30/12 Nằm Xuống Vì Đất Nước?

Trần Khải

Tình báo Nga có một chữ để gọi các nữ gián điệp tuyệt sắc gài vào Hoa Kỳ và thế giới Tây Phương: chim én. Mỹ nhân kế là chuyện tưởng như chỉ còn trong thời Chiến Tranh Lạnh, nhưng gần đây mới lộ ra thêm nhiều mạng lưới gián điệp hải ngoạị của Nga (và hãy tin là có các kiểu tương tự của Trung Quốc, Việt Nam) hoạt động y hệt như trong các truyện Z-28 và phim  James Bond 007.

Đơn giản vì các phản ứng văn hóa dị biệt nhau: trong khi các sở tình báo Mỹ kêu gọi phụ nữ Mỹ lên đường phục vụ bằng lời mời gọi “hãy đứng lên vì đất nước,” thì các sở tình báo Nga kêu gọi phụ nữ Nga chiến đấu cho chính phủ Nga bằng lời mời gọi “hãy nằm xuống vì đất nước.”

Bởi vì, các lãnh tụ Nga (và các lãnh tụ  cộng sản khác) tin rằng người Mỹ và Châu Âu lúc nào cũng bị ám ảnh bởi sex. Chỉ có những người đã sống ở Mỹ-Âu nhiều thập niên mới thấy không phảỉ thế, nhưng đúng là có nhiều trường hợp các nhà ngoại giao quốc tế đã sụp bẫy vì các nữ gián điệp Nga, TQ.

Báo Vancouver Sun hôm 11-12-2010 kể rằng, các nữ điệp viên Nga còn có tên gọi là “chim én.” Đó là trường hợp cô Katia Zatuliveter, 25 tuổi, người Nga, được gàì vào làm việc ở Hạ Viện Anh Quốc. Báo này mô tả rằng cô đẹp, thông minh, ưa mặc váy ngắn, đã mau chóng lọt vào mắt dân biểu Anh Mike Hancock thuộc Đảng Dân Chủ Cấp Tiến, người đưa cô vào làm phụ tá.

Tuy nhiên, Sở phản gián MI-5 tin rằng cô gặp DB Hancock không tình cờ tí nào, mà là đã được Sở Tình Báo Hải Ngoại Nga (SVR) sắp xếp.

Baó này ghi lời Nevena Marjanovic, 26 tuổi, nguyên là bạn cùng trong văn phòng của DB Hancock, nói, “Cô Zatuliveter cực kỳ quyến rũ, và cô đang dùng nhan sắc để chiêu dụ, cứ mặc váy ngắn hoài thôi.”

Ngôn ngữ báo chí Tây Phương còn gọi cô bằng kiểu truyền thống là “nồi mật,” hay là “bẫy mật.” Tất nhiên, các cô phải là mật ngọt trần gian mới được SVR tuyển mộ và tung ra hải ngoại.

Hãy hình dung thế này: Sở Tình Báo Mỹ CIA mời gọi một nữ gián điệp Mỹ hãy dùng nhan sắc gạ gẫm Lê Công Phụng, hay Hồ Cẩm Đào… Chưa chắc CIA đã dám ra chỉ thị trực tiếp như thế, bởi vì các cô người Mỹ có thể kiện CIA ra tòa, và níu áo các dân biểu Mỹ nói rằng nữ quyền của các cô bị CIA lạm dụng và xâm phạm…. thế là rách việc, vừa hỏng kế hoạch gài bẫy, vừa có thể phải bồi thường danh dự các cô nhiều triệu đô la.

Bởi vậy mới có câu ở Mỹ là, mời các cô đứng dậy vì đất nước. Hoàn toàn trái nghịch với Nga…

Trường hợp cô Zatuliveter mới lộ mấy tuần qua ở London, trong lúc người ta chưa quên chuyện cô gián điệp tuyệt sắc Anna Chapman, 28 tuổi, bị Mỹ bắt trong đường dây gián điệp Nga ở New York.

Báo Vancouver Sun kể lại lời của Sir Christopher Meyer, cựu đaị sứ Anh tại Washington DC, nói trên chương trình truyền hình Today tuần qua, “Có nhiều lẫn, các bẫy mật ngọt trải nằm ra trước tôi. Nhưng tôi đã cưỡng lại sự cám dỗ của các gián điệp Xô Viết, khi họ kềm chế sự giận dữ khi thấy tôi cưỡng lại cả những gợi dục hiến thân từ cả nữ gián điệp cho tới cả bẫy đồng tính của các nam gián điệp. Bẫy mật lúc nào cũng có trong thời Xô viết. Đó là một quốc gia rất truyền thống, kể cả hệ thống tình báo của họ, cho nên tôi không ngạc nhiên khi thấy có chuyện nữ gián điệp Nga ở Hạ Viện Anh.”

Giles Whittell, tác giả cuốn “Bridge of Spies” (Chiếc Cầu Gián Điệp), tác phẩm mới về những thời hoàng kim của người di dân bất hợp pháp Nga, nói rằng có nhiều dân Nga không giấy tờ tại Mỹ, và “trong đó có một gián điệp mà tôi được thông báo rằng cô này đã quyến rũ tất cả các thám tử FBI được cử ra để dò bắt cô.”

Năm 1955, John Vassall, một nhân viên đồng tính làm việc trong tòa đại sứ Anh ở Moscow, bị quyến rũ vào một tiệc rượu. Say quá đã, anh sau đó được cho xem mấy tấm hình do Sở KGB (thời Xô Viết) chụp, Sở này đã đưa ra các nam điệp viên ra chiêu dụ anh. Trong khi họ gọi các cô là “chim én,” thì các chàng đẹp trai này được gọi là “chim quạ.” Thế là, trong 8 năm kế tiếp, Vassall bị bắt chẹt để do thám cho Liên Xô.

Cùng lúc đó, Sở Tình Báo Stasi của Đông Đức cũng tung ra các chàng đẹp trai — gọi là “Romeo spies” (điệp viên tình nhân Romeo) — để quyến rũ các cô thư ký làm việc trong các cơ quan chính phủ Tây Đức. Có hơn 40 phụ nữ sau đó bị truy tố ra tòa về tội đưa tàì liệu mật cho tình nhân, mà không nhận ra các chàng là gián điệp Đông Đức.

Hồi tháng 7-2009, một nhà ngoaị giao Anh, James Hudson, bị bí mật quay phim bởi Sở FSB (hậu thân của KGB), đang vui chơi trong một phòng khách sạn với 2 cô gái điếm Nga. Thế là Hudson từ chức.

Và trong một phaí đoàn thương mại tới Trung Quốc năm ngoái, một phụ tá cao cấp của Gordon Brown vào một quán nhạc khách sạn ở Thượng Hải và nằm một đêm với một thiếu nữ Trung Quốc tuyệt sắc. Sáng hôm sau, anh báo cáo rằng máy BlackBerry  (điện thoại  tinh khôn đặc biệt) cuả chính phủ cấp cho anh sử dụng đã mất trộm.

Trang web Sở MI-5 nói rằng, “Anh Quốc là mục tiêu gián điệp ưu tiên cao, và nhiều nước đang ra sức tìm các thông tin và vật liệu từ Anh để thăng tiến các chương trình quân sự, kỹ thuật, chính trị và kinh tế của họ. Chúng tôi ước tính có ít nhất 20 sở gián điệp nước ngoàì đang hoạt động nhắm vào quyền lợi Anh Quốc. Ở mức độ lớn nhất là người Nga và TQ. Số lượng điệp viên Nga tại London không hể giảm kể từ thời Xô Viết.”

