Life’s Too Short: The Complete First Season

LIFE’S TOO SHORT had an odd effect on me. The series is a very run-of-the-mill, un-noteworthy faux reality show in the vein of ENTOURAGE and EXTRAS from the minds of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (who created the original BBC version of THE OFFICE) and star Warwick Davis (best known as Wicket the Ewok from RETURN OF THE JEDI and Professor Flitwick in the HARRY POTTER series.) On the surface it was rather clumsily written with barely defined secondary characters and weekly stories (and even a series arc) that doesn’t particularly go anywhere. But I found that I couldn’t stop watching it. I burned through the entire series in a single sitting and barely felt the time pass. Willow Ufgood must still have some magic up his sleeve!

LIFE’S TOO SHORT is a brief seven episode series that follows a fictionalized version of Davis, a little person who has been in some big movies that has given him a gigantic ego. He has hired a reality film crew to document his life in hopes of reviving his completely stagnant career. When we first meet Davis we discover his wife is in the process of divorcing him; he owes a massive 250,000 pounds in back taxes; his flailing talent agency for fellow little people is more aimed at getting him work and nobody really knows who he is, even actors he has previously worked with. The only true constant in his life are his “friends” Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (playing fictionalized versions of themselves), who only barely tolerate him, and his completely worthless accountant, Eric (Steve Brody) who comically destroys everything in Davis’ life he comes in contact with.

Like the aforementioned ENTOURAGE, LIFE’S TOO SHORT features cameos by several celebrities playing bizarrely comic versions of themselves (from Liam Neeson, Johnny Depp and Sting to Cat Deeley and Right Said Fred.) However most of these appearances feel forced (only Sting and Deeley really feel naturally mixed in with the story of the episode) even though they are really fun to watch (Neeson wins the hysterical cameo award here). This is ultimately what brings LIFE’S TOO SHORT down from “Must See TV” to “If There’s Nothing Else On TV”: the characters and situations all feel forced. It’s as if Gervais and Merchant had a checklist of things to do each episode (1. Height jokes and situations revolving around Davis’ height 2. Davis’ ego destroys his personal and professional life in some way 3. Davis visits Gervais and Merchant to ask for work/borrow money 4. At least one big celebrity cameo) and whatever else is needed to get to a 30 minute episode is just filling. There are very few honestly earned laughs in the series but plenty of chuckles and enough light humor to make the time go by quickly. Very quickly it turned out.

THE DISC:
The anamorphic 1.78 transfer is serviceable. Colors are well saturated and detail is acceptable. Nothing exceptionally stands out nor should it as the series needs to have an overly realistic look to it.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is also decent. Dialogue is clear although the accents sometimes are not (Rosamund Hanson may be delightfully funny as Davis’ blasé secretary but she is sometimes extremely difficult to understand. Thankfully there are subtitles available.) Environments are spacious but more often than not the locations are small interiors. Overall there is nothing to really complain about or particularly compliment on the technical front.

THE EXTRAS:
The supplement package kicks off with a full half hour documentary originally produced to introduce the series in the UK: “The Making of LIFE’S TOO SHORT.” Gervais, Merchant and Davis give us a nice overview of the series and what to expect complete with loads of behind the scenes footage.
About 10 and a half minutes of “Deleted Scenes” are worth checking out if only for the great DOCTOR WHO piece that was cut from the Science Fiction Convention episode.

Antarctic Researchers Cancel Search for Life 2 Miles Down

U.K. researchers hunting for life in a lake under 3 kilometers (2 miles) of Antarctic ice called off their mission after drilling delays led to a fuel shortage.

The team decided to halt work on Dec. 25 after failing to link two boreholes 300 meters beneath the ice, according to the British Antarctic Survey, part of the drilling group.

The researchers will have to wait at least another year to try reaching Lake Ellsworth, which has been isolated under the West Antarctic ice sheet for hundreds of thousands of years. They’d hoped to test water samples for microbial life and search the lake bed for clues into the past climate of Antarctica.

“This is, of course, hugely frustrating for us, but we have learned a lot this year,” principal investigator Martin Siegert said today in an e-mailed statement. “I remain confident that we will unlock the secrets of Lake Ellsworth in coming seasons.”

The researchers had struggled with a leaking cavity, designed to link the main borehole with a secondary hole used to recirculate drilling water back to the surface. They used so much fuel melting snow to fill the cavern that they didn’t have enough to complete the project, which relied on a pressurized hot-water drill.

Siegert, a professor of geosciences at the University of Edinburgh, first thought of searching for life in Antarctica’s underground lakes 16 years ago. Ellsworth was chosen as a target for the 8 million-pound ($13 million) project eight years later.

It’s one of at least 387 known sub-glacial Antarctic lakes, which formed deep below the surface as the pressure exerted by thousands of meters of ice drove down the freezing point of water.

Life around Newtown, Conn., goes on, but reminders are everywhere

Little girls hopped out of SUVs and skipped up the steps to the Connecticut Dance! studio. They slipped on black leotards, petal-pink tights and slippers, and padded off with giggling friends to ballet, jazz and tap classes.

Some of the tiny dancers wore green ribbons, the favorite color of slain first-grade teacher Victoria Soto, or had scrawled the names of dead students on their wrists. Some arrived from funerals, having lost close friends, karate club and soccer teammates, fellow Daisy Girl Scouts and Tiger Cub Scouts.

Twenty children have gone missing not just from Sandy Hook Elementary School, but from the intricate network of childhood activities that connect suburban Newtown. In the weeks ahead, as anguished families resume their schedules and social lives, they will be repeatedly reminded of those missing faces, their sorrow testing the daily routines that bind them.

None of the dancers' classmates were killed at Sandy Hook on Dec. 14. But the owner, Andrea Stratford — Miss Andrea to the children — has a 5-year-old son, Luke, who saw his teacher's aide after she was shot in the foot. Stratford's husband, Dennis, who works for the Newtown Board of Education, rushed to the school to make sure Luke had escaped the carnage, and then stayed to help the first responders.

At first, Stratford wasn't sure when to reopen her school. She has taught dance for 23 years, long enough to line the walls with annual recital photos. She consulted her 10 instructors.

"They were clearly distraught and couldn't really put on a front and do dance class," Stratford said.

She went to see a grief counselor at the middle school in Newtown, who advised that routine gives children a sense of safety.

So she reopened Dec. 17, three days after the rampage. Attendance dipped the first few days and then picked up. She was relieved.

"I don't want them to be afraid," Stratford said. "Life needs to be normal because that's all they have."

Elyse Scholl, 34, brought her 6-year-old daughter, Marisa, to ballet and tap class a couple days later. The family moved to Newtown from Michigan just six months ago, but they already feel connected to the community.

Marisa, who goes to Middle Gate Elementary School, is a Daisy Girl Scout, and other girls in her troop are fine. But her mother knows that eight Daisy Scouts from the Sandy Hook troop are among the 12 girls who were killed, including Charlotte Bacon, daughter of their troop leader.

