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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (110372)	1/3/2008 9:33:53 AM
From: Pogeu Mahone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Message 24178391

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (110372)	1/3/2008 1:36:34 PM
From: Dave Feldman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Happy new year, Mike. Are you still, by any chance, a holder of New Germany. If so, you probably know about this weird buyback/settlement they have agreed to: 64.233.169.104 Superficially, it sounds cool to get bought out for a less-than-current discount, but the form of it -- a basket of German stocks. Wouldn't unloading these be a nightmare?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (110372)	1/4/2008 9:05:12 AM
From: re3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

happy new yr ! but not so happy for Japanese equities...any thoughts ? Japan stocks fall to 1 1/2 year low Fri Jan 4, 6:01 AM ET TOKYO - Japanese stock prices plunged Friday to their lowest finish since July 2006, losing ground after jittery trading on Wall Street amid concerns about the U.S. economy and rising oil prices. Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock index lost 616.37 points, or 4.03 percent, to finish Friday's half-day session at 14,691.41 points on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The close was the index's lowest since it posted 14,500.26 points on July 19, 2006. The TSE had been closed since last Friday for the New Year's holidays. The exchange resumes full-day trading next Monday. Wall Street closed narrowly mixed Thursday after share prices dropped sharply the previous day on weaker-than-expected data for the U.S. manufacturing sector. Record oil prices that have topped $100 also pressured stocks on worries that higher fuel costs could slow investment, spending and growth. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 12.76, or 0.10 percent, to 13,056.72 Thursday, and crude oil futures set a fresh trading record of $100.09 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Worries about the economy in the United States — a key export market for Japanese manufacturers — as well as the dollar's weakness against the yen sent export-oriented shares down. Increasing oil and raw material prices also took their toll on exporters while giving commodity stocks a boost. "High flying blue-chip exporters are going to have a tough time coping with rising commodity prices, a stronger yen and a slowing U.S. economy," said Masanaga Kono, strategist at Societe Generale Asset Management. Shares of Nissan Motor Co. plunged 9.2 percent, Toyota Motor Corp. finished 4.3 percent lower, Sony Corp. fell 6.6 percent, and Canon Inc. dropped 5 percent. Tokyo's broader Topix index, which includes all shares on the exchange's first section, lost 63.77 points, or 4.32 percent, to 1,411.91. Other Asian exchanges —

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (110372)	1/6/2008 3:19:47 AM
From: Skeeter Bug	Respond to of 132070

Knighty, i thought you might be interested in this: zonediet.com minnesota won the big 10 volleyball championship for the first time ever... you guessed... the same season they started using the zone diet. the nice thing for minnesota's volleyball team is that they all return next year - not bad for a bunch of juniors. the key differentiator of the zone diet is its focus on using food as a drug to manipulate one's hormones. the idea that all that matters is calories in and calories out is too simple - especially over a lifetime. eg, two twins who have the exact same diet and exact same exercise program will end up with a different body composition if one takes anabolic steroids. iow, just as dr. sears says, one's hormones play a critical role in how one's body processes the incoming calories. take the same twins in the same situation and give one insulin shots. again, the elevated insulin will cause one twin to gain and retain more excess fat than the the non injected twin because insulin is a storage hormone that stores blood glucose primarily as fat. the zone is all about using diet to reduce insulin levels, balance it with glucagon (mobilizes fat into blood glucose) and, ultimately, balance one's eicosanoids in order to allow one to attain peak levels of wellness. i'm not sure what you consider a "good diet." while i often tout manuel uribe's 450 lb weight loss, the zone isn't primarily a weight loss diet. when dr sears and marv marinovich (i'm sure you recognize the name) were testing zone diet performance levels of elite athletes (college football and professional basketball players), the athletes actually gained 11 lbs during 6 weeks of marv's camp. iirc, they gained an average of 16 lbs of muscle and lost 5 lbs of fat for a net gain of ll lbs. even thought they were heavier, their vertical leap went up an average of 10% and they were faster. dara torres reportedly gained 20 lbs of lean muscle mass when she started the zone (6 month to 12 month time frame). another zone success story is jenny thompson - she broke a steroid induced german swimming record (stood for 6 years due to the steroid component) after using the zone to train for the olympics. of note, too, is that in 1996 the oldest swimmer was to make the american olympic team was a zoner who was 28 years old. NOBODY else that age had EVER made the us olympic swim team. as you know, dara torres raked in 5 medals as a 33 year old in 2000 and recently set an american record at 40. you also know she is a zoner, too. i think it was 1992 olympics, but stanford's (a single school in the united states) zoned swimmers won 8 gold medals, one less than the entire country of germany - a country that typically dominated swimming. the reason most folks lose weight is because that is typically they have unhealthy excess body fat to lose and its loss is a direct byproduct of becoming healthy. here's a testimonial with before and after pictures: zonediet.com the zone isn't a weight loss diet, it is a peak performance diet. no, can't make me an olympic athlete, but it can improve my relative performance. if one is an olympic athlete, it can improve their performance, too. if one s the heaviest person in the world, it can improve their performance, too - both metnal and physical. of course dr. sears' websites will highlight the postive testimonials but, even in the absence of any other data, they are absolutely mind boggling. fortunately, though, we have other testimonials that are much less biased. epinions.com will have less biased reviews: epinions.com the relatively few negative reviews tend to be "it is difficult to comprehend" (as are all new, non trivial concepts) and a couple complaining about the cost of the delivery service (unrelated complaints) and one complaining about ketosis. ketosis is an atkins issue, not a zone issue, so that person has no clue what they are talking about. the good reviews pretty much stand on their own. i love reviews like this (see rob toward the end of the comments)... diet-blog.com in a nutshell, rob says that dr. sears' science is "pure bs" as he explains how he went from 255 lbs to 200 lbs, 25% body fat to 8% body fat and from 3 pull ups to 62 pull ups in 8 months following the zone diet. if he actually comprehended dr. sears writings, he'd understand why his appetite had become satiated, why his testosterone levels increased, why his human growth hormone output increased, why he now had access to his stored body fat, why his oxygen transfer to his muscles had increased - all the things required to achieve his pretty astonishing results. instead he touts being in "unbelievable" shape with the "pure bs" zone diet as the foundation of his success. he also touts blowing past his trainer in this 8 month period of time. the one major difference? rob was on the "pure bs" zone diet and his trainer was not. you just have to love that kind of testimonial. here's some reviews at amazon. again, these will be much less biased than dr. sears' own sites. amazon.com