Prank Call Hall of Fame: Meet Me Somewhere!!!!

I was a bit hesitant to post this cause there is strong language throughout but this shit is just too funny. Question, what happens when a caller gets prank called by his own voice. Whats eve more hilarious is that the caller identifies his own voice over the phone initially but continues to go hard with the heat. Lol, hit play and enjoy.

Keri Hilson's "The Way You Love Me" Is the new "Spectacular"

Doesn't this broad read my blog!!! When is she gonna GTFO. So Keri Hilson is coming after Ciara's lacefront in her latest offering that whiffs of desperation. Dropping F-bombs and P-bombs, rocking a swimsuit, and doing the matrix, Ms. Hilson looks at acts like the label executives pulled her to the side and said "you'd better ho it up for album sales" hence the gyrating on the bank vault door. She's so clueless though that the song is an afterthought and is barely coherent amongst the clanking and Hilson's paper thin vocals. This is almost as bad as Ms. Kiely Williams "Spectacular" video except we can't blame Ms. Williams for being sorta naive. FYI, this song is excruciatingly bad...but so is most music nowadays [maybe that is why Jojo, Dawn from Danity Kane (yeah, she will always be Dawn from Danity Kane), and Faith Evans appear in the clip]

The Pink Friday Debate: When Female MC's go Wrong - Nicki Minaj Edition

Rap is her game, but chatter is Nicki Minaj’s medium. It surrounds her (has there ever been a more talked-about female rapper?) and fuels her creativity (Nicki Minaj, Nicki Lewinsky, Roman Zolanski, and Onika Maraj are just a few of the voices in her head that she organizes into verse). In the week that her long-awaited debut, Pink Friday, finally sees release, adding to the din seems only appropriate. Below, Nicki fan Zach Baron and Nicki non-fan Rich Juzwiak hash (...tag) it out.

Zach: Will it ruin the suspense/debate if I admit right at the top here that Nicki Minaj made a bad record? Because, jeez, Pink Friday really is sort of difficult to listen to—the sound of one of rap’s world-class personalities having all her clever foibles and idiosyncrasies blasted away and replaced with . . . platitudes about the power of women? Worse, actually: badly sung platitudes about the power of women. But the question I want to ask you is this: In the grand scheme of rap in 2010, does the failure of this album even matter? Ultimately, at the end of the year, I’m rating Nicki like I rate one of her biggest fans, Kanye West: as a fascinating, exceedingly bonkers, total personality. The record to me is almost beside the point.


Rich: This, indeed, is pink garbage. I wouldn’t even give it as much credit as you—I don’t hear platitudes about the power of women so much as self-aggrandizement masquerading as empowerment via a few bones thrown to Nicki’s imaginary sisters. I mean, this woman doesn’t even quote Helen Reddy properly! Where’s the “U.N.I.T.Y.”? Regarding your question, I’ll answer with another question: Why are so many people so bent on defending Nicki Minaj at each underwhelming turn? She flubs a freestyle when put on the spot, and it’s, “Girls don’t freestyle!” She botches performances left and right with blatantly relied-on backing tracks, embarrassing dancing, and missed notes, and it’s, “Well, she’s just not a seasoned performer yet.” She releases weak pop single after weak pop single and it’s, “Well, she’s just trying to get her name out there.” She cuts an embarrassingly cheap-sounding, lazily hooked album and it’s, “Well, it doesn’t matter.” So why, Zach, why? Why can’t people face the fact that they were probably wrong about this girl? She’s given ample evidence. By the way, I’m not sure that her exceeding weirdness is anything beyond scowl-deep. Pink Friday is proof.

Zach: Well, yeah, let’s talk weirdness for a second: Nicki at her best really is weird! Her verse on “Monster,” which I will concede is not on Pink Friday, is maybe the most dazzlingly zany minute and a half of music I’ve heard in 2010. That song presents a fake Jamaican, '50s-era B-movie villain, big-blinking ingénue, gum-and-neck-snapping Valley Girl, and, of course, fire-breathing, dizzyingly technical rapper, all within a handful of bars. Her performance there—which also manages to humble, among others, a guy named Jay-Z—consists of way more than just a mere scowl. As for Pink Friday, I wonder mostly where that person went. Surely even you can enjoy the way she flat-foots Eminem on the track they share here, “Roman’s Revenge”—not just because he deserves to be shown up by someone like Nicki, but because she does it so deftly that she still has time to have a intra-persona, English-accented debate with herself on the track’s hallucinatory outro. If only Roman Zolanski, Nicki the Harajuku Barbie, and all her other demonstrably distinct incarnations were present pretty much anywhere else on this record!

Rich: I think there’s a difference between inherent weirdness and showmanship, and Nicki falls clearly on the side of the latter. What has she said that’s bested her scowls? How weird are her words, actually? And since you bring it up, “Roman’s Revenge,” while boasting the best Pink Friday production (Swizz’s snares are hypnotic, and the keys bringing the mood are a fucking trip), is extremely problematic—Nicki’s gay male character goes toe-to-toe with a homophobe (and not just a passive, anti-gay-epithet­-using one, but someone who’s actually said on record, “Hate fags? The answer’s yes”) and doesn’t even broach the subject? What kind of a gay dude is she? None that I’d fuck. That’s to say nothing to her playing host to Eminem’s “faggot” on this very record, as well as his piss-on-women misogyny. They say Nicki supports her gay fans and is pro-woman, and I say, “Surely, it gets better.”

Truth be told, I’ve never been very taken by this person. Nicki Minaj has regularly put on elaborate shows of not saying very much, but Pink Friday actually makes me appreciate her guest work a lot more—I see that even when she’s been random without much reason, when she’s selling nonsense not out of cleverness but out of no other choice, at least part of the reason is because she’s trying to pack in as much entertainment as possible, by hook or by British accent or by free association. One thing I never expected from Nicki Minaj is boring. And Pink Friday is full of boring. Like, if you’re going to do r&b, you best bring the hooks and make sure they’re catchy. She doesn’t. Is repeating two or three words ad nauseum entitlement or laziness? Or does she actually think this is how pop music works? Is the chorus of “Right Thru Me” that sounds like vaguely melodic snoring supposed to be impressive? The mind reels.

Zach: Now now, let’s give her some credit for her pneumatic asexuality—she is not a very convincing gay dude, sure, but she ain’t exactly heteronormative, either, Barbie doll on the cover notwithstanding. (You get the sense that Drake is going to have to wait an awful long while to get that marriage proposal accepted.) She’s clearly gotten some bad advice here, though: Rather than do what’s gotten her to this point—rapping on tracks with her betters, then besting them; rattling off the names of reindeer on Usher singles—she’s singing bad hooks on bad drum ’n’ bass records. (By my count, she handles a full half the sung choruses on this album—an awful ratio clearly inspired by her frequently crooning Young Money compatriots Drake and Lil Wayne, though even Wayne is a more versatile hookman than she is.)

Not for nothing, I think, does Minaj sound most comfortable on the rap songs here—“Roman’s Revenge,” “Did It on ’Em,” and especially “Blazin’,” featuring Kanye West, a man who not coincidentally recently told Funkmaster Flex that he forbid Minaj the use metaphors while working with him. “This album, we not even doing similes,” West bragged, and she seems to have heeded this advice: “Your game over, bitch—Gatorade, wet towel.” Do you agree with West that hashtag rap is the future of hip-hop, Rich Juzwiak?
Howard Huang

Rich: I don’t know, I’ve heard her be plenty sexual (“Get more head than a ponytail,” “Maybe it’s time to put this pussy on your sideburns,” “How ’bout I come all on your dick and I lick it off”)—more so than, say Queen Latifah, Yo Yo, Monie Love, Lyte, and Missy were by this point in their careers. I’m not giving Minaj a cookie because she’s not as sexual as she could be. For one thing, I like sluts. And while this may make her unique, I still don’t think it’s weird per se—there have been a relatively small amount of girls playing pianos in pop music, but there is only one Kate Bush (no matter how hard others try to be her). You know, Rah Digga released an album this year devoid of sung choruses, which may be the first of its kind from a female rapper. That is weird. Why aren’t we rhapsodizing her? Because her weirdness is acting like actual weirdness—it’s repellant, not a marketing scheme.

