Sales of the Day

Reid Backs Tentative Debt Deal, Conservatives Voice Concern

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid has signed off on a tentative debt-ceiling compromise, saying he hopes lawmakers can finalize a deal and move to a vote as early as Sunday.
At the same time, concerns were spreading on the conservative side that the emerging plan could cut too deeply into defense spending, raising questions about whether the framework can attract enough bipartisan support.
One congressional source said the deal is not yet sealed. But Reid, becoming the first congressional leader to publicly endorse the plan, said late Sunday afternoon through a spokesman that he had signed off on it "pending caucus approval."
But as time dragged on and House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, scheduled a conference telephone call with his rank and file, the likelihood of any vote Sunday night appeared less likely.
With pressure intensifying to produce a bill that can somehow sail through both chambers in the next two days, leaders on both sides are now scrambling to not only finalize the package but loop in their rank-and-file members.
Already, liberal groups and lawmakers were raising alarm about the possibility of entitlement cuts in the package. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, without taking a position, said she'd have to review the details, looking ahead to a meeting with Democrats on Monday.
"We all may not be able to support it. And maybe none of us will be able to support it," she said.
But as Reid tried to build support on the Democratic side, GOP leaders were dealing with mounting concerns from party conservatives about possible defense cuts.
Under the framework, the plan would immediately cut spending by about $900 billion over the next decade, and then task a commission to recommend another set of cuts that would, taken together, add up to the size of the debt-ceiling increase. If the committee's recommendations are not approved by the end of the year, a "trigger" in the proposal would automatically enact across-the-board cuts -- with roughly half of the cuts coming from defense, sources said.

One Republican source warned that a "large bloc" of GOP lawmakers would oppose the deal if those cuts are too deep, noting that there are dozens of Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee alone who "agree with the unanimous chorus from senior military leadership -- we're at the bare minimum for (defense) spending without deeply damaging an already stressed force."
Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, a hawkish independent, also is "very concerned about rumors that the debt agreement now being negotiated will disproportionately cut defense spending and result in unacceptably high risk to our national security," according to a spokesman.
But a GOP leadership source predicted that such concerns will be allayed when the agreement is unveiled.
With lawmakers facing an Aug. 2 deadline to either raise the debt cap or face the possibility of default, Congress is running out of time for do-overs.
The Senate, after voting against House Republicans' proposal Friday night, effectively killed Reid's counterproposal Sunday afternoon. Sixty votes were required to advance the proposal, and it fell far short in a 50-49 roll call. While the test vote was expected to fail, the outcome stressed how important it is for the latest round of talks to produce a viable alternative.
Reid said he was "cautiously optimistic." Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said lawmakers are "really, really close to an agreement."
Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., the No. 2 senators in their respective parties, also said on "Fox News Sunday" that they were feeling better about the discussions.
"I have a much more positive feeling than I did 24 hours ago," Durbin said.
Though White House senior adviser David Plouffe cautioned there's no deal yet, Senate leaders are in dire need of a compromise.
Reid won over just one Republican supporter, Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, for his bill Sunday afternoon. On the Democratic side, he lost Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent aligned with Democrats.
Lawmakers have until Aug. 2 to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. The Obama administration says that after Tuesday, the Treasury can no longer pay all of America's bills.
"There's no question we're approaching the final hour," Gene Sperling, director of the National Economic Council, told "Fox News Sunday."
Sources said the tentative arrangement between the White House and Republicans closely resembles the plan first proffered by House Speaker John Boehner before he modified it to appease Tea Party conservatives.
Sources said the debt ceiling would be raised by as much as $2.4 trillion, with a roughly equal amount of deficit-reduction. Though sources said the debt-ceiling increase would be split into two parts, Congress would have to meet a very high threshold to stop it -- likely assuring President Obama an increase that lasts until early 2013, as he requested.
But the framework of the deal floated perilously between the alternatives pushed by House conservatives and Senate Democrats.
The tentative plan would have Congress vote on a balanced-budget amendment -- a key demand of Tea Party-aligned Republicans -- but would not require Congress to approve it in order for the debt ceiling to be raised.
Top aides to House GOP lawmakers told Fox News they were concerned about the emerging deal. One source said it could be difficult to bring House conservatives back on board with such a plan.
At the same time, the tentative arrangement is closer to Boehner's original bill than Reid's.
The partisan makeup of Congress makes the task of striking a deal that much more complicated.
Neither party controls a supermajority in the Senate, making it necessary to attract bipartisan support in order to pass a bill.
Republicans hold a broad majority in the House, but conservatives may be skeptical of any deal that has too many Democratic fingerprints on it from the Senate side.
House Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told "Fox News Sunday," that the talks were moving in the "right direction" but that House Republicans would "have to look at the details."