Two of the girls played on Marisa's youth soccer team. The father of one, Caroline Previdi, coached the team.

Scholl has not told Marisa about her dead teammates. Fall soccer season has ended, and Marisa won't see the team again until spring. This month, Scholl took her to Newtown Youth Academy, which stayed open after the shooting to provide arts, crafts and sports activities for children.

"She jumped right into a soccer game," said Scholl, who found solace with adult friends.

Another youth soccer coach, James Belden, said the town of 28,000 was so tightly knit that almost every family felt the effects.

"There's only 2 degrees of separation in Newtown," said Belden, whose 5-year-old niece was at Sandy Hook during the shooting. "If you don't know someone, someone you know does."

That's why he and some others formed Newtown United as a grass-roots group to help reduce gun violence. Many members are parents who know one another from the soccer field and grocery store, he said, and being together gave them purpose. They've set up a Twitter account and a Facebook page, organized a committee "for sensible gun legislation," and are considering a course of action.

"We have a shared grief," Belden said. "First ... there was a shock and awe and a feeling of isolation. It's good to come together."

Some parents said their children were too scared to go out in the days after the shooting, even to karate class.

Barbara Moscova, 41, of nearby Trumbull let her 12-year-old daughter, Maia, decide whether she was ready to dance again. During the drive to Stratford's studio, Maia asked probing questions about the shooting.

"She's going to tell me more today, because some of her friends she's dancing with are from Newtown," said her mother, who waited uneasily outside in her minivan. "I'm sure she's going to have stories."

But few children inside the studio talked about the shooting. One young girl mentioned that she was wearing green "for the bad thing that happened in Newtown." Lindsey Gallagher, 11, had written the name of Chase Kowalski, one of the two slain Tiger Cub Scouts, in black marker on her wrist, next to a heart. But she remained bubbly, laughing with friends.

An hour earlier, Lindsey had been sobbing at Chase's wake, according to her father, Ray Gallagher. The day before, he said, she broke down at her middle school in Newtown. The father, his eyes teary and his voice hoarse, wore a green cable-knit sweater with a green ribbon pinned on it.


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"We're trying to keep it status quo," said Gallagher, 51, who runs a landscaping business. "I don't totally believe in getting them back into their routine right away. You let them experience what they want to."

As he waited, he talked to Stratford about security at the studio and around town. He was reassured by the fact that he was forced to pass through four police checkpoints when he picked Lindsey up from school. Now no one can be too alert, he said.

"I've never had to double-check the security for any of the organizations our kids went to," Gallagher said as strains of "Sunrise, Sunset" drifted out of a classroom where girls in pink tights were waltzing in pairs. "This is our world now."

In the past, Lindsey would take a break between dance classes to run barefoot to Chaves Bakery & Deli, a few doors down in the same covered strip mall, to grab a snack with a classmate.

When she asked to go between classes this day, her father stalled, and finally agreed only if he could accompany her.

Three Career (And Life) Lessons From Ebenezer Scrooge

“It’s enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people’s. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!” – Ebenezer Scrooge, before his reformation

It’s a tribute to the power of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol that it’s become a ubiquitous cliche in our culture. This season, Dickens’ tale is everywhere, from the stage to re-tellings in the movies and on television. But it’s a pity that it’s become such a cliche, too. I sometimes fear that by having the story so common in our culture, we miss its original power.


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If you have time this season, I’d encourage you to read the original again with fresh eyes. Or, if you’d rather watch an adaptation, there is none better than TNT’s version starring Patrick Stewart.

In reviewing the life of Mr. Scrooge, there are three important lessons to learn for your own careers, so you don’t end up alone and miserable, even if you are rich.

Make Your Employees And Co-Workers Happy

“He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil.”

From Bob Cratchit’s perspective, Ebenezer Scrooge was a miserable boss before his reformation. Even at the height of winter, Cratchit had to make do with one piece of coal to keep him warm. As a reward for his hard work on the holidays, Scrooge – begrudgingly – granted him the day off for Christmas. But not without calling Cratchit a thief for the holiday. Even so, Cratchit was grateful for it, even toasting Scrooge in the privacy of his own home at Christmas dinner.

By contrast, when Scrooge is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past, he is brought back to the his first position, as apprentice to Fezziwig. There, he recalls a Christmas in which Fezziwig treated his employees and friends to a grand Christmas, filled with dancing, feasting and merriment. Watching the scene  Scrooge becomes lost in the past and the joy he felt on those moments.  To that scene, the Ghost of Christmas Past bemusedly notes that this was just a small thing. When Scrooge protests, the Spirit says, “He has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money: three or four perhaps. Is that so much that he deserves this praise?”

To which Scrooge replies, “Say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count ‘em up: what then? The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.”

At work, especially if we’re a manager, but even if we’re not, we have the to make those around us happy or miserable. And the cost of doing either, as counted in money, often differs very little. But what a world of difference it makes in our lives and careers. Look at it this way – given the chance, would Bob Cratchit leave Scrooge for another job before his reformation? In a heartbeat, without looking back. But after his reformation? When Scrooge opened his heart and let the Cratchit family in? Not on your life.

Generosity and loyalty are rewarded in the long run, and they make a career and a job worth having.

Money Is A Means To An End; Not Its Own End

“His wealth is of no use to him. He don’t do any good with it. He don’t make himself comfortable with it.”

As the spirits show Scrooge his past, present and future, so do we understand how Scrooge became the man he was. Born poor and friendless, Scrooge made his way through the world with tenacity – determined that he would leave poverty behind him. But as he singlemindedly focused on wealth and status, the rest of his life fell to the wayside.  In particular, his avarice cost him the love of his life, because he cared more for money than he did for love. As Scrooge’s fiancee Belle said to him when she broke off their engagement, because he cared more for gain, “Another idol has displaced me; and if it can cheer and comfort you in time to come, as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to grieve.”

Thus is the pattern’s of Scrooge’s life. Despite the lessons of his master Fezziwig, Scrooge closed his heart and mind to any thought but money. He was skillful in his trade – there was never any doubt of that. But his life had no other passions. And so when he saw his future, he saw that he would die miserable, alone and unloved. In the end, the amount of gold he had gathered mattered not at all.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to succeed in business, or earn a lot of money. But in putting our passion towards the ends of status and wealth, we often ignore everything else that makes life worth living. That’s something that should be desperately avoided. There are plenty of wealthy men who don’t live for their wealth. Take billionaire Elon Musk, for example, who could almost certainly be making more money than he is now in fields other than electric cars and space. But those are his passions, and he pursues them. Bill Gates has devoted a big hunk of his fortune to curing disease and educating children. And Chuck Feeney would be a billionaire several times over if he weren’t intent on making the world a better place with his money.

Money is a tool, like any other. It’s a means to accomplishing an end. It’s not an end in and of itself.

Live A Life Without Fear

“He’s a comical old fellow,” said Scrooge’s nephew, “that’s the truth: and not so pleasant as he might be. However, his offences carry their own punishment, and I have nothing to say against him.”