I agree that the non-soft (would be inaccurate to call them “hard”) Nicki songs are so much better than anything else here. And “comfortable” is a great way to describe her on them, if only because it speaks to the warble on her voice in the several soft tracks. It may be intentional, but it’s so appropriate that Auto-Tune finds her shaky. She sounds like she’s uncertain she can pull this off, as well she should be. She’s not very good at faking it till she makes it (worst of all is ”Save Me,” on which she’s not supposed to sound Auto-Tuned, but does anyway).

If the album followed through with the setup of its first three songs (all of varying roughness, all investing in MCing, all boasting production that doesn’t sound too-dimestore-even-for-M.I.A.), it could have been a nice surprise. I even like “Here I Am,” Nicki-sung chorus and all. It reminds me of mid-’90s New York hip-hop. I can’t help but be nostalgic regarding female rappers because they were a big part of my childhood. And that’s another reason why Pink Friday sounds wrong to me—it’s the r&b crossover as the first album of her career. It makes me long for the days when selling out was something you resisted, not something you jumped to do. This is like Act Like You Know coming before Lyte as a Rock, like Nature of a Sista before All Hail the Queen, and Black Pearl before Make Way for the Motherlode. So to answer your question: I can’t worry so much about the future of rap when history isn’t being served. I know that hashtag rap already sounds stale, like everyone’s just copying each other. Smells like a fad to me. Hashtag rap is the future of hip-hop in that it is the new Auto-Tune.

That brings up the point of how underwhelming this album is lyrically. I can’t really wrap my head around “Go against me now/I dare you—Bambi,” provided that I’m hearing it right. A Bambi reference really shouldn’t be that ambiguous. “I am not fly, I am levitation?” Like just floating there is more impressive? Rihanna bleats a reality-show cliché (“I came to win”); Nicki lies (“Shout out to my haters, sorry you couldn’t faze me”) and explains needlessly (“Exclamation just for emphasis”). It’s just really, really lame.

Zach: Ah, but quoting her “Bambi” line without noting the inflection (“Go against me now-OW...”) is to deprive Minaj of her main asset, which is her outlandish voice. Is there a better pure enunciator in rap? One who has more variable and interlocking speeds? The sound alone of some of these “Did It on ’Em” couplets—“More talent in my motherfucking left thumb/She ain’t a Nicki fan that bitch deaf dumb,” or the delightful bit of microsurgery that is “All these bitches is my sons and I’mma go and get some bibs for ’em/A couple formulas, little pretty lids on 'em”—belies the underwhelming lyricist slander.

But let’s play psychologist for a second: Is it possible that Nicki Minaj, contrary to all public indications, is having kind of a bad year? After the “I won!” bombast of the first three tracks here, the thing that strikes me about Pink Friday is that it’s a depressive’s record. I detect heavy melancholy even on the singles, “Right Thru Me” and “Your Love,” to say nothing of the weird wrist-cutting quintet that is “Fly” (“I wish today it would rain all day”), “Save Me” (“All these screams, all these voices in my head”), “Moment 4 Life” (“To live doesn’t mean you’re alive”), “Here I Am” (“Why is it you can only see the worst in me?”), and “Dear Nicki” (“Maybe you died because everyone asking where you at”). Maybe the problem is that she’s just fundamentally bummed out. Wayne was in jail when she made this record. Drake was on tour. She was getting big checks for guest verses and then having to go back to a deserted studio and try and figure out on her own what a debut rap record from an up-and-coming young female star was supposed to sound like, without the people who’d been helping her sort through fame and the game. Wild speculation, obviously, but can you deny that she sounds oddly downbeat, given the winning streak she’s otherwise been on?

Rich: But including her inflection doesn’t make that line make any more sense! I guess my point about Nicki, to map it out and sound completely trite in the process, is that style is chosen over substance at every turn. OK, she’s capable of wordsmithing, but playing with rhyme and meter is only part of her public-speaking job. I don’t expect pseudo-CNN commentary from today’s rappers, but even at his most scattered, Wayne has flashes of insight on how the world works (“Repetition is the father of insight”) and how hip-hop operates, too (“Fuck the Police” twisted into a song about fucking a female police officer). Contrast the genre mastery within the latter example with “Roman’s Revenge,” with “I’m startin’ to feel like a Dungeon Dragon,” which exists only so she can go on to reference “Scenario,” no more no less. Maybe she was wearing a green wig when she spit that. MAYBE. The best nonsense is based on reality. Wayne is no Lewis Carroll, but Nicki isn’t even Sifl & Olly. You can marvel at the precision with which Nicki spits her blah, blah, blahs, but at the end of the day, blah, blah, blah is just blah, blah, blah.

And that’s not to say she doesn’t have decent lines. I like “Tell ’em bitches get a stick/I’m done leading the blind,” but her bad ones stick out much farther. “You ain’t my son, you my motherfuckin’ stepson?” “If you could turn back time—Cher/You used to be here now you’re gone—Nair”? “And yes I call the shots, I am the umpire/I sprinkle holy water upon the vampire.” And that’s not even mentioning the extreme tedium of “Right Thru Me”: “And you say, ‘Nicki?’ And I say, ‘Who, me?’ And you say, ‘No, you.’ And I say, ‘Screw you.’“ Petty bickering is insufferable, it turns out! (In addition to not being Sifl or Olly, she’s no Edward Albee, either.) Without any investment in her success (not even for my own enjoyment), I’m embarrassed for her. She sounds truly labored, her rhymes too often forced. I wonder if this is a result of the sheer amount of material she’s released this year—it sounds like her sass is running on fumes.

Many of the depressive songs that you named are full of bravado, as well. A lot of the lyrics you mentioned are flashes of pathos (she can “Dear Old Nicki” herself all she wants, but she’s responsible for the choices that she’s made to allow her to cut that song in the first place). Does this make her complicated? Perhaps! I’ll concede that she’s a multidimensional character. But I’m not sure how much of that is calculated and how much is a result of chronic inconsistency (look at the conflicting statements she’s made on record and in public about getting along with other female rappers, and I hate to sound like Queen Crybaby, but her stance on her own sexuality, as well as other people’s, has flip-flopped all over the place like a flamboyant wrist). For better or worse, she’s turned this into an ADHD aesthetic on her guest verses. It’s much harder to give ’em whiplash when you’re rolling that out slowly in a long-form format.

Zach: And yet style is a form of substance. Form is its own kind of content. One thing we probably agree on here is that the most confounding thing about Pink Friday is that it lacks style, lacks weirdness, whatever your opinions of how deeply that weirdness goes. Without a foil, be it Trey Songz, Robin Thicke, Mariah Carey, Ludacris, or whoever, she’s forced to play her own straight woman—not a look. My guess is she’s about to be absolutely clobbered by Kanye West in the upcoming sales week. But since we’re talking about it, allow me to ask you to imagine your own best Nicki Minaj, untethered by Pink Friday’s humdrum realities and bleary lack of focus.

In my critical dreams, Nicki Minaj is standing onstage—any stage, really, but for fun, let’s put her on Letterman’s Late Show, site of triumphs recent and otherwise—blinking big, channeling the Queens girl she is by birth, the Valley Girl she is by ironic comment, the rap monster she is by ambition, the theater student she is by inclination, all these contradictory and self-contained identities trading one-liners and barbs, ambiguous sexual overtures and vehemently hilarious rejections of the same. And, all the while, there’s David Letterman standing off to the side, cackling in amazement, watching as would-be collaborator after would-be collaborator steps up to challenge her, only to sit back down, utterly humbled. It didn’t happen that way on Pink Friday, sure. But I’m not giving up hope yet.

Rich: I think you’re right on about the straight-woman thing. I’ve always examined Nicki Minaj in the context of female rap and winced at her solitude. That’s so much more apparent here, where she’s mostly alone. She’d be a lot easier for me to accept and maybe even frivolously enjoy if she weren’t the only relevant female rapper in the game. She’s a jester and we need a queen.


...And not the one of multiple media that she’s trying to be! I don’t have a best-Nicki scenario, but one thing she should learn from the Pink Friday debacle (which she’ll probably only see as such if it flops) is that long-form isn’t her thing (at least for now). Obviously, the general career model is to build buzz, start showing up in pop culture, and then move in to make your solo killing. But that’s so standard for someone who clearly prides herself on weirdness, whatever your opinions of how deep that weirdness goes. It’s OK to have your gift be that of guest verse. It’s OK to just do short-form. It’s OK to be the O. Henry of rap, especially since we’ve never had one of those before.