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/07/31/late-attempt-at-debt-limit-deal-to-avert-default/#ixzz1TjmFvOvW

Passengers safe after Guyana plane crash

The 157 passengers and six crew members aboard a Caribbean Airlines plane were safe after it crashed at the airport in Georgetown, Guyana, Saturday morning, the government said.
The incident happened at about 1:30 a.m. at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport.
For reasons under investigation, the plane was unable to come to a stop on the runway and crashed into a grassy patch, government spokesman Roger Bhulai told CNN.
Several people suffered broken hands, ankles or light head injuries, but there were no fatalities, he said. Several passengers were transported the hospital, though the exact number wasn't immediately known.
The plane's fuselage split in front of the wings, but did not separate from the plane.
"The plane ran off the whole runway," Bhulai said.
The back wheels of the plane touched the runway, but it became unstable when the front wheel touched down, he said.
"It started to wobble when it landed," Bhulai said.
The Boeing 737 was arriving from Port of Spain, Trinidad, Caribbean Airlines said in a statement. The flight originated in New York.
"The airline's primary concern at this time is for those on board the aircraft and their families," the airline said.
Once the plane had come to a stop, the passengers exited from the rear door of the plane, which was lower to the ground than the middle door, Bhulai said. People had to jump out the back door because for some reason the emergency shoot was not deployed, he said.
The crash landing was shocking news in Guyana, a former Dutch colony and British territory that gained its independence in 1966. It has a population of nearly 750,000.
The country's president, Bharrat Jagdeo, went to the scene, along with several of his Cabinet ministers. Jagdeo walked around the plane and talked to passengers for a while at the scene, Bhulai said.
The airline said it was dispatching several officials to Guyana as well.
The airport was closed Saturday morning and at least one flight was canceled. It was expected to resume operations as normal by noon.

Five things you didn't know about LED lightbulbs

If you've heard about residential LED lightbulbs, you probably know that they're energy-efficient, last a long time, and are pricier than other lightbulb technologies.
I've been using LED lights in my home for several months now, and overall the transition has been good. As you consider your lighting options, here a few things that you might not know about LEDs.
LEDs are cooler.
When you're running fans or an air conditioner this summer, having burning-hot incandescent bulbs just makes it harder to manage the heat. LEDs run much cooler than incandescent bulbs and significantly cooler than CFLs.
Online retailer EnergyCircle actually measured the difference and found that a halogen bulb, a type of incandescent bulb, ran at 327 degrees! A Cree LED downlight was measured at 107 degrees and a Philips Par38 CFL worked at 167 degrees.
That's not to say that heat isn't at all an issue. LED bulbs do get hot but the heat is dissipated by metal heat sinks that wick away the heat from the light source itself. Keeping them cool with heat sinks or even liquid cooling, as Switch Lighting is doing, is important to ensuring they last as long as advertised.
You get instant full light.
You get the full brightness of an LED bulb when you turn it on, which is an advantage over CFLs in a couple of ways. For starters, you don't need to wait for full light if you're running in and out of a room. But frequent cycling also degrades the life of CFLs, one of the reasons that CFLs in some cases don't last as long as expected.

I've become more conscious of this and put LEDs in places where lights are cycled on and off quickly. CFLs, meanwhile, are in light fixtures and lamps which typically stay on for extended periods. Consumer Reports found turning CFLs on and off in less than 15 minutes degraded their life.
LEDs don't attract bugs.
Pixi Lighting, which makes LEDs, lists "no bugs!" (that is, insects) as one of the reasons to use LEDs. But if you look at discussions online, it's not so clear-cut.
The stated reason that bugs don't fly toward LEDs is because bugs are attracted to ultraviolet light and at least some LEDs don't give off this type of light. But that's not universally true for all types of LEDs, according to people who have commented online. In one discussion, an employee from EnergyCircle said that most residential LED bulbs give off almost no UV light.