When Scrooge’s fiancee, Belle, left him because of his greed, she explained to him why she thought it was that gold and gain had become his idols. “You fear the world too much. All your other hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach. I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until the master–passion, Gain, engrosses you. Have I not?”

When we hear this perspective, the character of Scrooge becomes much more apparent. Deep down inside, he was still the scared little boy, alone at Christmas with only his books for companions. Despite his intelligence and industry, Scrooge was never able to shake those fears. As a consequence, he never engaged with the world around him to understand the joy that is in it. Money became the only love in his life, and then he became a miser because he was afraid that the world would take that from him, too.

And how often does this happen to us? How often do we make ourselves miserable out of fear of losing something or someone – and then end up losing it anyway? Not despite our fears, but because of them. Fear and attachment cause us to act irrationally and make us miserable. But liberating ourselves from that fear brings us joy and happiness.

This is the key to Scrooge’s transformation – the realization that he had nothing to fear from other people. He could live his live in joy, open his heart, and the world would come to him. And if some people didn’t like him, or believe his transformation? Well, what of it? As Dickens closes his magnificent book:

“Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.”

Life, and what a gift it is

Sometime in the latter part of this year, our 95-year-old mother became terminally ill. She had been diagnosed with a life-threatening disease some eight years earlier. Out of respect for her privacy, I shall not mention the disease, but its common name alone is already a death sentence. At the onset of that diagnosis then, supported by a biopsy result, the medical specialist had advised me to prepare for her eventual death. “Within less than a year,” he had said. Eight years later, the medical prophecy had not happened.

But this year, the end became agonizingly near. All the signs were there. The physical pain that usually accompanies the disease became unbearable. Soon she had to be under the regime of pain relievers—first the low dose, then graduating to the potent ones. Her breathing became laborious and had to be supported by an oxygen machine.

In such circumstances, family is marshaled for moral support. Siblings residing in the United States were informed and came home. All started to huddle around her to give her utmost tranquility as she began her journey to the Great Beyond. The family priest came to the house regularly and gave her communion and the last sacraments. Cousins from near and far called up regularly to be updated.

At some point, one begins to be open to the eventuality of death. Each one said their goodbye. And each one, in private with her, including our household staff who had been with her for many years, sought her forgiveness for the times we had put her down. It was emotionally heavy but the releasing effect lightened the load of loved ones who had to accept death as a forthcoming reality.

Meanwhile, our mother slipped in and out of consciousness. There were days when we could no longer converse with her. Death appeared close. We wanted her prepared. Her 96th birthday was approaching and some of us had thought that maybe she was just “waiting” for her birthday. “Clairvoyance” is usually part of Filipino discourses surrounding a death wait.

But the birthday came and went. One day, our mother simply started recovering. She started to sit up and was wheeled to her early-morning sunbathing ritual in the garden. The normal conversations resumed. She wanted her favorite courses prepared from the kitchen. She started answering phone calls. Best of all, she was off morphine. What, why, was this all about? Death is something only God can decree. Despite the seeming predictability of human frailty and its proclivity for terminal illness, death and life are the province of God. There is no other equation. Anything else is human intervention, such as the reproductive health bill. In a very personal way, I saw the affirmation of what the Church had all along taught: that because only God can will it, our openness to life is a primary tenet.

Vilified and lynched by a pro-RH media, Catholic bishops stating their views against the RH bill were instantly demonized. And even when the voices came mostly from lay people, it was the bishops who were being made to accept blame, forgetting that the Church as people of God is made up very largely and generally of lay people. The truncated accusations alone tell us that many of the pro-RH advocates know very little of the value behind the Church’s stance: openness to life. Too often, discourses are clothed in the lingo of human rights, of women’s rights, and even of finding convenience in “infant” or “maternal” mortality statistics. The litany of United Nations, World Health Organization, and whatever international bodies’ assessment of contraceptive use may be endless, but the fact remains that only God can give life and it is only He who can take it away. Not chemicals or contraptions, and certainly not the gratuitous practice of the sexual act, every single one of which must be deemed open to life.

Aberdeenshire leads Bank of Scotland Quality of Life list

Aberdeenshire has the best quality of life in Scotland, according to a new Bank of Scotland survey.

East Dunbartonshire was placed second, ahead of the Shetland Islands, East Renfrewshire and then the Orkney Islands in fifth.

It is based on health and life expectancy, employment, school performance and climate.

It is the fourth time in seven years that Aberdeenshire has topped the survey.

Residents tended to be fit and well - with 93.3% reporting good health - and there was a higher than average life expectancy of 78.2 years.

The employment rate was said to be 79%.

Shetland had the highest employment rate - 81.3% - followed by Orkney (80.2%) and the Highlands at 80%.

Aberdeenshire was also faced with less rainfall per year and slightly more weekly sunshine hours than the Scottish average.

However, house prices in Aberdeenshire were 5.7 times the average annual local income, higher than the Scotland average of 4.5.

'Consistently highly'
Nitesh Patel, an economist for the Bank of Scotland, said: "Taking a wide range of indicators into account, residents in Aberdeenshire enjoy the best quality of life in Scotland - the fourth time in seven years it has taken this accolade.

"While not being the leading district across all measures, Aberdeenshire comes out on top because it scores consistently highly across nearly all indicators.

"In particular, Aberdeenshire residents typically enjoy good health, long life expectancy, high employment, low crime, and high quality schooling.

"On the downside, house prices are relatively high compared to local incomes."

The provost of Aberdeenshire, Jill Webster, said: "It is fantastic to see that Aberdeenshire has been recognised as having the best quality of life in Scotland, for the fourth time in seven years.

"From our majestic mountains to stunning coastlines, Aberdeenshire has a lot to offer as Scotland's hidden gem in terms of outdoor activities and opportunities.

"Aside from providing an extraordinary backdrop, this survey demonstrates that in Aberdeenshire our residents benefit from high rates of employment, first-rate education and good levels of health and fitness."

Where Earth's Life Lives: Famous Map Gets an Update

Alfred Russel Wallace was one of the 19th century's foremost naturalists, independently describing what became the theory of evolution, for which his contemporary Charles Darwin is more widely known. Like Darwin, Wallace was influenced by the creatures he encountered on his travels around the world. From these travels, he made a map of global biodiversity that revolutionized the way people thought about the variety of life on Earth.

Now, the map has been updated to include data from 20,000 species, where they live and how they interact with one another, said Ben Holt, a researcher at Denmark's University of Copenhagen. It allows users to see where just about every species of amphibian, mammal and bird lives, Holt said. The updated map is published today (Dec. 20) in the journal Science.

"The map summarizes all the information we have learned … regarding where species are distributed and how they are related to each other," he told OurAmazingPlanet. "The consistency among the groups is quite striking."

Regions in the Southern Hemisphere tend to have an abundance of unique animal communities, with Australia, Madagascar and South America standing out, he said. The variety of life above the equator is less distinct. It's thought this is because of the relative isolation of the areas south of the equator, as well as their unique habitats and abundance of rain and warm temperatures  – ingredients for a wide variety of life. 

