Article: How to Maintain Weight Loss Permanently

The main challenge of any diet program is to maintain weight loss permanently. It is generally believed that a permanent weight loss is a "losing" battle as many people regain their lost weight with a vengeance before 2 years are up.

It not need be so!  Recent diet follow up studies indicate that as many as 20% of dieters lose weight successfully with long lasting results.
The following are some of the strategies adapted by weight losers who were successful in maintaining weight loss long term.

Essential Strategies To Maintain Weight Loss

• Adhere to and enjoy the lifestyle and the healthy eating plan you adopted during your weight loss regimen. This point, of course, assumes that you lost weight with a healthy and a sustainable diet program (see: How To Choose Weight Loss Diets That Work ).
• Keep a journal of the foods you eat and the times you are most vulnerable to cravings. Not all successful weight losers keep a journal but for some it is a "lifesaver".
• If you have stabilized at a weight above your set goal do not give up. You may have to accept that your body prefers a certain weight beyond which you would constantly be struggling. It is better to lose some weight than to revert back to what you were before.
• Restrict some foods, such as fast and fried foods and foods high in fat and sugar. Restricting some foods may seem unfair. Think about it, however. If you were alergic to peanuts you would not eat peanut butter. If you have a propensity to gain weight do not eat fatty and sugary foods. It is that simple.
• Do not skip meals and especially breakfast. Breakfast is an essential meal that will keep you from having cravings later in the day. The following article discusses this point at length: Breakfast Helps Maintain Your Weight Loss.
• Eat more than 3 meals per day. Make sure to include healthy snacks in your meal plan.
• Drink water instead of juices or sodas. If you feel like having something else then water, have a glass of skim milk. As well, have one glass of water before your meal. I does fill you up.
• Continue to limit the quantity of food you place on your plate and subsequently eat.
• Eat slowly. It takes your brain 20 minutes to recognize the fact that you are full!
• Weigh yourself often. Contrary to popular belief, weighing yourself couple of times per week or even every day was found very important for weight maintenance. Frequent weighing allows one to detect any weight gain and immediately address the issue before it gets out of hand.
• Do not watch TV for long periods of time. There is a large number of food commercials on TV. Many of the foods look so delicious and tempting that this may cause you to raid your fridge one too many times.
• Keep physically active. This is a must! Walking, taking stairs, whatever as long as you keep moving. If you find you honestly do not have time to leave the house read: How to Lose Weight Without Dieting and Exercise . You will be amazed how many calories you can expend with ordinary house chores.

Use any or all of these strategies and you will find that finally, for the first time you are successful at maintaining weight loss. Share your story!
Props: loseweightips101

A Miracle Wedding; not even the earthquake can stop them

Haha: Meet the dorky mascots for the 2014 Olympics

                                                                     Snow Leopard
A snowboarding leopard, a figure-skating bunny and a polar bear wearing a scarf will be the three mascots for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia. Though those are some of the safest choices imaginable, the decision has led to charges of plagiarism, corruptibility and vote-rigging. Crazy huh? More when you continue. 


The winners were announced on a live television show broadcast throughout the country. Viewers cast over 1 million votes for the nine candidates and officials selected the top-three to serve as Sochi's official mascots. The snow leopard came out on top with 28 percent of the vote.
The announcement was not without some controversy. Ded Morez, the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus, had led in early polling but was pulled from the ballot at the last second when Russian organizers feared that their country's folk hero would become official property of the IOC. That decision left room for the following three winners, which are said to "encapsulate much of Ru
The snow leopard was the favorite of Vladimir Putin's. The Russian prime minister favored the cat because he is "big, strong, fast and beautiful." Not coincidentally, the mascot's popularity rose once Putin threw support its way. Its self-confidence swagger is "not unlike Putin's own projection of machismo" and the fact that the leopard enjoys the prime minister's favored martial arts makes some think the character was based on Putin himself.
Prominent Russian political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin told a Moscow radio station that he believes there may have been some voting irregularities in the telephone voting system that led to the leopard's victory. The insinuation is that Putin wanted the leopard so the leopard somehow made it to the top of the voting. That's silly. A rigged vote in Russia? Preposterous!