In an unscientific test last night at my house, I saw moths and mosquitoes fly right past my outdoor LED bulb; they were not attracted to the light. Consumer LED bulb maker Pharox advertises its bulbs as having no UV, so it's something worth checking when you're shopping around.
LEDs come in funny shapes.
Lighting manufacturers have tried to make LED bulbs as familiar-looking as possible, most importantly by having a screw-in connector. But there are limits to mimicking the Edison-style bulb.
"Snow cone" LEDs, where the top half is a bulb shape, best resemble incandescent bulbs but light is given off in only one direction. So you'll get more light from the top of a desk lamp, for example, than the bottom. CFLs or incandescents give off light in all directions.
The most recent bulbs to come to market address this light dispersal problem very well. I've been testing a Lighting Sciences Group 60-watt equivalent for the last week or so and it does indeed give off far more even light than the company's own snow cone-type bulbs.

The price for the more even light dispersal is odd-looking bulbs. The LSG bulb has a squat disk for a light source and the rest of the bulb is a heat sink made of metal fins that make up most of the actual bulb.
Philips' LED bulbs have a crown-like light source and a similar aluminum heat sink. But their recently released 75-watt equivalent bulb has a noticeably longer heat sink than the 60-watt equivalent Philips LED, which is something to consider. When I tried it at home, the 75-watt equivalent, called the 17-watt A21 LED, was too long to fit into a small overhead fixture.
You will need to learn some lighting lingo.
We still talk about 60-watt and 75-watt equivalent bulbs because that's what we're accustomed to. But some manufacturers are using new labels that give people far more information than brightness, which is worth understanding as lighting gets more diverse.

Lumens, of course, measure the amount of light, with a 60-watt equivalent giving off at least 800 lumens. But LEDs are also sold by color temperature, either warmer yellow light or cooler white light. And then there's color rendering index, with the highest being the best for light quality.
Warmer color lights will be more familiar since they're closer to the yellow glow of a CFL or incandescent. But I found I like the cooler, white light of the Lighting Sciences Group bulbs, rated at a cooler 3000 Kelvin, which I find a little cleaner. As for color quality, I can't put my finger on why, but I've been very happy with the light from a Pixi bulb which has a 96 color rendering index--higher than the others I have.
Bonus: 40-watt equivalents bulbs are underrated.
Some of the first general-purpose LED bulbs I tested were rated with the light output of a 40-watt equivalent. I found that they were not quite enough to light up a whole room, but they do the trick in more places than I thought. For example, I have a small LED for an outdoor light and one in the basement. These aren't spots where I'll spend time reading a book so these energy-sippers have fit in nicely.

Skype update connects you deeper with Facebook

Skype has released the latest update to its online calling software for Windows, offering more options for Facebook users.

Officially out of beta since Wednesday, the latest Skype 5.5 for Windows lets you check which of your Facebook friends are online and available to chat, all without having to leave Skype. Simply clicking on the View menu in the Skype software and then choosing Facebook Friends shows you the list.

By clicking on and then closing the Skype Home screen, you can also update your Facebook status and scroll down to view your entire Facebook wall.

Beyond the Facebook integration, Skype says that its latest version offers improved controls for video and group calls for Windows, better call reliability, and various design changes in the interface.

For some reason, I was unable to directly update my current version of Skype (5.3) to 5.5. Clicking on the "Check for Updates" link in the Help menu told me I was already running the latest version. I had to manually download and install the 5.5 version to get the new update.

But once it was installed, I was able to use Skype 5.5 to view my online Facebook friends, access my wall, and post status updates just as easily as I could in Facebook.

Russia Plans to Sink the International Space Station in 2020

Russia's space agency announced Wednesday that the International Space Station -- a space base the world's scientists and billions of U.S. tax dollars helped build and maintain some 200 miles above the surface of the Earth -- will be de-orbited and allowed to sink into the Pacific Ocean in 2020, just like its Russian predecessor, Mir.
"We will be forced to sink the ISS. We cannot leave it in orbit as it is a very complicated and a heavy object," Roscosmos' deputy head Vitaly Davydov said in an interview posted on the agency's website.