The map is made by inputting species distributions onto a gridded globe, producing a species list for every grid cell, which can then be compared with the species lists of other grids, Holt said.

The resulting map divides nature into 11 large biogeographic realms and reveals how these areas relate to each other. The map incorporates genetic information that wasn't available in Wallace's day, Holt said.

The map doesn't yet include data for reptiles, plants or insects, because that information is less complete. But those data can be easily incorporated once they become available, he said.

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) was a British explorer, scientist and collector whose theories on the distribution of life, or biogeography, laid the foundations for many fields of modern biological science.
"The original Wallace map clearly had a massive and unquantifiable influence on the study of global biodiversity," Holt said. "The new map shows the incredible progress that we have made since Wallace's time and also serves as a reminder that we still know very little about how these patterns [of the distribution of life] were formed."

Celebrity Trainers Joel Harper and Larysa DiDio Challenge Americans to Commit to a Healthy Way of Life in 2013

Company (NYSE:LTM), today announced that celebrity trainers Joel Harper and Larysa DiDio have joined the Commitment Day movement as founding ambassadors to help unify the country in order to inspire the nation to commit to healthy, active lifestyles for themselves and their families.

Commitment Day is a 365-day movement designed to unite all Americans in making personal commitments to a healthier way of life. On January 1, 2013, tens of thousands of Americans will kick off the movement by participating in simultaneous 5K walk/run events spanning more than 25 cities, symbolizing their stance and personal responsibility to make America healthier.

Joel Harper has been developing custom workouts in NYC for 18 years. His clients range from Dr. Oz to Olympic Medalists who are striving for breakthrough performances, to young kids just learning to appreciate their health. Joel’s unique workouts have been featured on various programs including ABC & Fox News, Oprah, the Dr. Oz Show, Good Morning America, and Larry King.

Joel comments, "Consistency is the key to leading a healthier life. All it takes is one step in the right direction, even if it’s a small step. Living a healthy lifestyle feels great and Commitment Day is a fun and great way to get started on the right foot.”

Larysa DiDio has over 20 years of experience helping everyone from celebrities to professional athletes as well as moms, dads, and kids meet their health and fitness goals. As an accomplished writer, Larysa serves as fitness expert to national fitness magazines, such as SELF Magazine and various TV programs. Larysa owns a fitness facility in Pleasantville, NY called PFX – one of the first gyms ever to offer classes specifically tailored to kids. The mother of two spends time at schools, hospitals, wellness seminars, and on television motivating and inspiring others to live a healthy, active lifestyle.

"I'm passionate in my fight to end childhood obesity through teaching families to live healthy, active lifestyles,” explains Larysa. “I'm thrilled about Life Time's mission and very excited to jump on board as their health ambassador!"

Larysa and Joel will attend the Commitment Day 5K event and celebration in New York to be held at Pier 84 in Hudson River Park. They will host a pre-run stretch as well as share in some commentating. Both ambassadors will offer workouts tips and videos on their web site so that Americans have “no excuses” to find ways every day to be active and make short and efficient exercise routines a part of their daily lifestyle for themselves and their families.

Life terms for drug-orgy murder

Two men have been jailed for life with a minimum of 12 years for a “shocking" and "cruel" murder that the judge said showcased the terrible and sometimes fatal consequences of drug abuse.

WA Supreme Court justice Eric Heenan said the case was a “terrible crime committed in the throes of an orgy of drug abuse and it is a lesson … how dangerous this activity is and how unpredictable and fatal its consequences can be”.

The judge made the comment as he sentenced Sam Jacob Walker, 27, and Jonathan Robert Lee, 23, for the murder of David Houston, at a South Fremantle home on May 12.

The court was told that the pair had been taking drugs, including cannabis and methylamphetamine, before the crime in which Walker suddenly begin choking Mr Houston.

The judge described Mr Houston as a vulnerable and outnumbered victim.

Houston struggled before Lee ran into the room and joined in the attack, despite only just having met Houston that afternoon.

Justice Heenan today described the murder as a “grave, reprehensible and shocking crime” that had seen both men carry out the attack with vigour while in a drug-induced frenzy.

The judge said Mr Houston - who the court was told had allegedly been involved in selling drugs - had endured great pain and suffering in the attack in which he was choked, kicked, and stomped on and left fighting for his life before he died.

The court was told Houston’s mother was advised not to view her son’s body. She wrote a victim impact statement describing her loving relationship with her son despite his own troubles in life.

Houston’s partner was pregnant when he was murdered. His daughter has since been born.

The court was told Walker and Lee had come from supportive families and were deeply remorseful for their crime, which followed an escalation in their habitual drug use.

Justice Heenan said the case showed the tragic result of drug abuse on people, even if they had a promising and stable background.

Mr Houston's family expressed disappointment with the non-parole sentence of 12 years, pointing out it was only two years more than the minimum required by law of 10 years.

Bin Hammam Resigns, FIFA Bans Him for Life

Mohamed Bin Hammam, the former FIFA presidential candidate embroiled in corruption allegations, has resigned from all his positions in football and been given a life ban, FIFA said on Monday.

The 63-year-old former Asian soccer chief was first banned by FIFA in July 2011 for alleged bribery during his failed bid to oust Sepp Blatter in the presidential race to head world soccer's governing body.

That punishment was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in July, but FIFA handed out another life ban on Monday and said he would never be active in organised football again.

This suspension was not in connection with bribery allegations during the election campaign but for "conflicts of interest" while he was president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

"In view of the fact that under the new FIFA Code of Ethics, the FIFA Ethics Committee remains competent to render a decision even if a person resigns, the Adjudicatory Chamber decided to ban Mohamed Bin Hammam from all football-related activity for life," a FIFA statement said.

"This life ban is based on the final report of Michael J. Garcia, Chairman of the Investigatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee.

"That report showed repeated violations of Article 19 (Conflict of Interest) of the FIFA Code of Ethics, edition 2012, of Mohamed Bin Hammam during his terms as AFC President and as member of the FIFA Executive Committee in the years 2008 to 2011, which justified a life-long ban from all football related activity."

This latest suspension could bring an end to one of the most unsavoury scandals to have hit the sport.

Bin Hammam was originally accused of trying to buy the presidential votes of Caribbean officials by handing them $40,000 each in brown envelopes at a meeting in Port of Spain one month before he was due to challenge Blatter in last year's FIFA presidential election.

He withdrew his candidacy and was subsequently banned pending investigations. Blatter was re-elected unopposed for a fourth term as FIFA president.

Bin Hammam was then banned for life after being found guilty of breaking seven articles of FIFA's ethics code, including one on bribery.

In July, a CAS three-man panel voted 2-1 in Bin Hammam's favour but added that his behaviour was "not of the highest ethical standard" and that "it is more likely than not" that he was the source of cash brought into Trinidad and Tobago and distributed by former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner.

