Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
World's Prettiest Places
Plitvice Lakes National Park
Croatia
Our next selection is largely unknown to tourists from the United States, and perhaps that makes it even more precious. The limestone caves of the Plitvice Lakes National Park make the water of its 16 lakes and a handful of waterfalls shimmer brilliant shades of turquoise, silver and green. And to get a better view the lakes' beauty, you'll find a web of wooden plank walkways scattered throughout. But note that there is no true best or worst season to stop by this site in central Croatia. Snow and ice transforms the area into a winter wonderland; in summer the surrounding trees further enhance the hues of the lake water. If at all possible, though, avoid the onslaught of local tourists in July and August.
Taj Mahal
India
Molded out of red sandstone and white marble, and sparkling with the glint of semi-precious stones, this mausoleum of northeastern India needs no justification to appear on our list. Frommer's says, "It's not just the perfect symmetry, the ethereal luminescence, the wonderful proportions, or the sheer scale," that makes us revere the Taj Mahal. It's also "the exquisite detailing covering every inch of marble that justifies it as a wonder of the world." Its amorous background also feeds our admiration: It was commissioned by a 17th century Mughal emperor to honor the memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Consider planning a trip for sometime between October and March to behold Taj's majestic domes, chambers and minarets; that way the weather will be somewhat cooler for walking around. If you have time, stay from the early morning until the late night, as "the radiance of the Taj under the moonlight is beyond any explanation," notes TajMahal.org.uk.
The Great Barrier Reef
Australia
Australia's luscious islands, cays and coral reef system of the Great Barrier Reef are awesome in scope and visuals -- in fact, this reef covers more of the world than any other entry on our list (approximately 135,000 square miles; the only living thing visible from outer space). All who encounter even a small portion of this gorgeous giant are dazzled by its aquamarine waters and honeycomb beaches. Even more beauty awaits you below the water surface: a maze of more than 2,900 spectacular coral reefs and countless marine life. Come to this area just off the coast of Queensland between June and October, so you can avoid the worst of Australia's oppressive heat.
Borobudur
Indonesia
The true origins of this impressive Buddhist monument, located in central Java, are somewhat disputed. According to the UNESCO World Heritage website, the Borobudur temple was founded by a Saliendra dynasty king sometime between 750 and 842 A.D. Still, you don't need a definitive history lesson to fully appreciate its grandeur. Just feast your eyes on its intricately sculpted gray-stone relief panels (slats of stone carved with artwork to depict the life of Buddha) and the perfectly symmetrical stupas (mound-shaped structures containing Buddhist relics). They're even more precious due to their resilience: Borobudur is still gorgeous despite nearby bombings and volcanic eruptions. Try to visit in May; that's when the air is supposedly the cleanest in Java. And plan your trek at sunrise or sunset to witness how the light catches the stupas' perforations.
Grand Canyon
USA
We have to root a little for the home team. And here in the United States, the astonishing depths and incredible sunsets of the Grand Canyon make it a shoe-in on this list. Plus you can enjoy the scenery while you work up a sweat, hiking the rigorous Bright Angel Trail or rafting the Colorado River. As President Theodore Roosevelt famously noted, this park is "one of the great sights which every American, if he can travel at all, must see." Many take Teddy up on his word -- so if you want to explore this northern Arizona park, we suggest you avoid the staggering crowds of the summer. Consider visiting between March and May or September and November, when the weather is pleasant and the lodging rates are reasonable.
The Palace of Versailles
France
The Palace of Versailles might have had humble beginnings, but times have changed. Now, this ain't no simple hunting lodge, but rather an opulent tribute to the former French monarchy. Highlights include the reflective Hall of Mirrors, where world leaders met to sign the 1919 treaty that ended World War I; the manicured French-style gardens, which prominently feature the iconic Bassin d'Apollon (fountain) and the verdant Orangerie garden; and the Petit Trianon, a smaller chateau gifted to the infamous Marie Antoinette by her husband, King Louis XVI. Early summer is idyllic in the Île-de-France region, so plan your sojourn for that season. That's also when you'll find a few music concerts and special events taking place in the Versailles gardens.
Machu Picchu
Peru
Machu Picchu's 12 acres of mysterious temples and exquisite terraces are perpetually shrouded in cloud tufts, proving that this ancient site of Peru's Urubamba Valley still lives up to its reputation as the “Lost City of the Incas.” Or at least it seems like it from the pictures. In reality, this ancient city is always overrun with hikers exploring the Inca Trail or catching the view from the Temple of the Sun. So come with plenty of camera film and patience. For fewer crowds -- though not by much -- visit between October and April.
The Great Temple of Ramses II
Egypt
During his 67-year reign, Pharaoh Ramses II left many visual reminders of his greatness. Perhaps the best known are the four larger-than-life statues carved into a mountainside of southern Egypt. Many don't realize there's more to this site -- sometimes called Abu Simbel for the town you'll find it in -- than those seated statues seated on the facade. Pass through them and you'll find more detailed statues and intricate hieroglyphs depicting the Egyptian army's victory over ancient Libya, Syria and Nubia. Next door is the smaller Temple of Nefertari, dedicated to the Pharaoh's favorite wife. If you truly want to be wowed, you should swing by Abu Simbel around Feb. 20 or Oct. 20. Twice a year around those days the sun's rays shine directly into the larger temple to illuminate the artwork and statues within.
The Great Wall
China
Fiction: The Great Wall of China can be seen from outer space (with the naked eye). Fact: it is pretty fantastic to view up close and personal. It sweeps through approximately 4,000 miles of northern China, and different sections guarantee different tourist experiences: The jungly sections of Simatai and Jinshanling are good for hiking; the arresting and gorgeous Mutianyu stretch is good for snapping photos; and the crowded Badaling portion is good for convenience (it's only an hour away from exciting Beijing). Plan your trip for anytime (just imagine the contrast of the Great Wall with the white snow of winter, the red leaves of fall and the green grass of spring and summer), but do try to bypass the hordes of tourists that visit on the weekends year-round.
The Northern Lights
Arctic Circle
This scientific phenomenon occurs when charged solar particles collide in the earth's geomagnetic field and create a colorful, magnificent glow in the sky's upper atmosphere. According to the Huffington Post, "ideal viewing conditions are crisp, cold, clear and cloudless skies with little light." And though it is possible to see the Northern Lights in other parts of the globe, this phenomenon is most prevalent in the world's polar regions; the name Aurora Borealis refers to the lights as seen from northern latitudes (Aurora Australis is the name for the lesser-known Southern Lights of the South Pole). For the best viewing, Fodor's recommends visiting Anchorage, Alaska or Calgary, Alberta. You can also see the Northern Lights in parts of Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Russia, among other countries.
We want to see who Arnold was banging!!
Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's whopping breach of marital ethics has touched off a curious ethical dilemma in the media world: In reporting the ongoing fallout from Schwarzenegger's affair with the former housekeeper who gave birth to his child, has the press unduly invaded the privacy of Schwarzenegger's one-time paramour?
Some major news organizations have exercised restraint, declining to publish the names, photos or any other revealing details about the housekeeper and her son. Others have confirmed the woman's identity, described her home, and splashed her image across TV screens, front pages and web browsers. At its most lurid, the coverage seems akin to stealing an intimate family photo album and scattering its contents around world.
Has the press gone too far?
Some critics think so: "The housekeeper, who was recently let go by the former California governor, did not ask to be at the center of a white-hot political scandal," writes Howard Kurtz of the Daily Beast, which decided not to identify her. "She has made no statement, filed no lawsuit, trotted out no publicist, sold nothing to the tabloids, made no appearance on 'Oprah.' She had an affair with her boss and got pregnant, but she is as far from a public figure as you can imagine. What gives the media the right to obliterate her privacy?"
Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, which published the woman's name on Wednesday, has an answer.
"Our basic job is to inform readers about news events, so we need a pretty compelling reason NOT to give readers information we think they care about," Keller told the Los Angeles Times' James Rainey. "We're sensitive to privacy issues, but in this case we don't see that compelling reason to keep our readers in the dark ... There's nothing to suggest that reliving the earlier experience is likely to be traumatizing in the sense rape victims describe (she's lived with it--and worked for him--for 10 or 15 years). And the reality is, there is not much privacy left for us to protect."