"We have agreed with our partners that the ISS would function roughly until 2020," he noted.
After sinking hundreds of millions into construction of the space station -- billions if you include the cost of the space shuttle flights that carried the ISS modules into orbit -- knowledgeable government sources and NASA spokesmen were aghast at Davydov's plans to sink the station in the ocean.
This isn't the first time I've seen Russia come out with a statement that seems to be coming out of their own stovepipes," one congressional representative told FoxNews.com. "I would give it no credence at all."
"We wouldn't allow astronauts to be on the station if there's a sense that it's limping along," he added.
NASA agreed to construct the International Space Station on January 29, 1998, in conjunction with representatives from Canada, members of the European Space Agency (ESA), and Japanese and Russian space scientists. And the space agency clearly has a different vision for the station than Russia.
"The partnership is currently working to certify on-orbit elements through 2028," NASA spokesman Joshua Buck told FoxNews.com.
Buck noted that an international panel including the U.S. and Russia met in March to evaluate the future of the space station. They identified no constraints on continuing operation through 2020 -- and at the time, emphasized their common intent to continue operation of the world's first space base into the next decade.
It was not immediately clear why Davydov made the abrupt change. Russia's space agency did not immediately respond to FoxNews.com requests for clarification. U.S Senator Bill Nelson, a former astronaut and a congressional expert on NASA, told FoxNews.com the Russian comments were intended mainly to mitigate concerns about the growing issue of space junk.
"All the Russians are saying is that when the time comes to shut the station down -- whenever that is -- it will have to be brought from orbit in a planned 'crash' so there’s no space junk left behind or debris that falls in populated areas."
The Roscosmos comments come a day after the U.S. space agency met with the International board managing the ISS -- the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken -- to discuss not the end of the base but how to use it as a test bed for future tech and science projects.
NASA characterized the meeting dramatically differently, noting that potential future projects about the station include supporting voyages to an asteroid or Mars, or assisting in the development of a permanent base on the moon.
The space station represents a massive, worldwide accomplishment, spanning an area the size of a football field. It has been continuously occupied for nearly 11 years, and has travelled more than 1.5 billion miles -- the equivalent of eight round trips to the Sun -- over the course of 57,361 orbits around the Earth, NASA notes.
Deorbiting the station in 2020 simply hasn't been discussed at all, knowledgeable sources told FoxNews.com.
I have no idea where they came out with that date," a congressional source told FoxNews.com. "NASA would have advised us ahead of time if there were any agreement along those lines."
"There's a presumption that Congress and the White House fully expects ISS to be up and viable through at least 2020."
Roscosmos' plans for space after sinking the ISS were not immediately clear. Asked whether a new space station will be built, Davydov said "there are several possibilities."
Meanwhile, China moves ahead with plans for a competing space station of its own. China has an ambitious, decade-long plan beginning with the Tiangong-1 module the country plans to launch this year, which will culminate in a large space station around 2020.
During the projected one- to two-year lifetime of Tiangong-1 -- which means "Heavenly Palace" in Chinese -- an unpiloted Chinese Shenzhou-8 spacecraft will first attempt to dock with the platform, to be followed later by two piloted Shezhou missions to further hone rendezvous and docking skills, according to a report on Space.com.
The Mir space station was in operation from 1983 to 1998 before being sunk in the Pacific Ocean in a "spacecraft cemetery" not far from Christmas Island in 2000.

