Fhubete Blog

World’s biggest bond trader got start gambling. Arranged gambling pools while studying at Duke; spent a summer working the slots at Harrah’s in Lake Tahoe. Vegas stint playing blackjack turned $200 into $10,000 in just 4 months. Vietnam vet; earned M.B.A. from UCLA. Took job as a securities analyst at Pacific Life. Discovered key to making money with bonds: trade, don’t buy and hold. Given $10 million portfolio to manage in 1973; already earning $20 million bonuses by the 1980s. Bond division spun off to create Pimco; public offering in 1994. Netted personal $400 million in 2000 sale to German insurance goliath Allianz AG for $4.7 billion. Believes economy heading downward, unsure of how bad the damage will be: “You don’t know where the trouble is, or what it’s going to morph into.” Stamp collector sold British stamp hoard for $9.1 million this June to benefit Doctors Without Borders.

Father, Frank Fertitta Jr., got start as a dealer for Stardust Casino in Las Vegas. Saw need for casinos aimed at Sin City locals; opened 5,000-square-foot, 100-slot facility away from Strip simply dubbed The Casino 1976. Expanded to include sports book, restaurant, buffet, bingo hall, more gaming; renamed Bingo Palace. Public 1993; brother Frank III soon became chairman, chief executive. Company now runs 15 casinos, including giant Green Valley Ranch, Red Rocks properties. Going private: shareholders recently approved $9 billion buyout offer from Fertittas, Colony Capital’s Tom Barrack . Purchased professional mixed martial arts league Ultimate Fighting Championship 2001; spent $40 million to improve operations, image. Mass appeal came in 2004 with reality TV show The Ultimate Fighter. Stages monthly pay-per-view events; each averages $30 million in revenue.

Dolphina, a descendant of Bulgarian gypsies, was born in Northern California and learned to Bellydance at the age of four. At fourteen she traveled to Morocco where the connection and love for Bellydance was truly made. Dolphina, realizing her deep commitment to dance, moved to New York City where she attended the prestigious American Academy of Dance and Drama. Simultaneously, Dolphina performed her art of Bellydance in upscale clubs around the city while establishing her name in the art and entertainment community. As a result, an acting career ensued and Dolphina found herself working opposite such talents as Jim Carrey, Harvey Keitel and Clint Eastwood.

Pursuing a more spiritual quest, Dolphina decided to leave New York City and travel to more remote parts of the world including the West Indies. After arriving in the West Indies, she was in a near fatal boating accident. Rescued and recovered by the Dolphins that inhabited the waters, Dolphina survived and set out to find the true meaning of life.

Born from her experiences and her love of dance, Dolphina made a commitment to physical health, continued inner spirituality and the preservation of Dolphins. As Dolphina continued to travel the world through Europe, Mexico and the Middle East she was acutely aware of her goals. She returned to her California roots and opened the Dolphin Recovery Center in Malibu, filmed THE GODDESS WORKOUT DVD, and began teaching the benefits of Bellydance. Students and Hollywood heavy hitters alike believe she’s found the perfect balance for a fun, challenging, and sensual workout.

Hunedoara (German: Eisenmarkt,Hungarian: Vajdahunyad) is a city in Hunedoara County, Romania, in the Transylvania (or Ardeal, the popular name for Transylvania) region. It is in the Cerna Valley near the Poiana Ruscă Mountains within the Carpathian Mountains.

The city of Hunedoara has the most important Gothic-style secular building in Transylvania: Hunyad Castle, which is closely connected with the Corvin family. The castle was originally a small royal citadel and was given to Vajk (Romanian: Voicu) by King Sigismund of Luxemburg in 1409. Vajk’s son, Johannes de Hunyad, began enlargement of the castle into a Gothic residence in 1446. The castle was damaged by fire three times, but underwent successive renovations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by the architects Imre Steindl, Frigyes Schulek and István Möller.

Besides the Romanian population, there are also ethnic Hungarians and Germans living in Hunedoara. A Roma population also thrives in a small village near the city, called Hasdat. The city contains many green gardens, and old trees flank the streets. The castle has been turned into a museum, following recent reconstruction. A large dam, with tourist facilities, is located a few kilometres from the city, up in the mountains. A big, nice hotel, recently renovated, lies in the city center.

During the 20th century, Hunedoara increased its population to 86,000 inhabitants. The city used to contain the second largest steel works in Romania, but this has now closed down. However, the economy of the city is now benefiting from new investment.