Russ Stanton, editor of the Los Angeles Times, which broke the Schwarzenegger scandal late Monday night, sees things differently.
"In some circumstances, it might be necessary or appropriate to reveal the identity of a politician's mistress," he told Rainey. "In this situation, we thought it was not. We hewed to the principle of protecting the identify of an innocent child. To have identified the mother would, in effect, have been to identify the child. Different media companies have different standards. We will stick by ours, regardless of what others do."
But the Los Angeles Times appears to be in the minority. CNN made the call to run with the woman's name--Mildred Baena, for the record, as well as her photo following the New York Times report. (Earlier, when the network had TMZ editor Harvey Levin on as a guest, a producer asked him not to identify her, according to Levin.) Other television outlets, including ABC News, CBS News and Fox News, also put Baena on display Wednesday and Thursday, as did various online sources, including the Huffington Post and Yahoo!.
The Associated Press published Baena's name only after it had been floated by multiple news outlets. "The AP has not independently verified that she is the mother of Schwarzenegger's child," the wire noted in a report Thursday.
"We decided to use the name because the story did not involve a sex crime but what appears to be a voluntary relationship with a public figure," AP managing editor Lou Ferrara told The Cutline. "The name is an important fact worthy of knowing."
The Cutline's decision to name Baena also was based on the volume of reports that had already done so. As of the time of this posting, several hours after first contacting seven mainstream news outlets for comment, we were still awaiting statements from ABC, CBS, CNN, the Huffington Post, and the Washington Post.
This is all to say nothing of celebrity gossip sites like Radar Online and TMZ, which were among the first to have a field day with Baena's MySpace photos. (Radar was the first to report her name, according to the AP.) And then, of course, there are the ever-yellow New York tabloids, both of which featured Baena on their Thursday covers.
"The cover of today's Post is lurid and mean-spirited," wrote Capital New York's Tom McGeveran today in his daily dissection of the rival tabs. "A candid photo of Baena, who is not pictured in full makeup at an Oprah Winfrey goodbye-special taping the way Maria Shriver was, but who's instead cutting the cake at a baby shower in a floral dress, with a wide, kind smile across her face, holding a blue balloon, is paired with a large red callout box with giant knockout-white type that reads 'ARNIE LOVE CHILD.' An arrow actually points to Baena's abdomen."
That child, who is now said to be around 14, remains shielded from the public eye--in the coverage of his mother, the adolescent's face has been appropriately obscured.
"We don't publish names of minors and we don't show their pictures either, without being blurred. These are children who deserve to be protected, even if others don't," said Fox News VP Michael Clemente. (As for the network's guidelines on Baena, Clemente concurred with the Times' Keller: "In this case, what happened many years ago does not seem to be something anyone is hiding from now.")
But Poynter's Julie Moos questions whether the story has nevertheless veered into too-much-information territory. Do we really need to know that neighbors describe the child as a well-mannered and handsome young man who likes sports and martial arts? Or that Baena's house cost $268,000?
"As journalists, once we moved beyond the woman's name, we compensated for starving readers of details by serving them an all-you-can-eat buffet," Moos writes. "Surely there are options between famine and feast."
(Nick Ut/AP)
The Rays' Evan Longoria makes the catch of a lifetime, but is it real?
The video, of course, is about as real as Longoria hanging from a helicopter while looking for his lost cap last year. Looking at the banners in the background, it's not hard to decipher which of Longoria's sponsored companies coughed up for the CGI either. The subliminal message sent by Gillette here? Smooth move.
Still, it's a pretty slickly produced spot and one that's fun to watch and replay, so no problem here with passing it along. Maybe the next installment can feature Longo shooting the ball out of the air with his lost AK-47?
PS — The ballpark used for the shoot looks like Bradenton's McKechnie Field, spring training home of the Pittsburgh Pirates and about a 30-minute drive over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge from St. Petersburg's Tropicana Field. Super convenient for Longoria.
By 'Duk
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Farmed or wild: What’s the best salmon to buy?
By Carina Storrs
Most everyone loves salmon. It’s rich in protein and healthy fats, it’s good for your health, and it tastes delicious.
But sometimes it seems like you need a marine biology degree before you hit the market. Should you choose Atlantic, Alaskan, or sockeye? Which has more heart-healthy omega-3s and fewer toxins—farmed or wild salmon?
And in addition to your own health, how does your choice—whether wild salmon from Alaska or farmed salmon from Chile— affect the environment?
Here are a few things to keep in mind the next time you’re stumped in the seafood aisle.
U.S. Atlantic salmon
Other names: U.S. farmed salmon
Should you buy it? Yes
It wasn’t long ago that buying U.S. Atlantic salmon was out of the question. Although wild populations are still nearly extinct, farms off the coast of Maine that grow U.S. Atlantic salmon are expanding.
Nutritionally, they are just as good as wild. "I lump wild and farmed salmon together," says Charles Santerre, PhD, a professor of food toxicology at Purdue University, in West Lafayette, Ind.
Farmed Atlantic salmon often contain at least as many omega-3s as wild salmon because they're raised on a diet of other omega-3-rich fish.
Imported Atlantic salmon
Other names: Farmed salmon
Should you buy it? It depends
Most Atlantic salmon come from farms in Chile, Norway, and Canada, and they have elicited a litany of environmental complaints.
Chilean farms, in particular, pollute the waters where fish are raised with antibiotics and waste. On the other hand, farms in Maine and Eastern Canada are government regulated to keep their impact low, says Barry Costa-Pierce, PhD, professor of fisheries and aquaculture at the University of Rhode Island, in Narragansett.
Supermarkets in the U.S. are required by law to label the country of origin of many foods, including seafood.
Alaskan or wild salmon
Other names: Chum, keta, king, pink, red, sockeye, sake
Should you buy it? Yes
Wild salmon are caught off the coast of Alaska or the Pacific Northwest. If you have the choice between those two areas, opt for Alaskan salmon because the populations are not as depleted, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Either way, Costa-Pierce says U.S. salmon fisheries are kept in close check so they don’t take too many fish from the ocean.
By going wild, you’ll get a firmer, less fatty fish. While it is still just as healthy as farmed, Santerre says the wild variety is a slightly gamier-tasting fish.
Coho salmon
Other names: Silver salmon
Should you buy it? Yes
You may not know if your store has coho because, like other species of wild salmon, it’s just labeled wild.
Coho are smaller and eat less than other salmon, resulting in fewer polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which may cause cancer. (Mercury is not a concern in either wild or farmed salmon.)
Many experts say the risk posed by PCBs is outweighed by salmon’s omega-3 benefits. But David Carpenter, MD, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at University at Albany, in New York, says people should have only one meal a month of most salmon. But with coho, he says, you can have an "almost unlimited consumption."
Canned salmon
Brand names: Bumble Bee, Wildcatch, Chicken of the Sea
Should you buy it? Yes
What happens if you can’t find environmentally friendly farmed salmon where you shop? And wild salmon costs about twice as much, plus it isn’t always available between October and May. Then what?
Canned salmon is a good way to get wild salmon cheaper and year-round (most brands use wild Alaskan salmon), along with all the same nutritional benefits of salmon, Santerre says.
But you might have to taste-test a few brands to find the flavor and texture you like best.
Genetically modified salmon
Other names: AquaBounty salmon
Should you buy it? Not yet
If the FDA approves genetically modified salmon, you could see a new type of farmed salmon within several years. (The genetic change doubles the growth rate.)
Its nutritional benefits, such as omega-3 levels, are similar to Atlantic salmon’s, but some people say we don’t know enough about its healthfulness.
There are more debates on the environmental side; some say that AquaBounty’s salmon would be an improvement (the fish grow faster and consume fewer resources) and others say the farming in inland tanks would be hard to manage.
Arctic char
Other names: Alpine char
Should you buy it? Yes
Americans should eat 8 ounces of seafood a week, according to USDA Dietary Guidelines.
"But it shouldn’t be just salmon," says David Love, PhD, from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. "People should look at all oily fish."
A member of the salmon family, arctic char is a good substitute with a flavor and omega-3 content similar to salmon. Most of it comes from clean, sustainable farms, says the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Small, oily fish like sardines, Atlantic mackerel, and herring are also good options; they are caught wild from an ocean full of them, and they're just as healthy as salmon, Love says.