Stardom made Amy Winehouse's addiction battle tougher, experts say

Amy Winehouse's death, a month after fans in Belgrade booed her from a stage for slurring and forgetting lyrics, raises questions about what could have prevented the tragedy.
While it will likely take weeks before toxicology tests reveal what killed her, Winehouse made it no secret that she had a substance abuse problem. She turned her defiance to rehab into her biggest hit song. "They tried to make me go to rehab, I said 'No, no, no,' " she sang.
Despite those lyrics, Winehouse sought help in rehab several times during the height of her career, often ahead of an important performance or a tour.
When she entered rehab in January 2008, her record label said it was "to continue her ongoing recovery from drug addiction and prepare for her planned appearance at the Grammy Awards."
Her last rehab stint was just two months ago. People magazine quoted a source close to the singer saying her father urged her to seek the treatment to keep excessive drinking from "becoming a bigger problem." The singer's representative told CNN at the time it was "to seek an assessment" before Winehouse began a summer tour of Europe.
That European tour was abruptly canceled after the first show, that disastrous Belgrade, Serbia, performance. She returned to London, but not to rehab.
Winehouse is the newest member of what is darkly known as the "Forever 27 Club," a list of music legends whose lives and careers ended at the age of 27. Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain are headliners of the group, stars whose deaths could be linked to drug use.
Dr. Reef Karim, who runs the Control Center for Addiction in Beverly Hills, California, said it can be harder for celebrities to battle addiction for several reasons.
"They are allowed to continue to do their movies while in rehab, to go on tours before they are ready," he said. "So many people are relying on them for their income, their agents, their handlers, their entourage, their fellow musicians, and so many people want them to get better quickly."
Those "peripheral people" make it tougher to keep the musician on the prescribed treatment, Karim said. "We have to fight a lot of the handlers, the entourage, in order to get them the treatment they need."
They "jump back into the craziness and touring before they are ready and they are much more likely to relapse because of it."
Musicians sometimes believe they need drugs to perform and please fans, Karim said. He recounts what one rock star patient told him: "When I'm loaded or when I'm under the influence of something, people are really interested in me. When I'm sober it feels like nobody cares."
"Some people go through recovery and if they are producing great music, then great, but if they are not, the fear is that they'll disappear permanently," Karim said.
While true fans may care about the person, "the average fan may just care about what kind of things you are doing and how you make headlines," he said.
It may be easier for a celebrity to get noticed for a drug arrest, a drunken video or a trip to rehab than for a movie premiere. Every time Lindsay Lohan goes to court dozens of photographers line her path, yet her career is so stagnant her Screen Actors Guild insurance expired.
Lohan, who has spent eight months of the last four years in rehab, is having trouble paying for court-ordered psychiatric counseling, her lawyer told a judge last week. The judge agreed that Lohan needs the more expensive one-on-one help, not group sessions, which are cheaper.
Pax Prentiss, the CEO of the Passages Malibu rehab program, suggested that Winehouse's relapses into addiction were the result of a lack of one-on-one treatment.
"The treatment centers where she went to did not do individual therapies," Prentiss said. "They were group treatment facilities."
Prentiss said he was addicted to heroin, cocaine and alcohol for 10 years. "I was on death's bed for many years," overdosing several times, he said.
"I was at one time like Amy, going in and out of treatment centers, relapsing, sitting in group meetings," he said. His healing happened when he got the kind of individual treatment that he now provides at his facilities, Prentiss said.
Self-introspection is key to recovering from addiction, Karim said.
"A big part of recovery is looking at why you are so self-destructive and what it is about you," Karim said. "It's a spiritual disease as much as a social and biological disease. A big part of it is looking deeper at what's going on within you, how you feel about yourself."
Prentiss speculates that Winehouse was in "deep psychological pain, which is why she was abusing drugs and alcohol, and nobody had diagnosed that and worked on healing the deep emotional issues."
Her father, in a statement released after her funeral Tuesday, said his daughter "conquered her drug dependency" three years ago. She recently "was trying hard to deal with her drinking and had just completed three weeks of abstinence," he said.
"She said, 'Dad, I've had enough, I can't stand the look on your and the family's faces anymore,' " Mitch Winehouse said.
Addiction, Karim said, is hard for family members to understand. "You don't conquer this disease," he said. "You manage this disease."
Why would addiction suddenly take Winehouse's life if she was sober for three weeks?
"Addiction deaths are not only due to instant overdose," Karim said. "The toll that addiction takes on your body, on your immune system, the toll on the lack of absorption of vitamins and nutrients in your system, on your heart, liver, kidney" can lead to death over time.
Mitch Winehouse described his daughter as being "in good spirits" the day before she died.
"That night, she was in her room, playing drums and singing," he said. "As it was late, her security guard said to keep it quiet and she did. He heard her walking around for a while and when he went to check on her in the morning he thought she was asleep. He went back a few hours later, that was when he realized she was not breathing and called for help."
Pax Prentiss says he's "heard from different people who had a family member who died that they were doing great one day and the next they were dead."
"That makes a lot of sense to me," he said. "If she hadn't had a drink for three weeks, her tolerance went way down, and if she relapsed, a pill mixed with alcohol, she overdosed and died."
"I've seen that a lot with people," he said. "They go back to using the same amount of the drugs that they used before they were sober. Their system is not able to handle that same dose anymore."
Dr. Drew Pinsky, the addiction specialist who hosts HLN's "Dr. Drew" show and VH1's "Celebrity Rehab," agreed that several weeks of detoxification could have made Winehouse vulnerable to a drug overdose.

Stuff You Should Know: Groupon

Getting a coupon for a great deal at some local vendor is commonplace these days and has been for a long time. But it took a site based on the famous “tipping point” theory to turn the idea of coupons via email into a phenomenon.

But with an operation like Groupon, it seems like they’re so good at what they do that you never even think to look into them any further than finding out what kind of discount they can get you on frames for those velvet Elvis paintings you’ve had in your closet for the past year. So we decided to look into it further, you’ve obviously got bigger fish to fry.