Trước đây, nhiều năm trước,chúng ta nghe tin có cô Trương Mỹ Vân của Sở Tình Báo Trung Quốc đã chinh phục Tổng Bí Thư Lê Khả Phiêu và có một con với ông già họ Lê này. Không rõ tin này có chính xác hay không. Nhưng điều chắc chắn rằng, các nữ gián điệp TQ không chỉ ở Bắc Kinh hay Thượng Hải, mà cũng còn đang bay lượn ở Hà Nội, Sài Gòn…

Cũng hệt như các cô Anna Chapman bay lượn ở New York, và cô Katia Zatuliveter bay lượn ở London.

Hãy lắng nghe chỉ thị từ Bắc Kinh nhắn các cô, rằng “hãy nằm xuống” vì đất nước Đạị Hán vĩ đại… Thế là, Việt Nam rồi sẽ mất rừng, mất biển, và gánh trên vai quả bom nổ chậm bùn đỏ bô-xit…

Không phảỉ sao? Có thời nào mà đất nước VN mất nhiều tới như thế?

Bên trong Triều Tiên

Thứ hai, 27/12/2010, 15:18 GMT+7

Đi cùng phái đoàn của đặc sứ Mỹ Bill Richardson tuần trước đến Triều Tiên có hai nhà báo. Trong sáu ngày ở đó, họ đã tận mắt chứng kiến cuộc sống bên trong quốc gia nổi tiếng mà bí ẩn này.
> Khám phá Triều Tiên qua ảnh vệ tinh

Bài viết dưới đây đăng trên The New York Times, của nhà báo Sharon LaFraniere.

Một đội bóng đá nữ của học sinh thi đấu quyết liệt trong sân thể chất rộng mênh mông. Hai cô dâu trẻ, một cô váy trắng, cô kia váy hồng sẫm, làm lễ cưới trên quảng trường đầy tuyết. Cha mẹ kéo các em bé ngồi chơi trong những chiếc xe nhựa. Nhiều người xếp hàng trước các quầy bán khoai lang nướng.

24/12 Trúc Diễm hồn nhiên lộ nội y

Cập nhật lúc 24/12/2010 04:02:00 PM (GMT+7)

- Tối qua (ngày 23/12) trong đêm tiệc hóa trang mừng Giáng sinh của các người đẹp tại TP HCM, “Chân dài đi hát” Trúc Diễm lại một lần nữa bị “lộ hàng”.

TIN BÀI KHÁC
5 mảnh sắt nhọn trong bỉm trẻ sơ sinh
Gí súng ép nữ sinh quan hệ tình dục
Đổ lan can, 2 học sinh rơi xuống từ tầng 3
Tình tiết bất ngờ vụ kiện em gái Lý Hùng
4 đứa trẻ trốn khỏi Nhà mở đã nói dối


Trong đêm hội rực rỡ của tiệc hóa trang mừng Giáng sinh tối 23/12 tại TP.HCM, Baby J Trúc Diễm khiến người xem chú ý khi trình diễn với bộ đầm màu trắng tinh khôi. Tuy nhiên, chiếc đầm này có phần thân váy quá ngắn trong khi những đường xẻ ở chân váy lại quá táo bạo khiến cho người đẹp bị hở nội y.

Người đẹp này lại có thêm pha “lộ hàng” vào tối qua (Nguồn: Giadinh.net.vn)


Đây không phải là lần đầu tiên Trúc Diễm khiến dân tình “bỏng mắt” vì hớ hênh trên sân khấu. Trước đó vào tháng 5/2009, khi thể hiện một ca khúc sôi động trong “Đêm hội chân dài 3”, cô cũng gây phản cảm khi vận một chiếc váy quá ngắn để lộ nội y.


Trúc Diễm hớ hênh trong “Đêm hội chân dài 3” (Nguồn: Ngôisao)


Sau sự cố này, nhiều người đã nghiêm khắc cho rằng cô ca sĩ mới “chân ướt chân ráo” vào nghề này đã cố tình "hớ hênh" để "tạo dấu ấn" cho mình trong sự nghiệp mới. Mặc dù sau đó, người đẹp đã lên tiếng thanh minh: “Đó là loại váy - quần chứ không phải lộ hàng”.




Lê Ngọc (tổng hợp)

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21/12 A Poor Little Rich Girl at Christmas

The Gimlet Eye
By GUY TREBAY
Published: December 21, 2010
WHAT is it about the holidays that so particularly illuminates the architecture of families? Just as the twinkling lights of a Christmas tree, flashing on the faces that surround it, can alternately bathe them in a warm glow or render them macabre, the season seems to cast the structures of family into weird relief. This is true of all families, no matter where they lie on the scale of class or economics, or so a recent conversation with Ivana Lowell suggests.

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Gordon M. Grant for The New York Times
Ivana Lowell, daughter of a Guiness brewery heiress, at her Sag Harbor home.
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Lady Caroline in the garden of Castletown with her third husband, Robert Lowell, 1978.

Ms. Lowell is the author of “Why Not Say What Happened?,” a coolly told and critically praised memoir of a childhood whose outlines were, even by the standards of contemporary pathography, baroque. The youngest daughter of Lady Caroline Blackwood — herself the eldest child of Basil Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, the fourth marquess of Dufferin and Ava, and the brewery heiress Maureen Guinness; and also a journalist, novelist, man killer, muse, alcoholic and parent whose approach to child rearing was bizarre — Ms. Lowell was raised in an atmosphere of what one might call plural paternity.
Ms. Lowell grew up thinking that her father was the composer Israel Citkowitz, her mother’s second husband (the painter Lucian Freud was the first). Only in adulthood did she discover her conception was a result of an affair her mother had conducted with the English screenwriter Ivan Moffat, known for his adaptation of “Giant.” In the meantime, the practicalities — if practical is the word — of fatherhood were taken up by Lady Caroline’s third husband, the manic-depressive poet Robert Lowell, and her good friend Robert Silvers, a founder of The New York Review of Books. She was reared in a variety of places, including London; Castletown House in Ireland; Mr. Lowell’s pile in Brookline, Mass.; and Clandeboye, her grandmother’s fabled Georgian mansion outside Belfast, Northern Ireland.
A memoir littered with the names of the rich and the titled, “Why Not Say What Happened?,” published in October, is a genetic whodunit. Yet Ms. Lowell’s true achievement may lie in the unassuming way she communicates the resilience of a woman whose trials — she was sexually abused at 6 by her nanny’s husband, was severely burned in a childhood kitchen accident and has struggled for decades to conquer alcoholism — might have done in most people.
Last week, Ms. Lowell came to Manhattan from her home in Sag Harbor, N.Y., for an annual Christmas lunch with her 11-year-old daughter’s godparents — aptly enough, given the glistering web of family connection, they are Mr. Silvers and the socialite and philanthropist Mercedes Bass. She sat down after at the bar of the Plaza Athénée hotel to discuss, among other things, the role of holidays in a childhood that she maintains, somewhat improbably, was a happy one.
“The writing process was four years” for the book, said Ms. Lowell, who, after ordering a pot of Earl Grey tea, spirited a bottle of kombucha, a fermented medicinal tea, from her handbag, explaining that it is her beverage of choice since her return from one of several stints in rehab. (“Some people go to Yaddo,” the artists’ colony in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. “I go to rehab.”)
A visit to a new psychotherapist started her on the book, she said. “When I launched into my life story, as best I could, and talked about being burned and about my father and stepfather — and... well, I had so many fathers, I wasn’t sure which one was the one I should be talking about — after the first five minutes, the therapist said, ‘My God, you’ve been so battered and shunted around, it’s amazing you’re still standing.’ ”
Ms. Lowell laughed as she spoke; her laugh is light and easy. She has the retroussé nose that is a trait common to her family of beauties (her mother and grandmother were both famed for their looks; her cousin is the fashion apparition Daphne Guinness), and high, almost Slavic cheekbones that accentuate her large and slightly slanted eyes.
“Strangely,” Ms. Lowell continued, “I had the sense that mine was a happy childhood. I know it makes no sense.”
Shuttled as a child from one country to another, she often had the impression, she said, “that, really, we were the poorest, saddest people, and that everyone else was really rich and grand and we were the poor persons in the big house.”