DVD Spotlight: Scott Pilgram Vs. The World

"Scott Pilgram Vs. the World" was honestly my favorite movie of the year and I believe custom made for Nerds like myself. Why this movie went slept on is beyond me, but its sure to receive a cult following on DVD (now available). Michael Cera, playing right into type, excels as the titular character in a movie that manages to be edgy, sweet, and innovative. Game changer indeed!!!!

For Stuffed Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuff

On Hiatus: But Will Be Returning Soon

The truth is i have writers block and haven't been in the greatest of mental spaces. But hold tight because you will see more original content on Sanspiracy when we gear back up, plus all the latest news, and world ridiculousness you can handle .

Its Just The Internet!!! People Always Talk Smack on the Internet

Yo..people are Caraaaazeee and I need things to laugh at so I bring you this little tidbit from the ohh so classy world of world star hip hop. So the setup is that homie is a hip hop artist that was none too pleased with his "audience's" critiques of his music and thought to take matters into his own hands. The real magic starts when he goes to get a baseball bat out the car and the "requiem for a dream" music kicks in...heightened drama. Really people, is is that serious....ITS JUST THE INTERNET!!!

PS: This video is like the gift that keeps on giving.....I posted it before finishing the whole thing and dude got me when he said "Im not even this type of dude...normally Im real spiritual...lol.....LOL....I totally feel you bro!!!" And the music video at the end....this is brilliant...lol

Woah Which Oneyall......Wants to Sing Like Trey Songz (Record Deal Not Included)

If you like R. Kelly Lite, then please forgive me, but here at Sanspiracy we believe in true talent and Trey just ain't it. If your sound is so easy to copy (as expressed in the above hilarious clip) then count your coins and invest wisely.

Why I Don't Want Daughters: Montana Fishburne Edition

All I have to say is that my heart breaks for Morpheus. But in situations like this, its ultimately results from some type of disparity between the father/daughter relationship. Why so many females have daddy issues is beyond me. But the sad reality is that sex seems to swallow some girls whole and their awakenings become dark and dank prisons that once the physical bars start to fade, the mental ones come into focus.

Montana Fishburne is only 19 years old, and i'm not sure if she sincerely believes this, but she looked to Kim Kardashian and Kendra (yep folks, the ramifications of our obsessions with fame and the "by any means necessary" route of achieving it is going to induce heavy and hard scars on society) as inspiration because their sex tapes took them to the fast track. Lets point out the obvious, of how stupid this all sounds coming from someone with the last name Fishburne. But what it really points out is a pandemic with girls that I feel no one is willing to address. Why do so many girls who know better find themselves either being pimp or who pimp themselves for a bit of attention or notoriety.

Putting the double standard to rest, I don't feel that girls should be any more or less sexually responsible than males. And a healthy sexual appetite is key through education. But there is something else going on with a number of females. It would be easy to point to abuse, to say that some type of physical or mental abuse is the catalyst for most young girls seeking some type of escape through their promiscuity. But I would like to think that all cases don't stem from the pandemic. And if that is the case, then the hard question to ask is why?? Why do so few people have enough self respect to see how damaging these actions can be in the long haul.

Are these girls brainwashed, do they just not know any better. I refuse to believe that. But for girls, its what they know all men want and once the mentality gets enacted, its just as easy for most girls to detach themselves from the actual act and see it as merely commerce. I forgot to mention that sad little girl lost Montana was also a prostitute. Cut off from daddy's money, she took to the street to make ends meet. But the difference here is that Montana comes from a world of influence that your average girl doesn't come from. So her decision has to be primal and her ambitions lost missiles that are miles and miles away from hitting its target.

Whats sad to me is how so many girls Identify themselves through sex. Its not just that the act can be transcending in some form. Its that their disillusioned ideas often compromise their integrity and safety resulting in actions that are physically and psychologically damaging. Its impossible for me to understand what moral code is missing in their psyche that allows for such free activity. What makes people give up their body with so much abandon, with so much trust, turning trick on film, a selfish act that will haunt all those that love her for eternity.

To be free is to know yourself. And know what you wont' tolerate and what you wont accept in your life, even if the world tells you its okay. I know we live in an era where its popular to see Rappers boo'ing up strippers. But the truth of the matter is that "You can't turn a ho into a housewife". Its just not possible. And no one has accomplished it. Ask Reggie Bush, for its Kim's past that got in the way of their future.

Not to say that people can't change or that their fates can't be altered by their determination. But people, WAKE THE FUCK UP. I'm so tired of the "little girl lost" phenomenon. Its like, life is too short for you to sit and twirl your hair and wine and cry about how your nail broke. Grow the fuck up and be a woman. Be a leader for yourself and for those who care about you that want you to achieve more. I'm not perfect, but I'll be damned if I don't stand up and be a man. For there are too many young men in my position who take the "little boy lost" stance and fail their homes and communities by skating through life on lies and half assed intentions.

But seriously, I can't have any daughters. Cause my greatest fear would be for them to get swallowed up in a world I feel like I can't protect them from. First of all, if I did have daughters, they would be able to kick any dudes ass cause they would be military trained and able to take care of themselves. I know not every girl falls into this category. But when you are constantly told that your worth is not the sum of your parts, but just your parts.....its easy to let the Koolaid give you a sugar high. God help us all.

9 More Brands that Will Dissapear in 2011

Reader’s Digest was once the most widely read magazine in the world. According to the company, it still may be when its overseas editions are taken into account. Last August, the company took its US operations into Chapter 11 to decrease debt. It emerged from bankruptcy in February with $525 million in exit financing. The company cut the number of issues it publishes a year from twelve to ten last year. It also cut its circulation guarantee for advertisers to 5.5 million copies from 8 million. It would have been unthinkable just a few years ago that a magazine as old and famous as Reader’s Digest would be shuttered. Iconic titles like House & Garden have been closed, Newsweek is for sale. BusinessWeek might have been closed if Bloomberg had not bought it for next to nothing. The parent of Reader’s Digest has a number of niche magazines, such as Every Day with Rachael Ray and Taste of Home. The company’s book and music businesses reportedly also do well. Reader’s Digest also has 50 editions of its flagship magazine published around the world. But, if the trends in the US publishing industry have show anything, it is that large, widely circulated magazines like Newsweek, US News, and TV Guide have no future in America in their current form. Reader’s Digest may live on outside the US and its parent company may survive. However, Reader’s Digest as it is known in the US will be gone.

Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group (NYSE: DTG), the car rental company, is for sale. Hertz (NYSE: HTZ) is a potential buyer as is Avis Budget (NYSE: CAR). Each of the larger car rental firms would use the Dollar Thrifty business to expand their market share. That does not mean that they would keep the brand. The current company is not much of a business. It made only $27 million last quarter on revenue of $348 million. It has more than $1.5 billion in “debt and other obligations.” The number of vehicles that Dollar Thrifty operates at any one time is only 95,000 compared to 420,000 for Hertz. The firm’s customer base and some of its locations may be valuable, but Dollar Thrifty can’t compete with Avis and Hertz. A decade ago, the car rental industry was able to support six independent brands. A significant drop in business and leisure travel and sharp competition among the companies has already caused the creation of Avis Budget. Dollar Thrifty will be the next casualty of the industry’s consolidation.

T-Mobile the US wireless provider, is owned by telecom giant Deutsche Telekom. It is the No.4 cellular company in an American market that only supports two really successful firms—AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless. Even the third largest company in the market—Sprint—has 50 million customers. T-Mobile had 34 million customers at the end of last year. T-Mobile only had a profit of $306 million in 2009. That was down from $483 million in 2008. T-Mobile not only faces three larger competitors, it also has to begin to offer 4G service to compete with Sprint’s new WiMax service and LTE-based products from AT&T and Verizon. T-Mobile may seek a partner to offer a 4G network, but there are no super-fast broadband networks likely to be finished before its three rivals offer the service. As it now stands, T-Mobile has no future in the US.