Here are eight things you should know about Groupon…

The idea that would blossom into Groupon didn’t have much at all to do with deep discounts on deep tissue massages. Rather, it was something a little less pleasant that put the wheels in motion for founder Andrew Mason.

“I had to cancel my contract, and it was such an ordeal,” he says. “I just thought, There has to be a large number of people with these same problems, and if we were united in some way, we could leverage our collective power.”

Collective power, large number of people…Groupon is born! Right?

Wrong. All of that pent-up customer service rage led Mason to start a website called The Point, which is still alive but by no means thriving. The Point was based on the tipping point principle. Basically, a person could (or still can, in theory) post a plea for cash to help with whatever cause they’re promoting. Most of the causes lean toward the philanthropic, but we suppose if you really wanted to you could hop on and see if enough people would think chipping in to get you a hooker for the night might be a good idea.

That’s how it works, at least. And that’s where the similarities to Groupon can be seen. With The Point, no matter how many people pledge $20 for your cause, their credit cards aren’t charged until a predetermined number of people make pledges. That sounds familiar, right?

We seriously mean the “fast forward” part. A lot of things happened in between the founding of The Point and 2008 when Groupon finally launched. Like when Chicago entrepreneur (and Andrew Mason’s former boss) Eric Lefkofsky provided $1 million in seed money to get The Point off the ground. That particular investment didn’t work out too well, but he’s probably been nicely compensated since. Or maybe he hasn’t and there will be a gigantic lawsuit and Kevin Spacey or that creepy Ben Linus character from LOST can play Lefkofsky in the resulting feature film.
In just over a year, the Groupon staff expanded from a few dozen to over 350. As of October 2010, the company has set up shop in more than 150 markets in North America and 100 markets in Europe, Asia and South America. In all, they’ve amassed 35 million registered users.

What do those users look like? According to statistics, the average Groupon user is a single female between the ages of 18-34. Two-thirds of those users make between $50,000 – $100,000. So, you know, call us, ladies!

Also, that probably explains why…

Okay, maybe the money is growing a little bit faster than the staff. After just 16 months in business, Groupon was valued at over $1 billion. The only company to reach a billion dollar valuation faster was YouTube. That’s some pretty rarefied air as far as comparisons go. Notice there are no Facebooks or Googles mentioned there, just Groupon and YouTube.

Apparently, the only thing the Internet loves nearly as much as watching hot chicks fall through trampolines is paying $12 for $25 worth of drinks and authentic Mexican (valid for dine-in only).

So, to put it mildly, things are going pretty well. But it might not stay that way.
As explosive as Groupon’s growth has been, they face one huge problem with their business model… it’s super easy to copy. Right now, Living Social is their biggest competition, but they’re far from the only deal slinger hoping to knock Groupon off the throne. In fact, as many as 700 or more Groupon copycat sites are in operation around the world.

Having 700 identical businesses to yours flooding the market is obviously cause for concern, but it mightGroupon certainly has a lot of imitators, but they’ve also got a lot of cash. So, when a competitor gets a little too big, Groupon just buys them. They’ve already purchased competitors in Europe, Asia and just about anywhere else people might be in the market for extreme savings via email.

If that doesn’t give you an indication of how strong Groupon is financially, consider this… work out fine in the end, because…

The mighty Google came along in 2010 with a $6 billion buyout offer and Groupon straight shot them down. In response, Google was rumored to be planning a daily deals site of their own.

If it’s anything like Google Wave, Groupon shouldn’t be too concerned.

Sophie Horn is the World’s Sexiest Golfer

All the more reason to bring you the hottest professional lady golfer in the world — Sophie Horn. Sophie is a Brit who in her alter ego The Golf Nurse has dispensed tips on keeping your ball out of the rough. We don’t know what’s more arousing here — the fact that she poses in bikinis and lingerie or that she is longer than you are off the tee. She doesn’t play on the LPGA and we’re not sure where she’d rank in terms of global golfitude, but she is the World #1 in teh sexy.

What’s the Golf Nurse’s #1 tip for hackers? Get some lessons – preferably off me at a very reasonable rate!

Would you ever play a PGA event like Annika Sorenstam did? How do you think you would do? I prefer playing with men. I think I would give them a good run for their money.

What male pro golfer would you most like to play the skins game with? The one with the most money; then I wouldn’t feel so bad taking a load off them. [We're pretty sure she means a "load" of money. So get your mind out of the gutter straight away. --Ed.]

Who is the best dressed male pro golfer? Ian Poulter.