There was no central heating in the large house where she spent much of her childhood. Her mother considered automobiles too middle-class to be bothered with owning one. In her version of alcoholic haute-Bohemia, it was also somehow “common” to trouble oneself with trivialities like regular meals. “We didn’t have food for dinner,” Ms. Lowell said. “When I visited friends at their houses and people sat down for dinner, I thought they were so grand. I thought, They really know how to live!”
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Photograph courtesy of Ivana Lowell.
Ivana Lowell’s mother, Lady Caroline Blackwood, with her first husband, Lucian Freud, in Paris around 1949.
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Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Robert B. Silvers of The New York Review of Books.
It was not, Ms. Lowell insisted, so much that her mother was cruel as troubled and deeply eccentric. Far from being domestically inept, she was, in addition to her talents as a journalist, novelist, muse and consort to men of genius, skilled in the kitchen. “She had once been a very good cook, and was particular about food,” said Ms. Lowell. “She brought her own food everywhere, to restaurants, always a clove of garlic in her purse because she felt restaurant cooks never added enough.”
Among her quirks was a distaste for vegetables or anything that got in the way of a dinner’s principal course, a prejudice that became especially pronounced at holidays. “At Christmas, we were never allowed turkey, only goose or Muscovy duck,” she said. “We were not allowed side dishes, so we begged and pleaded, ‘Couldn’t we please make some brussels sprouts.’ ”
A small salad to accompany the goose was Lady Caroline’s concession to the season — that and Christmas pudding doused with brandy butter and set alight. “Emphasis on brandy,” Ms. Lowell said.
In Sag Harbor, where she lives now in a big house inherited from her mother, she will have a Christmas tree this year, she said, and hang stockings and prepare a large dinner with friends and play Santa for her daughter, Daisy, who is still “at an age where she wants to believe.”
Ms. Lowell will not fall down drunk as she attempts stealthily to haul a pillowcase of presents down the staircase, as her mother once did. “We heard her voice saying, ‘Damn it!’ ” Ms. Lowell said, referring to herself and a sister who would die of a heroin overdose in her teens. “When we called out ‘Who is it?’ her voice came back: ‘Oh, darlings, it’s Santa Claus. Shhhh!’ ”
At Christmas, Ms. Lowell said: “There is such a multitude of opportunities to mess up, to get everything wrong. The clothes one buys for men, for instance, are always too big.
“My grandmother perennially gave joke presents,” she said, referring to the Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava. “Novelty gifts like plastic dog turds and wind-up penises. My mother was always in a state of rage. ‘Every year something insulting,’ she said. ‘Every year!’ ”
As it happened, Lady Caroline herself, while in no obvious ways an emotionally ample person, had an unexpected streak of generosity when it came to giving gifts. “She pretended she was not good at it and never wrapped anything, except perhaps in some crumpled newspapers, and would always say, ‘Oh, these are just some pathetic little sags,’ which is what she called the antiques shops in Sag Harbor — Pathetic Sags.”
In truth, her gifts “were thoughtfully chosen — a lamp, a nice print — and not pathetic at all.”
Until the last year of her life, Lady Caroline took on the role of Santa at Christmas. “At the end, when she was dying of cancer, she could not do it anymore,” Ms. Lowell explained. “Still, we were all together, and miraculously the holiday came off without anyone having a histrionic fit.”
The mother who, in Ms. Lowell’s telling, had never been much of a mother could barely eat by then, her disease was so advanced. And the alcoholic famous for throwing away the cap of a vodka bottle after opening it could no longer drink as lavishly as she had. “She could only hold down a bit of sake,” Ms. Lowell said. Still, they had a Christmas feast in 1995, two months before Lady Caroline’s death: no turkey or trimmings but also no battles royal. “Perhaps we should have had a last big fight to keep tradition,” Ms. Lowell said.
That the day came off sweetly, as does her memoir, and that it was not tinctured with bitterness owes to a particular strain of stubborn fortitude and realism that runs in her otherwise unconventional clan, she explained. “The women in my family are very strong,” she said. “They always have the sense that, even when horrible things happen, you have no option but to carry on. Publicly, my mother was a complete pessimist, total doom-and-gloom. Yet until the end, she retained her curiosity, an eagerness to see what might be next.”
Even if you cannot eat the goose that you yourself cooked, she added, “you can always look forward to who is coming to lunch.”

20/12 Top 10 Facebook fanpage đông đúc nhất Việt Nam

Thứ Hai, 20-12-2010 - 01:57 CH
Theo gioitre

Facebook là trang mạng xã hội có số lượng thành viên đông đảo nhất hiện nay. Bên cạnh vai trò là nơi liên kết các mối quan hệ trong xã hội thực và ảo, Facebook còn là nơi tập trung những người có cùng sở thích, niềm vui hay đơn giản là cần một góc nhỏ để chia sẻ. Hãy cùng điểm qua 10 Facebook Fanpage do người dùng Việt Nam khởi lập có số lượng thành viên đông đảo nhất.

1. Nhật Ký


Thành lập vào tháng 2/2010, đến nay Nhật Ký đã thu hút một lượng fan khổng lồ lên tới hơn 486.000 thành viên. Điều này cũng giúp Nhật Ký lọt vào danh sách các trang Fanpage phi lợi nhuận hàng đầu thế giới.Nhật Ký là nơi mọi người có thể chia sẻ cảm xúc của mình một cách thoải mái.

Bên cạnh đó, trang này cũng thường xuyên có những bài viết rất hay và đáng suy ngẫm. Thật dễ để tìm thấy trong danh sách bạn bè của mình những người là thành viên của Nhật Ký. Thực sự đây đã trở thành một nốt nhạc trầm của cộng đồng mạng giữa bộn bề cuộc sống.

2. Vietnam Travel


Lần đầu tiên đến với cộng đồng Facebook vào tháng 6/2010, Vietnam Travel là nơi lưu trữ và giới thiệu những tài liệu quý giá về du lịch Việt Nam. Đến với Vietnam Travel, bạn sẽ choáng ngợp trước kho ảnh đồ sộ và những bài viết công phu về các địa danh nổi tiếng trải dài khắp Tổ quốc. Vietnam Travel là nơi tập trung xấp xỉ 230.000 thành viên có cùng niềm đam mê du lịch và khám phá.

3. Rạp Chiếu Phim


Được cư dân mạng biết đến từ tháng 6/2010, Rạp Chiếu Phim là nơi giao lưu của hơn 200.000 thành viên có niềm đam mê bộ môn nghệ thuật Điện ảnh. Trang Fanpage này có rất nhiều các bài giới thiệu và phân tích sâu sắc về những tác phẩm điện ảnh ăn khách, các bộ phim truyền hình và đáng quan tâm nhất là Rạp Chiếu Phim luôn theo từng bước chân của nền điện ảnh nước nhà, cập nhật tới thành viên những tin tức nóng hổi nhất về thế giới phim Việt.