                                                                         Bunny
The bunny will be wear ice skates in a nod to Russia's once-great figure skating program. No word on whether the bunny was in cahoots with the French judge to help with the victory.

                                                                       Polar beer
The Associated Press says the final mascot looks "dorky." Whether that's true or not (and it totally is), the creator of Russia's last Olympic mascot says it's plagiarism. Viktor Chizhikov, the man who designed the mascot to the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, believes this bear is a direct copy of his.
"This polar bear, everything is taken from mine, the eyes, nose, mouth, smile," he told a Moscow radio station. "I don't like being robbed."

Compare :

Yes, both bears have eyes, noses, mouths and smiles, as do all cartoon bears. There's only so many ways to draw an anthropomorphic cartoon bear. You don't see Winnie the Pooh with snarling fangs, you know?
One is white and has a scarf. The other is brown and wearing an Olympic ring belt buckle. Other than the fact that they're both from the ursus genus, there aren't many similarities. The Sochi mascot may be unoriginal, uninspired and bland, but it's not a copy.
Olympic officials are in a no-win situation when it comes to choosing mascots. If they go for something different, they're ripped for making nonsensical choices that have nothing to do with sports or the host city. If they play it safe, the officials get lambasted for not having any vision.
Mascots exist for merchandising and it's easy to image a child snuggling up with a Sochi polar bear or playing a video game with the snowboarding lion. Sochi's choices aren't groundbreaking but they're not awful and they'll serve the purpose for which they were created. And, best of all, they won't terrify children like these guys. 

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Sports watch: Am Gay!!! Stephen Davies

England wicketkeeper, Stephen Davies has announced to anyone who cares to listen that he is care. he is the first ever professional cricketer to do so. Why he is announcing now when you continue.

The 24-year-old Surrey player said he had decided to make the announcement after months of personal conflict.

In a frank and moving interview with today’s Daily Telegraph, Davies, who started his professional cricketing career with Worcestershire when he was 18, said he could no longer bear to lie about his sexuality.

Davies, who told his family he was gay five years ago and has enjoyed their complete support, said it was a huge relief to finally come clean and be honest with the wider public.

"I'm comfortable with who I am - and happy to say who I am in public," Davies said.

And he said he hoped his decision would help other young gay people to have the confidence to follow in his footsteps.

He explained: “This is the right time for me…I feel it is right to be out in the open about my sexuality. If more people do it, the more acceptable it will become. That must be a good thing.
"To speak out is a massive relief for me, but if I can just help one person to deal with their sexuality then that's all I care about."
A former England under-19 captain, Davies, who made his international debut in 2009 during the Twenty20 in Trinidad, is widely tipped as a future star of the game.
But he admitted hiding his sexuality has affected his relationships in the dressing room.
He said he dreaded long international tours because he was forced to conceal an important part of his life from his team-mates.
Davies decided to confide in his England colleagues after being called up for the recent Ashes tour to Australia.
He said he received wonderful support from his team-mates, especially fellow wicketkeeper Matt Prior and captain, Andrew Strauss, and now looks forward to getting on with, what he hopes will be, a long and successful career at the highest level.
Davies’s decision to out himself comes two years after Welsh rugby hero Gareth Thomas also went public about his homosexuality.
The 36 year-old, who is currently playing for the Crusaders in Europe’s Super League, has voiced his support for Davies and said he admired his courage.

