."

Radar is the first to report that at approximately 5PM Pacific Time (8PM ET), the happy couple said their "I do's" and sealed the deal with a passionate kiss!

The romantic sunset ceremony, which lasted approximately 30 minutes, was celebrated by the cheering guests.

UPDATE 9:00ET: While Fergie and Josh have disco playing inside the ceremony, they're providing a little something for guests standing outside the gates to listen to - the ear-piercing sound of chirping crickets!

The couple's security team has set up four very large speakers outside the party and is playing VERY loud - and annoying - cricket sounds to discourage looky-loos standing on the street.

Stay tuned to Radar throughout the evening for exclusive information on this star-studded event.

http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2009/01/fergie-and-josh-theyre-married.php

Labels: black eyed peas, fergie, hot trends 2009, stacy ann ferguson

NEW YORK - A 140-year-old lobster once destined for a dinner plate received the gift of life Friday from a Park Avenue seafood restaurant.

George, the 20-pound supercentenarian crustacean, was freed by City Crab and Seafood in New York City.

"We applaud the folks at City Crab and Seafood for their compassionate decision to allow this noble old-timer to live out his days in freedom and peace," said Ingrid E. Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

PETA spokesman Michael McGraw said the group asked City Crab to return George to the Atlantic Ocean after a diner saw him at the restaurant, where steamed Maine lobster sells for $27 per pound.

George had been caught off Newfoundland, Canada and lived in the tank for about 10 days before his release.

Some scientists estimate lobsters can live to be more than 100 years old. PETA and the restaurant guessed George's age at about 140, using a rule of thumb based on the creature's weight.

He was to be released Saturday near Kennebunkport, Maine, in an area where lobster trapping is forbidden.

By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press Writer

Labels: 140 year old lobster, george the lobster, hot trends 2009, lobster

LONDON – The world's favorite "silly old bear" is back.

Publishers in Britain and the United States said Friday they will publish a new book of Winnie-the-Pooh adventures on Oct. 5.

"Return to the Hundred Acre Wood" is the first authorized sequel to A. A. Milne's Pooh stories, which were first published in the 1920s.

It will be published in Britain by Egmont Publishing and in the U.S. by Penguin imprint Dutton Children's Books, they said in statements.

The new book is written by novelist and playwright David Benedictus, who has adapted several Pooh stories for audio CD, and illustrated by British artist Mark Burgess.

The beloved "bear of very little brain" first appeared in 1926 in Milne's "Winnie-the-Pooh," which featured E.H. Shepard's now-iconic line drawings.

The book and its 1928 sequel, "The House at Pooh Corner," recount the gentle adventures of Christopher Robin - the sole human character, named after Milne's own son - and his animal friends in the Hundred Acre Wood.

"The House at Pooh Corner" ends with Christopher Robin heading off to boarding school, separated from Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore and the rest of his woodland companions.

The publishers would not disclose details of the sequel's plot, but Benedictus said he hoped his book would "both complement and maintain Milne's idea that whatever happens, a little boy and his bear will always be playing."

Michael Brown, who speaks for the books' guardian the Trustees of the Pooh Properties, said the Milne and Shepard estates had long wanted to authorize a sequel. He said Benedictus and Burgess had "captured the spirit and quality of those original books."

"We hope the many millions of Pooh enthusiasts and readers around the world will embrace and cherish these new stories as if they had just emerged from the pen of A. A. Milne himself," Brown said.

For an unassuming stuffed bear, Pooh has proved a highly lucrative character, with a tangled legal history. Milne's books have been translated into more than 50 languages, including Latin.

In 1930 Milne sold North American merchandising rights to Stephen Slesinger, who in turn granted his rights to Stephen Slesinger Inc.

The company sublicensed certain rights to Walt Disney Productions, which created its own animated version of the character and has generated billions of dollars in revenue from the sale of Pooh products.

Slesinger, Disney and Milne's granddaughter have fought long-running legal battles in the U.S. over the rights.

By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer

Labels: hot trends 2009, Return to the Hundred Acre Wood, The House at Pooh Corner, winnie-the-pooh

WASHINGTON - For Barack Obama, winning a giant economic revival bill in Congress should be the easy part.

Taming the nation's rising deficits and debt and bringing entitlement programs to heel? Good luck.

For now Obama is using his considerable political muscle and public goodwill to leverage a massive stimulus bill - big spending, big tax cuts - to inject adrenaline into an economy in crisis.