4. Facebook Vietnam


Được xây dựng từ tháng 7/2009, đến nay Facebook Vietnam đã thu hút được hơn 140.000 thành viên. Facebook Vietnam đã đăng nhiều bài viết về mạng xã hội, đặc biệt là Facebook. Không chỉ có vậy, Facebook Vietnam cũng cập nhật những thông tin thời sự nóng bỏng trong và ngoài nước. Tại đây, người đọc còn bắt gặp rất nhiều những bình luận chia sẻ về cuộc sống của các thành viên khác.

5. Doraemon


Fujimoto hay Fujiko F. Fujio đã chinh phục cả thế giới với tác phẩm kỳ khôi Đô-ra-ê-mon - truyện tranh cho thiếu nhi nổi tiếng khắp năm châu, đạt được vô số giải thưởng trong và ngoài nước. Cả thế giới biết đến Đô-ra-ê-mon, yêu quý và thần tượng chú mèo máy tốt bụng này. Hình tượng chú mèo máy thông minh nay đã trở thành ước mơ của biết bao em nhỏ Việt Nam và cũng là động lực của biết bao doanh nhân thành đạt. Chào thế giới vào tháng 5/2009, Fanpage Doraemon thu hút xấp xỉ 130.000 fan Việt Nam.

6. Kênh14


Với vai trò kênh thông tin giải trí hàng đầu cho giới trẻ Việt Nam, Kênh14 tập trung những thông tin nóng bỏng nhất về nhịp sống trẻ, thông tin về làng giải trí, thời trang, cùng những chuyên mục rất gần gũi và thiết thực đối với giới teen. Facebook của Kênh14 ra đời từ tháng 11/2009 với lượng fan lên đến 105.000 thành viên.

7. LanguageLink


Language Link là một tổ chức giáo dục và đào tạo Anh quốc, đã tiên phong đầu tư vào Việt Nam với mục tiêu phổ biến tiếng Anh diện rộng để phát triển nguồn nhân lực Việt Nam. Facebook của Language Link ra mắt từ tháng 2/2009 và có hơn 100.000 thành viên.

8. Tôi ghét thuốc lá


Như tên gọi, trang Facebook này là nơi tập trung những người phản đối việc hút thuốc lá. Nằm trong một dự án tuyên truyền, nâng cao nhận thức về tác hại của thuốc lá, "Tôi ghét thuốc lá" có những bài viết và video ấn tượng về mối nguy của thuốc lá đối với cuộc sống. Số lượng fan của trang Facebook đặc biệt này đã lên tới 84.000 từ ngày thành lập vào tháng 12/2009.

9. Dịch vụ quảng cáo


Lập ra cách đây vài tháng, là nơi các doanh nghiệp có thể đăng miễn phí quảng cáo của mình, trang Facebook này có lượng thành viên gần 85.000 người. Người đọc có thể vào đây để tham khảo và nhận được tư vấn về các món hàng mà mình tìm kiếm.

10. Wonder Design


Cũng với lượng fan vào khoảng 84.000 thành viên, Wonder Design là Facebook của một anh chàng đam mê kiến trúc. Đến với Wonder Designm, người đọc có thể tìm thấy những mẫu thiết kế nhà đẹp hay nhận được tư vấn về xây dựng và nội thất.

Từ khóa bài viết: Facebook, mạng xã hội, việt nam, doanh nghiệp

16/12 Freakonomics Radio: Do More Expensive Wines Taste Better?

December 16, 2010, 10:30 am — Updated: 4:28 pm -->
Freakonomics Radio: Do More Expensive Wines Taste Better?
By STEPHEN J. DUBNER

The latest Freakonomics Radio podcast is called “Do More Expensive Wines Taste Better?” (You can download/subscribe at iTunes, get the RSS feed or listen live via the link in box at right.)
When you take a sip of Cabernet, what are you tasting? The grape? The tannins? The oak barrel? Or the price?

Believe it or not, the most dominant flavor may be the dollars. Thanks to the work of some intrepid and wine-obsessed economists (yes, there is an American Association of Wine Economists), we are starting to gain a new understanding of the relationship between wine, critics and consumers.

One of these researchers is Robin Goldstein, whose paper detailing more than 6,000 blind tastings reaches the conclusion that “individuals who are unaware of the price do not derive more enjoyment from more expensive wine.”

So why do we pay so much attention to critics and connoisseurs who tell us otherwise?

That’s the question we set out to answer in this podcast. Along the way, you’ll hear details about Goldstein’s research as well as the story of how his “restaurant” in Milan, Osteria L’Intrepido, won an Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator magazine. (Not how you think!)

Also featured: Steve Levitt, who admits his palate is “underdeveloped,” describing a wine-tasting stunt he pulled on his elders at Harvard’s Society of Fellows.

Also, you’ll hear from wine broker Brian DiMarco (featured in the forthcoming documentary Escaping Robert Parker) who pulled a stunt of his own on his very wine-savvy employees. DiMarco also walks us through the mechanics of the wine-purchase business, and describes how price is often a far-too-powerful signal to our taste buds.

A couple of very interesting interviews didn’t make the podcast but are worth a mention here. One was with the noted Princeton economist (and wine buff) Orley Ashenfelter*, who spoke about our general overreliance on experts, whether they’re in the wine field or far beyond:
I mean, S&P, Moody’s, Fitch, these people all rated securities that apparently completely tanked. So there’s obviously something in the demand for expertise, the imprimatur, which is not really about the fact that they do a good job. By the way, those organizations are not transparent either, just as the Wine Spectator isn’t. So there’s some similarity here that I think probably gives us a little insight into things that are much broader than wine and food.

The other interview was with George Taber, author of the fascinating book Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine. He recalled the moment he realized that even the most sophisticated wine experts can have feet of clay:
And there was just one classic moment when one of the French judges by the name of Raymond Oliver, who was the owner of the Le Grand Vefour restaurant, he had a television show on food in France, he was a big thing in French wine and food circles. He had a white wine in front of him. He looked at the white wine, then he held it up to a light to look at the color very closely. Then he took a sip of it. Then he held it up again. Then he said in French, ‘Ah, back to France.’ And I looked down at my scorecard and he’d just tasted the 1972 Freemark Abbey Chardonnay.

Wishing you the happiest of holiday seasons, and urging you to spend $15 instead of $50 on your next bottle of wine. Go ahead, take the money you save and blow it on the lottery.

* You can hear Ashenfelter in a related Marketplace piece that aired recently.

Stephen J. Dubner is an author and journalist who lives in New York City. Follow @freakonomics on Twitter.

15/12 In France, Civil Unions Gain Favor Over Marriage

By SCOTT SAYARE and MAÏA DE LA BAUME
Published: December 15, 2010

PARIS — Some are divorced and disenchanted with marriage; others are young couples ideologically opposed to marriage, but eager to lighten their tax burdens. Many are lovers not quite ready for old-fashioned matrimony.