CAS said then: "It is a situation of 'case not proven', coupled with concern on the part of the Panel that the FIFA investigation was not complete or comprehensive enough to fill the gaps in the record.

Bin Hammam, who was elected unopposed for a third and final four-year term as the head of the AFC in January 2011, has long pleaded his innocence and complained his punishments have come because he challenged Blatter's leadership.

Nebraska artists paint to designs glasses on canvas

Creative arts: canvas prints

Spitsnogle Ashley paint anything he can put his hands. 27-year-old native Odell has worked in all abstract paintings charcoal drawings. Over the past year, he has changed his brush to the canvas and glass.

"I have put designs on wine glasses, margarita glasses, martini glasses, beer glasses, mixed drink glasses, shot glasses, regular drinking glasses," Spitsnogle said. "Pretty much any glass I can paint on."

The process of creating hand-painted glasses begins with Spitsnogle putting paint enamel or sharpie oil based makers on them. Then, she will put a clear sealant of enamel around the outside. She will let them dry for about a day, and then bake them at 325 degrees for 20 minutes in an oven.

Baking the glasses makes them able to be drank from and hand washed. Spitsnogle will also make special designs. She will be working on painting four bucks on glasses for her uncle, Ashley's aunt, Earleen Spitsnogle, said.

Prices depend on the price of the glasses and the detail on the glass. A pair of champagne glasses for example could cost $40, while a pair of red wine glasses could cost $70. "We figure if you are going to buy art, you should buy Nebraska art," Cindy Johnson, an owner of one of Spitsnogle's work said.

Johnson and her husband have been patrons of Spitsnogle's art for a few years now and are regulars at her openings. "Ashley is extremely talented," Johnson said. "She does everything from very realistic to extremely abstract." Spitsnogle, a 2004 graduate of Diller-Odell high school, has been able to make a career of creating art. From art on the wall to art in the hand, she does plan on stopping soon.

Asiaartshop: oil painting

She recently finished an 18-inches by 24-inches Marilyn Monroe charcoal/pastel drawing for a client. She currently is working on commissioned drawings and glasses to be painted for Christmas. Spitsnogle's works of art are on display for the rest of the month at the Turbine Flats Building in Lincoln. Anyone interested in her hand-painted glasses can contact her at Ashley.

Source from: http://www.asiaartshop.com/Nebraska-artists-paint-to-designs-glasses-on-canvas

Research and Markets: Non-Life Insurance in the United Kingdom

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Non-Life Insurance in the United Kingdom" report to their offering.

Non-Life Insurance in the United Kingdom industry profile provides top-line qualitative and quantitative summary information including: market size (value 2007-11, and forecast to 2016). The profile also contains descriptions of the leading players including key financial metrics and analysis of competitive pressures within the market. Essential resource for top-line data and analysis covering the United Kingdom non-life insurance market. Includes market size data, textual and graphical analysis of market growth trends, leading companies and macroeconomic information.

Highlights
- The non-life insurance market consists of the general insurance market segmented into motor, property, liability and other insurance. The other segment is made up of non-life insurance products including health, travel, and accident cover amongst others. The value of the non-life insurance market is shown in terms of gross premium incomes. Any currency conversions used in the report have been calculated using constant 2011 annual average exchange rates. The non-life insurance market depends on a variety of economic and non-economic factors and future performance is difficult to predict. The forecast given in this report is intended as a rough guide to the direction in which the market is likely to move. This forecast is based on a correlation between past market growth and the growth of base drivers, such as population numbers, GDP growth, and long-term interest rates.

- The UK non-life insurance market had total gross written premiums of $109.5 billion in 2011, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.3% between 2007 and 2011.

- The other insurance segment was the market's most lucrative in 2011, with total gross written premiums of $66.5 billion, equivalent to 60.7% of the market's overall value.

- The performance of the market is forecast to decelerate, with an anticipated CAGR of 2.9% for the five-year period 2011 - 2016, which is expected to drive the market to a value of $126.6 billion by the end of 2016.

Global life expectancy study shows people living sicker

Nearly everywhere around the world, people are living longer and fewer children are dying. But increasingly, people are grappling with the diseases and disabilities of modern life, according to the most expansive global look so far at life expectancy and the biggest health threats.

The last comprehensive study was in 1990 and the top health problem then was the death of children under 5 - more than 10 million each year. Since then, campaigns to vaccinate kids against diseases like polio and measles have reduced the number of children dying to about 7 million.

Malnutrition was once the main health threat for children. Now, everywhere except Africa, they are much more likely to overeat than to starve.

With more children surviving, chronic illnesses and disabilities that strike later in life are taking a bigger toll, the research said. High blood pressure has become the leading health risk worldwide, followed by smoking and alcohol.

"The biggest contributor to the global health burden isn't premature (deaths), but chronic diseases, injuries, mental health conditions and all the bone and joint diseases," said one of the study leaders, Christopher Murray, director of the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

In developed countries, such conditions now account for more than half of the health problems, fueled by an aging population. While life expectancy is climbing nearly everywhere, so too are the number of years people will live with things like vision or hearing loss and mental health issues like depression.

The research appears in seven papers published online Thursday in The Lancet. More than 480 researchers in 50 countries gathered data up to 2010 from surveys, censuses and past studies. They used statistical modeling to fill in the gaps for countries with little information. The series was mainly paid for by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

As in 1990, Japan topped the life expectancy list in 2010, with 79 for men and 86 for women. In the U.S. that year, life expectancy for men was 76 and for women, 81.

Top 25 healthiest states in America
The research found wide variations in what's killing people around the world. Some of the most striking findings highlighted by the researchers: - Homicide is the No. 3 killer of men in Latin America; it ranks 20th worldwide. In the U.S., it is the 21st cause of death in men, and in Western Europe, 57th.

- While suicide ranks globally as the 21st leading killer, it is as high as the ninth top cause of death in women across Asia's "suicide belt," from India to China. Suicide ranks 14th in North America and 15th in Western Europe.

- In people aged 15-49, diabetes is a bigger killer in Africa than in Western Europe (8.8 deaths versus 1 death per 100,000).

- Central and Southeast Asia have the highest rates of fatal stroke in young adults at about 15 cases per 100,000 deaths. In North America, the rate is about 3 per 100,000.

Globally, heart disease and stroke remain the top killers. Reflecting an older population, lung cancer moved to the 5th cause of death globally, while other cancers including those of the liver, stomach and colon are also in the top 20. AIDS jumped from the 35th cause of death in 1990 to the sixth leading cause two decades later.

While chronic diseases are killing more people nearly everywhere, the overall trend is the opposite in Africa, where illnesses like AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis are still major threats. And experts warn again shifting too much of the focus away from those ailments.

"It's the nature of infectious disease epidemics that if you turn away from them, they will crop right back up," said Jennifer Cohn, a medical coordinator at Doctors Without Borders.