While salmon and other oily fish are super healthy, keep in mind that there can be too much of a good thing.
Santerre and his colleagues created an iPhone app available through Fish4Health to help you track how much seafood you should eat.
To make the best choices for the environment, the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Program offers a rating of the impact of different seafood industries.
You can also ensure you’re getting the best by buying farmed salmon that is Ecolabel certified, and wild salmon with a Marine Stewardship Council–certified label.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Cancer in the 1800s
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| Hypertrophic tumor The unfortunate man shown in this 1870 photograph was suffering from a "hypertrophic" tumor of the head caused by neurofibromatosis - the same genetic disorder that affected John Merrick, the "Elephant Man." What had started off at birth as a small bump on the temple had grown to obscure much of the right side of the man's face by the time he turned 30. What treatment did his ophthalmologist recommend? None at all. |
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| By the time the unfortunate man shown in this 1872 photo sought treatment, the tumor on the left side of his head had been growing for about a decade. Fearing that cutting the parotid tumor away with a scalpel might cause severe bleeding, the surgeon decided to burn it away using a "large hot iron cautery." |
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| Parotid tumor before treatment and afterThe operation proved a big success. The man's face remained paralyzed, the surgeon noted, but his left eyelid worked well. |
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| Vascular nevus Doctors often declined to treat pigmented vascular lesions like the one shown in this 1869 photograph because they could bleed extensively. Less extensive lesions of this sort - known then as noevus vasculaire - sometimes were treated, with uneven results, with caustic agents and other remedies. Today such lesions can often be removed with a laser - though this one might be too big to yield perfect results. This photo was hand-tinted to add realism to the black-and-white photo. |
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| Asphyxiated by tumors In the 19th Century, doctors were reluctant to operate on thyroid tumors like the ones shown in this 1875 photograph. That's because the gland was so full of blood vessels that serious bleeding was a real risk. That meant some patients, like this man, faced the threat of slow asphyxiation. |
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| Rodent cancer before surgery and after Today basal cell carcinoma is considered a relatively benign form of skin cancer - doctors can easily remove the lesions. But in the 1800s, the cancer often went unchecked until it produced horrific injuries, like the one captured by a photographer in London in 1864. The condition was known as "rodent cancer" - and no wonder. Patients looked as if their skin had been gnawed by hungry rats. The patient actually fared reasonably well after surgery, ultimately succumbing not to the cancer but to a fatty heart - caused, apparently, by the poor diet he had been forced to eat as a result of the loss of most of his mouth. |
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| Until the mid-1800s, there was no anesthesia. Patients endured horrific pain, and surgeons' reputations depended upon the speed with which they could perform operations. The best could amputate an arm in one minute, a leg in three. For the photograph shown here, taken in the winter of 1846, doctors gathered at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston to demonstrate the first surgical procedure involving the anesthetic sulfuric ether.
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Visakha Bucha Day
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| Credit: AP Photo/David Longstreath |
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Art of Negotiation - Pawn Stars
This clip is from the History Channel's reality TV Show, "Pawn Stars." Watch the clip as he gives a rookie a shot at the age o'l art of negotiation.
http://tv.yahoo.com/daytime/video/gma-the-art-of-negotiation/25042878/
http://tv.yahoo.com/daytime/video/gma-the-art-of-negotiation/25042878/
Monday, May 16, 2011
Name Change Dilemma - For Women
More women are taking their new husbands' names after marriage, research shows. But the decision continues to spark debate and confusion.
The trend toward women keeping their maiden names after marriage peaked in the 1990s, when about 23% of women did so, then eased gradually to about 18% in the 2000s, says a 35-year-study published in 2009 in the journal Social Behavior and Personality. And increasingly, studies show women's decisions on the issue are guided by factors other than political or religious ideas about women's rights or marital roles, as often believed.
Well-educated women in high-earning occupations are significantly more likely to keep their maiden names, the study shows. Brides in professional fields such as medicine, the arts or entertainment are the most likely of all to do so. Age makes a big difference too, according to a 2010 study in a scholarly journal entitled "Names: A Journal of Onomastics." Women who married when they were 35 to 39 years old were 6.4 times more likely to keep their names than women who married between the ages of 20 and 24.
In fact, the idea that women who keep their maiden names are better breadwinners is becoming a stereotype that some people use as a basis for judging women's ability. In a Dutch study published last year in the journal Basic and Applied Social Psychology, researchers had 90 students compare hypothetical women they had met at a party based on whether they took their husband's names. Those who did were judged as more caring, dependent and emotional, while those who kept their names were seen as smarter and more ambitious.
Researchers also asked 50 students to screen e-mails containing hypothetical job applications from women. The candidates who had kept their maiden names were more likely to be hired and were offered salaries averaging 40% higher than their name-changing peers. (Among limitations of the study, the sample was made up of students who probably lacked much job experience or other criteria upon which to base their judgments.)
Either way, picking a last name can be fraught with complications. Some women lie awake nights before their weddings trying to decide what to do. For women who change their minds later, some vendors even offer "name change kits." Still, changing your name mid-career, as some of my colleagues have done, can lead to confusion among co-workers, clients or in my profession, readers and sources.
Splitting the difference by keeping both names, as many women do, "is a recipe for confusion," one woman writes in an email. She kept her maiden name professionally but uses her married name sometimes outside work. Now, "I never know how to introduce myself," she says. Her driver's license bears one name and her voter registration the other, and she receives summonses for jury duty in both names.
My Juggle colleague Rachel also uses two different names -- her maiden name professionally and her married name personally and officially -- which can lead to lots of mixups, she says. "Readers and colleagues know me by one name and the HR department, friends and the IRS know me by another," she tells me. "I didn't want to give up my byline, which I've had for many years. But changing my name was important to my husband for a lot of reasons, and ultimately we wanted our family members to all have the same name."
Readers, how have you handled this decision in your marriage? What kind of reactions to your decision have you received from other people? Has keeping your maiden name or changing your name been a hassle for you? Have any of you changed your names mid-career?
Pay $172,200 for MBA?
by John A. Byrne
Sticker shock. The term doesn't only apply to luxury cars and yachts. For most newcomers to the Executive MBA game, one of the early and big surprises is exactly how much the top programs cost.
For all the hand-wringing over the cost of a full-time MBA, it turns out that the most expensive graduate business degrees in the world are not the highly publicized two-year, full-time experiences at places like Harvard and Stanford. Instead, the bulging price tags are on elite part-time programs designed for mid-career executives.
The most costly Executive MBA in the world? It's Wharton's 24-month MBA for executives at its West Coast campus in downtown San Francisco. At a cost of $172,200, students are effectively paying nearly $250 an hour for the pleasure of sitting in a class with 50 other people. That's nearly $100 more per contact hour with faculty than the regular full-time MBAs at Wharton pay. For every one of the roughly 700 hours a Wharton professor teaches Executive MBAs, the school is collecting a tidy $12,300.
Wharton Rakes It In
The second most expensive? It's also Wharton's Executive MBA program, this time on the East Coast, where the tuition and fees now come to $162,300. Those considerable sums compare with the $108,000 in total tuition and fees forked over by the full-time students back on the main Philadelphia campus. Wharton's Executive MBA business alone now brings in more than $35 million in annual revenues, with little more than 400 total students.
Why the Difference In Cost
Why is there such a big difference in the cost of these top-ranked EMBA programs over those at other schools? "It's like anything else, whether you're talking about buying Pepsi or Sam's brand of cola," says Michael Desiderio, executive director of the Executive MBA Council, the trade group representing EMBA programs. "There is a value inherently tied to a brand."
In fact, the average cost of an EMBA program, says Desiderio, is only $65,655. "So it's a huge continuum, ranging from a low of $30,000 to a high of $170,000."
Anjani Jain, Wharton's vice dean, MBA Program for Executives, obviously thinks Wharton programs are worth the premium. "The cost of the program, when normalized with respect to the number of contact hours and the inclusion of room and board during program weekends, is actually comparable to that of peer institutions," Jain insists. "Many other EMBA programs have substantially fewer contact hours, or don't include room and board in the base tuition."