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A pact is enough: Sophie Lazzaro and Thierry Galissant.
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Whatever their reasons, and they vary widely, French couples are increasingly shunning traditional marriages and opting instead for civil unions, to the point that there are now two civil unions for every three marriages.
When France created its system of civil unions in 1999, it was heralded as a revolution in gay rights, a relationship almost like marriage, but not quite. No one, though, anticipated how many couples would make use of the new law. Nor was it predicted that by 2009, the overwhelming majority of civil unions would be between straight couples.
It remains unclear whether the idea of a civil union, called a pacte civil de solidarité, or PACS, has responded to a shift in social attitudes or caused one. But it has proved remarkably well suited to France and its particularities about marriage, divorce, religion and taxes — and it can be dissolved with just a registered letter.
“We’re the generation of divorced parents,” explained Maud Hugot, 32, an aide at the Health Ministry who signed a PACS with her girlfriend, Nathalie Mondot, 33, this year. Expressing a view that researchers say is becoming commonplace among same-sex couples and heterosexuals alike, she added, “The notion of eternal marriage has grown obsolete.”
France recognizes only “citizens,” and the country’s legal principles hold that special rights should not be accorded to particular groups or ethnicities. So civil unions, which confer most of the tax benefits and legal protections of marriage, were made available to everyone. (Marriage, on the other hand, remains restricted to heterosexuals.) But the attractiveness of civil unions to heterosexual couples was evident from the start. In 2000, just one year after the passage of the law, more than 75 percent of civil unions were signed between heterosexual couples. That trend has only strengthened since then: of the 173,045 civil unions signed in 2009, 95 percent were between heterosexual couples.
“It’s becoming more and more commonplace,” said Laura Anicet, 24, a student who signed a PACS last month with her 29-year-old boyfriend, Cyril Reich. “For me, before, the PACS was for homosexual couples.”
As with traditional marriages, civil unions allow couples to file joint tax returns, exempt spouses from inheritance taxes, permit partners to share insurance policies, ease access to residency permits for foreigners and make partners responsible for each other’s debts. Concluding a civil union requires little more than a single appearance before a judicial official, and ending one is even easier.
It long ago became common here to speak of “getting PACSed” (se pacser, in French). More recently, wedding fairs have been renamed to include the PACS, department stores now offer PACS gift registries and travel agencies offer PACS honeymoon packages.
Even the Roman Catholic Church, which initially condemned the partnerships as a threat to the institution of marriage, has relented; the National Confederation of Catholic Family Associations now says civil unions do not pose “a real threat.”
While the partnerships have exploded in popularity, marriage numbers have continued a long decline in France, as across Europe. Just 250,000 French couples married in 2009, with fewer than four marriages per 1,000 residents; in 1970, almost 400,000 French couples wed.
Germany, too, has seen a similar plunge in marriage rates. In 2009, there were just over four marriages per 1,000 residents compared with more than seven per 1,000 in 1970. In the United States, the current rate is 6.8 per 1,000 residents, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
France is not the only European nation to allow civil unions between straight couples, but in the few countries that do — Luxembourg, Andorra, the Netherlands — they are not as popular. In the Netherlands in 2009, for example, there was just one civil union for every eight marriages.
If current trends continue in France, new civil unions could soon outnumber marriages, as they already do in Paris’s youthful 11th Arrondissement.

François Lambert, 28, and his girlfriend, Maud Moulin, 27, signed a civil union in 2007 for what he described as logistical reasons. Both public schoolteachers, they would be assured of postings to the same district only if they filed joint tax returns, which civil unions allow.

“We didn’t have time to prepare for a marriage,” he said. “It was a question of speed.”
Sophie Lazzaro, 48, an event planner in Paris, signed a civil union in 2006 with her longtime companion, Thierry Galissant, who is 50. (She said she was drawn to a civil union largely for the legal protections and stability it offered.)
“I have two daughters, and if something happens to me, I want us to stay together as a family,” she said. “But without getting married.”
In addition to their practical advantages, she said, civil unions are ideologically suited to her generation, which came of age after the social rebellions of the 1960s. “We were very free,” she said. “AIDS didn’t exist, we had the pill, we didn’t have to fight. We were the first generation to enjoy all of this.” She added, “Marriage has a side that’s very institutional and very square and religious, which didn’t fit for us.”
Though French marriages are officially concluded in civil ceremonies held in town halls, not in churches, marriage is still viewed here as a “heavy and invasive” institution with deep ties to Christianity, said Wilfried Rault, a sociologist at the National Institute for Demographic Studies.
“Marriage bears the traces of a religious imprint,” he said, often anathema in a country where secularism has long been treated as a sacred principle. “It’s really an ideological slant, saying, ‘No one is going to tell me what I have to do.’ ”
For some, civil unions are simply a form of premarital engagement. Ms. Anicet, the student, said she and her boyfriend would probably be married were they not of different religions. She is Catholic, he is Jewish, and his mother disapproves of marrying outside the faith, Ms. Anicet said.
“We’re realizing that this is a test,” she said, “a way to get our families used to it.”
Though the two had considered a civil union for tax reasons, now “it’s a jumping-off point to getting married, later,” she said, adding after a pause, “I hope.”

15/12 Phys Ed: The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast

December 15, 2010, 12:01 am — Updated: 2:08 pm -->
Phys Ed: The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast
By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

The holiday season brings many joys and, unfortunately, many countervailing dietary pitfalls. Even the fittest and most disciplined of us can succumb, indulging in more fat and calories than at any other time of the year. The health consequences, if the behavior is unchecked, can be swift and worrying. A recent study by scientists in Australia found that after only three days, an extremely high-fat, high-calorie diet can lead to increased blood sugar and insulin resistance, potentially increasing the risk for Type 2 diabetes. Waistlines also can expand at this time of year, prompting self-recrimination and unrealistic New Year’s resolutions.
But a new study published in The Journal of Physiology suggests a more reliable and far simpler response. Run or bicycle before breakfast. Exercising in the morning, before eating, the study results show, seems to significantly lessen the ill effects of holiday Bacchanalias.

For the study, researchers in Belgium recruited 28 healthy, active young men and began stuffing them with a truly lousy diet, composed of 50 percent fat and 30 percent more calories, overall, than the men had been consuming. Some of the men agreed not to exercise during the experiment. The rest were assigned to one of two exercise groups. The groups’ regimens were identical and exhausting. The men worked out four times a week in the mornings, running and cycling at a strenuous intensity. Two of the sessions lasted 90 minutes, the others, an hour. All of the workouts were supervised, so the energy expenditure of the two groups was identical.

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Their early-morning routines, however, were not. One of the groups ate a hefty, carbohydrate-rich breakfast before exercising and continued to ingest carbohydrates, in the form of something like a sports drink, throughout their workouts. The second group worked out without eating first and drank only water during the training. They made up for their abstinence with breakfast later that morning, comparable in calories to the other group’s trencherman portions.
The experiment lasted for six weeks. At the end, the nonexercising group was, to no one’s surprise, super-sized, having packed on an average of more than six pounds. They had also developed insulin resistance — their muscles were no longer responding well to insulin and weren’t pulling sugar (or, more technically, glucose) out of the bloodstream efficiently — and they had begun storing extra fat within and between their muscle cells. Both insulin resistance and fat-marbled muscles are metabolically unhealthy conditions that can be precursors of diabetes.
The men who ate breakfast before exercising gained weight, too, although only about half as much as the control group. Like those sedentary big eaters, however, they had become more insulin-resistant and were storing a greater amount of fat in their muscles.
Only the group that exercised before breakfast gained almost no weight and showed no signs of insulin resistance. They also burned the fat they were taking in more efficiently. “Our current data,” the study’s authors wrote, “indicate that exercise training in the fasted state is more effective than exercise in the carbohydrate-fed state to stimulate glucose tolerance despite a hypercaloric high-fat diet.”
Just how exercising before breakfast blunts the deleterious effects of overindulging is not completely understood, although this study points toward several intriguing explanations. For one, as has been known for some time, exercising in a fasted state (usually possible only before breakfast), coaxes the body to burn a greater percentage of fat for fuel during vigorous exercise, instead of relying primarily on carbohydrates. When you burn fat, you obviously don’t store it in your muscles. In “our study, only the fasted group demonstrated beneficial metabolic adaptations, which eventually may enhance oxidative fatty acid turnover,” said Peter Hespel, Ph.D., a professor in the Research Center for Exercise and Health at Catholic University Leuven in Belgium and senior author of the study.
At the same time, the fasting group showed increased levels of a muscle protein that “is responsible for insulin-stimulated glucose transport in muscle and thus plays a pivotal role in regulation of insulin sensitivity,” Dr Hespel said.
In other words, working out before breakfast directly combated the two most detrimental effects of eating a high-fat, high-calorie diet. It also helped the men avoid gaining weight.
There are caveats, of course. Exercising on an empty stomach is unlikely to improve your performance during that workout. Carbohydrates are easier for working muscles to access and burn for energy than fat, which is why athletes typically eat a high-carbohydrate diet. The researchers also don’t know whether the same benefits will accrue if you exercise at a more leisurely pace and for less time than in this study, although, according to Leonie Heilbronn, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Adelaide in Australia, who has extensively studied the effects of high-fat diets and wrote a commentary about the Belgian study, “I would predict low intensity is better than nothing.”
So, unpleasant as the prospect may be, set your alarm after the next Christmas party to wake you early enough that you can run before sitting down to breakfast. “I would recommend this,” Dr. Heilbronn concluded, “as a way of combating Christmas” and those insidiously delectable cookies.