Still, she acknowledged the need to address the surge of other health problems across Africa. Cohn said the agency was considering ways to treat things like heart disease and diabetes. "The way we treat HIV could be a good model for chronic care," she said.

Others said more concrete information is needed before making any big changes to public health policies.

"We have to take this data with some grains of salt," said Sandy Cairncross, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

He said the information in some of the Lancet research was too thin and didn't fully consider all the relevant health risk factors.

To Extend a Device’s Battery Life, Get to Know It Better

 As you jet off on a winter vacation or a holiday season trip to see family, chances are you’ll face a 21st-century problem: mobile device battery angst. It’s a never-ending itch at the back of your thoughts. Though we all love to use our smartphones to stave off boredom, or to navigate a new city, every moment of use eats precious battery time. And, particularly during a journey, you never know when you will find power next.

Browse all the mobile app coverage that has appeared in The New York Times by category, and see what Times writers have on their phones and tablets.

Thanks to my job, I experience more battery angst than most people, so I have tried some battery life apps. You may too. But unlike other types of apps, you need to be wary with these.

Apple’s tight control of iOS means battery apps on the App Store, even popular ones like Battery Life Pro All-in-One (free on iTunes), cannot automatically control an iPhone or iPad’s real-time battery consumption. This is because of Apple’s own systems for protecting battery life and app security. That said, there are some supposed best practices you can follow to keep your iDevice’s battery healthy. And there are ways you can manually adjust your phone.

Battery Doctor Pro is one of the best-designed battery advice apps ($1 on iTunes). Its main page has a graph showing current battery charge and a grid of icons that activate submenus. The “status” submenu lists estimates of how much talk time your battery offers at that moment, how much video playback and so on. The “inspection” submenu offers a list of actions to help extend battery life — like disabling Wi-Fi. Some of these actions are accompanied with tips on how to carry them out. These are the really useful parts of the app, which teach you about your phone.

Another useful feature is the “maintain” submenu, which guides you through a process said to increase the performance of lithium batteries. This involves letting the battery run down to less than 20 percent charge, then charging it to 100 percent and letting it remain on charge for a while.

Battery Doctor Pro has a long list of other options, like a selection of themes — monitoring the device, keeping track of charges — but really these are just useless frills. For example, it may be interesting to use the “monitor” to see what code your phone is running, but it will not be of immediate use in extending battery life.

Battery Boost Magic (free on iTunes) is a very similar app, with a slightly flashier interface, and its battery life tips section may be more easily accessible for iDevice beginners. Essentially, however, this app works in the same way as Battery Doctor Pro. If you are really into these apps, Battery Life Pro All-in-One has a very flashy interface, although it too works the same way.

Android device owners face a different situation. Android apps can get access directly to some settings in the device to help preserve battery life without the user’s having to dive into them manually. But the more open design of Android itself presents a problem, because some apps can run in ways that really do eat up battery life.

The 2X Battery — Battery Saver app (free) is perhaps one of the more straightforward battery life apps for Android. It indicates how long a battery has left until it runs out and also offers alerts about whether power-hungry systems like GPS are turned on. Tapping these alerts takes you directly to Android’s settings so you can turn off services to save battery life. The app also has different modes, so it can automatically control a device’s behavior — turning Wi-Fi off for long intervals at night, for example, on the premise that you are not using the device while asleep.

Easy Battery Saver (free) is another good battery app. Its best feature is its main dashboard, which reports on current battery status and allows one-tap access to turn off or adjust Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, mobile data and screen brightness. Like 2X Battery, this app has different power-saving modes that try to minimize power-gulping activities like getting access to wireless networks. The app also shows graphically which apps seem to be using the most power. This data may prompt you to turn off an especially power-hungry app you may have forgotten is running, like a live wallpaper app.

The problem with these apps is that the next time you pick up your Android device, you might find you have turned off the very function you need. For example, you may have selected low screen brightness to save battery life, but suddenly find you need to read the screen in a brightly lighted room. Thus you may have to jump in and out of your battery saver apps to adjust their settings.

My advice would be to concentrate on free versions of these different apps on iOS or Android. Try them for a while to see if they help, or at least teach you good habits. But do not panic about battery apps; you bought your phone to use it, after all.

Quick Calls

YouSendIt, the popular cloud file-sharing service, has introduced an exclusive Windows Phone 8 app on the Nokia Lumia 920 and 820. The app has all the usual YouSendIt tricks about syncing and sharing files, and users can share files directly between phones using NFC. ... Etsy, the online store for handmade crafts, has finally released a dedicated Android app (free on Google Play) to help you shop among its wares.

Proof of City’s Wholesomeness: New Yorkers Live Longer

New Yorkers continue to live longer than Americans as a whole by an increasingly wide margin, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Tuesday.

A New Yorker’s life expectancy at birth in 2010 was 80.9 years, 2.2 years longer than the national life expectancy in 2010 of 78.7 years, according to new data released by Mr. Bloomberg and the city health department. That is up from a 2.0-year lead the year before.

And across the board, the city’s blacks, whites, Hispanics, men and women, young and old continue to see their life spans increase, the data show. A black New Yorker’s life expectancy at birth has increased by nearly four years since 2001.

While Mr. Bloomberg has been accused of enacting nanny-like public health measures, he trumpeted his antismoking policies for helping to widen the life expectancy gap between the city, which has annually had record life-expectancy highs, and the United States. He also credited the city’s aggressive H.I.V. prevention measures, drops in traffic fatalities and violent crime, and a decline in the infant mortality rate.

“All New Yorkers should feel that we’ve done something wonderful together,” Mr. Bloomberg said at a news conference at the health department’s headquarters in Queens. “I didn’t do this. Everybody did it. Some people complained. There’s always some people who don’t like things. But together, the city supported these initiatives.”

Mr. Bloomberg said he believed that people who complain don’t live as long anyway. He and Dr. Thomas A. Farley, the health commissioner, encouraged people to move to New York if they wanted to live longer.

Other notable findings in the report:

–New Yorkers’ life-expectancy lead over the nation as a whole grew from 1 year in 2001 (77.9 years vs. 76.9 years) to 2 years in 2009 (80.6 years vs. 78.6 years) to 2.2 years in 2010.

–Hispanics in New York continue to have higher life expectancies than non-Hispanic blacks and whites, but their lead is narrowing. In 2001, Hispanic life expectancy at birth was 79.7 years, vs. 78.5 years for whites and 73.4 years for blacks. In 2010, the figures were 81.9 years for Hispanics, 81.4 for whites and 77.2 for blacks.

–Female New Yorkers are expected to live 83.3 years, compared to 81 years for female Americans as a whole. For males, it’s 78.1 years in New York vs. 76.2 years nationally.

–New York City’s infant mortality rate has decreased 23 percent since 2001. The national rate dropped 12 percent in that time.

–At age 40, New Yorkers can expect to live 42.3 more years.

–At age 70, New Yorkers can expect to live 17 more years, compared to 15.5 years for the country as a whole.

–The city’s H.I.V. infection rate is down 11.3 percent from 2009, and the city’s death rate from heart disease has decreased 27.1 percent from 2001.