Of course, at the high end, as Jain points out, Wharton's program is a premium experience that includes meals, accommodations, and professors who are among the best business faculty in the world. In Philadelphia, execs stay on alternating Friday nights in Wharton's fairly plush executive education residence facility, while in San Francisco, they're put up in at the upscale Hotel Le Meridian in the financial district within walking distance of Wharton's West Coast campus. For another, many business schools believe there is less price sensitivity in a market catering to already successful executives in their mid-to-late 30s who don't have to quit their jobs to get the executive version of the MBA degree.
Executive MBA Programs Tend to Be Costly
No wonder there are now nearly two dozen Executive MBA programs around the world that cost six figures. Increasingly, the most expensive programs feature international excursions for which meals and accommodations are covered (though airfare is not). Duke University's Global Executive MBA program, for example, boasts five residential sessions, with 60% of the classroom time in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. It carries a $146,600 price tag that includes lodging and meals. Or there is Trium, a three-way collaborative program among New York University, the London School of Economics, and HEC Paris. That program costs $140,000.
Six Figures: World's Most Expensive Executive MBA Programs
1. Pennsylvania (Wharton), San Francisco, CA $172,200 $180
2. Pennsylvania (Wharton), Philadelphia, CA $162,300 $180
3. Northwestern (Kelloggg), Evanston, IL $153,900 $150
4. Berkeley (Haas)/Columbia, Berkeley, CA & New York, NY $150,000 $200
5. Columbia Business School, New York, NY $148,320 $250
6. Duke (Fuqua) Global EMBA, Durham, NC $146,600 $200
7. London Business School/Columbia, London & New York $144,156 $260
8. New York (Stern), New York, NY $144,000 $215
9. Chicago (Booth), Chicago, IL $142,000 $100
10. Trium: NYU/LSE/HEC, New York, London, Paris $140,000 None
11. Cornell (Johnson), Ithaca, NY $138,800 $150
12. IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland $132,500 $210
13. Michigan (Ross), Ann Arbor, MI $130,000 $200
14. London/HKU/Columbia, London, Hong Kong, New York $127,920 $200
15. Kellogg/HK Univ. of Science & Tech, Evanston, IL & Hong Kong $124,500 $200
16. INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France $122,400 $270
17. Southern California (Marshall), Los Angeles, LA $111,000 $150
18. Georgetown (McDonough), Washington, D.C. $110,000 $175
19. Rutgers University, Newark, NJ $110,000 $110
20. UCLA (Anderson), Los Angeles, CA $108,240 $200
21. Pepperdine (Graziadio), Los Angeles, CA $105,650 $100
22. Cornell/Queens, Ithaca, NY & Kingston, Ontario $103,680 None
*Source: School websites
What's Driving Up the Costs
One of the biggest trends in Executive MBAs is the spread of global programs, often among schools in different areas of the world. Efforts to give executives a true international experience, sometimes on several continents, have driven up the costs of many of these programs and resulted in novel and unusual partnerships.
One example: The Trium program among New York University's Stern School, the London School of Economics, and HEC Paris that includes modules in China and India for $140,000 a pop. More recently, Spain's IE Business School launched a new Executive MBA program with Brown University in Providence, RI., a university with a great brand but no business school. At $95,000, that program is comparatively a bargain.
Just as surprising, even some of the super-premium, super-priced programs aren't all-inclusive. Take INSEAD's Global Executive program in Singapore, France, and Abu Dhabi. Now in its eighth year, the program requires 12 weeks of residential study. But even at a hefty price of $122,400, accommodations and dinners are not included. The same is true of IMD's Executive MBA program, whose students are brought to India, China and Silicon Valley. Even though the program costs $132,500, it fails to include either lodging -- and IMD estimates that the estimated cost of accommodations during the program is more than $27,000.
Perhaps the biggest surprise about these high prices is that over the past ten years, fewer and fewer executives are now sponsored by their companies. So now the executives who enroll in these programs more often than not have to pay their own pay. "When many of these programs were started, most students were fully sponsored and some schools wouldn't accept you unless you had a sponsorship letter," adds Desiderio. "At the 210 schools in our membership today, only 35% of the student population is fully funded. That is a dramatic change from a decade ago. Part of it is just the way companies have changed in how they view reimbursement with so many people moving from company to company. I also think companies have felt the pinch and they may want their employees to have some skin in the game."
Marketing the Program: An Experience with a Hefty Price Tag
At the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, where the Executive MBA program includes stints in London and Singapore, the $142,000 tuition looks steep but a bargain compared to some others. Patty Keegan, associate dean of Booth's EMBA program, says the actual tuition for the executive classes is the same as it is for full-time MBA students. "We don't charge a premium," Keegan insists. The cost of an Executive MBA is higher because "it's what is included in the experience. We package the program as an experience with one price tag."
No matter how you cut it, these are expensive experiences. The question is, are they worth it?
Sticker shock. The term doesn't only apply to luxury cars and yachts. For most newcomers to the Executive MBA game, one of the early and big surprises is exactly how much the top programs cost.
For all the hand-wringing over the cost of a full-time MBA, it turns out that the most expensive graduate business degrees in the world are not the highly publicized two-year, full-time experiences at places like Harvard and Stanford. Instead, the bulging price tags are on elite part-time programs designed for mid-career executives.
The most costly Executive MBA in the world? It's Wharton's 24-month MBA for executives at its West Coast campus in downtown San Francisco. At a cost of $172,200, students are effectively paying nearly $250 an hour for the pleasure of sitting in a class with 50 other people. That's nearly $100 more per contact hour with faculty than the regular full-time MBAs at Wharton pay. For every one of the roughly 700 hours a Wharton professor teaches Executive MBAs, the school is collecting a tidy $12,300.
Wharton Rakes It In
The second most expensive? It's also Wharton's Executive MBA program, this time on the East Coast, where the tuition and fees now come to $162,300. Those considerable sums compare with the $108,000 in total tuition and fees forked over by the full-time students back on the main Philadelphia campus. Wharton's Executive MBA business alone now brings in more than $35 million in annual revenues, with little more than 400 total students.
Why the Difference In Cost
Why is there such a big difference in the cost of these top-ranked EMBA programs over those at other schools? "It's like anything else, whether you're talking about buying Pepsi or Sam's brand of cola," says Michael Desiderio, executive director of the Executive MBA Council, the trade group representing EMBA programs. "There is a value inherently tied to a brand."
In fact, the average cost of an EMBA program, says Desiderio, is only $65,655. "So it's a huge continuum, ranging from a low of $30,000 to a high of $170,000."
Anjani Jain, Wharton's vice dean, MBA Program for Executives, obviously thinks Wharton programs are worth the premium. "The cost of the program, when normalized with respect to the number of contact hours and the inclusion of room and board during program weekends, is actually comparable to that of peer institutions," Jain insists. "Many other EMBA programs have substantially fewer contact hours, or don't include room and board in the base tuition."
Of course, at the high end, as Jain points out, Wharton's program is a premium experience that includes meals, accommodations, and professors who are among the best business faculty in the world. In Philadelphia, execs stay on alternating Friday nights in Wharton's fairly plush executive education residence facility, while in San Francisco, they're put up in at the upscale Hotel Le Meridian in the financial district within walking distance of Wharton's West Coast campus. For another, many business schools believe there is less price sensitivity in a market catering to already successful executives in their mid-to-late 30s who don't have to quit their jobs to get the executive version of the MBA degree.
Executive MBA Programs Tend to Be Costly
No wonder there are now nearly two dozen Executive MBA programs around the world that cost six figures. Increasingly, the most expensive programs feature international excursions for which meals and accommodations are covered (though airfare is not). Duke University's Global Executive MBA program, for example, boasts five residential sessions, with 60% of the classroom time in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. It carries a $146,600 price tag that includes lodging and meals. Or there is Trium, a three-way collaborative program among New York University, the London School of Economics, and HEC Paris. That program costs $140,000.