A merger with Sprint-Nextel has been mentioned several times. The combined company would have a customer base about the same size as AT&T or Verizon. And the transaction would probably make Deutsche Telekom a large owner of the combined operation. Another alternative would be a merger with Virgin Mobile. Virgin Mobil is smaller than T-Mobile, but the Virgin brand is very highly regarded and already extends across a large number of successful businesses. Virgin Group is involved in 200 businesses around the world. Another potential buyer of T-Mobile’s customer base is Telcel, which has 60 million subscribers in Mexico, is owned by billionaire Carlos Slim, who has already began to expand his business interests of the US. T-Mobile has little brand equity in the US. Maybe Deutsche Telekom will just change the firm’s name.

Moody’s Corp.(NYSE: MCO) may have the name with the largest negative brand equity in the US. Scandals about the company’s rating of mortgage-backed securities and allegations that the firm compromised it ratings process to get business have ruined the company’s image. Moody’s is more than 100 years old, but the reputation it built over those years is irretrievably lost. There is a chance Moody’s could be ruined by civil actions, four of which are pending, and by charges brought by the US government. Overseas authorities may bring a number of actions against the company as well. Moody’s activities are almost certainly to be more regulated, which will squeeze margins and hurt sales. Moody’s may end up selling its accounts to a new rating company, which would probably hire many of its employees. Pacific Investment Management Co. and other institutional investors have talked about taking on some if not all the roles that the current rating firms play. Research houses like Alliance Bernstein could also take on some of those rolls. Part of Moody’s operation may stay alive, but there is not much left to salvage in the brand.

BP p.l.c. The case against the BP p.l.c. ( NYSE: BP) brand is not so much that the company will enter bankruptcy. It is that BP may end up breaking into pieces for its own sake. This may be to put the liabilities for the Deepwater Horizon spill into a company that also holds escrow capital to cover the huge costs of clean-up and suits. BP may also want to separate its successful refining operations from its exploration business, or recreate an American- based company similar to BP America, which existed for two decades. A restructuring of BP would also allow the firm to take a badly crippled brand and give the oil operation a new name—much as it did when it changed its name from British Petroleum. The second time may be the charm.

RadioShack (NYSE: RSH) is one of the oldest retailers in the US. It was founded in 1921 and in the early 1960s was purchased by Tandy Corp. The Tandy name was used for some of Radio Shack’s retail stores. RadioShack is currently a takeover target. There have been rumors that the company may be taken private via a leveraged buyout or purchased by Best Buy, probably for its locations. Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) would certainly not keep the RadioShack brand because it is considered downscale and does not have the reputation for quality products and service that Best Buy enjoys. RadioShack has already began to rebrand itself as “The Shack,” an indication that it knows the older brand is a burden.

Zale Corporation (NYSE: ZLC) was founded in 1924 by the Zale brothers. It was one of the earliest retailers to offer the ability to buy items on credit. By 1980, Zale had revenue of over $1 billion. In 1992, Zale filed for bankruptcy and by the end of that decade, its revenue was $1.3 billion – about the same as it is today. Zale has been at death’s door for some time. Its market value is down to $78 million. The company is trying to turn itself around, but most experts are not convinced. The company recently made the Forbes list for firms with extreme financial risk. In the last quarter, the retailer lost $12 million on revenue of $360 million. Zale is also in a very crowded market that includes retailers as large as Wal-Mart. Golden Gate Capital recently put money into Zale to buy it time. New money may defer the point at which Zale goes under, but it won’t prevent it.

Merrill Lynch may have been acquired, but that will not keep it safe. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Banks and other large financial services firms have a habit of buying large retail brokerage houses and then changing their names. Shearson is gone. So is EF Hutton and Prudential. In most cases the parent company wants to put their own names on the door. That is very likely to happen to Merrill Lynch, which was at one point the largest full-service broker in the US. Merrill is now owned by Bank of America Corporation, and the buyout spawned a number of scandals that kept Merrill’s name in the paper for weeks and did a great deal to harm its name with customers. Bank of America will follow a time honored tradition and Merrill Lynch will become B of A Investment Management.

Kia Motors Corporation is one of the two car brands of Hyundai of South Korea. It has always been a marginal brand. Its stable mate, Hyundai USA, has a reputation for high quality cars like the Sonata and Genesis. Kia sells “low rent” cars and SUV nameplates like the Sorento and Rio. As GM and Ford have already discovered, it is expensive to maintain multiple brands and storied car names, including Pontiac, Saturn, and Mercury, are disappearing. Most Kia cars sell for $14,000 to $25,000. Hyundai has several cars in the same price range (LINK). Hyundai’s Sonata has quickly become one of the best-selling cars in America, and its Genesis flagship model competes with mid-sized BMWs and Mercedes. The parent company will take a page from several other global car companies and dump its weakest brand.

Say Goodybe to Blockbuster In 2011

Blockbuster was once the mecca of rentals. While indie metropolitan stores may have always reigned supreme in terms of stock and scope, Blockbuster was the "it" locale for the rest of the country. It wasn't so long ago when stores would be packed on a Friday evening as people rushed to grab the new releases, and shelves stocked sure-to-be-there bets -- films that weren't guaranteed because no one was going to the store, but because they'd have huge piles of discs.

Now Blockbuster is a movie ghost town. After the onslaught of Netflix and Redbox, the end has been near for a while. The company has managed to hold on, just barely, but financial types are now expecting the end to come in 2011.

Blockbuster is near the top of 24/7 Wall St's new list of brands expected to disappear by the end of 2011. The company is currently considering Chapter 11, and it lost another $65 million last quarter. 6,000 stores are still left, but 24/7 believes that the only life left in the company is the kiosk/delivery rental methods. "Its brick-and-mortar business is dead."

It just goes to show you how much of any movie business relies on the casual moviegoer, not the eager-to-watch-everything cinephile. I always, and wrongly, thought that video stores would stay around for the increased options, the older films, and the immediacy the system awarded. You wouldn't have to plan a night in with friends, they could just head to the local store with you and decide between the old and the new.

With streaming, members were offered the immediacy mail could never provide, popping the last piece into Blockbuster's death puzzle. Netflix-free Canada might have to wait for Blockbuster's death knell to prod zip.ca to rival the 'flix in title options and streaming, but chances are that in the U.S., most folks won't really feel the impact of Blockbuster's death. All the company can hope for is a nice influx of buyers when all of their dvds hit the 5-for-$20 bin.

The iPhone 4G Gets a Snub by Consumer Reports

On Monday, Consumer Reports, America’s trusted source of product reviews, said it would not recommend the iPhone 4 because of a hardware flaw with its antenna that sometimes resulted in dropped calls. The independent consumer magazine also cast doubt on Apple’s recent explanation that a software bug had caused the widely reported problem. Apple did not return requests for comment.

Consumer Reports did not slap the iPhone 4 with a “don’t buy” warning, which it sometimes issues for shoddy or unsafe products. But it said that because of the design flaw, it would not recommend it as it did the previous version of the iPhone, the 3GS.

The next question is, Will any of Apple’s customers even care?

The various versions of the iPhone have been panned a number of times for myriad problems, real or perceived: slow network, cracked screens, dropped calls and no support for a popular Web video format. But iPhone sales have surpassed even the most optimistic forecasts and helped make Apple the most valuable company in the technology industry.

And despite early reports of problems with the iPhone 4 antenna, Apple sold 1.7 million units in just three days, making it the best-selling new technology gadget in Apple’s history.

“It’s iconic, it’s cool, it’s the ‘it’ device and people want it,” said A. M. Sacconaghi Jr., an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company.

Still Mr. Sacconaghi and other analysts said Apple could eventually suffer from the bad publicity it had received over the antenna problems and for its seemingly contradictory responses.

Apple has promoted the iPhone 4’s innovative design, including its antenna, which is built into a steel band that encases the phone.

After users reported problems with signal strength and dropped calls when they touched the lower-left portion of the phone, however, Apple suggested that consumers hold the phone differently or use one of many bumpers to insulate the antenna. It also said that all phones suffered from similar problems when they were cradled a certain way.

These comments were widely laughed at in gadget blogs.

A week later, Apple said it had found that because of a longstanding software bug, the iPhone 4, and its predecessors, often overstated signal strength. The company promised a fix soon.