But he best save a significant part of that political capital if he wants to overhaul so-far politically inviolable programs such as Social Security and Medicare and avert a looming crisis that few Americans now feel or comprehend.

Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid make up 42 percent of the federal budget, providing a vital baseline of income and health security to millions of Americans.

They are the symbols of government's social compact with its citizens. But a retiring baby boom generation and steady increases in health care costs are placing the programs on a potentially unsustainable course.

If Obama wants to curtail government spending by tampering with entitlements, he will be venturing into one of Washington's most vexing political problems. Depending on what he attempts to do and when he does it, it would test his political skills and potentially risk the political well-being of lawmakers from his own party.

President Bush, fresh off his 2004 re-election, tried to contain Social Security's rising costs by proposing personal savings accounts. The idea backfired when even members of his own party declined to fall behind it.

Indeed, the choices for reining entitlement costs are limited and politically unpalatable - any solution would ultimately require higher taxes, reduced benefits or both.

Obama has sought to reassure the public and Congress that he is wary of the government's long-term fiscal outlook - one driven home with stark reality this week when the Congressional Budget Office projected a whopping, record-stomping $1.2 trillion deficit for the 2009 budget year.

In pitching his stimulus plan, Obama has vowed to be a good fiscal steward who will confront the nation's deficit when the economy rebounds. On Wednesday, he vaguely indicated that Social Security and Medicare would be a "central part" of his deficit reduction plans.

But that was in response to a reporter's question. His speech Thursday, where he acknowledged that the stimulus package would increase the deficit, did not mention entitlement programs.

Unlike the stimulus, which is addressing a crisis that is apparent daily to most Americans, the need to overhaul entitlement programs is designed precisely to avoid a crisis.

Politicians have been unable to create the sense of urgency over Social Security or Medicare that now exists in the midst of foreclosures, frozen credit, massive layoffs and depleted savings.

"President Obama is walking into a fiscal disaster of stunning proportion, coupled with an economic downturn of unknown duration and depth, but one that I think we can already forecast will be longer than any other downturn since the Great Depression and not exceeded in severity since the Great Depression," Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., warned Thursday.

"The combination of the retiring baby boom generation, rising health care costs and inadequate revenues will explode deficits to clearly unsustainable levels."

One Obama economic official said the president-elect will confront rising entitlement costs first by attempting to control health care spending - the premier factor driving increases in Medicare and Medicaid.

Health care was a significant campaign issue, especially during the Democratic Party primaries. Obama has proposed a $50 billion to $65 billion health care plan that would be paid by rolling back tax cuts for taxpayers who make more than $250,000 a year.

He has put former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle in charge, giving him dual responsibility as secretary of health and human services and director of a new White House office on health reform.

But if that's a side path to correcting the rising costs of entitlements, it is no less politically challenging. As first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton in 1993-94 famously met with a revolt from insurers and business groups against the Clinton health plan. The Congress, controlled then as now by Democrats, turned the Clintons down.

For now, Obama's main attempt to present himself as the harbinger of fiscal restraint is to demand that his stimulus package be subject to strict oversight, to reject congressional pet projects and assign a performance officer to ride herd on federal agencies.

"It's a good thing to talk about no earmarks and that we're going to make sure that this money is spent wisely," said Robert Bixby of the nonpartisan Concord Coalition, a budget watchdog group. "But it encourages this short term thinking."

"The Baby Boomers are about to retire, we've got Social Security and Medicare. Those are really, really big challenges out there and we just can't afford to lose track of that, even as we do a lot of deficit spending in the short term."

By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer

Labels: financial crisis, fiscal stimulus, hot trends 2009, obama

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's hotline for people considering killing themselves is stretched to its limit, with the economic crisis feared to be worsening the country's suicide problem, its director said Wednesday.

More than 30,000 people kill themselves every year in Japan, giving the country one of the world's highest suicide rates.

A national suicide hotline run by the Inochi no Denwa -- Telephone Lifeline -- association is struggling to meet demand, with 7,000 volunteers handling some 700,000 calls a year.

"We don't have enough volunteers," Yukio Saito, the head of the federation, told AFP.

I'm afraid that there will be a rise in suicides with the economic recession," he said.

Japan's suicide rate shot up in the late 1990s soon after the collapse of the bubble economy. Asia's largest economy has again fallen into recession as the global crisis saps demand for its exports.

Saito said the group would like to receive more government help.