Six Figures: World's Most Expensive Executive MBA Programs
School, Tuition/Fees & App Fee
1. Pennsylvania (Wharton), San Francisco, CA $172,200 $180
2. Pennsylvania (Wharton), Philadelphia, CA $162,300 $180
3. Northwestern (Kelloggg), Evanston, IL $153,900 $150
4. Berkeley (Haas)/Columbia, Berkeley, CA & New York, NY $150,000 $200
5. Columbia Business School, New York, NY $148,320 $250
6. Duke (Fuqua) Global EMBA, Durham, NC $146,600 $200
7. London Business School/Columbia, London & New York $144,156 $260
8. New York (Stern), New York, NY $144,000 $215
9. Chicago (Booth), Chicago, IL $142,000 $100
10. Trium: NYU/LSE/HEC, New York, London, Paris $140,000 None
11. Cornell (Johnson), Ithaca, NY $138,800 $150
12. IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland $132,500 $210
13. Michigan (Ross), Ann Arbor, MI $130,000 $200
14. London/HKU/Columbia, London, Hong Kong, New York $127,920 $200
15. Kellogg/HK Univ. of Science & Tech, Evanston, IL & Hong Kong $124,500 $200
16. INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France $122,400 $270
17. Southern California (Marshall), Los Angeles, LA $111,000 $150
18. Georgetown (McDonough), Washington, D.C. $110,000 $175
19. Rutgers University, Newark, NJ $110,000 $110
20. UCLA (Anderson), Los Angeles, CA $108,240 $200
21. Pepperdine (Graziadio), Los Angeles, CA $105,650 $100
22. Cornell/Queens, Ithaca, NY & Kingston, Ontario $103,680 None
*Source: School websites
What's Driving Up the Costs
One of the biggest trends in Executive MBAs is the spread of global programs, often among schools in different areas of the world. Efforts to give executives a true international experience, sometimes on several continents, have driven up the costs of many of these programs and resulted in novel and unusual partnerships.
One example: The Trium program among New York University's Stern School, the London School of Economics, and HEC Paris that includes modules in China and India for $140,000 a pop. More recently, Spain's IE Business School launched a new Executive MBA program with Brown University in Providence, RI., a university with a great brand but no business school. At $95,000, that program is comparatively a bargain.
Just as surprising, even some of the super-premium, super-priced programs aren't all-inclusive. Take INSEAD's Global Executive program in Singapore, France, and Abu Dhabi. Now in its eighth year, the program requires 12 weeks of residential study. But even at a hefty price of $122,400, accommodations and dinners are not included. The same is true of IMD's Executive MBA program, whose students are brought to India, China and Silicon Valley. Even though the program costs $132,500, it fails to include either lodging -- and IMD estimates that the estimated cost of accommodations during the program is more than $27,000.
Perhaps the biggest surprise about these high prices is that over the past ten years, fewer and fewer executives are now sponsored by their companies. So now the executives who enroll in these programs more often than not have to pay their own pay. "When many of these programs were started, most students were fully sponsored and some schools wouldn't accept you unless you had a sponsorship letter," adds Desiderio. "At the 210 schools in our membership today, only 35% of the student population is fully funded. That is a dramatic change from a decade ago. Part of it is just the way companies have changed in how they view reimbursement with so many people moving from company to company. I also think companies have felt the pinch and they may want their employees to have some skin in the game."
Marketing the Program: An Experience with a Hefty Price Tag
At the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, where the Executive MBA program includes stints in London and Singapore, the $142,000 tuition looks steep but a bargain compared to some others. Patty Keegan, associate dean of Booth's EMBA program, says the actual tuition for the executive classes is the same as it is for full-time MBA students. "We don't charge a premium," Keegan insists. The cost of an Executive MBA is higher because "it's what is included in the experience. We package the program as an experience with one price tag."
No matter how you cut it, these are expensive experiences. The question is, are they worth it?
Stephen Hawking says afterlife is a fairy story
By Liz Goodwin
Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking recently explained his belief that there is no God and that humans should therefore seek to live the most valuable lives they can while on Earth.
Guardian writer Ian Sample asked Hawking if he feared death in a story published yesterday. This was his response:
I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first. I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.
Hawking's 1988 book "A Brief History of Time" sold 9 million copies, and in it Hawking referenced God metaphorically as the force that could fully explain the creation of the universe.
But in 2010, Hawking told Diane Sawyer that "science will win" in a battle with religion "because it works."
"What could define God [is a conception of divinity] as the embodiment of the laws of nature. However, this is not what most people would think of that God," Hawking told Sawyer. "They made a human-like being with whom one can have a personal relationship. When you look at the vast size of the universe and how insignificant an accidental human life is in it, that seems most impossible."
Hawking's latest book, "The Grand Design," challenged Isaac Newton's theory that the solar system could not have been created without God. "Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to ... set the Universe going," he writes.
Hawking was diagnosed with the degenerative Lou Gehrig's disease at the age of 21. He lost his power of speech and for decades has talked through an electronic speech synthesizer. The device has allowed him to continue his research and attain a top Cambridge research post, which was previously held by Newton. His most famous theory explains how black holes emit radiation, according to The Guardian.
So if everyone is destined to power-down like computers at the end of their lives, what should humans do to lend meaning to their experience?
"We should seek the greatest value of our action," Hawking told the paper.
(Hawking in China in 2006: Elizabeth Dalziel/AP)
Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking recently explained his belief that there is no God and that humans should therefore seek to live the most valuable lives they can while on Earth.
Guardian writer Ian Sample asked Hawking if he feared death in a story published yesterday. This was his response:
I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first. I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.
Hawking's 1988 book "A Brief History of Time" sold 9 million copies, and in it Hawking referenced God metaphorically as the force that could fully explain the creation of the universe.
But in 2010, Hawking told Diane Sawyer that "science will win" in a battle with religion "because it works."
"What could define God [is a conception of divinity] as the embodiment of the laws of nature. However, this is not what most people would think of that God," Hawking told Sawyer. "They made a human-like being with whom one can have a personal relationship. When you look at the vast size of the universe and how insignificant an accidental human life is in it, that seems most impossible."
Hawking's latest book, "The Grand Design," challenged Isaac Newton's theory that the solar system could not have been created without God. "Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to ... set the Universe going," he writes.
Hawking was diagnosed with the degenerative Lou Gehrig's disease at the age of 21. He lost his power of speech and for decades has talked through an electronic speech synthesizer. The device has allowed him to continue his research and attain a top Cambridge research post, which was previously held by Newton. His most famous theory explains how black holes emit radiation, according to The Guardian.
So if everyone is destined to power-down like computers at the end of their lives, what should humans do to lend meaning to their experience?
"We should seek the greatest value of our action," Hawking told the paper.
(Hawking in China in 2006: Elizabeth Dalziel/AP)
Cinespia Opening Night 2011
If you were not at Cinespia Opening Night 2011 you missed it.
I was there to ring in Cinespia's Hollywood Cemetery Screenings of the Summer, featuring Elizabeth's Taylor - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Pack a lunch, bring some blankets, lawn chairs, something boozy and its all set. Bring along your special someone or a couple of friends and its a kick-ass party under the stars.
Donation: $10.00 per person and $10.00 to park inside the cemetery. $5.00 for off site parking and free parking on the street (get there early).
I was there to ring in Cinespia's Hollywood Cemetery Screenings of the Summer, featuring Elizabeth's Taylor - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Pack a lunch, bring some blankets, lawn chairs, something boozy and its all set. Bring along your special someone or a couple of friends and its a kick-ass party under the stars.
Donation: $10.00 per person and $10.00 to park inside the cemetery. $5.00 for off site parking and free parking on the street (get there early).
Saturday, May 21, 2011 showing of Stanley Kubrick's - "The Shining."
More information can be found at Cinespia.
See you there! Ciao!
2011 Infiniti M37S Full Test
By Scott Oldham, Editor in Chief
Published Apr 14, 2010
Day One: Nobody.
Day Two: Nobody.
Day Three: Nobod...Wait, maybe her. Nope. Nobody.
Day Four: Nobody.
Day Five: Nobody.
Day Six: Nobody.
It's been seven days. Seven. And nobody has noticed this 2011 Infiniti M37S we've been driving. Nobody. Not our neighbors. Not our co-workers. Not our friends. Not even Infiniti G owners. After a few days we would have settled for a passing glance from a pedestrian in a crosswalk or a double take from a fellow motorist waiting out the same red light. But the M37S has drawn zero attention. No looks. No inquiries. No, "Hey, is that the new M?"
Weird. This is L.A. People notice cars. Especially pre-production cars they've never seen before. But not this one. Not this silver 2011 Infiniti M37S.
Surprising? We think so. Something Infiniti should be worried about? In the words of the great philosopher Sarah Palin, "You betcha."