He said: “I am really happy for Steven and pleased that he has had the strength and courage to be able to come out and be open and honest about who he is, and to see that he has the support of his family and team-mates in doing it, like I did.
“I know how hard it is to be honest about something like this when you are in the public eye, and for him to be able to come out and talk about it at his age is refreshing and hopefully like when I came out, will encourage and inspire others to feel they can do the same. I hope that this will be just the start from him.”
Davies admitted he had been partly inspired by Thomas’s bravery in going public about his own sexuality.
He said: “Gareth Thomas’s story helped me. It just showed me it can be done. He was brave enough to stand up and say who he was. It was a very courageous thing to do, so if I can help anyone else like he helped me, then that would be great.
The world of professional sport remains hugely under-represented in terms of the numbers of openly gay people.
But campaigners hope the more who find the courage to come forward, the less of a stigma it will be for those struggling to deal with the issue.
While Thomas’s announcement, set against the backdrop of the intensely macho game of rugby, drew widespread admiration, he was coming towards the end of his career.
Davies’s decision to go public at such an early stage in his professional life, is seen as hugely significant in breaking down taboos surrounding homosexuality in professional sport.
"I hope it's all going to be fine with the fans," Davies added.
"If there is any abuse or anything then I don't need to worry about those people giving it out.
"The people that matter to me are family, friends and my team-mates, and everyone has been so amazing, that's what counts."
The Sussex bowler Alan Hansford, who played first class cricket between 1989 and 1992, is thought to be the only other openly gay player, but he did not go public about his sexuality until after his retirement.

Yawwnnnn!!!

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Oscars 2011: The winners, the pictures

 And the winners are:

1. Best Picture: The King's Speech

2. Actor: Colin Firth - The King's Speech

3. Actress: Natalie Portman - Black Swan

4. Supporting Actor: Christian Bale - The Fighter
5. Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo - The Fighter
6. Directing: Tom Hooper - The King's Speech
7. Foreign Language Film - In a Better World - Denmark
8. Adapted Screenplay - Aaron Sorkin - The Social Network
9. Original Screenplay: David Seidler - The King's Speech
10. Animated Feature Film - Toy Story 3
11. Art Direction: Alice in Wonderland
12. Cinematography: Inception
13. Sound Mixing: Inception
14. Sound Editing: Inception
15. Original Score: The Social Network, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
16. Original Song: We Belong Together from Toy Story 3, Randy Newman.
17. Costume Design: Alice in Wonderland
18. Documentary Feature: Inside Job
19. Documentary (short subject): Strangers No More
20. Film Editing: The Social Network
21. Makeup: The Wolfman
22. Animated Short Film: The Lost Thing
23. Live Action Short Film: God of Love
24. Visual Effects: Inception

         Big winner, Actress Natalie Portman arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar party hosted by Graydon Carter

                                         Best actress Oscar winner Natalie Portman receiving award

                                            "Good Morning America" anchor Robin Roberts

                                          Sandra Bullocks and Estate Mogul Donald Trump

Glenn Beck apology: Admits making 'one of the worst analogies of all time'

Glenn Beck does not have a reputation for admitting mistakes, but after his recent comments on the radio comparing Reform Judaism to Islamic Extremism, he apologized on his Feb. 24 program, tail tucked firmly between his legs.


Mediaite reports that, in an effort to "guard [his] credibility," Beck opened the show by addressing the criticism he'd drawn since making the inflammatory comments.

"I've always told you to do your own homework," he says. "And, in this case, I didn't do enough homework."

He also says it was "one of the worst analogies of all time" and agreed with those who'd labeled his comments as "ignorant."

Not everyone is appeased though. Mediaite also has a response from Jewish Funds for Justice, the organization Beck was speaking of when he made his initial comments.

"Glenn Beck's apology for comparing Reform Judaism to "Radicalized Islam" is welcome but incomplete," reads the statement. "Glenn Beck's characterization of Reform Judaism is in keeping with his longstanding hostility toward people who see their faith linked to pursuing the common good."

Could we possibly be getting a second apology from Beck?