Life expectancy figures are calculated using formulas based on current mortality rates and death probability estimates.

Life Extension's Dr. Mike Smith appears on The SUZANNE Show this week on Lifetime Television

Dr. Mike Smith from Life Extension, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla-based organization dedicated to the extension of the healthy human lifespan, returns to The SUZANNE Show this week to discuss memory loss and aging.  His appearance, which is one in a series devoted to nutrition and longevity, airs Wednesday, December 12, at 7 a.m. (ET/PT) on Lifetime Television.

Memory loss occurs naturally as we age and can begin to take its toll on individuals as young as 30 years old.  Early symptoms like misplacing the keys or missing appointments can become much more serious as time goes by.  For some, what begins as general "forgetfulness" can eventually even lead to severe neurological disorders.

"Brain cells work by making connections with other nerve cells," say Dr. Smith.  "As we age these connections deteriorate and the cells can't communicate well anymore.  The mild result is my 'keys in the freezer' and the extreme result is dementia and Alzheimer's disease."

Thankfully, cell connections can be rejuvenated and new ones created.  This astonishing cerebral attribute is a phenomenon that scientists call "neuroplasticity" – the brain's ability to form new neural connections throughout life.  But just as physical exercise is needed to improve our muscular strength, intellectual stimulation is required to maximize brain function.

According to Dr. Smith, exercising the mind is as easy as playing a game of chess or completing a cross-word puzzle.  Nutritional supplements like vitamin B12, Omega-3 DHA, and the newest "brain food" magnesium threonate can also significantly improve brain function and memory. 

McAfee wants to return to US, 'normal life'

Software company founder John McAfee said Sunday he wants to return to the United States and "settle down to whatever normal life" he can.

In a live-stream Internet broadcast from the Guatemalan detention center where he is fighting a government order that he be returned to Belize, the 67-year-old said "I simply would like to live comfortably day by day, fish, swim, enjoy my declining years."

Police in neighboring Belize want to question McAfee in the fatal shooting of a U.S. expatriate who lived near his home on a Belizean island in November.

The creator of the McAfee antivirus program again denied involvement in the killing during the Sunday Internet video hook-up, during which he answered what he said were reporters' questions.

His comments were sometimes contradictory. McAfee is an acknowledged practical joker who has dabbled in yoga, ultra-light aircraft and the production of herbal medications.

The British-born McAfee first said that returning to the United States "is my only hope now." But he later added, "I would be happy to go to England, I have dual citizenship."

He was emphatic that "I cannot ever return to Belize .... there is no hope for my life if I am ever returned to Belize."

"If I am returned," he said, "bad things will clearly happen to me."

He descibed the health problems that had him briefly hospitalized earlier this week after Guatemalan authorities detained him for entering the country illegally. He apparently snuck in across a rural, unguarded spot along the border.

"I did not eat for two days, I drank very little liquids, and for the first time in many years I've been smoking almost non-stop," he said. "I stood up, passed out hit my head on the wall, came to," though he now said he was feeling better.

McAfee praised the role his 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend, Samantha Vanegas, played in his escape from Belize, where he claims he is being persecuted by corrupt politicians. Authorities in Belize deny that they are persecuting him and have questioned his mental state.

"Sam saved the day many times" during their escape, he said, and suggested he would take her with him to the United States if he is allowed to go there.

He confirmed that journalists from Vice magazine who accompanied him on his escape after weeks of hiding in Belize had unwittingly posted photos with embedded data that revealed his exact location.

"It was an error anyone could make," he said, noting they were under a lot of pressure at the time.
McAfee has led an eccentric life since he sold his stake in the anti-virus software company named after him in the early 1990s and moved to Belize about three years ago to lower his taxes.

He told The New York Times in 2009 that he had lost all but $4 million of his $100 million fortune in the U.S. financial crisis. However, a story on the Gizmodo website quoted him as describing that claim as "not very accurate at all."

McAfee's Guatemalan attorney, Telesforo Guerra, says that he has filed three separate legal appeals in the hope that his client can stay in Guatemala, where his political asylum request was rejected.

Guerra said he filed an appeal for a judge to make sure McAfee's physical integrity is protected, an appeal against the asylum denial and a petition with immigration officials to allow his client to stay in this Central American country indefinitely.

The appeals could take several days to resolve, Guerra said. He added that he could still use several other legal resources but wouldn't give any other details.

Fredy Viana, a spokesman for the Immigration Department, said that before the agency looks into the request to allow McAfee to stay in Guatemala, a judge must first deal with the appeal asking that authorities make sure McAfee's physical integrity is protected.

"We won't look into (allowing him to stay) until the other appeal is resolved," Viana said. "The law gives me 30 days to resolve the issue."

McAfee went on the run last month after Belizean officials tried to question him about the killing of Gregory Viant Faull, who was shot to death in early November.

McAfee acknowledges that his dogs were bothersome and that Faull had complained about them, but denies killing Faull. Faull's home was a couple of houses down from McAfee's compound in Ambergris Caye, off Belize's Caribbean coast.

Life Technologies Stays Neutral

We have reaffirmed our Neutral recommendation on Life Technologies (LIFE) with a target price of $52.00.

The company’s third quarter adjusted earnings of 92 cents per share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 89 cents but missed the year-ago quarter’s 94 cents. Revenues increased 1.4% at CER to $911 million, ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $908 million.

We are encouraged by Life Technologies’ adoption of several initiatives to develop its diagnostics franchise. The company recently entered into a Master Development Agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) for companion diagnostic projects, to work together in oncology and other therapeutic areas. The collaboration with Bristol-Myers is in line with the company’s strategy to build partnerships with pharmaceutical majors for companion diagnostic development including participation in early-phase clinical trials.

We are also impressed with the company entering into a license and supply agreement with Singapore based VelaDx in October 2012. The latter will develop next generation sequencing-based, in vitro diagnostic tests that will run on Life Technologies’ Ion Personal Genome Machine platform. Further, we are optimistic about the company’s companion diagnostic partnership with GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) MAGE-A3 cancer immunotherapy. Life Technologies also strengthened its diagnostics franchise with three recent tuck-in acquisitions – Compendia Bioscience, Navigenics and Pinpoint Genomics.

Meanwhile, as a result of Life Technologies’ increasing focus on emerging markets, this region now accounts for approximately 10% of total sales. The company has been experiencing growth in its emerging markets as well as Asia-Pacific, where it is currently expanding its operations.

After recording a temporary slowdown in its Greater China business about a year ago, the company augmented its dealer model and supplemented it with its own sales force. These efforts have successfully restored operations in Greater China to normal levels with high-teens growth. During the reported quarter, Life Technologies completed the acquisition of Genewindows, a distributor covering the Invitrogen brand reagent portfolio in south and west China. Besides, Life Technologies expanded its footprint further with the completion of its facility in Beijing where it will manufacture advanced DNA testing solutions in a cost effective way.