In a blog post on Monday, Consumer Reports challenged those explanations.

Michael Gikas, a senior editor for electronics, said engineers performed a series of tests on three iPhone 4 handsets in a lab. They found that when a person touched the lower left portion of the antenna, signal strength “can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you’re in an area with a weak signal,” Mr. Gikas wrote.

Consumer Reports also said that it had tested other smartphones that ran on AT&T's network, including the Palm Pre and the iPhone 3GS, and that none had the same problem.

Mr. Gikas also wrote, “Our findings call into question the recent claim by Apple that the iPhone 4’s signal-strength issues were largely an optical illusion caused by faulty software.”

The review from Consumer Reports, which has eight million paying subscribers, comes 10 days after the magazine played down the problems with the iPhone 4 antenna. But in an interview, Mr. Gikas said the earlier report had been based on first impressions, not thorough testing.

Mr. Gikas said the problem with signal strength could be fixed by insulating the antenna with a bumper or even a piece of duct tape. And he said that the phone, as many happy users have reported, is better than earlier iPhones on multiple levels.

“The iPhone 3GS was always recommended. The iPhone 4 isn’t, even though it scores higher on a number of areas,” he said. “We think either Apple should supply free cases for the phone or come up with another solution. That’s why we are not recommending the iPhone 4.”

In comments posted on sites across the Web, dozens of iPhone 4 users dismissed the findings as unimportant.

But other consumers said the problems with the iPhone 4 and Apple’s response gave them pause.

“I’ll buy it the day Apple fixes it,” said Bruce Namerow, the owner of a Web consulting company based in Washington. “I don’t see how they can sell a phone that you can’t hold any which way you want. That to me is unbelievable.”

Haiti Earthquake Victims Frustrated by Trickling Aid

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) -- Six months after a violent earthquake left a trail of destruction and misery in their country, Haitians are growing impatient at the slow trickle of aid and the crawling pace of reconstruction.

"There are no prospects, no means to rebuild. The international community promised us money, but will it ever come?" asked a baffled Franck Paul, a former mayor of Port-au-Prince.

In the capital's streets and under tents that still house hundreds of thousands of Haitians left homeless by the disaster, frustration is building.

"When we were asked to come to this camp, we were promised houses. Where are they?" asked Jean-Auguste Petit-Frere as he pointed to a model of a home set up on the site by a Jamaican firm and set to be valued at 15,000 dollars a piece.

According to the United Nations office in Haiti, nearly 4,000 homes of 18 square meters (194 square feet) each have been built in a project that anticipates building some 10,000 houses.

The UN humanitarian coordinator in Haiti, Nigel Fischer, acknowledged there were "many challenges" in putting Haiti back on its feet and coordinating aid, including making sure the affected population has access to essential care.

He also warned that 130 tent cities have been identified as at risk from the hurricane season that could add insult to injury in a country that was already the poorest in the Western hemisphere even before the quake.

The French Red Cross, which has promised to build 30,000 transitional homes in collaboration with the US Red Cross, has just begun construction of 500 in a village east of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

But the figures pale in comparison to the 1.5 million people left homeless by the January 12 quake that measured 7.0 on the moment magnitude scale killed 250,000 people.

Among those still living in squalid temporary plastic tents under sweltering temperatures are half a million children at risk of crime, exploitation and abuse.

They often lack decent sanitation and proper protection against an imminent risk of hurricanes.

"Children in Haiti are among those having the hardest time recovering from the earthquake," Save the Children's director of emergencies Gareth Owen said in a statement.

"Many are still trying to cope with the grief of losing loved ones, their homes, their toys -- everything that gave them their sense of identity.

"It's hard for an adult to cope, let alone a child."

Some of the kids were so scarred, they fear stepping into any concrete building. Others left orphaned are hired by families in camps as workers in exchange for food, according to Save the Children.

"I cannot keep on living under a tent where it is hot day and night. Who will pay for my home? Who will help me?" asked Maxene Gabriel, whose home was left inhabitable by the quake.

Novelist Gary Victor expressed disappointment the Haitian government has made few concrete proposals.

"It seems to me that the international community is taking us for a ride. There have been many promises, but nothing has been done," he said.

The massive aid effort is moving from emergency assistance into the long-term recovery stage for the UN World Food Program (WFP), which has launched temporary job initiatives employing some 35,000 women and men.

The number of employed workers under the program, which typically pays them with a mixture of food and cash, is expected to reach 140,000 before the end of the year.

"We're supporting huge numbers of people who would otherwise struggle to put food on their tables," WFP country director Myrta Kaulard said in a statement.

WFP is also helping provide hot meals to 655,000 school-aged children each day, a figure expected to reach 800,000 by the end of the year.

And in another glimmer of hope, viewers of the hit reality television competition "American Idol" donated over 250,000 dollars to provide solar street lights for the camps and emergency health kits for pregnant women to deliver their babies safely.

But Haitians are angered their leaders seem overwhelmed by the scope of the catastrophe that shattered this tiny Caribbean country.

"The president and the government are absent, while foreigners and non-governmental groups have taken up the reins," said a public transit driver caught in one of the many traffic jams now synonymous with Port-au-Prince, where huge piles of debris still litter the roadside.

Three months after an international conference in New York where world powers promised more than 10 billion dollars in aid over five years, the funds are only trickling in.

To Hell in a Handbasket: Candwich

Of all the shiz that comes in a can that is bad for you…this is the shittiest!

Watch your ass Lunchables, because there is a new processed lunch in town and it offers not only the obstruction of bowels, but the dangerous sharp edges of a can! What fun for the kiddies!

Introducing the Candwich, the latest snack for obese kids with lazy parents and college students. The promotion on the can promises the tiny sammy will be "Quick & Tasty," so naturally we imagine there is enough salt to impair your vision and corn syrup to bathe in.

The Candwich comes in three flavors: peanut butter and strawberry jam, peanut butter and grape jam, and, brace yourself, BBQ Chicken! Now, as you shouldn't put metal in microwave, we imagine this nifty sandwich is best served cold.

Are you grossed out yet? Wait, there's more!

There's a yellow circle on the left side of the can says "Candy Surprise Inside."

Hooray! So not only are you ingesting 300 calories, but there is a bonus choking hazard! Can you stand it!

And just in case you need a little more of a push to avoid this shiz:

There are plans for the Pepperoni Pizza and French Toast Candwiches.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Death - all from a can!

PS. Im kinda glad they tried to hide the BBQ Chicken can cause that looks like the epitome of grossness and my stomach is bubbling just thinking about how wrong all of these are.

The Health Benefits of Coconut Oil

The health benefits of coconut oil include hair care, skin care, stress relief, maintaining cholesterol levels, weight loss, increased immunity, proper digestion and metabolism, relief from kidney problems, heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, HIV and cancer, dental care, and bone strength. These benefits of coconut oil can be attributed to the presence of lauric acid, capric acid and caprylic acid, and its properties such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, antifungal, antibacterial, soothing, etc.

How is Lauric Acid Used by our body?
The human body converts lauric acid into monolaurin which is claimed to help in dealing with viruses and bacteria causing diseases such as herpes, influenza, cytomegalovirus, and even HIV. It helps in fighting harmful bacteria such as listeria monocytogenes and heliobacter pylori, and harmful protozoa such as giardia lamblia. As a result of these various health benefits of coconut oil, though its exact mechanism of action was unknown, it has been extensively used in Ayurveda, the traditional Indian medicinal system.

Before we move on to the benefits of coconut oil in detail, let us understand its composition.

Composition of Coconut Oil: Coconut oil consists of more than ninety percent of saturated fats (Don’t panic! First read to the last word. Your opinion may change), with traces of few unsaturated fatty acids, such as monounsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Virgin Coconut Oil is no different from this. Let us have a bit detailed study of this.