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Black and White parents, Black and White twins

At 17 months, Triniti and Ghabriael are chubby-cheeked twins, born 11 weeks early at three pounds each and now healthy and a joy to their parents.
Related: Couples you can plan your baby now; see how to choose your baby's gender before conception
But when their mother, Khristi Cunningham of Akron, Ohio, takes them in public, the babies get a lot of second looks and questions. Picture when you continue

Triniti has ebony-colored skin and all the classic dark features of an African American, but "Gabe," as his parents call him, is ivory-white with steely blue eyes and blond hair. He's now 10 pounds heavier than his sister, but it's their racial identity that gets people scratching their heads.
"People ask, 'How did it happen?' Are you sure they are twins?" said Cunningham, 29. "We get a lot of stares, and I am sure people make comments behind my back."
Their mother is white and their father, Charles Cunningham, is black.
"I don't know how it happened," said Cunningham. "They are fraternal twins, so they aren't any closer than if they had been born years apart. Ours just happen to have the same birthday."
Geneticists say racial differences involve many genes and are more complex in determining looks than those for eye color, but the startling difference between the twins raises an interesting question about how mixed-race families are viewed in a country that is increasing biracial.
Even the Cunningham's pediatrician was baffled by the black and white babies.

"She asked if they were identical twins," said Cunningham. "That was the last time we went to see her."
Having a black and white twin is "no big deal from my viewpoint," said Dr. Ronald Bachman, retired chief emeritus of the genetics department at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in California.
"I share a common trait with most medical geneticists," he said. "We don't know a hell of a lot and don't pay much attention to skin color and eye color, although we are asked at cocktail parties all the time."
Interesting!

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Would you?

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You can only imagine: Indian man with 39 wives, 94 children and 33 grandchildren

A 66-year-old man in a remote village in northeast India has 39 wives, 94 children and 33 grandchildren, all living under one roof and is still wanting more. More pictures when you continue.


They all live in a four storied building with 100 rooms in a mountainous village in Mizoram state, sharing borders with Burma and Bangladesh, according to reports.

"I once married 10 women in one year," Ziona Chana said.

His wives share a dormitory near Ziona's private bedroom and locals said he likes to have seven or eight of them by his side at all times.

The sons and their wives, and all their children, live in different rooms in the same building, but share a common kitchen.

The wives take turns cooking, while his daughters clean the house and do washing. The men do outdoor jobs like farming and taking care of livestock.

The family, all 167 of them, consumes around 200lb of rice and more than 130lb of potatoes a day. They are supported by their own resources and occasional donations from followers.
"Even today, I am ready to expand my family and willing to go to any extent to marry," Ziona said.
"I have so many people to care (for) and look after, and I consider myself a lucky man."
Mr Chana met his oldest wife, who is three years older than he is, when he was 17.
He heads a local Christian religious sect, called the "Chana", which allows polygamy. Formed in June 1942, the sect believes it will soon be ruling the world with Christ and has a membership of around 400 families.

Sports: Carmelo Anthony signs deal with Knicks

Carmelo Anthony's trade from the Denver Nuggets to the New York Knicks has sunk in, ending a seven-month saga about where the flamboyant playmaker would finish the NBA season.
Two days before the NBA trade deadline, the 26-year-old forward who helped the Americans win gold at the Beijing Olympics was sent to New York in a 12-player deal that will unite him with another NBA star in Amare Stoudemire.