Infiniti says the design of the M is "inspired." The company says the sedan debuts its new design language, but combines it with existing design cues that have made the Infiniti G such a success. The new part is the pronounced "flowing side styling" first seen on the Essence concept car and it does give the M a sort of modern swoosh to its flanks.
At the same time, the car has gotten larger. Wider, mostly. It's more than 1.5 inches wider, while its length has grown just over half an inch. It's also about a quarter-inch lower. Its 114.2-inch wheelbase is unchanged and the M has dropped 6 pounds during its redesign, which is no easy trick. The result is a car that has the right stance and the right proportions, but few people (in our experience anyway) care to give it a second look.
And if they don't notice it, will they climb over each other to trade in their Audis, Benzes and BMWs?
They will if they like a bargain.
Infiniti has priced the M37 for the value-conscious, not the hood-ornament-conscious. The $57,115 MSRP of our test car is thousands less than a comparably equipped BMW 535i or Mercedes E350, which dominate this premium sedan segment. We should also point out that our test car was extremely well equipped. In fact, it was loaded with nearly $10 grand in option packages that increased its luxury and performance, but might not be necessary for everyone.
The M's biggest flaws are its ride comfort and its steering isolation.
Base price for a rear-wheel-drive 2011 Infiniti M37 is $46,250. The Sport package, which includes 20-inch wheels and summer performance tires, added $3,650. The Premium package, which is required with the Sport package, added $3,350 and the Technology package tacked on another $3,000.
Drives Like a G
Although the M does feel larger than the G and its interior and features are a step up, their driving experiences are as similar as their silhouettes. And that's both good and bad.
It's good if you love your G37S and you want exactly (EXACTLY!) the same thing but only larger. But it's bad if you desire higher levels of comfort and refinement than your G37S delivers. And it's bad if you appreciate the higher levels of comfort and refinement delivered by a BMW 535i, a Jaguar XF or a Mercedes E350.
Bottom line: The new M is no more refined, no more special in the way it goes about its business, than its little brother. And that, not anonymity, is the real problem with the 2011 Infiniti M37S. It feels too much like a larger G37. But at $20,000 more, it has to be so much more, especially if it's going to pull buyers out of their 5 Series and their E-Classes.
The M Sport's biggest flaws are its ride comfort and its steering isolation. None of which is a problem when you're pressing. Drive the M37S hard and it feels nearly perfect with just the right amount of feedback, quick response and the levels of performance you should expect in a $50,000 sport sedan.
And at our test track, with its suspension and transmission in Sport mode, the M performed well, turning in numbers nearly identical to the last Infiniti G37 we tested. It blasted through the slalom at 67.9 mph, circled the skid pad at 0.86g and stopped from 60 mph in just 114 feet. Good numbers. All of them.
This big sedan loves the test track and smooth, twisting canyon roads. And there's just no denying the benefits of its four-wheel active-steer system. It's just not as happy in the city or on the highway. You know, the real world. The place where there are potholes, rippled concrete and highway expansion joints.
In the real world, the 2011 Infiniti M37S rides too harshly. Unless the road is perfectly smooth, the M rides too much like a 370Z and not enough like a $50,000 luxury sport sedan. We don't blame the M Sport's spring rates or its new and unique double-piston shocks. Get into the M's suspension travel and it's obvious that the suspension tuning is firm but compliant, and not to blame for the M's ride issue.
Blame falls to the M's oversize, heavy 20-inch wheels and tires. They crash over even small road irregularities and force the M's ride over the line from sporty to just plain crude. Basically it feels like there's 90 psi in all four tires.
Steering intrusion is also an issue. Road feel we like; vibration we don't. Good steering chooses what it allows to reach the driver's hands. But the M's steering doesn't filter out much of anything. And the result is a car with a down-market feel in a lofty market segment. Not good.
Again we blame the M's 20-inch rubber. There's a reason you can't get 20-inch tires on a 5 Series or an E-Class. The Germans avoid them like they avoid the French. Even an M5 or an E63 wear smaller-diameter wheels. Why? Because it is very difficult to dial in the ride and isolation properly when your luxury sport sedan rides on dubs. Porsche has managed this marvel on the Panamera, but Infiniti has not on the M. Again. We say again because we've complained before about similar problems with the Infiniti FX50, which rides on 22-inch tires.
In an e-mail to Inside Line, Infiniti said it uses the 20-inch wheels and tires for three reasons.
1. Maximum design impact
20-inch wheels enhance the dramatic changes we made to the new M's exterior design.
They are not commonly found on cars in the M segment (as you stated in our phone conversation).
2. Further separation between the Sport and non-Sport
On the new M we wanted to provide a higher level of visual and hardware differentiation on the new M vs. what we had on the MY05-'10 (model years 2005-'10) M Sport vs. base.
The biggest visual differentiation we could easily provide was to increase the wheel size on Sport from 19 inches to 20 (base remaining at 18 inches).
3. Suspension changes aided change
On all MY11 Ms we have made a number of changes to the rear suspension geometry and bushing stiffness vs. the MY10 M.
In addition, for the new M Sport we added double-piston shocks, which we never had on the previous M Sport.
These changes provided us with greater latitude in suspension tuning to capitalize on the handling/steering benefits provided by the 20-inch wheels, but not suffer noticeable ride degradation vs. the MY10 M Sport.
We, of course, disagree with that final point.
Bottom line: Infiniti goes with the big rubber to make a styling statement, but the wheels and tires write checks Infiniti's engineering department can't cash. When an M3 and a Ford Mustang GT ride better than your luxury sport sedan, it's time to reevaluate.
Animal Sounds
We also question the sound of the 2011 Infiniti M37's engine. Again, what is refined and sporty at $37,000 just feels crude and unspecial at $57,000. And at $57,000, the voice of the 3.7-liter VQ-Series V6 just ain't cuttin' it. Too Fast and Furious. Too Z. Too drive-thru, not enough valet.
The engine itself, however, is getting the job done. The VQ will go down in history as one of the best and most versatile power plants of all time. And it works well in the new M. Sure it could be a little smoother at the top of the tach, but there's plenty of power up there and more than enough bottom end to get this 4,000-pound sedan up and moving.
At our test track 0-60 mph took just 5.9 seconds (5.6 seconds with 1 foot of rollout like on a drag strip), while the M37S covered the quarter-mile in 14.1 seconds at 99 mph. That's quick.
Much of the credit has to go to the M's seven-speed automatic transmission, which really gets the most from the V6. Its full-throttle upshifts could be a bit smoother, but they come right on the motor's 7,500 rpm redline, just as they should. And the transmission, which still packs a torque converter, matches revs on the downshifts like the best dual-clutch transmissions in the business.
That 21.5 mpg was recorded with little use of the M's Eco pedal feature, which Infiniti says results in a 5-10 percent increase in fuel economy. Click the console knob to "Eco" and the throttle pedal essentially loses the majority of its travel, forcing you to drive like a Golden Girl. You can push through this false throttle stop if you really want to, and we really wanted to.
We drove the M37S in Sport mode the majority of the time. It basically makes the seven-speed automatic more aggressive.
Great Interior
Inside is where the M37 really puts one on the competition. The new interior is fantastic. It's warmer than the accommodations in a 5 Series, feels more upscale than the office of an E-Class, is far more interesting than the inside of a Lexus GS and it does what the interior of a $57,000 car should — it feels expensive.
It's also very comfortable, well-appointed and assembled to a very high standard. And we can't help but appreciate the tech found in this car. The Bose 16-speaker 5.1 surround-sound system is sweet, as is the large in-dash 8-inch display, the 9.3GB Music-Box-equipped hard drive, the easy-to-use navigation system and Bluetooth.
Our only complaint is the amount of road noise allowed in on the highway. At 70 mph our sound meter read 68.7 dBA. That's more noise than we've recorded in a G37 and it's enough to give rear-seat passengers a hard time hearing those in the front.
There's a lot to like about the 2011 Infiniti M37S. And we like a lot about it. We just can't help but wonder if there's $20,000 more car here than you get in a G37S.
By the time most guys move up from a G to an M they're a little older, a little wiser, a little richer and their taste has gotten to be a bit more demanding. They're spending more and they demand more. Not necessarily more power. Or more speed. But they do want more refinement. More luxury. More specialness.
BMW and Mercedes know this, which is why the 5 Series and the E-Class own this segment. But the M doesn't really offer much more specialness. It just offers more space.