Where the city of Hunedoara stands today, Stone Age tools were discovered in the hill near the castle called Sanpetru (Saint Peter) and in the surrounding villages. The region was very rich in iron, which had been extracted in the area since the Iron Age of Thracians and later, in the Thracian and Roman times. The remains of eight Dacian iron furnaces have been found at the Sânpetru hill near the castle. The proximity of the city to the network of fortresses and temples in the mountains of Orăştie, and the discovery of important monetary treasures of Dacian coins and Roman imperial coins testifies to the importance of this site.

After Dacia was conquered around 106 AD and turned into a Roman province, the iron-rich region attracted the attention of the Romans, who began to exploit it by building furnaces. A “Villa Rustica” emerged in Teliuc, a Roman castrum on Sanpetru hill, outpost of the legio XII Gemina. Other Roman artifacts were discovered in the city area, and also in Pestis, where the remains of a Roman village were discovered.

After the Roman military and administrative retreat due to migrations of people from the east in 267 AD, the Romanized and Christianized population continued to thrive in the mountains and isolated valleys and was able to keep faith and connections with the Byzantine Empire and the civilized world. This is attested by discoveries of artefacts and Christian burial places around the city. Thus, Romanians were born, in the passing of time. Around 1000 AD, small political feuds arose and Transylvania fell under the Hungarian Kingdom and became part of it. Later on, an autonomous principate arose, with populations of Romanians, Hungarians, Szeklers and Saxons.

The first recorded evidence of the city was made in 1265 under the name Hungnod as a hub for leather tanning and wool processing. The city of Hunedoara became an important iron extracting and processing center in Transylvania. “Corpus Inscriptiorum Latinorum” refers to a local inhabitant as “natas ibi, ubi ferum nascitur”, that is, “born where the iron was born”. The swords and spears, made in the 14th and 15th centuries in the iron foundries and works, were famous for their stiffness in a period of intense fighting with the Ottoman Turks.

The city has been known since the 14th century mainly as the residence of the Corvin family. On October 18, 1409, Voicu, a Romanian from Wallachia, was rewarded for military bravery by Sigismund of Luxembourg, and received the domain of Hunedoara. The same document mentions Mogos, Radu and Iancu, sons of Voicu. Ioannus Corvinus (Hungarian: János Hunyadi; Romanian: Iancu Corvin de Hunedoara), the son of Voicu, spent his childhood here. He married Erzsébet (Elisabeta), a Hungarian noblewoman, and advanced to be named voivode of Transylvania, which was by then an autonomous part of the kingdom of Hungary. He consolidated the citadel on top of an ancient fortress and took care of the small city. He studied military tactics in the Italian republics, and became the most skilful warrior of Hungary. Elected regent of Hungary, he engaged in crusades against the Turks. The victories reputed there by coalitions of Serbian, Romanian and Hungarian forces of the region, with help from European lords, managed to secure the Hungarian kingdom from the Turks for more than two centuries. After he died in a military camp after his biggest military triumph, his son, Mátyás (Matthias) later became the most famous Hungarian king, and he also consolidated the castle and the feudal domain of Hunedoara. The castle of Hunedoara became one of the biggest in the world, standing as a witness to the greatness of this family of noble warriors and statesmen, in an era of war and despair, as the Ottoman Empire approached Central Europe.

In the times of Corvins, Hunedoara became a market (opidum) for iron. Matthias Corvinus named the city a tax-free area, and this privilege extended until the 17th century. The population varied between 784 people in 1512 and 896 people in the 17th century. After Matthias died, Hunedoara was owned by his son, John (Hungarian: János; Romanian: Ioan), but he too died young. His wife, Beatrice de Frangepan, married Georg of Hohenzolern, Marquis of Brandenburg in 1509. But Georg de Brandenburg would not establish in Hunedoara, instead naming a representative, György Stolcz.

In 1514, the rebellion of György Dózsa made Romanian and Hungarian peasants to revolt, and some of them were imprisoned in the castle. The 17th century ruler of Transylvania, Gabriel Bethlem, also extended the castle. Hunedoara had a Catholic cathedral built around 1600 and a smaller orthodox church for the Romanian population.

The first tall industrial furnace in the world for iron extracting, it has been argued, was built in 1750 in Toplita near Hunedoara, and a later one in Govajdia in 1806. Both furnaces can be visited today. To reach it, there is a system of narrow-gauge railway built in the 19th and 20th centuries that still runs today through the breathtaking landscape of “Tara Padurenilor” (Woodlanders’ country).