"Every team needs a 1, 1A punch," Stoudemire said. "With the ways that we both can score .... we're very versatile, so it's hard to guard us.
"It's two highly talented offensive players. It's going to be electric. We're taking the right steps to building something special in New York."
Denver completed a three-team swap with the Knicks on Tuesday night. The Minnesota Timberwolves also were involved in the trade, which couldn't be finalized until Anthony signed a three-year, $65 million contract extension with the Nuggets.
"It's what he wants. It's what I wanted, to come to New York and play on the big stage," Stoudemire said. "He has the same type of swagger. This is what he wants and he can handle it. We're going to do it together."
Anthony ranks sixth in the NBA with 25.2 points a game. He has also averaged 7.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists a game this season for the Nuggets, where he has played for his entire career since joining the NBA as the third overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft.
Anthony, guards Chauncey Billups and Anthony Carter, forward Renaldo Balkman and center Shelden Williams were sent to the Knicks in exchange for forwards Danilo Gallinari of Italy and Wilson Chandler, guard Raymond Felton, Russian center Timofey Mozgov and $3 million.
The Knicks also sent the Nuggets a first-round pick in the 2014 NBA Draft and second-round selections in the 2012 and 2013 NBA Drafts, both of which originally belonged to the Golden State Warriors.
In a related deal to cope with salary cap issues, the Knicks sent center Eddy Curry, forward Anthony Randolph and $3 million to Minnesota for swingman Corey Brewer.
Anthony, who is from New York, had rejected a three-year contract extension offer from Denver worth $65 million last year, setting the stage for the deal and the drawn-out saga of where he would go.
Anthony had to sign the extension with the Nuggets before the trade deal to the Knicks could be completed.
The New Jersey Nets several times appeared near a deal, but Anthony's refusal to sign a longer-term contract thwarted efforts from the Knicks' cross-rival rivals to deny New York the coveted point producer.
The Knicks hope to have Anthony in uniform on Wednesday when they host Milwaukee, but they will join the Miami Heat -- with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh -- and Boston with multiple stars and huge expectations.
"It's not easy and it's not going to get any easier for us now because the target is on our back," Stoudemire said. "Teams are going to be eager to play against us."
Anthony sparked Denver into the NBA playoffs in each of his seven full seasons with the club, but the Nuggets only went beyond the first round once, that in 2009 when they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals, the club's deepest playoff run since 1985.
At 32-25, Denver ranks seventh in the Western Conference, one game ahead of Utah and Memphis in a fight for the last playoff berths.
The Knicks, 28-26, are sixth in the Eastern Conference, two games ahead of Philadelphia and 5 1/2 games behind fifth-place Atlanta.
Props: AFP

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Lady Gaga on Grammys, HIV/AIDS: Wears condom outfit

Pop sensation Lady Gaga wore a "condom-inspired outfit" when she visited "Good Morning America" on Feb. 17 to talk about her work with the MAC Viva Glam Campaign, which works to raise awareness about women with HIV/AIDS. "Today was a latex condom-inspired outfit because we're here to talk about safe sex," Gaga told Robin Roberts on "GMA." "Today I really wanted to -- head to toe -- be representative about what we women … need to be concerned about … which is HIV."

Gaga is a spokesperson for MAC's Viva Glam campaign which raises money and awareness for HIV and AIDS prevention globally.
Wearing nude latex pants, a latex overcoat, a white, exaggerated hat, and flesh-toned implants around her eyes, Gaga said that her time in an egg-shaped vessel before Sunday's Grammys allowed her to experience a "rebirth."
The 24-year-old singer was carried down the red carpet in an egg by a fleet of models.
"I was in there for three days…I was viva glamming for three whole days because I wanted to have a rebirth and I think the universe needs to have a rebirth," she said. "I think we all need to be inside a vessel for a three whole days, thinking about how we can love ourselves more, protect ourselves more, live life with more passion and look not outwards for validation but inwards, look inside of yourself to your spirit and your inner light."
The native New Yorker, who has sold 60 million singles worldwide, said that her three grammy wins Sunday were a complete surprise.
"I so genuinely did not think I was going to win...I was shocked and so honored and so humbled and it was a very joyous day being able to sing 'Born This Way' for the first time."
Gaga's new hit single, "Born This Way," has already reached number one on the Billboard charts since its release last week.
"Born This Way is so much bigger than me, it's not about me at all really…the song when I wrote it, I just knew it was destined to reach so many people all over the world and the most humbling thing for me this past weekend has been watching the fans just harness onto the record and people that weren't my fans before really, really enjoying the music and feeling uplifted and a sense of positivity," she said.

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Libyan Unrest Fuels Oil Price Rise

Weekly gas prices skyrocketed, according to the Department of Energy, driven by the popular revolts spreading across the Middle East.