From 1 to 25 of 452 Comments
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1. December 15, 2010 1:11 am Link
The weight loss benefits of “exercising in a fasted state” have also been noted elsewhere in recent years.
Sometimes it’s referred to as “bonk training”. For example, from the September 2002 Bicycling magazine:
HOW TO BONK TRAIN1. Upon waking, drink 2-3 cups of coffee, up to 45 minutes before cycling. Don’t eat.2. Ride at endurance pace- 60-70% of your max heart rate, or a casual pace that doesn’t make you pant when you talk.3. Keep it up for 20-90 minutes.4. You can do this on consecutive days, but mix in at least one normal breakfast per week.5. Eat your typical breakfast as soon as the ride ends.6 . Watch the blubber ignite!!
If you’re _already_ at a good weight, “bonk training” wouldn’t be desireable for a serious amateur athlete … you generally can’t do an intense quality workout, for the purpose of building aerobic endurance, on an empty stomach.— Kirth Gersen

2. December 15, 2010 1:14 am Link
As always, a study conducted with only male participants. I wouldn’t be surprised if women’s bodies behaved very differently.— S

3. December 15, 2010 1:59 am Link
What lessons am I, a 50-something woman, supposed to take from a study that enrolled 28 healthy young men?— JenofNJ

4. December 15, 2010 2:45 am Link
I wonder if coffee would substitute for water – at least some of it. Probably not so lucky. I’m guessing 30 min might be an ol’ foggies limit anyway. Mine is 2 minutes! then I gotta rest … or die,— Chamae

5. December 15, 2010 2:55 am Link
And then, of course, there is the emotional factor.
For me at least, a pre-breakfast workout has me feeling great all day, whereas a post breakfast workout high only lasts a couple of hours.— Brian

6. December 15, 2010 3:45 am Link
But I won’t give up my morning coffee before doing my morning training.http://www.lifestyle-after50.com/coffee.html— 50PlusSam

7. December 15, 2010 5:23 am Link
**”I would recommend this,” Dr. Heilbronn concluded, “as a ways of combating Christmas…”**Lock up the presents! Guard the Roast Beast! All you Who’s down in Whoville (or at least in Adelaide environs) GRINCH ALERT!Presume the Scrooge-y Dr. H also offers freelance credit advice on coping with bulging credit card waistlines, recipes for eggnog made of fat-free, sugarless eggnog and suggests coal for all who have been either naughty OR nice.“Combating Christmas”… To the ramparts! Or at least to the track before you eat a morsel all you BAD gluttonous children.Wait! Adelaide is in Australia where Christmas arrives in the middle of summer… aka Santa in a Speedo sipping a 40 oz. can of Fosters… never mind.— St. Nickedoff

8. December 15, 2010 6:11 am Link
Interesting study. I wish the weight loss industry would pay attention. As someone who exercises primarily to keep the pounds off and not to compete in marathons, I have always exercised before breakfast with only water and have never understood why so many advice sources claim it is this awful thing to exercise on an empty stomach and suggest these high carb drinks to casual exercisers to supposedly improve our workouts. If you’re just trying to lose weight or stay in shape, it makes absolutely no sense to eat a 200 calorie energy bar before you get on the exercise bike and then drink 100 calories of gatorade during a workout in which you’ll only burn about 200-300 calories in the first place.— Kdd

9. December 15, 2010 6:33 am Link
The fasting group lost weight because they had to destroy their muscles to find energy.Not a good idea for permanent weight loss.Excellent experiment but very bad results interpretation.Dr Salomon Jakubowicz— Salomon Jakubowicz

10. December 15, 2010 6:45 am Link
This is a fascinating article! Can’t wait to read the whole thing.
Here’s what I’m thinking–if you eat late–and a lot of “party food” you probably aren’t going to be hungry first thing in the morning. So just go for exercising on an empty stomach.
Under normal circumstances–grab a light-hold-you-over breakfast before exercising. Eat more afterward.
Glad someone figured this out. Quite shocking how quickly diet adversely affects one’s body!— The Healthy L ibrarian

11. December 15, 2010 7:10 am Link
The benefits of exercising before breakfast are….. feeling nauseated and dizzy. No thanks!— S

12. December 15, 2010 7:14 am Link
The holidays can be such a joyful time of year, but all the excess calories, alcohol, stress, and increased demand on our bodies can cause us to suffer unexpected holiday effects, like insulin resistance and also heart attack. See ‘Avoiding Holiday Heart Attacks’ on my blog at http://www.ladywiththepants.com and find some simple ways to protect yourself and your family this holiday season.— Theresa Ayala

13. December 15, 2010 7:29 am Link
As a long time runner I have found that when I run before breakfast I actually feel stronger during my run. After a glass of water I am out the door, but it does take a bit of getting used to.— Tony

14. December 15, 2010 7:52 am Link
I have lost 10 pounds since May with eliminating breakfast and eating standard healthy lunches and dinners of high fiber, low sodium. I had read of similar study last spring.— gallega

15. December 15, 2010 8:06 am Link
I usually can’t stomach food until after 9am anyway, so working out on a glass of OJ, some coffee and maybe a banana first thing in the morning is normal for me. Good to know that aside from starting my day well oxygenated and warmed up might also benefit me in this other way.— Morgans

16. December 15, 2010 8:24 am Link
Does anyone know how researchers determine that undigested fats, as opposed to carbs, are being burned during exercise?
For years I’ve read claims about ‘the fat-burning zone’ — in which a higher percentage of fat is burned during cardio, but I’ve never seen any published description of the methodology, and have no idea whether it is fact or health myth.
How does one know whether the burned fat came from stored body fat, or simply undigested fats from food?— Sequel

17. December 15, 2010 8:35 am Link
The other benefit of committing to exercising before breakfast is that a person is more likely to do it. If I postpone my run until the middle or end of the day, I am likely to come up with some excuse to skip it. I try to roll out of bed and head out the door before I can think of a reason not to, and that has worked for years.— Kris

18. December 15, 2010 8:38 am Link
I would like to see a study that is comprised of women. Some researchers are finally starting to understand that studies done on young relatively healthy males do not truly apply to women.— Lisa