So the Infiniti fanboys with growing families will love it. Everyone else might want to think twice about ordering the Sport package.
The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.
Infiniti M37
Starting at: $47,700*
330-hp 3.7-liter VVEL® V6
Electronically controlled 7-speed automatic with Adaptive Shift Control (ASC). Manual shift mode offers sequentially selectable manual gearshifts and Downshift Rev Matching (DRM)
Independent multi-link with coil springs over Dual Flow Path shock absorbers, stabilizer bar
18-inch, double 5-spoke aluminum-alloy wheels
Leather-appointed interior
Infiniti Intelligent Key with Illuminated Push Button Ignition
7-inch color vehicle information display
XM® Satellite Radio[*]
RearView Monitor[*]
Rear-wheel drive
Dual Zone Automatic Temperature Control (ATC) system
4-wheel Anti-lock Braking System (ABS)
Starting at: $49,850*
Includes all M37 Standard Key Features
Intelligent All-Wheel Drive
Starting at: $53,700*
Includes all M37 Standard Key Features
3.5-liter V6 with Infiniti Direct Response Hybrid™ utilizing a lithium-ion battery and 50 kW electric motor
Hybrid-Electric Power Steering (H-EPS)
Regenerative Braking System
Independent, double-wishbone with coil springs over double piston shock absorbers, stabilizer and anti-roll bar
Approaching Vehicle Sound for Pedestrians (VSP)
DVD+R and DVD-R 101: An Explanation for Beginners
Part 1: What is "DVD" Media, and How Is It Different From CDs?
Answer: DVD, which was originally named for Digital Video Disc, now means Digital Versatile Disc. It is a special recording format for computers, audio, and TV/movies.
Superficially, a DVD disc looks just like a CD. It is 120mm in diameter, and 1.2mm in thickness(comprised of two polycarbonate substrates, 0.6mm each). Unlike CDs, however, DVD discs can be single or double sided. Furthermore, each DVD side may contain a second invisible "layer" to increase the disc's storage capacity.
On just one side, a DVD media disc can hold up to 13 times the information of a standard CD (13 x 700 megabytes).
Common DVD storage capacities are:
4.7GB (single sided/single layer)
9.4GB (double sided/1 layer)
8.5GB (single sided/dual layer)
17.1GB (double sided/dual layer)
Trivia: DVD discs are very data-sturdy, and do not wear out through repeated use. And unlike VHS cassettes and floppy diskettes, DVD discs are unaffected by magnetic fields. A DVD movie you buy, even after 10,000 playings, will have video reproduction identical to the day you bought it.
Part 2: Choosing a DVD Player-Burner For Yourself: DVD "dash" R versus DVD "plus" R
If you simply need a DVD player for your PC or your TV, then the choices are relatively straightforward. Outside of the bells and whistles of "progressive scan", bookmarking, and other enhancements, every DVD player is effectively the same for the basic functions.
If you are shopping for a DVD player-burner (that plays AND records DVDs), then you have two major format choices to evaluate, and they can be confusing:
Burner Choice 1) DVD-R or DVD-RW Format
Burner Choice 2) DVD+R or DVD+RW Format
Overview of DVD Recordable: +R Versus -R
As of June 2006, there is no physical difference between a DVD-R/-RW disc and a DVD+R/+RW disc.
There is, however, a series of technical differences between DVD-R/-RW DVD+R/+RW recorder format. The DVD+R/+RW format offers subtle extra functionality for people who record their own movies and audio.
The Standards Differences
1) The DVD-R (pronounced "DVD dash R") and -RW media formats are officially approved by the standards group DVD Forum. The DVD Forum was founded by Mitsubishi, Sony, Hitachi, and Time Warner, so it has tremendous industry support for its technical standards.
2) DVD+R ("DVD plus” R) and +RW formats are not approved by the DVD Forum standards group, but are instead supported by the DVD+RW Alliance. The DVD+RW Alliance is supported by Sony, Yamaha, Philips, Dell, and JP, so it also has tremendous industry support for its technical standards. Note that Sony supports both organizations.
3) Trivia "DVD Slim" format is not approved by any standards body.
4) Trivia: DVD RAM is a late 1990's format that has lost popularity, and is effectively a non-choice for consumers today, since most movies in 2004 will not play on DVD RAM.
The Functional Differences
The main functional differences between DVD-R and DVD+R are:
1) the DVD recorder's built-in defects management,
2) the way the recorders format and rewrite DVDs,
3) the price.
According to the claims of the DVD Alliance, using a DVD+R/+RW recorder will let you do the following:
1. Instantly eject without having to wait for finalized formatting.
2. Ability to record one DVD disc partially on PC and partially on television.
3. Background formatting: while the disc is being formatted, you can simultaneously record on already-formatted portions of the same disc.
4. Enhanced ability to edit filenames, movie and song titles, and playlists.
5. 100% compatibility with all other DVD players, while still enjoying these extra recording features.
by Paul Gil
Answer: DVD, which was originally named for Digital Video Disc, now means Digital Versatile Disc. It is a special recording format for computers, audio, and TV/movies.
Superficially, a DVD disc looks just like a CD. It is 120mm in diameter, and 1.2mm in thickness(comprised of two polycarbonate substrates, 0.6mm each). Unlike CDs, however, DVD discs can be single or double sided. Furthermore, each DVD side may contain a second invisible "layer" to increase the disc's storage capacity.
On just one side, a DVD media disc can hold up to 13 times the information of a standard CD (13 x 700 megabytes).
Common DVD storage capacities are:
4.7GB (single sided/single layer)
9.4GB (double sided/1 layer)
8.5GB (single sided/dual layer)
17.1GB (double sided/dual layer)
Trivia: DVD discs are very data-sturdy, and do not wear out through repeated use. And unlike VHS cassettes and floppy diskettes, DVD discs are unaffected by magnetic fields. A DVD movie you buy, even after 10,000 playings, will have video reproduction identical to the day you bought it.
Part 2: Choosing a DVD Player-Burner For Yourself: DVD "dash" R versus DVD "plus" R
If you simply need a DVD player for your PC or your TV, then the choices are relatively straightforward. Outside of the bells and whistles of "progressive scan", bookmarking, and other enhancements, every DVD player is effectively the same for the basic functions.
If you are shopping for a DVD player-burner (that plays AND records DVDs), then you have two major format choices to evaluate, and they can be confusing:
Burner Choice 1) DVD-R or DVD-RW Format
Burner Choice 2) DVD+R or DVD+RW Format
Overview of DVD Recordable: +R Versus -R
As of June 2006, there is no physical difference between a DVD-R/-RW disc and a DVD+R/+RW disc.
There is, however, a series of technical differences between DVD-R/-RW DVD+R/+RW recorder format. The DVD+R/+RW format offers subtle extra functionality for people who record their own movies and audio.
The Standards Differences
1) The DVD-R (pronounced "DVD dash R") and -RW media formats are officially approved by the standards group DVD Forum. The DVD Forum was founded by Mitsubishi, Sony, Hitachi, and Time Warner, so it has tremendous industry support for its technical standards.
2) DVD+R ("DVD plus” R) and +RW formats are not approved by the DVD Forum standards group, but are instead supported by the DVD+RW Alliance. The DVD+RW Alliance is supported by Sony, Yamaha, Philips, Dell, and JP, so it also has tremendous industry support for its technical standards. Note that Sony supports both organizations.
3) Trivia "DVD Slim" format is not approved by any standards body.
4) Trivia: DVD RAM is a late 1990's format that has lost popularity, and is effectively a non-choice for consumers today, since most movies in 2004 will not play on DVD RAM.
The Functional Differences
The main functional differences between DVD-R and DVD+R are:
1) the DVD recorder's built-in defects management,
2) the way the recorders format and rewrite DVDs,
3) the price.
According to the claims of the DVD Alliance, using a DVD+R/+RW recorder will let you do the following:
1. Instantly eject without having to wait for finalized formatting.
2. Ability to record one DVD disc partially on PC and partially on television.
3. Background formatting: while the disc is being formatted, you can simultaneously record on already-formatted portions of the same disc.