Life Technologies’ Genetic Analysis segment sales received a strong boost from the Ion Torrent franchise. The company is satisfied with the progress Ion Torrent technologies has made so far and expects the growth momentum to continue. This growth has been supported further by the recent launch of Ion Proton system in September with the company continuing to take additional orders.

However, economic uncertainties which lowered discretionary spending and unfavorable currency were the major headwinds for Life Technologies during the reported quarter. The company tightened its 2012 earnings outlook and expects organic revenue growth at 2%.Our recommendation is backed by Zacks #2 Rank (Buy) in the short term.

How Life Coaches Become Very Wealthy (Part 3 of 3-part Series)

Part 3 of a 3-part Series on How to Create a Strategic Framework for a Multi-Million Dollar Practice…

Leveraging Your Practice to Become Extraordinarily Rich

Life coaches are in high demand. At the same time, the field is becoming increasingly competitive. In order to establish and grow a very profitable practice, you need to employ a number of strategies. We’ve already considered becoming a thought leader and building a high-end clientele. Capitalizing on these two strategies, you can expand your reach and generate additional revenues.

The vast majority of life coaching practices is based on the talents, training and skills of one or a handful of life coaches. While it’s very possible to generate significant revenues with this business model, it usually requires working with the very affluent and billing them well. Even in this situation it’s not easy to generate significant personal wealth.

There are a variety of non-exclusive ways to leverage a life coaching practice. Here we’ll briefly address three of them:

 Licensing your expertise. In one manner or another, you “license” your life coaching approach and/or content to other life coaches. You receive a per-set fee and/or a percentage of their revenues. This is, in effect, an override model. The more licensing agreements you have and the larger they are, the more you earn.

Extensive productization. Taking your life coaching expertise and transforming it into a broad array of products is a highly effective way to dramatically boost your income. Workshops and even larger events are often very powerful ways of generating income and garnering new clients. Webinars, podcasts, DVD sets and books all prove very useful in enhancing incomes while bringing in new life coaching clients.
Venture life coaching. In exchange for fees, you can take a piece of business ventures. By working with business owners, you receive equity in the business. The financial viability of the business and its prospects are major factors in your ability to monetize these equity positions.

Brand extensions. Having meaningfully established yourself, you’re able to branch off into other – usually related – business endeavors. The ability to move beyond your core capabilities is a function of the strength of your following and the ability to logically and emotionally connect the new ventures with your life coaching practice.

With all these approaches to leveraging a life coaching practice, thought leadership has a very potent if not critical role as seen in the table. Simply put, being a thought leader is instrumental and often essential to leveraging your practice, which is regularly the way you can become very wealthy.

For some life coaches, becoming very wealthy is indeed an objective. For others, it’s not. What we’ve discussed in these three columns can translate into significantly greater personal wealth, even a sizable personal fortune. However, as we previously noted, to most effectively create a life coaching practice that can produce such a financial payoff requires some variation or two or three of the three interconnected methods – becoming a thought leader, building a high-end clientele and leveraging your practice. But, that’s rarely enough.

A life coach who desires to accumulate serious personal wealth must also apply – to varying degrees – Millionaire Intelligence (the mindset and core behaviors of the self-made rich and self-made super-rich). Often, only by systematically and strategically adopting Millionaire Intelligence will your efforts translate into real wealth.

Life Wireless Issues PSAs to Educate Public on Lifeline Program

Life Wireless, a cellular provider offering free phone service to income-eligible customers through the federal Lifeline program, is running public service announcements starting Dec. 3 that provide an overview of the Lifeline program, including its rules and regulations.

The 30-second spots explain that:
Lifeline is a government benefit providing discounts on monthly telephone service for eligible low-income consumers.

Eligible customers may receive a discount on either a landline or a wireless service, but not both, with a limit of one benefit per household.

Consumers violating the one-per-household rule may be subject to criminal and/or civil penalties.
The PSAs will run for two months in 10 markets, including four new locations – Duluth, Minn., Charleston, W.V., Providence, R.I., and New Orleans. Life Wireless will continue to issue PSAs in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Little Rock, Ark., Minneapolis and St. Louis. Life Wireless has aired more than 2,700 PSAs this year throughout its service area.

Individuals participating in the program use their Lifeline telephones to hunt for jobs, summon emergency services, access medical care and stay in touch with friends and family.

"Educating the public about Lifeline's rules and regulation helps preserve the integrity of the Lifeline program," said Jim Carpenter, a senior vice president at Life Wireless. "Life Wireless is committed to educating the public about the Lifeline program and helping those most in need receive access to telephone service and all the opportunities and security that it affords."

Youth Life Learning Centers guide, nurture at-risk students

Milton Reece was in the office at Carter-Lawrence Elementary eight years ago because his 5-year-old son’s behavior was becoming a problem.

There, Reece found out about the Youth Life Learning Centers, and out of desperation the working single father put his son in the after-school program.

Today, his son, Princeton Reece, is a model citizen and academically solid enough to attend Rose Park Middle Magnet School, which his dad credits to Youth Life Learning Centers.

“For those three hours I didn’t have to worry about him,’’ Milton Reece said. “They turned him around and his attitude changed. He could have easily swayed in the other direction without that guidance.’’

The Youth Life Foundation of Tennessee operates five Nashville learning centers strategically placed in low-income inner-city neighborhoods. The program helps about 250 at-risk youngsters in grades K-12. There also is a center in Memphis.

The vast majority of students who go to a Youth Life Learning Center are struggling academically.

“We provide a safe place, academic support and moral development,’’ said Yolanda Shields, Youth Life Learning Centers’ chief executive officer.

There are 12 paid teachers with college degrees at the Nashville Youth Life Learning Centers.

Two centers are in the Edgehill neighborhood, and the others are in the east, west and northeast parts of Nashville. All are designed to be in walking distance for students.

“They help with homework and take us on field trips,’’ said fourth-grader Kenyarra Craig, a student at the Hillside Center in Nashville’s Edgehill neighborhood.

A week ends with “Fun Fridays,’’ an incentive-based program in which students earn points by completing homework assignments, classroom tasks and journal writing and demonstrating good behavior.

Spiritual development is part of the curriculum and issues like anti-bullying and friendship are addressed to encourage the children to look out for each other, Shields said.

“It makes a difference, not only in academics, but in their behavior, and classroom teachers have told me that,’’ Hillside Center teacher Loretta Sartin said.

Youth Life Learning Centers also host workshops for parents, helping them with life skills like parenting and budgeting.

Enrollment is free, but parents are required to do 20 hours a year of approved volunteer work. Usually volunteer work is at their child’s center, but it can be done other ways such as at the child’s daytime school.

Parents get volunteer vouchers, which allow them to them to pick out donated gifts at the Youth Life Learning Centers’ Christmas Store, open Nov. 28-Dec. 15.

Donations can be given through the organization’s website. One-time donations are accepted, and Youth Life Learning Centers will launch a recurring gift initiative at $10 per month in the coming weeks.