* The Saturated Fatty Acids: Most of them are Medium Chain Triglycerides, which are supposed to assimilate well. Lauric Acid is the chief contributor, with more than forty percent of the share, followed by Capric Acid, Caprylic Acid, Myristic Acid and Palmitic.
* The Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids: Linoleic Acid.
* The Monounsaturated Fatty Acids: Oleic Acid.
* The Poly-phenols: Gallic Acid, which is phenolic acid. These poly-phenols are supposed to be responsible for the fragrance and the taste of Coconut Oil and Virgin Coconut Oil is rich in these poly-phenols.
* Certain derivatives of fatty acid like Betaines, Ethanolamide, Ethoxylates, Fatty Esters, Fatty Polysorbates, Monoglycerides and Polyol Esters.
* Fatty Chlorides, Fatty Alcohol Sulphate and Fatty Alcohol Ether Sulphate, all of which are derivatives of Fatty Alcohols.
* Vitamin-E and Vitamin K and minerals such as Iron.

Let us now explore the benefits of coconut oil in detail:

Hair Care: Coconut oil is one of the best natural nutrition for hair. It helps in healthy growth of hair providing them a shiny complexion. Regular massage of the head with coconut oil ensures that your scalp is free of dandruff, lice, and lice eggs, even if your scalp is dry. Coconut oil is extensively used in the Indian sub-continent for hair care. It is an excellent conditioner and helps in the re-growth of damaged hair. It also provides the essential proteins required for nourishing damaged hair. It is therefore used as hair care oil and used in manufacturing various conditioners, and dandruff relief creams. Coconut oil is normally applied topically for hair care.

Stress Relief: Coconut oil is very soothing and hence it helps in removing stress. Applying coconut oil to the head followed with a gentle massage helps in removing mental fatigue.

Skin Care: Coconut oil is excellent massage oil for the skin as well. It acts as an effective moisturizer on all types of skins including dry skin. The benefit of coconut oil on the skin is comparable to that of mineral oil. Further, unlike mineral oil, there is no chance of having any adverse side effects on the skin with the application of coconut oil. Coconut oil therefore is a safe solution for preventing dryness and flaking of skin. It also delays wrinkles, and sagging of skin which normally become prominent with age. Coconut oil also helps in treating various skin problems including psoriasis, dermatitis, eczema and other skin infections. Therefore coconut oil forms the basic ingredient of various body care products such as soaps, lotions, creams, etc., used for skin care.

Premature Aging: Coconut oil helps in preventing premature aging and degenerative diseases due to its antioxidant properties.

Heart Diseases: There is a misconception spread among many people that coconut oil is not good for the heart. This is because it contains a large quantity of saturated fats. However, coconut oil is beneficial for the heart. It contains about 50% lauric acid, which helps in preventing various heart problems including high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure. The saturated fats present in coconut oil are not harmful as it happens in case of other vegetables oils. It does not lead to increase in LDL levels. It also reduces the incidence of injury in arteries and therefore helps in preventing atherosclerosis.

Weight Loss: Coconut oil is very useful in reducing weight. It contains short and medium-chain fatty acids that help in taking off excessive weight. It is also easy to digest and it helps in healthy functioning of the thyroid and enzymes systems. Further, it increases the body metabolism by removing stress on pancreases, thereby burning out more energy and helping obese and overweight people reduce their weight. Hence, people living in tropical coastal areas, who eat coconut oil daily as their primary cooking oil, are normally not fat, obese or overweight.

Pancreatitis: Coconut oil is also believed to be useful in treating pancreatitis.

Digestion: Internal use of coconut oil occurs primarily as cooking oil. Coconut oil helps in improving the digestive system and thus prevents various stomach and digestion related problems including irritable bowel syndrome. The saturated fats present in coconut oil have anti microbial properties and help in dealing with various bacteria, fungi, parasites, etc., that cause indigestion. Coconut oil also helps in absorption of other nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and amino acids.

Immunity: Coconut oil is also good for the immune system. It strengthens the immune system as it contains antimicrobial lipids, lauric acid, capric acid and caprylic acid which have antifungal, antibacterial and antiviral properties. The human body converts lauric acid into monolaurin which is claimed to help in dealing with viruses and bacteria causing diseases such as herpes, influenza, cytomegalovirus, and even HIV. It helps in fighting harmful bacteria such as listeria monocytogenes and heliobacter pylori, and harmful protozoa such as giardia lamblia.

Healing: When applied on infections, it forms a chemical layer which protects the infected body part from external dust, air, fungi, bacteria and virus. Coconut oil is most effective on bruises as it speeds up the healing process by repairing damaged tissues.

Infections: Coconut oil is very effective against a variety of infections due to its antifungal, antiviral, and antibacterial properties. According to the Coconut Research Center, coconut oil kills viruses that cause influenza, measles, hepatitis, herpes, SARS, etc. It also kills bacteria that cause ulcers, throat infections, urinary tract infections, pneumonia, and gonorrhea, etc. Coconut oil is also effective on fungi and yeast that cause candidiasis, ringworm, athlete's foot, thrush, diaper rash, etc.

Liver: The presence of medium chain triglycerides and fatty acids helps in preventing liver diseases as they substances are easily converted into energy when they reach the liver, thus reducing work load on the liver and also preventing accumulation of fat.

Kidney: Coconut oil helps in preventing kidney and gall bladder diseases. It also helps in dissolving kidney stones.

Diabetes: Coconut oil helps in controlling blood sugar, and improves the secretion of insulin. It also helps in effective utilization of blood glucose, thereby preventing and treating diabetes.

Bones: As mentioned earlier, coconut oil improves the ability of our body to absorb important minerals. These include calcium and magnesium which are necessary for development of bones. Thus coconut oil is very useful to women who are prone to osteoporosis after middle age.

Dental Care: Calcium is an important element present in teeth. Since coconut oil facilitates absorption of calcium by the body, it helps in getting strong teeth. Coconut oil also stops tooth decay.

HIV and Cancer: It is believed that coconut oil plays an instrumental role in reducing viral susceptibility of HIV and cancer patients.

Finally, coconut oil is often preferred by athletes and body builders and by those who are dieting. The reason behind this being that coconut oil contains lesser calories than other oils, its fat content is easily converted into energy and it does not lead to accumulation of fat in the heart and arteries. Coconut oil helps in boosting energy and endurance, and enhances the performance of athletes.

20 Worst Drinks in America Part 4

4. Worst Frozen Fruit Drink

Krispy Kreme Lemon Sherbet Chiller (20 fl oz)

980 calories
40 g fat (36 g saturated)
115 g sugars

Sugar Equivalent: 16 medium-size chocolate eclairs

Imagine taking a regular can of soda, pouring in 18 extra teaspoons of sugar, and then swirling in half a cup of heavy cream. Nutritionally speaking, that’s exactly what this is, which is how it manages to marry nearly 2 days’ worth of saturated fat with enough sugar to leave you with a serious sucrose hangover. Do your heart a favor and avoid any of Krispy Kreme’s “Kremey” beverages. The basic Chillers aren’t the safest of sippables either, but they’ll save you up to 880 calories.

Drink This Instead!

Very Berry Chiller (20 fl oz)

290 calories
0 g fat
71 g sugars

3. Worst Drive-Thru Shake

McDonald’s Triple Thick Chocolate Shake (large, 32 fl oz)

1,160 calories
27 g fat (16 g saturated, 2 g trans)
168 g sugars

Sugar Equivalent: 13 McDonald’s Baked Hot Apple Pies

There are very few milk shakes in America worthy of your hard-earned calories, but few will punish you as thoroughly as this Mickey D’s drive-thru disaster. Not only does it have more than half your day’s caloric and saturated fat allotment and more sugar than you’d find in Willy Wonka’s candy lab, but Ronald even finds a way to sneak in a full day of cholesterol-spiking trans fat. The scariest part about this drink is that it’s most likely America’s most popular milk shake.

Drink This Instead!

Hot Fudge Sundae (small, 6.3 oz)

330 calories
10 g fat (7 g saturated)
48 g sugars

2. Worst Smoothie

Smoothie King Peanut Power Plus Grape (large, 40 fl oz)

1,498 calories
44 g fat (8 g saturated)
214 g sugars

Sugar Equivalent: 20 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

If Smoothie King wants someone to blame for landing this high on our worst beverages roundup (and truth be told, its entire menu is riddled with contenders), the chain should point the smoothie straw at whichever executive came up with the cup-sizing structure. Sending someone out the door with a 40-ounce cup should be a criminal offense. Who really needs a third of a gallon of sweetened peanut butter blended with grape juice, milk, and bananas? Sugar-and-fat-loaded smoothies like this should be served from 12-ounce cups, not mini kegs.