You’ve posed for a lot of photos wearing a bikini and holding a golf club. Would that be permissible attire at a tour event? Depends what tour it is! I think they need to lighten up on the rules — if they think it’s too much skin, maybe I could compromise: Bikini with some knee high socks!

How would you change the rules to make ladies’ golf wear sexier? Scrap the rules and make me Director of Fashion for the LPGA! Simple!

What are the pros of playing golf wearing a bikini? Freedom of movement plus it’s pretty handy in distracting my opponent.

What are the cons? Freedom of movement.

We’ve always wondered, do boobs get in the way when you’re swinging the club? If I don’t wear a sports bra there’s a danger of them knocking the club out of my hand.

You recently played the Playboy Golf Finals, what was your favorite part? It has to be the Party at the Mansion!

Did you meet any of the Playmates? Yeah, and we got on very well.

Your skirt was shorter than the Playmates’, but their tops were a bit boobier (see picture here). With so many babes on the course, did you feel you had to bring your A game? I always bring my A game. All the girls were really supportive and seemed to love it when I smashed it past the men!

Do you think lady golfers are as sexy as, say, beach volleyballers or tennis players? Do lady golfers have an image problem? No they’re not as sexy due to the clothing restrictions. What they wear is governed by the rules which I personally think should be relaxed.

I think we can agree that you’re the sexiest pro golfer — who else should we be looking at? No one, you should only have eyes for me.

What’s your ultimate foursome — you plus…? Ron Jeremy, Pamela Anderson … oh sorry did you mean golf foursome? Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and it’s got to be the legend that is Jack Nicklaus!

You recently blogged about the “Nice Cup in Bra” golf bra that doubles as a putting green. Have you ordered yours yet? I practice using other devices.

Can you think of any other golf/lingerie hybrids someone ought to invent? I got my Horn pants coming out later in the year — but don’t tell anyone! (Oh, go on then.) There’s a little surprise in every box! [We think she means "pants" in the British sense -- i.e., panties. --Ed.]

Speaking of lingerie, what do you wear while you’re playing? Nothing. Oh, did you mean playing golf again? Well, still nothing!

Could you be involved with a man who is bad at golf? Which would be preferable a really bad golfer, or a man who doesn’t play at all? Golf is a big part of my life, it’s always important to have something in common — so I’d take a bad golfer rather than someone who doesn’t play at all.

For more photos (and videos!) visit sophiehorn.com, and for regular updates on golf/Horn pants follow her on Twitter @sophiehorn

McDonald's Alters Its Happy Meals

Bowing to pressure from antiobesity campaigns, McDonald's is putting the Happy Meal on a diet.
The company announced Tuesday that it had planned changes to its popular children's meal that will more than halve the amount of French fries in the package and add fruit.
The new Happy Meals will be introduced in September. In most cases, they will include apple slices, or perhaps another fruit, and parents will have the option of requesting vegetables in lieu of fries.
Additionally, the company will offer a choice of milk with 1 percent fat or fat-free chocolate milk rather than soda, although parents can still ask for soda.
The Happy Meal has become a favorite target, because of the rising rate of overweight children nationwide, and the enticement of toys included in the packages.

McDonald's said its goal was to reduce calories in the meal package by 20percent. A Happy Meal with chicken nuggets has 530 calories and 23 grams of fat, but the reconstituted version will have 435 calories and 17 grams of fat, according to the company.
"McDonald's has taken an extremely important step to help parents who want to please their kids while providing them with at least minimally nutritious food," said Samantha Graff, director of legal research at Public Health Law and Policy. "We think it's a terrific move."
McDonald's made it clear that it was changing the composition of Happy Meals in response to parental and consumer pressure. It and other fast-food restaurants also are facing increased pressure from local governments that are moving to impose regulations aimed at improving the nutritional value of the food they serve.
In San Francisco, toys with children's meals are banned unless the meals meet certain nutritional criteria, and a NewYork City councilman is pushing similar legislation that would prohibit the toys unless the accompanying meals had a lower calorie and fat content.
Even though McDonald's has long offered parents the option of asking for fruit instead of fries, a study by Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity found that only 11 percent took advantage of that option.
The company said Tuesday that it would no longer offer the caramel dipping sauce it previously served with apples.
McDonald's remains unyielding on the toys that it stuffs in every box, which are the bane of critics who believe that they lure children to fast food. Jack in the Box, however, recently eliminated toys from its meals for children.
Articles related to the campaigns andbusiness efforts pertaining to obesity can be found a continuing series, The Big Picture.