The U.S. weekly average price per gallon is $3.19, up 54 cents from a year ago, and slightly higher than last week's $3.14. This was the highest price posted during the month of February since 1990, when the data became available. The most expensive regions again are New England at $3.23 and California at $3.56.
Oil settled at $93.57 in New York trading, up 8.5 percent since Friday's close, the biggest one day jump in nearly three years.
Daniel O'Connell, vice president of energy at MF Global, said he does not suspect gas and oil prices to continue to accelerate for very long.
"It's going way up way too fast," said O'Connell. "We're not going to break any new level as far as $94 is concerned. I suspect it will return to that $88 range sooner than later."
And why are gas prices going up?
"In a word: Libya," says petroleum expert Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston. He has been following gas prices one way or another for more than 30 years.
As protests seemed to subside in Egypt, anti-government unrest continued in Bahrain and Libya. In a speech today, defiant Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi said he maintains control of the country despite the spread of anti-government protests from the city of Benghazi to the capital, Tripoli, yesterday.
Unlike Egypt and Bahrain, Lipow says, Libya is a significant exporter of light sweet crude.
Most of that gets exported to Europe: Italy, Germany, France and Spain. So, how does it affect the United States? We import 40 percent of our crude from Europe, refine it, and then export back to them the distillates, including gasoline and diesel. So, any disruption in Europe gets felt in the 50 states.

Woman turned into sex slave after internet meeting

A Wisconsin woman who said she agreed to cook and clean for a man she met on the internet in exchange for a free place to stay allegedly ended up as his sex slave, prosecutors said Wednesday.
The 27-year-old woman met New York resident John Hopkins on the website Craigslist before spending nine days trapped in his apartment, where she claims she was repeatedly raped, according to a district attorney's statement.

The woman -- whose name has not been released -- was treated for injuries at Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn, New York. The details of her condition are not clear.
Authorities charged Hopkins with rape, assault, forcible touching and unlawful imprisonment, arresting him at his Brooklyn apartment on Saturday. He is currently being held on $350,000 bail.
The woman claims that she was looking for work in New York and found an advertisement that Hopkins posted on Craigslist, listing a room for rent, according to the complaint.
The pair agreed that the woman could stay rent free if she cooked and cleaned for Hopkins, who then paid for her airfare to New York on February 4, 2011.
Upon arriving at his apartment, Hopkins allegedly told the woman that she was going to be his slave, the complaint said.
The woman claims she was repeatedly raped between February 4 and February 12, and was also tied with a rope, gagged and handcuffed to a radiator, it said.
On the ninth day, she said she managed to call her mother and alert her of the alleged abuse.
Police found the woman bruised and bound in Hopkins' apartment, according to the district attorney statement.
Authorities said the victim was shaking and had marks on her body, according to the complaint.

Hopkins is expected to appear in court Friday for a preliminary hearing. If convicted, he could face up to 25 years in prison.

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Lara Logan: President Obama calls

CBS News correspondent Lara Logan is resting at her Washington, D.C.-area home with her husband and two children after being sexually assaulted and beaten in Tahrir Square on the day Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigned, a close friend of Logan's said.
According to a White House aide, President Obama called Logan this afternoon. The White House did not provide details of the phone call, but Press Secretary Jay Carney reiterated that "violence against journalists was unacceptable, and that the perpetrators of violence needed to be held accountable."

Soccer: Real Madrid becomes highest earning sports team ever

For the sixth consecutive year, Real Madrid tops the Deloitte Football Money League, and in doing so, became the highest earning sports team ever, reports Business Insider. Despite not winning any trophies, the club's earnings jumped from $541 million for the 2008/09 season to $592 million for the 2009/10 season, enabling them to continue funding Cristiano Ronaldo's most extravagant purchases. Like exclusive yet unenforcable baby rights.  

Barcelona came in right behind Real for the second straight year (even though the standings were the other way around in La Liga) and the first time ever, the combined earnings of Deloitte's 20-club Money League topped $5.4 billion.
By comparison, the top earning NFL team, the Dallas Cowboys, made $420 million according to Forbes and the top earning MLB team, the New York Yankees, made $441 million. That would only put them fifth and fourth, respectively, in Deloitte's list of football clubs.
The biggest chunk of Real Madrid's revenue came from their ongoing $1.4 billion TV rights deal, but they also make nearly as much from numerous sponsorships and matchday earnings. And if there's one thing Real like more than making money, it's spending it. Over the last decade, they've spent more than $1 billion on player transfers as they keep breaking their own transfer records for individual players to fill out club president Florentino Perez's live-action fantasy team. 