Drink This Instead!

High Protein Banana (small, 20 fl oz)

322 calories
9 g fat (1 g saturated)
23 g sugars

1. Worst Beverage in America

Cold Stone PB&C (Gotta Have It size, 24 fl oz)

2,010 calories
131 g fat (68 g saturated)
153 g sugars

Sugar Equivalent: 30 Chewy Chips Ahoy Cookies

In terms of saturated fat, drinking this Cold Stone catastrophe is like slurping up 68 strips of bacon. Health experts recommend capping your saturated fat intake at about 20 grams per day, yet this beverage packs more than three times that into a cup the size of a Chipotle burrito. But here’s what’s worse: No regular shake at Cold Stone, no matter what the size, has fewer than 1,000 calories. If you must drink your ice cream, make it one of the creamery’s “Sinless” options. Otherwise you’d better plan on buying some bigger pants on the way home.

Drink This Instead!

Sinless Oh Fudge Shake (Like It size, 16 fl oz)

490 calories
2 g fat (2 g saturated)
44 g sugars

Are you Dating a Sociopath

Sociopaths (also known as psychopaths) live among us. It's an ugly truth. Antisocial personality disorders do not discriminate--young, old, male, female--anyone can become a sociopath.

It may seem difficult to identify a sociopath, especially if he or she happens to be your partner. Nevertheless, there are several steps that you can take to identify the early warning signs of antisocial personality disorder.

10 Ways to Identify a Sociopath

1. Listen to the way your partner speaks. Most sociopaths put themselves on pedestals. Their grandiose sense of self makes them feel entitled to certain things. They see these things as "their right."
2. Pay attention to the way the person treats you. A sociopath is manipulative, domineering, controlling, and takes pleasure in humiliating his victim(s). Sociopaths have self-serving behaviors.
3. Count the lies. Sociopaths are notorious liars. It's almost impossible for a sociopath to tell the truth.
4. Observe the way the person expresses his or her emotions. A sociopath has an incapacity for love. Promiscuity, addictions, verbal outbursts and physical punishments are the sociopath's way of stimulating himself.
5. Wait until he or she says or does something wrong. The sociopath shows no remorse, shame or guilt. Although a sociopath may be outraged by insignifican matters, he or she will remain unmoved by serious matters.
6. Count his or her friends. A sociopath has trouble making and keeping friends. He will make up an excuse for this, too.
7. Listen to other people. Sociopaths do not become sociopaths overnight. They have a history. Sometimes these histories include aberrant behaviors, including: stealing, lying, promiscuity, and cruelty to people or animals.
8. Observe the way she blames others. The sociopath does not take responsibility for her actions. Instead, she blames others, even for acts she obviously committed.
9. Listen to his plans for the future. The sociopath makes unrealistic plans for the future. He does not fulfill his promises and exploits those that try to help him achieve his goals.
10. Take a step back. It may be hard to recognize a sociopath, especially when you're in a relationship with this person. A sociopath can become very abusive. Unfortunately, the abuse will not stop. The sociopath "gets by" by promising, lying, and manipulating. This will create a sense of hoplessness in the victim, thus producing an addictive cycle for abuser and abused

Could this Summer Quite Possibly Be the Worst Summer Ever For Movies

I keep wondering when Hollywood will wake up and realize that people are starting to catch on to the gimmicks and are tired of seeing the 15th part of the same movie, a movie based off a tv show or studio attraction, and movies based off obscure comic books or anime series (yeah, Im talking to you "The Last Airbender"). I guess this is the reason that I skipped "Iron Man 2" and "Shrek", couldn't stomach to see the "A-Team", didn't so much as bat an eye at "Jonah Hex"and "The Prince of Persia" and groaned at "The Karate Kid." But besides all of that, it just feels like the 2010 summer movie season was over before it ever began.

June gloom set it and, at least in terms of entertainment, the box office seems to be running on fumes as folks have proven that the over saturation of 3D is no longer a gimmick that guarantees and audience. And filmmakers seem content with churning out film after film after film that essentially tells the same story and does little to challenge the audiences sense of excitement and wonder. What happened to the tentpole movies?? What happened to the buzz?? What happened to summer movies???

The last great summer for movies I can remember is when "The Nutty Professor" came out back in 1996 (yeah, that long ago) where every week, something new and interesting came out that you and everyone you knew was talking about. Back then, movies knew their lane and focused on telling and selling a narrative, built around a central construct and interesting characters. Now, with the allure of 3D, movies have become a mere means to an end.....a fund raising tool where every week a lucky loser gets to brag about how many people it duped into seeing its wares. Now it appears that it doesn't matter how good or bad a movie is ("Twilight") as long as it has a ton of special effects, car crashes and chase scenes and is effectively marketed to its target.

There is nothing wrong with mindless action and inane character development/dialogue if you like your meals calorie free. But when did the people in the films become....so unlike real people. They don't really operate under the moniker of "Movie Stars" anymore either since our idea of "Celebrity" and who it applies to is vastly different than say, the golden era in Hollywood when people had real jobs to do and just didn't show up to have their pictures taken.

And likewise, directors used to you celluloid as a way of showing how big their balls were. Several names come into mind like Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Spike Lee, John Water, Jonathan Demme, John Singleton the list goes on and on. But at least they had a desire to elicit something else out of their audience than a "meh" and single file line out to the exits once the credits close.

Im not sure why we have reached this point in cinema, but cinema surely needs an intervention or a reboot of its own. And maybe this will come by way of Christopher Nolan's "Intervention" a movie that really looks too smart for summer and way too intelligent for the lobotomized movie going audience as a whole. But that can all be perception as this summer has proven that you can't judge a book by its cover, but you can judge a movie by its cover art. The glossier and slicker it looks, the harder the filmmakers are trying to dupe you into buying a ticket and filling a seat. This couldn't have been more true with this years "Splice"...a movie I was eagerly anticipating that was totally misrepresented by its advertising and marketing campaign. it was basically the bait and switch, you want horror, we will give you drama. And judging by "Inception" it could be the allure of traces of the "Matrix" that has got me waiting in anticipation.

Either way, Christopher Nolan is a very competent director and although he (In my eyes at least) messed up with "The Dark Knight", "Inception" seems like return to the things about the director that made "Memento" so great. The other last hope is "Predators" and yeah, the "Predator Vs. Alien" movies were a joke without a punchline, but the original two movies, to this day, are still compelling so "Predators" would have to be pretty damn shitty to beat the realms of awful that was "P Vs. A."

So im just gonna go ahead and say it, YES, this summer is in fact the Worst Summer Movie Season anyone has ever possibly experienced. Now it kinda makes more sense why the overdue "Tron" remake opted for a fall release instead of a summer one....maybe they knew what a shitty dumping ground 2010 would be. And the worst part is that its not even that hot due to June gloom so the allure of pristine air conditioning isn't even a factor anymore......maybe they should make 3D glasses with little heaters on the side. You laugh, but Im sure someone is drafting it up as we speak.

Microsoft Kills the Kin

Microsoft is killing its Kin "social phones" after less than seven weeks on the market.

The news comes after two weeks of suspicious reports on abysmal Kin sales and just three days after Verizon slashed Kin prices nearly in half. Microsoft, which launched the Kin One and Kin Two in May, did not explicitly confirm the discontinuation but sent seattlepi.com the following statement.

"We have made the decision to focus on our Windows Phone 7 launch and we will not ship KIN in Europe this fall as planned. Additionally, we are integrating our KIN team with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from KIN into future Windows Phone releases. We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current KIN phones."

The news also comes one month after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer ousted two high-profile lieutenants from the company's consumer-devices division, and further illustrates Microsoft's ongoing struggle to remain relevant in the age of mobile computing.

The phones, targeted at "generation upload," were the result of months of product development that generated some unusual buzz among tech enthusiasts. Known for some time as"Project Pink," the Kin program was largely seen as Microsoft's first attempt at reinvigorating the Sidekick technology the company inherited when it acquired Danger in 2008.

Microsoft unveiled the two Kin devices -- the first phones to feature bits of Windows Phone 7 -- in April and released them with Verizon in May. Though Microsoft called them "smart phones," they were not; the user interface was geared entirely toward social networking and lacked support for third-party applications.