19. December 15, 2010 8:44 am Link
Wow! These findings really point out how our bodies behave when it comes to food. And yet, for some cultural reason our breakfasts are usually one of the worst meals of the day loaded with fats and sugars. Pancakes and eggs, anyone? The institution of breakfast is leading us into obesity and I for one cannot understand WHY anyone living at home with an adequate kitchen has to go OUT for breakfast!! Add the expense and you have a formula for disaster. Now, consider the millions that leave home and MUST STOP at a fast food restaurant for breakfast on the run, or drive, to work. This study confirms the hazards of a high calorie/fat breakfast along with a sedentary job. I have a feeling that the TV show The Biggest Loser” will run for decades and will never run of candidates.— Rayman

20. December 15, 2010 8:51 am Link
How can we reach conclusions so firmly based on research conducted only 28 participants and also gain such a widespread publicity ?http://www.vegetarian-zone.com— Vegetarian

21. December 15, 2010 8:54 am Link
I always exercise before breakfast – I’m so habituated to it that I just wake up and jump on the elliptical or go out running or walking without even thinking about it. The psychological benefit is huge – you’re halfway through your work-out before you’re even awake! And you’re done for the day, which is a great feeling. So even if it didn’t have the physical effects described above, I’d still recommend it!— Nancy

22. December 15, 2010 8:56 am Link
Vigorous exercise BEFORE meals (if not an empty stomach) seems just common sense — unless you like the taste of vomit in your mouth. [And who DOESN'T?]I’m sure glad somebody got those wacky Belgians to go all human guinea pig for a project to discover something perfectly obvious.Imagine the joy of the “‘twerps” either pigging out in the AM and then twiddling their Elvish thumbs — OR then tearing about for 90 minutes of soul-crushing exercise. I hope they were well remunerated, or at least given a “fancy” sample of delicious Belgian chocolates for their efforts.Of course running, weight lifting, swimming or whatever morning workout you choose done on an empty stomach. (Uh, going without “breakfast” isn’t much of an option for those who like to work out late.)There is all the business about carbo-loading for endurance fuel, but if you are trying to cut down on calories to lose a few lbs through exercise it doesn’t make much sense to guzzle hundreds of calories in sugary sports drinks while you are shedding only a few dozen calories with a brisk morning run. Thirsty? I have one word for you: water.Keep in mind that I am NOT what you call a “breakfast person” unless I find a Denny’s open off the freeway in Riverside while I’m driving through on vacation. My first meal is normally around 2-ish. Yeah, I know breakfast is the most important meal of the blah-blah-blah. Okay, then I have my “breakfast” about 2. Now are you happy?Here’s a concept that even a Belgian waffle can comprehend: Work out vigorously, then eat sensibly.— Ringdem Belgians

23. December 15, 2010 9:07 am Link
I wish I hadn’t read this one … I typically do exercise in the morning on an empty stomach – that’s the most time efficient for me and also generally when I feel best. However, I injured my ankle and can’t do anything but some laying down Pilates / sit ups right now … so I just further depressed myself and am missing my morning workouts even MORE now …The message of importance of exercise always bombards me – I LOVE to exercise and can always find a way to work it into schedule (even with a 1 yr old and a full time job), but, alas, injuries rather than desire often keep me away from it.— kfb

24. December 15, 2010 9:13 am Link
To be clear, I just read the study and the “high-fat diet” was also a high-carb diet – 50% of the calories came from fat, 40% of the calories came from carb and 10% came from protein. Of the four diets that the participants were given (3000, 3500, 4000, 4500 calories), the lowest calorie diet (3000) alone had 167 grams of fat and 300 grams of carb, an extraordinary amount of both!
Just wanted to clarify that the effect was probably not due to the fat alone and that 300 grams of carbohydrate is just, wow, an incredible amount that will surely make anyone’s blood glucose skyrocket.
Is it just me, or is the study also vague about what type of breakfast the fasting group received? Did they receive the high-carb breakfast as well?— FoodieRD

25. December 15, 2010 9:18 am Link
The results of this new study are astounding. It’s sure to unnerve the Oprah and Dr. Phil watching masses.
“But a new study published in The Journal of Physiology suggests a more reliable and far simpler response. Run or bicycle before breakfast.”
“…the non-exercising group was, to no one’s surprise, super-sized, having packed on an average of more than six pounds.”
“Only the group that exercised before breakfast gained almost no weight”
“Our current data,” the study’s authors wrote, “indicate that exercise training in the fasted state is more effective than exercise in the carbohydrate-fed state”
…“exercising in a fasted state (usually possible only before breakfast), coaxes the body to burn a greater percentage of fat for fuel during vigorous exercise, instead of relying primarily on carbohydrates.”
“In other words, working out before breakfast directly combated the two most detrimental effects of eating a high-fat, high-calorie diet. It also helped the men avoid gaining weight.”
Who would have ever even entertained such radical and ground-breaking theories. Maybe a blaspheming maverick like Jack LaLanne who was practically born in the 19th century? (“At the age of 96, LaLanne continues to work out every morning for two hours. He spends 1½ hours in the weight room and half an hour swimming or walking.”)
Good old, old Jack. But…what did he know.
I’ve hear that a new study is underway in one of those radical universities in California. They’re theorizing that the earth isn’t flat. Imagine that.— RC






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11/12 iPad được "google" nhiều nhất năm 2010

11/12/2010 07:00:15 AM

ICTnews - Năm ngoái, biểu tượng nhạc Pop đã qua đời Michael Jackson và các siêu sao Hollywood khác đã thu hút sự chú ý trên Internet. Nhưng năm nay, các ngôi sao của Silicon Valley được “truy lùng” nhiều nhất trên web.

Google vừa công bố báo cáo hàng năm về những từ được tìm kiếm nhiều nhất trên web trong năm 2010. Có đến 7 trong số 10 từ tìm kiếm nhiều nhất tại Mỹ trong năm nay là về các sản phẩm công nghệ nổi tiếng và các dịch vụ web.

iPad, thiết bị được Steve Jobs giới thiệu vào tháng Một, đã chiếm vị trí số 1 trong danh sách những từ được tìm kiếm nhất nhất trên web năm 2010. Sau iPad là những hiện tượng công nghệ khác xuất hiện rất nhiều trên báo chí năm nay, đó là trang web chia sẻ video Chatroulette (số 2), iPhone 4 (số 3) và Facebook (số 7).

“Các lệnh tìm kiếm hàng đầu tại Mỹ cho thấy công nghệ thực sự là chủ đề lớn, thu hút sự quan tâm của mọi người trong năm 2010”, Jonathan Effrat, quản lý sản phẩm của nhóm tìm kiếm trong Google, nói. “Công nghệ thực sự đã bứt phá so với năm ngoái”.

Ngay cả tên tuổi nghệ sỹ duy nhất lọt vào top 10 từ được tìm kiếm nhiều nhất trên Google năm nay là Justin Bieber (số 5) cũng là một chủ đề được lan truyền mạnh mẽ trên Internet. World Cup (số 4) xuất hiện trong danh sách top 10 cũng nhờ những trận đấu và các đoạn video trên Internet được nhiều người truy cập.

Effrat cho biết công nghệ di động và web xã hội là những xu hướng được mọi người tìm kiếm nhiều trong năm nay.

Mỗi năm, Google đều phân tích hàng tỷ lệnh tìm kiếm trên Google.com, Google Maps, Google Images và các sản phẩm khác của Google products, để biên soạn ra báo cáo “Zeitgeist” hàng năm. Zeitgeist còn được gọi là “spirit of the times” (tạm dịch: hệ tư tưởng của thời đại).