Stars Who Love Yorkies!

Comic-Con: 'Planet of the Apes' Star Says if Any Animal Could Take Over Planet, It Would Be Apes

Andy Serkis grabbed our attention as Gollum in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, but the English actor has now taken on another role he said is a little more like himself – an ape named Caesar in the forthcoming FOX science fiction flick, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” And Serkis says he's convinced there is very little difference between a human and an ape.
“The branches of the tree somehow split and we evolved at different rates, but we are 97 percent the same. This is why the ‘Planet of the Apes’ franchise does fascinate and warrant a re-appraisal every few years. We do go through these cycles of looking at apes because they are our closest cousin, and we do judge our behavior against them,” Serkis told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column while promoting the film at the Comic Con International Convention in San Diego. “And if there were species to take over this planet, it would probably be them because they are so clever in their own right.”

Serkis has done his homework. The English-born actor actually drew on a real-life ape to prepare for his role channeling the primate.
“When you’re playing an ape you obviously learn ape behavior, but I based this character Caesar on a real ape called Oliver, who in the 1970s was known as a humanize because his behavior was very extraordinary and very human-like,” Serkis explained. “He would walk around, behave totally like a human being, so I based a lot on him.”
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” stems from the wildly successful “Planet of the Apes” franchise and centers on San Francisco resident Will Rodman (James Franco), who is working on a cure for Alzheimer's by performing tests on apes. The first test subject is Serkis’s character Caesar. Rodman's “cure” genetically modifies Caesar, and spurns a new breed of ape with human-like intelligence. Soon its a battle to see which species will dominate the planet.
Director Rupert Wyatt is confident the film will resonate with American audiences.
“All films relate in some way to the world in which we live, this film certainly does that, and we earn our heroes,” he added. “We are living in a world of conflict and economic strife and in those times our heroes are vulnerable and not powerful, and Caesar is the perfect super hero in a bizarre sort of way.”

Family Spokesman: Amy Winehouse's Funeral Set for Tuesday

A family spokesman says singer Amy Winehouse's funeral will be held Tuesday for family and close friends.
The spokesman says the time and place of the private funeral will not be made public.
The troubled singer died Saturday after a long struggle with alcohol and drug abuse. Autopsy results released Monday were inconclusive and more tests are being conducted to determine the cause of death.

Crowds have gathered outside her north London home since her death to light candles and leave flowers and other tributes.
Winehouse was 27 when she died. She was best known for her soulful "Back to Black" album.
In recent years her personal problems overshadowed her attempts to keep her music career going.

Couple faces murder charges in woman's disappearance

 Texas investigators believe a 27-year-old Kinston woman missing for more than a week was killed and dismembered in North Carolina and transported in ice chests in a U-Haul trailer to Texas, where her remains were scattered in a creek.

Fort Bend County Chief Deputy Craig Brady said in a news conference Monday that search crews had recovered 60 percent of the body believed to be that of Laura Jean Ackerson.

Authorities are working to make a positive identification of the remains, Brady added, but all indications have led investigators to believe they are those of Ackerson.

She was reported missing July 15 after she never showed up in Raleigh to pick up her two sons from their father, Grant Ruffin Hayes. Her car was found five days later at a North Raleigh apartment complex.

Hayes, 32, and his wife, Amanda Perry Hayes, 39, were arrested early Monday morning in Kinston and were charged with murder. The two children, are with their father's family, authorities said.

"I don’t know if it was a planned homicide or if tempers flared, but I can’t imagine someone being that cold or just uncaring that after the murder, they took the steps of dismembering this lady in the manner that they did and just tossing her in a creek," Brady said. "It’s one of the most gruesome scenes that I’ve seen in 30-something years of law enforcement.

The remains were found in Oyster Creek, a few yards from where they were staying with Amanda Hayes' sister in Richmond, Texas, Brady said. Crews were still searching the creek Monday.

Authorities took a machete from the house, Brady said, but it was unclear whether it is related to the case. He said it appeared that a saw might have been used to cut the body, but he did not elaborate further.

The sister does not face charges, Brady said, and there's no indication that she had any knowledge of what happened.

Raleigh police, who are in Richmond, are investigating the case. They called the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office on Sunday asking investigators to search the creek, Brady said.

He declined to say what led police to contact his office, only that their investigation led them to Texas.

Family and friends have said that Ackerson and Grant Hayes were involved in a custody battle and that their relationship had been "volatile."