In the 19th century, Hunedoara became more and more industrialized, peasants from regions nearby began to move to the city and the population increased. As the Romanian nation was underprivileged, it revolted a few times. The peasants supported the Horea, Closca and Crisan rebellion, and the Avram Iancu resistance in Apuseni mountains. Transylvania was given to the kingdom of Romania after World War I. The Romanian populations in and around the city quickly earned political rights and representation, and industrial development continued at an ever-increasing rate.

During the years of the communist regime, industry was favored, and Hunedoara had for a time the biggest steel-producing factory in Romania and even the Balkans. The city grew larger, and the factories extended so much that they equalled or exceeded the size of the city. The population also increased to over 87,000. The football team, Corvin, was for a very long time one of the highest-rated football teams in Romania, rivaling Steaua or Dinamo. A big stadium was built along with other sports facilities such as covered swimming pools and a skating ring.

The communist collapse meant that the old markets for steel vanished, and many enterprises had to be closed or abandoned. More than half of the population lost their jobs. However, investment from Romanian and foreign capital ventures has started offering new job opportunities to the people. Currently Arcelor-Mittal runs what is left of the Hunedoara Steel Mill. The steel mill now operates the No.2 Electric Steel Mill, Continuous Caster and the rolling mills. Production is scheduled to rise above 500.000t of steel in 2007 and above The rest of the production facilities have been demolished or have been sold to private investors.

The Day of the Triffids is a post-apocalyptic novel written in 1951 by the English science fiction author John Wyndham. Although Wyndham had already written other novels, this was the first that he had written under this name and it appeared to be by a new author. It was this novel which established him as an important writer, and remains his best known.

Triffids are (fictional) plants capable of animal-like behaviour: they feed on rotting meat, are able to uproot themselves and move about on their three “legs”, possess a deadly whip-like poisonous sting, and appear to communicate with each other. The narrator and protagonist is Bill Masen, who has made his living working with Triffids. Being an expert on the subject, he speculates that they were deliberately bioengineered in the Soviet Union, and that Triffid seeds were spread world-wide when an attempt was made to smuggle them out of Russia; the escaping plane is presumed to have been shot down, literally scattering the seeds to the winds. Whatever their origin, when Triffids began sprouting all over the world, their extracts proved to be radically superior to existing vegetable and animal oils. The result was a world-wide slew of Triffid farms, where the penned plants’ stings were left intact as docking impaired the quality of their oil.

The narrative begins with Masen in hospital, his eyes bandaged after having been stung by a Triffid at one of the farms. He discovers that while he has been recovering, the light from an unusual meteor shower has rendered most people on Earth blind (Bill later muses that the shower may have been the misfiring of a space-based weapon system, though, as with the Triffids’ origins, the truth is never revealed). After wandering aimlessly through London, watching civilization collapsing around him, Masen rescues a sighted woman who is being used as an unwilling pair of eyes by a blinded man. She is novelist Josella Playton, whose work has earned her a notorious and mostly undeserved reputation. She and Masen quickly fall in love.

A signal draws them to a larger group of sighted survivors led by a man named Michael Beadley, who are planning to flee London before it becomes a disease-ridden deathtrap, and establish a colony in the countryside. Beadley wishes to take only sighted men who will take several wives, both blind and sighted, to rapidly rebuild a sighted human population. The polygamous principles of this scheme appall the religious Miss Durrant.

However, these distinctions become irrelevant after a man called Wilfred Coker takes it upon himself to save as many of the blind as possible; he stages a disturbance and kidnaps a number of sighted including Bill and Josella. Both are forcibly put to work leading squads of blind people around the rapidly-decaying city, attempting to collect food and supplies. Bill finds himself sandwiched between roving packs of Triffids and a rival gang of scavengers led by a sighted (and ruthless) red-haired man.

Masen nevertheless sticks with his group out of a sense of responsibility, until the people in his charge begin dying of some unknown disease (possibly yet another military experiment gone awry). He leaves and attempts to find Josella, but his only immediate lead is an address left behind by the uncaptured and now-departed members of Beadley’s group. Thrown together with a repentant Coker, he sets out for the address in Wiltshire. They find the place, a country estate named Tynsham, but the group has splintered and neither Beadley nor Josella are there; Durrant has taken charge and organised the community along monogamous “Christian” lines. Assuming that Josella went with the Beadley party, Masen and Coker search fruitlessly for several days, rounding up some more sighted survivors. Then, remembering a chance comment Josella made earlier about a certain country home in Sussex, Bill sets off in search of it, while Coker takes their new companions back to Tynsham.