Here's the full Football Money League top 20...
1. Real Madrid -- $592 million
2. Barcelona -- $537 million
3. Manchester United -- $472 million
4. Bayern Munich -- $436 million
5. Arsenal -- $370 million
6. Chelsea -- $345 million
7. AC Milan -- $318 million
8. Liverpool -- $308 million
9. Inter Milan -- $303 million
10. Juventus -- $277 million
11. Manchester City -- $206 million
12. Tottenham Hotspur -- $198 million
13. Hamburger SV -- $197 million
14. Lyon -- $197 million
15. Marseille -- $190 million
16. Schalke 04 -- $189 million
17. Atletico Madrid -- $168 million
18. Roma -- $166 million
19. Stuttgart -- $155 million
20. Aston Villa -- $148 million

Well, away from the list, these figures don't look so good when you look at how quickly those earnings disappear. As the Andersred Blog points out, just one of the seven English clubs on Deloitte's list turned a profit (Arsenal). Barcelona had to take out a loan to pay player wages last summer and Real's debt is in the hundreds of millions. So keep that in mind when imagining club executives diving into warehouse-sized safes full of gold coins like............. Scrooge McDuck. 

Armstrong: Doping Claim Is 'Bull----' Retires

Almost a month after finishing 65th in his last competitive race in Australia, and nearly six years removed from the last of an unprecedented seven straight Tour de France titles, the 39-year-old cyclist made clear there is no reset button this time.

This time, he's leaving professional racing behind for good.
"Never say never," Armstrong laughed at the start of an exclusive interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, then quickly added, "Just kidding."
His retirement ends a comeback effort that failed to produce an eighth title or diminish talk that performance-enhancing drugs helped his career. The timing has as much to do with his growing responsibilities and family as it does with the physical limitations time has imposed. He's tired, and tired of being hounded. Armstrong will miss competing — let alone dominating a sport like none before him — but not the 24/7/365 training regimen that made it possible.
"I can't say I have any regrets. It's been an excellent ride. I really thought I was going to win another tour," Armstrong said about his comeback attempt in 2009, four years after his first retirement. "Then I lined up like everybody else and wound up third.
"I have no regrets about last year, either," he added, despite finishing 23rd. "The crashes, the problems with the bike — those were things that were beyond my control."
Armstrong spoke to the AP in a telephone interview and in a videotaped interview from his office in Austin, Texas.
Armstrong zoomed out of relative obscurity after a life-threatening bout with testicular cancer to win his first tour in 1999, then set about recalibrating both the popularity of his sport and how much influence athletes can wield as advocates for a cause — in his case, on behalf of cancer survivors and researchers worldwide.
International Cycling Union President Pat McQuaid had high praise for Armstrong.

Crackdown in Bahrain as Protests Spread - 4 feared dead

Political unrest continued to spread across the Arab world as tens of thousands of protesters flooded Bahrain's Pearl Square and riot police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, leaving at least four people dead and wounding hundreds more.

The crackdown on anti-government rallies early Thursday morning local time led to the dismantling of protest camps set up at Pearl Square after the Interior Ministry "declared the camp illegal" and warned citizens to "stay off the streets," the Associated Press reported.
It marked the first time armored vehicles were seen in the streets after the pre-dawn raid and "effectively shut down the island nation" as workers located at the capital were not allowed to pass checkpoints.
This morning, ABC News has learned that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other senior officials will be calling their Bahraini counterparts today to urge restraint and to advise this U.S. ally on how best to proceed.
Bahrain, a small, but strategic nation located in the Persian Gulf is crucial in the U.S. fight against Al-Qaeda. It is also the home to the 5th Fleet - a major U.S. Naval Forces Central Command.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his entourage of lawyers, supporters, protesters and journalists are headed back to a London court for a showdown between the secret-spilling computer hacker and Swedish authorities who want him extradited to face sex crimes allegations.

A two-day hearing that begins Monday will decide Assange's legal fate. It will also keep the spotlight away from WikiLeaks' revelations and on its opinion-dividing frontman.