The central government gave the association 80 million yen (850,000 dollars) last year, a fall of 20 percent from several years ago, with some centres also getting local subsidies, he said.

Some 24 out of every 100,000 Japanese people killed themselves in 2006, higher than the global average of 16, according to the World Health Organisation.

The high rate in Japan is often attributed to the absence of religious taboos about suicide, society's strong pressure to conform and the lack of psychological care for depressed people.

Labels: hot trends 2009, inochi no denwa, japan, suicide

Well, that didn't take long.

According to game-tracking website VGChartz, sales of Nintendo's pop-culture phenom Wii Sports have surpassed those of legendary platformer Super Mario Bros., making the breakout Wii title the best-selling video game of all time. And it only took two years and two months to do it.

The data is based on cumulative worldwide sales figures ending the week of December 27, 2008, which indicate that lifetime sales of Wii Sports have exceeded Mario's staggering 40.24 million units.

Shocked? Don't be. Unlike most video games that can be bought at retail, Wii Sports comes bundled with the Wii hardware in every territory other than Japan and Korea.

In other words, if you bought a Wii, you bought Wii Sports whether you liked it or not (chances are, you liked it). With over 45 million Wiis sold worldwide to date, it's only logical that Wii Sports would start smashing records sooner or later.

And before you brand Wii Sports a false champion due to being bundled with hardware, consider that Super Mario Bros. was also sold as a bundle with the original Nintendo Entertainment System during its mid-80's heyday.

Plus, Wii Sports has been a major hit even in non-bundled form, topping Wii sales charts in Japan at over 3.2 million copies sold in 2008 alone.

A new version of the game, Wii Sports: Resort, is due out later this year.
Ben Silverman, http://videogames.yahoo.com/masthead

Labels: hot trends 2009, video game, wii sports

The five-month slide in gasoline prices has come to an abrupt halt, with gasoline rising by several cents in recent days amid indicators that the national average could jump to $2 a gallon or higher this spring.

A broad shift in the psychology of the oil market seems to be under way. Oil prices are up more than 40 percent since they bottomed out just below $33 a barrel on Dec. 19.

The reversal, after months of declines, suggests that production cuts by the OPEC cartel may be having an effect, along with growing tensions in the Middle East and the sentiment by traders that the precipitous drop in prices went too far.

For six days in a row, drivers have been paying a few more cents a gallon than they did before Christmas. The change has been almost imperceptible for drivers who remember prices soaring above $4 a gallon last summer.

But if the price of gasoline continues rising, it may become another headache for consumers worried about their jobs and the dropping value of their homes and investments.

Oil prices are up about 25 percent in the last week alone, in part because of the escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Rising oil prices have helped push the wholesale price of gasoline up by 40 percent since Dec. 24, leading to predictions by energy experts that retail gasoline prices will spike by as much as 25 percent in coming weeks.

"A lot of people are talking about dollar-a-gallon gasoline, when the wholesale market seems to be pointing to $2 a gallon," said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service. As of Monday, regular gasoline was selling for $1.67 a gallon, on average, up from a recent low of $1.62 on Dec. 30.

The decline in gasoline prices has offered badly needed relief to consumers. A driver buying 50 gallons of gasoline a month has been saving $2 a day compared to a year ago, and $4 a day compared to the price peak in July. For the national economy as a whole, the savings came to around $1 billion a day, according to the Oil Price Information Service.

Among the big winners have been businesses like shipping companies with large transportation costs, commuters who drive long distances to work and consumers with moderate incomes who spend a relatively high percentage of their paychecks on fuel.

The summer's high prices prompted Americans to cut their driving, and the drastic downturn of the economy this fall led to the huge decline in oil prices.

But with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries cutting production, and with refineries trimming their output of gasoline, supply and demand may be coming back into balance.

Refineries have cut the number of barrels of crude oil they processed weekly to 14.5 million during December, from 15.4 million, according to the Energy Department. The tighter supplies are putting pressure on retail prices.

Analysts say the decline in gasoline use may have bottomed out, barring a further big downturn in the economy. MasterCard's SpendingPulse data service, which measures both cash and credit card sales of gasoline, had shown volume declines as sharp as 9 percent during some weeks in the fall.

But that number has narrowed considerably as prices have fallen, and one recent week even showed a slight increase in gasoline sales compared to the same week the year before.

"There will be a real spike in gasoline prices coming in the next four to six weeks," predicted Chris Ruppel, an energy analyst at Execution, a brokerage and research firm.