The Triffids quickly take full advantage of the edge over humanity that events have given them. Specimens in captivity break free, and growing numbers of them become bolder and more aggressive every day. Bill is joined by a young sighted girl named Susan, who had become a near-prisoner in her home due to the plants. They succeed in locating Josella, who is sheltering at the described house with the blinded owners. Bill and Josella consider themselves to be married, and see Susan as their daughter. Learning that Tynsham has been abandoned, the group attempts to create a self-sufficient colony on the Sussex farm, but with only marginal success. The Triffids grow ever more numerous, crowding in and surrounding their small island of civilization. Years pass, during which it becomes steadily harder to keep out the encroaching plants and more difficult to scavenge food.

One day a helicopter-pilot representative of Beadley’s faction lands at the farm and tells his hosts that the group has largely cleared the Isle of Wight of Triffids, and established a successful colony there (and that Coker survived to join them). Despite their ongoing struggles, the Masens are reluctant to leave their home, but their hand is forced by the arrival the next day of a large armored vehicle, operated by a squad of soldiers who represent a despotic new government which is setting up feudal enclaves across the country. Masen recognizes the leader, Torrence, as the redheaded man from London. When Torrence announces his intention to place many more blind survivors under the Masens’ care, they are appalled. To ensure compliance with his scheme, Torrence suggests Susan will be moved to another enclave. After feigning general agreement, the Masens and their group disable the soldiers’ vehicle and flee in the night. They join the Isle of Wight colony, and settle down to the long grim struggle ahead, determined to find a way to destroy the Triffids and reclaim Earth for humanity.

Charisse was born as Tula Ellice Finklea in Amarillo, Texas, the daughter of Lela (née Norwood) and Ernest Enos Finklea, Sr., who was a jeweler. Her nickname “Sid” was taken from a sibling trying to say “Sis”. (It was later spelled “Cyd” at MGM to give her an air of mystery.) She was a sickly girl who started dancing lessons to build up her strength after a bout with polio. At 14 she auditioned for and studied ballet in Los Angeles with Adolph Bolm and Bronislawa Nijinska, and subsequently danced in the Ballet Russes as “Celia Siderova” and, later, “Maria Istromena”.

At one point during a European tour, she met up again with Nico Charisse, a handsome young dancer she had studied with for a time in Los Angeles. They married in Paris in 1939. They had a son, Nicky, born in 1942.

The outbreak of World War II led to the break-up of the company, and when Charisse returned to Los Angeles, David Lichine offered her a dancing role in Gregory Ratoff’s Something to Shout About. This brought her to the attention of choreographer Robert Alton — who had also discovered Gene Kelly — and soon she joined the Freed Unit at MGM, where she became the resident MGM ballet dancer.

Charisse is now principally celebrated for her on-screen pairings with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. She first appeared with Astaire in a brief routine in Ziegfeld Follies (produced in 1944 and released in 1946). Her next appearance with him was as lead female role in The Band Wagon (1953), where she danced with Astaire in the acclaimed “Dancing in the Dark” and “Girl Hunt Ballet” routines. Another early role cast her opposite Judy Garland in the 1946 film The Harvey Girls.

In 1957, she rejoined Astaire in the film version of Silk Stockings, a musical remake of 1939’s Ninotchka, with Charisse taking over Greta Garbo’s role. In his autobiography, Astaire paid tribute to Charisse, writing: “That Cyd! When you’ve danced with her you stay danced with.”

As Debbie Reynolds was not a trained dancer, Gene Kelly chose Charisse to partner him in the celebrated “Broadway Melody” ballet finale from Singin’ in the Rain (1952), and she co-starred with Kelly in 1954’s Scottish-themed musical film Brigadoon. She again took the lead female role alongside Kelly in his penultimate MGM musical It’s Always Fair Weather (1956).

In her autobiography, Charisse reflected on her experience with Astaire and Kelly: “As one of the handful of girls who worked with both of those dance geniuses, I think I can give an honest comparison. In my opinion, Kelly is the more inventive choreographer of the two. Astaire, with Hermes Pan’s help, creates fabulous numbers — for himself and his partner. But Kelly can create an entire number for somebody else … I think, however, that Astaire’s coordination is better than Kelly’s … his sense of rhythm is uncanny. Kelly, on the other hand, is the stronger of the two. When he lifts you, he lifts you! … To sum it up, I’d say they were the two greatest dancing personalities who were ever on screen. But it’s like comparing apples and oranges. They’re both delicious.”