Assange is accused of sexual misconduct by two women he met during a visit to Stockholm last year. At Belmarsh Magistrates' Court, a high-security judicial outpost beside a prison, defense lawyers will argue that he should not be extradited because he has not been charged with a crime, because of flaws in Swedish prosecutors' case — and because a ticket to Sweden could land him in Guantanamo Bay or on U.S. death row.
American officials are trying to build a criminal case against WikiLeaks, which has angered Washington by publishing a trove of leaked diplomatic cables and secret U.S. military files. Assange's lawyers claim the Swedish prosecution is linked to the leaks and politically motivated.

Preliminary defense arguments released by Assange's legal team claim "there is a real risk that, if extradited to Sweden, the U.S. will seek his extradition and/or illegal rendition to the USA, where there will be a real risk of him being detained at Guantanamo Bay or elsewhere."
The document adds that "there is a real risk that he could be made subject to the death penalty" if sent to the United States. Under European law, suspects cannot be extradited to jurisdictions where they may face execution.
Many legal experts say the Guantanamo claims are fanciful, and Sweden strongly denies coming under American pressure.
Nils Rekke, head of the legal department at the Swedish prosecutor's office in Stockholm, said Assange would be protected from transfer to the U.S. by strict European rules.

Israelis Torn

Ohio college student killed, 11 wounded, university says

A student at Ohio's Youngstown State University was killed and 11 others, including six students, were wounded in an off-campus shooting Sunday morning, university officials said.

No further details were immediately available about the shooting in the northeast Ohio city, and the condition of the wounded was not known. University spokesman Ron Cole said there was no threat to the campus, but campus police have stepped up their presence "as a precaution."
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OMG!!! Aguilera flubs national anthem at Super Bowl

Christina Aguilera helped kick off Sunday’s Super Bowl with a singer’s nightmare, flubbing the words of "The Star-Spangled Banner" about 40 seconds into the song as tens of millions prepared to watch the game between the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Details inside.


Standing at midfield at Texas' Cowboys Stadium, the singer-actress mixed a previously sung clause with the one she was supposed to be on.
Here's what she sang, with the error in bold:
"O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
What so proudly we watched at the twilight’s last [unintelligible].”
That fourth line was supposed to be: "O'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly streaming."
In a statement released by her publicist, Aguilera explained what happened: "I got so lost in the moment of the song that I lost my place," the singer said. "I can only hope that everyone could feel my love for this country and that the true spirit of its anthem still came through."
Aguilera isn't the first person to have trouble with the song, as Time magazine's "Top 10 Worst National-Anthem Renditions" will remind us.
The list includes Michael Bolton's effort at a 2003 playoff baseball game in Boston's Fenway Park, where he had to pause midsong and check some notes before correctly getting through the same line that troubled Aguilera.
Aguilera sang the national anthem twice during last year's NBA finals.
She delivered both performances without incident.

Happy Birthday Ronald Reagan

Mystery over claims of naked Silvio Berlusconi photographs

Lawyers for Silvio Berlusconi have filed legal actions over investigations that have allegedly found photographs of him naked in the company of two women.  The pictures are alleged to have been taken by one or more of the showgirls who attended the Italian prime minister’s so-called “bunga bunga” parties at his mansion outside Milan.

An Italian newspaper reported that the existence of the images had prompted a bidding war between magazines and photo agencies, with a starting price of €1million (£840,000).
The premier’s legal team said that the pictures, if they even existed, “would be fakes, manipulated pictures, photo montages”. They have nonetheless filed complaints with judicial authorities and Italy’s privacy watchdog as a precaution against publication.
The premier’s legal team said that the pictures, if they even existed, “would be fakes, manipulated pictures, photo montages”. They have nonetheless filed complaints with judicial authorities and Italy’s privacy watchdog as a precaution against publication.

Investigators seized computers and mobile phones from young women whom Mr Berlusconi, 74, allegedly installed as a “harem” in an upmarket apartment complex in Milan. They are examining the devices to see whether they contain still or video images of the prime minister’s home, Villa San Martino.