"We are witnessing a sea change in energy market sentiment as Americans appear to be returning to some of their old driving habits just as geopolitical risk is once again a factor in crude prices."

Oil prices jumped more than 5 percent on Monday alone to close at $48.81 in New York trading, as fighting continued in the Gaza Strip and Iran's OPEC representative said the cartel would hold a special meeting in February. The cartel decided last month to cut output by 2.2 million barrels, on top of earlier cutbacks.

The AAA auto club reported that the average price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline on Monday was $1.67, up nearly a penny and a half from the day before. That still compares favorably to the national average of $3.10 a gallon a year ago and the record high national average price of $4.11 last July 17.

In contrast to gasoline, diesel prices have not yet bottomed out. A gallon cost $2.40 on Monday, down a fraction of a penny from the day before.

Mr. Kloza said he thought gasoline prices probably hit a bottom last month. He said gasoline prices in California, which frequently leads the rest of the nation in gasoline price swings, bottomed the first week of December and had been rising since.

While gasoline prices felt like a great weight to many consumers on the way up, they have not been an economic cure-all on the way down.

"In comparison with between roughly a 40 percent drop in the stock market and a 20 percent drop in home values, the drop in gasoline prices is just a drop in the bucket," said Adam J. Robinson, director of commodities at Armored Wolf L.L.C., a hedge fund.

Mr. Robinson said he was unconvinced that oil and gasoline prices would go back up for long. "I think it is too soon to call a bottom in oil or gasoline because demand is falling faster than OPEC is cutting," he said.

by Clifford Kraussny www.nytimes.com

Labels: gas, gasoline, hot trends 2009, oil price, opec

While the rumor mill is focused on Apple developing a larger-screen iPod touch, the blogosphere is churning with angry reports about frozen 30GB Microsoft Zunes.

Discussions board like ZuneUser.com, ZuneScene.com and Zune.net offer first-hand accounts of the problems with Microsoft's music player. It seems the Zunes reboot, then freeze once the status bar reaches 100 percent.

Some are calling it the "Z2K" problem, playing off the infamous Y2K bug that many thought would throw the computing industry in chaos at the beginning of the century when dates changed from 1999 to 2000.

That's because the problem seems to have started at exactly midnight PST Wednesday -- the first moments of the last day of 2008.

A Fix That Fails

Microsoft wasn't immediately available for comment on what observers are calling the Zune 30 Midnight Meltdown. But the forums are ablaze with complaints and demands for updates from Microsoft.

"I had my Zune docked on its iHome ZN9, charging, and all the sudden I hear it start whirring as I'm sitting here at the laptop. I looked up just in time to see it restarting itself at exactly 12:00 midnight, watched the loading bar, and then the freeze. Great. WHAT is going on!?" VS Venom Shot wrote on the Zune.net forum.

Meanwhile, a Zune.net user named Dmodegirl claims to have solved the problem. She said the Zune needs a "hard reset" and suggested using a small screwdriver to pop off the plastic shielding where the Zune cable plugs in and remove the two screws on either side of the plug.

"Pop the cover off and locate the battery plug at the top left corner of the Zune. Using your screwdriver, pop the cable connection halfway off, and do this to the other plug on the right side," she wrote.

"Wait three seconds, then push down the right connector and then the left battery connector. Your Zune should start up immediately. Press the backing of the Zune down (make sure headphone jack is aligned) and put the screws and cover back in place."

Some users reported success with this method, but when they plugged their Zune back in to charge, it froze again. Others were concerned with trying the hard reset for fear of turning the Zune into a fancy paperweight. Still others are hinting that Microsoft should compensate Zune users with a free Zune Pass.

A Black Eye for Zune

"This problem is something that never should have made it out of testing. I've been with the Zune Pass since day one and I'm seriously looking into other devices and services due to this. We at least need some kind of acknowledgment or statement from MS that clarifies the issue and puts in place a plan of action," a user named Furious Mittens wrote on the Zune.net forum.

Those comments aren't something Microsoft wants to hear. Indeed, frozen Zunes after the holiday shopping season is not welcome news, according to Phil Leigh, a senior analyst at Inside Digital Media.

"Microsoft has got to close the ground on the iPod, and the only way to do that is with a superior product," Leigh said. "It takes time to recover from something like this. First impressions are important for new buyers, and this is a bad first impression."

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nf/20081231/tc_nf/63809

Labels: hot trends 2009, microsoft, music player, zune