The software superpower marketed them at teens to 25-year-olds whose lives revolve around Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging and other social media. Redmond launched a daring new media campaign that included social-media scavenger hunts and a series of videos that followed a young woman as she explored the fringes of her social network.

It all seemed like overkill. And most of the tech press wasn't exposed to the targeted marketing enough -- if there even was a lot -- to sense whether it was working. Except when Microsoft was pressured to pull an advertisement because critics felt it promoted "sexting"

"The thing about niche marketing is, if you don't hit your niche," IDC mobile analyst William Stofega told seattlepi.com, "you're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place."

Two weeks ago, a rumor bubbled up that Microsoft and Verizon had sold only 500 Kin phones. Most of the tech media dismissed it as ridiculous (Microsoft never denied or confirmed it), but the writing on the wall was clear: Kin was struggling.

Best Buy had already slashed its Kin retail prices; the lower-end Kin One went from $50 to free and the higher-end Kin Two dropped from $100 to $50. Then, this past Sunday, Verizon quietly cut the Kin One to $30 and the Kin Two to $50.

The price-gouge was likely in response to Microsoft's killing the Kin program.

"It's not surprising, given the things we've heard," Stofega said. "I think (it was) the aggressive pricing in terms of other options on the market. For a little extra, you could go out and get a high-end device from, maybe, HTC."

The phones -- a small vertical-sliding handset and a larger landscape-oriented slider -- got lukewarm reviews and received the most criticism for their price. Many believed Microsoft oversold, and perhaps misrepresented, the Kin phones as smart phones when, really, they were just fancy feature phones.

Arguably the most promising product of the Kin program is an online service called Kin Studio, where a user's media are stored. Kin users can browse or surf their photos by time or location, share photos and videos with their friends, and just surf social networks from within the Silverlight-powered Kin Studio interface.

If Microsoft is "incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from KIN into future Windows Phone releases," as the company said, it might behoove Redmond to incorporate the Kin Studio technology.

Kin's discontinuation doesn't bode well for Microsoft's mobile reputation, which has been foundering while the Apple iPhone, Google Android operating system and Research in Motion BlackBerry brand have been surging ahead in terms of sales. Microsoft's last full mobile-OS release, Windows Mobile 6.5, launched in October to lukewarm reviews and has been most successful with HTC's own interface slapped on top.

Microsoft plans to bring Windows Phone 7 to market by the holidays. Like the Kin OS, Windows Phone 7 incorporates the look and feel of the Zune HD's "Metro" interface. The Kin phones were also the first to include Zune software.

The Kin woes should not necessarily put Windows Phone 7 in a bad light. Though the Kin devices did incorporate some WP7 technology, they were not representative of the full-featured operating system.

But the Kin woes do highlight Microsoft's ongoing struggle in mobile. Once again, Microsoft has misidentified a mobile opportunity, misfired in its execution and failed introduce a "cool" device into a world full of iPhones and Droids.

"Overall," Stofega said, "it's a tough, tough, tough market."

20 Worst Drinks in America Part 3

9. Worst Hot Chocolate

Starbucks White Hot Chocolate with Whipped Cream (venti, 20 fl oz)

520 calories
16 g fat (11 g saturated)
75 g sugars

Sugar Equivalent: 9 Strawberry Rice Krispie Treats

See that stack of Rice Krispie Treats? It’s just three treats shy of two full boxes. Unless you were a contestant on Fear Factor—and there was a sizeable monetary prize on the line—you’d never even consider noshing down that much sugar at once. But here’s what’s interesting: While that stack is the sugar counterpart to this atrocity from Starbucks, it still has 40 percent less saturated fat. Makes us wonder what’s going on in the hot chocolate. Stick to beverages with single-flavor profiles instead of pile-on recipes like this and you’ll fare better every time.

Drink This Instead!

Hot Chocolate with Nonfat Milk (grande, 16 fl oz)

240 calories
2.5 g fat (0.5 g saturated)
40 g sugars

8. Worst Frozen Mocha

Così Double Oh! Arctic Mocha (gigante, 23 fl oz)

662 calories
26 g fat (15 g saturated)
88 g sugars

Sugar Equivalent: 19 Oreo Cookies

The good news here is that this drink used to be twice as bad - and used to contain as much sugar as in 41 Oreo Cookies (pictured). The bad news is that even though it's halved the calories, it's still a piece of work. A frozen mocha will never be a stellar option, but we’ve still never come across anything that competes with this cookie-coffee-milkshake hybrid from Così. Essentially it’s a mocha Blizzard made with Oreo cookies and topped with whipped cream and an oversize Oreo. The result is a beverage with more calories than two Big Macs and more sugar than any other drink in America.

Drink This Instead!

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Smoothie (12 oz)

316 calories
12 g fat (8 g saturated)
37 g sugars

7. Worst Frozen Coffee Drink

Dairy Queen Caramel MooLatte (24 fl oz)

870 calories
24 g fat (19 g saturated, 1 g trans)
112 g sugars

Sugar Equivalent: 12 Dunkin’ Donuts Bavarian Kreme Doughnuts

Coffee-dessert hybrids are among the worst breed of beverages. This one delivers 1 gram of fat and 4.6 grams of sugar in every ounce, making even Starbucks’ over-the-top line of Frappuccinos look like decent options. Maybe that’s why DQ decided to give it a name that alludes to the animal it promises to turn you into. If you can bring yourself to skip DQ and head to a coffee shop instead, order a large iced latte with a couple shots of flavored syrup and save some 600 calories. But if you’re stuck where you are, you’re better off pairing a small treat with a regular cup of joe.

Drink This Instead!

Small Chocolate Ice Cream Cone with a Medium Cup of Coffee

240 calories
7 g fat (5 g saturated)
25 g sugars

6. Worst Margarita

Traditional Red Lobster Lobsterita (24 fl oz)

890 calories
0 g fat
183 g carbohydrates

Carbohydrate Equivalent: 7 Almond Joy candy bars

Of all the egregious beverages we’ve analyzed, the Lobsterita surprised us the most. The nation’s biggest fish purveyor is one of the few big players in the restaurant biz to provide its customers with a wide selection of truly healthy food options. We would hope they’d do the same with the beverages, but obviously not. Drink one of these every Friday night and you’ll put on more than a pound of flab each month. Downgrade to a regular margarita on the rocks and pocket the remaining 640 calories.

Drink This Instead!

Red Lobster Classic Margarita on the Rocks

250 calories
0 g fat
22 g carbohydrates

5. Worst Float

Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream Soda (vanilla ice cream and cola) (large, 28.6 fl oz)

960 calories
40 g fat (25 g saturated, 1.5 g trans)
136 g sugars

Sugar Equivalent: 9.7 Fudgsicle fudge bars

Done right, an ice cream float can be a decent route to indulgence. Go to A&W and you’ll land a medium for fewer than 400 calories. Order it with diet soda and you’ve dropped below 200 calories. So why can’t Baskin-Robbins make even a small float with fewer than 470 calories? Because apparently the chain approaches the art of beverage-crafting as a challenge to squeeze in as much fat and sugar as possible. Whatever you order, plan on splitting it with a friend.

Drink This Instead!

Ice Cream Float (vanilla ice cream and root beer) (small, 16.9 fl oz)

470 calories
20 g fat (13 g saturated, 0.5 g trans)
68 g sugars

Movies to Own: "The Crazies"

There isn't much to say about this one folks other than ITS ON DVD!!!! If you are a horror head like I am then you know that "The Crazies" is the best zombie/horror/sociopolitical flick to come out in the past 10 years. You can thank me in the comments later.

Moment of the Week: Willie Norwood

VH1 TV Shows | Music Videos | Celebrity Photos | News & Gossip

So im really not a fan of "Brandy and Ray J: A Family Mess", but when there is nothing on, this colorful eschewing of facts and blatant self promotion somehow makes it on to my radar. Actually I caught the episode at the clip above and became curious enough to catch other parts of the show. Well that and VH1 was rerunning it like every hour since they don't have any other programs on air. Anyhow, I think love is or can be a beautiful thing....especially when you chose to charter a path with someone and you come out on the other end smiling......so this clip above warmed my heart in song for the prospect of one day having a song to sing like this for my lady. Enjoy