After the decline of the Hollywood musical in the late 1950s, Charisse retired from dancing but continued to appear in film and TV productions from the 1960s through the 1990s. She made cameo appearances in Blue Mercedes’s “I Want To Be Your Property” (1987) and Janet Jackson’s “Alright” (1990) music videos.

Did you know that the human brain starts slowing down as early as age 30? The good news is that you can speed it up, and improve even your most basic cognitive abilities at any age. Keep your brain performing at its best with Lumosity, a brain training program consisting of engaging brain games and exercises developed by some of the leading neuroscientists in the country.

Lumosity users have experienced:

• Clearer and quicker thinking
• Improved memory for names, numbers, directions, etc.
• Increased alertness and awareness
• Elevated mood
• Better concentration at work or while driving

There is speculation whether Shannon Walker Williams is Ray Allen’s wife or longtime girlfriend. Several sites report that the two are in fact husband and wife and others suggest they are not. At any rate, it had to have been quite a scare for Shannon on Sunday after their youngest son, Walker, was reportedly admitted to the hospital in Los Angeles. Walker had undergone medical testing both Sunday and Monday. Ray stayed with Shannon and Walker until Monday night, then had to take an overnight flight to Boston so he could play in tonight’s championship game.

As a biography, Shannon Walker Williams is from Middletown, Connecticut. According to imdb, she attended Northeastern University where she studied music. She was a singer in the Motown group “Shades” and has also sung the National Anthem in Milwaukee while Ray was a player there. She evidently is an actress as well, having appeared on TV and film. She reportedly married Ray Allen in 2004. Together they have two sons, Ray III and Walker.

Lara Logan (born March 29, 1971) is a television and radio journalist and war correspondent. She is currently the Chief Foreign Correspondent for CBS News, filing reports for the CBS Evening News, 60 Minutes and the CBS Radio Network.

Logan was born in Durban, South Africa. She attended high school at Durban Girls’ College, and then attended the University of Natal in Durban, graduating in 1992.

She is married to Jason Siemon, who was, until recently, a professional basketball player in the United Kingdom for the now-defunct Brighton Bears.

Logan has described how she begged a clerk at the Russian Embassy in London to give her an expedited visa days after the September 11, 2001 attacks. She then entered Afghanistan through southern Russia. In November 2001, Logan, then working as a correspondent for the British morning program, GMTV, managed to infiltrate the upper ranks of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, where she gained exclusive interviews at Bagram Air Base with General Babajan, a commander. Logan spent much of the next four years reporting from the field in Afghanistan, traveling often as an embedded reporter with American forces.

Named chief foreign correspondent of CBS News in February 2006, Logan was embedded with a U.S. military unit in Ramadi, Iraq on March 10, 2006, when a nearby Marine was shot by a sniper.

In late January 2007 Logan filed a report about fighting along Haifa Street. When CBS News refused to run the report on the nightly news because the footage was “a bit strong” (although the network did run the report on their internet site), Logan tried to win public support to reverse this decision. Logan stated that “I would be very grateful if any of you have a chance to watch this story and pass the link on to as many people you know as possible. It should be seen. And people should know about this.”

After making this public appeal, some bloggers and columnists made the claim that portions of Logan’s video report contains footage that is identical to footage released by al Qaeda. While this claim remains unsubstantiated (the ultimate source of the video has not been revealed by CBS News, or Logan, for reasons stated below), these individuals have nonetheless questioned Logan’s objectivity based on that premise. The explanation of where Logan got this footage was never addressed and the blanket accusation of the United States military being responsible is only substantiated by a resident wearing a headdress covering his face. Some right wing pundits feel this is agenda driven, anti American jounalism.

CBS News Vice President Paul Friedman said that the video was not from Al-Qaeda, although he declined to name the source. “Whenever we can identify the source of information or video, we want to do that,” he added. “There are some rare cases when we have to protect the source. In this case, we needed to do so, because it’s literally a matter of life and death.” CBS News spokeswoman Sandra Genelius added that “The fact that same video shows up in more than one place is something that happens every day. We occasionally use video from an Al-Qaeda Web site and we identify it. In this case, we didn’t get it from Al-Qaeda, so we didn’t identify it as such.”

Logan went on to use some of the Haifa Street material in a 60 Minutes report about life in Baghdad under the surge.