Danh sách 10 từ được tìm kiếm nhiều nhất trên Google năm 2010 tại Mỹ:
1. iPad
2. Chatroulette
3. iPhone 4
4. World Cup
5. Justin Bieber
6. Myxer (trang MP3, nhạc chờ miễn phí)
7. Facebook
8. Grooveshark (trang radio trên Internet)
9. Glee (chương trình Fox TV)
10. Mocospace (mạng xã hội di động rất nổi tiếng).
Và đây là danh sách 10 từ được tìm kiếm nhiều nhất năm 2010 trên toàn cầu
1. iPad
2. Justin Bieber
3. Facebook
4. Twitter
5. Chatroulette
6. Nicki Minaj
7. Friv (trò chơi trực tuyến miễn phí)
8. Myxer
9. Katy Perry
10. Gamezer (trang game online)
Năm 2009, top 10 từ được tìm kiếm nhiều nhất trên toàn cầu là:
1. Michael Jackson
2. Facebook
3. Tuenti (trang Facebook bằng tiếng Tây Ban Nha)
4. Twitter
5. Sanalika (một trang mạng xã hội của Thổ Nhĩ Kỳ)
6. "New Moon" (tên một bộ phim)
7. Lady Gaga (nữ ca sỹ - mọi người đã tìm kiếm ảnh và video của nữ ca sỹ này nhiều nhất)
8. Windows 7
9. Dantri.com.vn .
10. Torpedo Gratis (một trang tin nhắn SMS của Braxin)
Bảo Bình
Theo ABCnews

5 Dating Mistakes All Guys Make

Monday, December 13th, 2010

You’ve made these dating mistakes — it’s just that women have been too busy rolling their eyes at you to point them out. Until now.

By Alida Nugent

As a slighly-insane-but-decently-hot-with-makeup female with no criminal record and a hankering for ’90s action films, I shouldn’t be single. But I am, and I am single because you are clueless.

Sure, you’re able to iron your button-downs and step out freshly shaved on a Friday night. But you’re also a clueless minnow in a sea of girls who are totally willing to make you breakfast in your college sweatshirt if you just text us back. You see, the secret to girls is that we are not all that complicated. (At least not at first. Later we’ll go all crazy and get mad when you don’t buy our favorite mustard brand, but that doesn’t happen till we’re in a relationship.) All you need to do is rethink your approach. Because chances are, you’re doing it wrong.

But it’s okay, because I’m here to tell you what you’re screwing up and how you can fix it. Oh, did I mention how nice you look in that ironed button-down?

MISTAKE #1: BUYING HER A DRINKSidling up to a girl with your wallet clip out and asking, “What’s your poison?” may seem like a really great way to break the ice, but you’re wrong. Sure, us ladies don’t mind getting drunk on your dollar, but you’re missing a prime opportunity to separate yourself from the rest of the bros out there who use the same trick — a trick that can backfire.

Basically, when a girl hears a guy offer to buy her a drink, she knows that accepting means an entire drink’s worth of commitment. Which also means that she has to (a) judge you immediately based on your looks alone and (b) decide whether your looks deserve those 15 minutes of gin-soaked banter. There are better ways for you to go about this.

What to do: Buy a drink — for yourself. When you’re halfway done, locate a cute girl who has a relatively full drink herself. Approach and make small talk until you’re both almost empty. If you have enjoyed your conversation with her, and she seems to not want to beat you off with her purse, offer to buy her another drink. Boom! You’ve just invested your money wisely.

MISTAKE # 2: ACTING ALOOFThere was a time when maintaining a semblance of mystery was still possible for a man, but due to the wonders of technology this has basically become impossible. When you meet a girl, she’s going to Facebook and Google you. (Possibly more often than you care to know about.) You cannot hide, so you need to be open — though not so open that you blow your cover and let her know how much of a role your Xbox plays in your social life.

What to do: Girls like to be pursued. They like to think that they’re wanted. So do that. But the problem with technology is that it makes us constantly pursuable, so you need to strike a happy medium to avoid finding yourself texting being goaded into texting her 80 times a day. Remember, girls have their phones on them always. They will usually text back. Also, don’t friend her on Facebook right away, and if she friends you, keep your pictures unavailable so she doesn’t see the time you used that girl as a beer stein in college.

MISTAKE #3: CLASSIFYING HER AS A BOOTY CALLYou know the old saying: Why buy the cow when you can have the kitchen counter sex for free? (Well, the saying goes something like that anyway.) I’m sure you don’t have a problem with a woman sleeping with you on a first date, but you probably then classify her as nothing more than a potential booty call. Well, what is this, 1935? Listen: Girls drink, and not only do we enjoy it, it also creates the same desire for sexual activity that it does in you. Nothing like a couple of whiskey sours and some making out at a bar to make a girl do things she didn’t necessarily mean to. However, if the sex was good and not sloppy, or if she was wearing old “I clearly didn’t expect anyone to see these tonight” panties, perhaps you should reconsider writing her off as just a casual hookup.

What to do: Go out with her again. If you see potential, keep it to a two drink minimum and avoid another drunken hook-up. If you invite her back to your place (which you will) that’s fine, but at least now you’ll know it’s because you also actually like hanging out with her. You’ll open yourself up to a larger pool for women, and women will stop spending the night after an impromptu hookup eating cookies and getting mad at their sexuality.

MISTAKE #4: DOING DINNER AND A MOVIE“Hey, wanna do an activity where we’re in the dark and aren’t allowed to converse in normal voices for two hours? And I don’t mean sex?” No. No, I don’t. If I wanted to sit and stare at Leo DiCaprio for two hours, I would stay home and watchTitanic. (Which is usually what I do when I’m not out on dates.) So sitting in a crowded theater watching a movie isn’t my idea of a good time.

I take that back — it’s a good time when I’m with somebody I already know. Now, to be fair, I think many guys actually be catching on to this. So instead of the movie, you may make a reservation at a Thai restaurant and shove Tom Yum down your throat as you ask the girl about her hobbies. Well, that’s kind of overdone too. Girls watch a lot of romantic comedies, and it’s very rare for a plot to revolve around a series of dinners at ethnic restaurants. Think outside the sushi box!

Solution: Bowling and karaoke. Yeah, they’re pretty standard activities, but you really don’t need to be a whole lot more creative than that. Believe it or not, women want to know what you like to do. It makes us feel like we’re getting to know you on some level that eating a meal does not allow. If you could do whatever you wanted on a Saturday afternoon, what would that be? Let’s do it! But also, ask her what she likes to do. Point is, being creative doesn’t necessarily entail weird The Bachelor-style dates like making pottery while rock climbing. We like simple, casual stuff too.

MISTAKE #5: AVOIDING CONFLICTWhat’s up with treating us like we’re little shell eggs made of the finest spun glass? Listen, you’re not the first guy we’ve ever met who messed us up, and you probably won’t be the last. And we’re not going to lie down and take you ignoring us, breaking our dates, or sneaking around. We will attack you with our talons out, so it’s about time you use logic and common courtesy and just let us know what’s up with you.

Solution: Getting sporadic with the phone calls, not responding when we e-mail you, or giving us the old run around is no longer possible (again, technology means we will find you). So you need to suck it up and let us know when you stop being interested or want to see other people. We will confront you if you do not — we will not fade away or silently wait for your reply. And the problem is, we’ll be doubly pissed off and crazy when we do it. (I’m talking caps-lock text messages and lots of hand waving.) Possibly some hitting. We can take rejection — visual aid notwithstanding — but we don’t want to wait around for it.