4. Enhanced ability to edit filenames, movie and song titles, and playlists.
5. 100% compatibility with all other DVD players, while still enjoying these extra recording features.
by Paul Gil
Friday, May 13, 2011
Thieves Swipe Debit Card Data
by Ann Zimmerman and Miguel Bustillo
Friday, May 13, 2011
provided by: Wall Street Journal
Brandi Ramundo of West Chicago, Ill., rushed out to a Michaels arts-and-crafts store April 16 to cobble together corsages for her seven-year-old twins, who were going to a father-daughter dance.
"It turned out cute," Ms. Ramundo says of the fake-flower crafts project. "But it wound up costing me 1,400 bucks."
Ms. Ramundo is one of an unknown number of shoppers at Michaels stores in 20 states whose bank accounts were looted after they had used their bank debit cards at the retailer.
Thieves tampered with the retailer's debit-card processing equipment at about 80 stores from Massachusetts to Washington, according to the chain's corporate parent, Michaels Stores Inc.
The thefts apparently involved the use of electronic devices called skimmers that allowed crooks to record information from shoppers' debit cards and steal their personal identification numbers, or PINs.
The Irving, Texas, company said Wednesday that it uncovered almost 90 improperly altered debit-card processing devices called PIN pads.
Thieves were able to use the stolen data to create duplicate debit cards and use them at automated teller machines to steal money directly from victims' bank accounts, primarily in denominations of $500.
Michaels Stores said it first became aware of the fraud scheme in early May after police departments around Chicago began receiving reports from consumers alleging their bank accounts had been looted, primarily from thieves using ATMs in California.
The company said it is working with federal and state law-enforcement authorities, and is replacing all of its 7,200 card-processing terminals as a precaution. The U.S. Secret Service, which investigates financial fraud, said that it is investigating the Michaels incident.
The scam resembles one perpetrated last summer at Aldi Inc. grocery stores in a dozen major cities across the country, and highlights what experts says is the growing appeal of debit cards to criminals.
Fraud involving debit cards, PIN numbers and card processing equipment has increased fivefold over the past five years, said Avivah Litan, a payment-fraud analyst at Gartner Research. While gangs initially targeted bank ATMs, such schemes have expanded to include card processors at gasoline pumps and now at retail chains.
A type of debit card embedded with a microchip instead of a magnetic strip is considered more secure and is standard issue in Europe, said Ms. Litan. But U.S. retailers have resisted the cards because of the cost involved in replacing existing card processors to read the microchip.
Details on the Michaels' breach are sketchy, but criminals have been known to install the devices by distracting cashiers or posing as repairmen, said Joseph LaRocca, senior advisor for asset protection at the National Retail Federation. Frequently, thieves will simply replace the stores' card processing machines with ones already embedded with skimmers.
To capture the cards' PIN numbers, thieves often place tiny cameras, as small as pin heads, on the processors or install a membrane over key pads that can record keystrokes. In either case, a thief must have physical access to the store.
The devices are typically homemade, put together by easily obtainable electronic parts, said Julie McNelley, a fraud and risk analyst at financial consultancy Aite Group, who recently attended a U.S. Secret Service presentation on debit-card fraud where the electronic devices were displayed.
She called the Michaels fraud "a very audacious, coordinated attack. These guys did their homework, identified the vulnerability of the particular key pad and maximized their efforts in a relatively short time."
Marquette Bank, an Illinois bank with 24 branches, noticed suspicious activity on 58 accounts last week and quickly found a common denominator: recent purchases at Michaels. It reimbursed the customers and replaced their cards.
"We caught it so early, there was not a great loss for our bank," said Jeff MacDonald, a bank spokesman.
Mary Allen, a 49-year-old teacher from Libertyville, Ill., visited her local Harris Bank branch last Wednesday to make a routine withdrawal and learned that she had insufficient funds.
A clerk printed out her recent account activity, and she saw two $503 transactions that she did not recognize.
Both withdrawals had been made in California, including one in the city of Monrovia.
"I can tell you one thing, I'm not sure I will ever use an ATM card again," said Ms. Allen.
Police in nearby Plainfield, Ill., also began receiving complaints earlier this month from consumers about strange transactions, said Sgt. Kevin McQuaid. They are set to meet with federal investigators soon to share what they have learned.
"It's frustrating when you can't really do anything for them other than direct them to the federal government," he said of local citizens.
"It is happening everywhere, and these financial criminals are becoming quite sophisticated in their methods."
Friday, May 13, 2011
provided by: Wall Street Journal
Brandi Ramundo of West Chicago, Ill., rushed out to a Michaels arts-and-crafts store April 16 to cobble together corsages for her seven-year-old twins, who were going to a father-daughter dance.
"It turned out cute," Ms. Ramundo says of the fake-flower crafts project. "But it wound up costing me 1,400 bucks."
Ms. Ramundo is one of an unknown number of shoppers at Michaels stores in 20 states whose bank accounts were looted after they had used their bank debit cards at the retailer.
Thieves tampered with the retailer's debit-card processing equipment at about 80 stores from Massachusetts to Washington, according to the chain's corporate parent, Michaels Stores Inc.
The thefts apparently involved the use of electronic devices called skimmers that allowed crooks to record information from shoppers' debit cards and steal their personal identification numbers, or PINs.
The Irving, Texas, company said Wednesday that it uncovered almost 90 improperly altered debit-card processing devices called PIN pads.
Thieves were able to use the stolen data to create duplicate debit cards and use them at automated teller machines to steal money directly from victims' bank accounts, primarily in denominations of $500.
Michaels Stores said it first became aware of the fraud scheme in early May after police departments around Chicago began receiving reports from consumers alleging their bank accounts had been looted, primarily from thieves using ATMs in California.
The company said it is working with federal and state law-enforcement authorities, and is replacing all of its 7,200 card-processing terminals as a precaution. The U.S. Secret Service, which investigates financial fraud, said that it is investigating the Michaels incident.
The scam resembles one perpetrated last summer at Aldi Inc. grocery stores in a dozen major cities across the country, and highlights what experts says is the growing appeal of debit cards to criminals.
Fraud involving debit cards, PIN numbers and card processing equipment has increased fivefold over the past five years, said Avivah Litan, a payment-fraud analyst at Gartner Research. While gangs initially targeted bank ATMs, such schemes have expanded to include card processors at gasoline pumps and now at retail chains.
A type of debit card embedded with a microchip instead of a magnetic strip is considered more secure and is standard issue in Europe, said Ms. Litan. But U.S. retailers have resisted the cards because of the cost involved in replacing existing card processors to read the microchip.
Details on the Michaels' breach are sketchy, but criminals have been known to install the devices by distracting cashiers or posing as repairmen, said Joseph LaRocca, senior advisor for asset protection at the National Retail Federation. Frequently, thieves will simply replace the stores' card processing machines with ones already embedded with skimmers.
To capture the cards' PIN numbers, thieves often place tiny cameras, as small as pin heads, on the processors or install a membrane over key pads that can record keystrokes. In either case, a thief must have physical access to the store.
The devices are typically homemade, put together by easily obtainable electronic parts, said Julie McNelley, a fraud and risk analyst at financial consultancy Aite Group, who recently attended a U.S. Secret Service presentation on debit-card fraud where the electronic devices were displayed.
She called the Michaels fraud "a very audacious, coordinated attack. These guys did their homework, identified the vulnerability of the particular key pad and maximized their efforts in a relatively short time."
Marquette Bank, an Illinois bank with 24 branches, noticed suspicious activity on 58 accounts last week and quickly found a common denominator: recent purchases at Michaels. It reimbursed the customers and replaced their cards.
"We caught it so early, there was not a great loss for our bank," said Jeff MacDonald, a bank spokesman.
Mary Allen, a 49-year-old teacher from Libertyville, Ill., visited her local Harris Bank branch last Wednesday to make a routine withdrawal and learned that she had insufficient funds.
A clerk printed out her recent account activity, and she saw two $503 transactions that she did not recognize.
Both withdrawals had been made in California, including one in the city of Monrovia.
"I can tell you one thing, I'm not sure I will ever use an ATM card again," said Ms. Allen.
Police in nearby Plainfield, Ill., also began receiving complaints earlier this month from consumers about strange transactions, said Sgt. Kevin McQuaid. They are set to meet with federal investigators soon to share what they have learned.
"It's frustrating when you can't really do anything for them other than direct them to the federal government," he said of local citizens.
"It is happening everywhere, and these financial criminals are becoming quite sophisticated in their methods."
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