Jillian Michaels

Jillian Michaels - 30 Day Shred This is THE most popular Jillian Michaels workout video on Amazon! There are too many positive product reviews to read them all!! Here are a couple from Amazon customers.



By mcel "mcel33" (Salem, MA)

I had never purchased a Jillian Michaels DVD before b/c of the hit or miss reviews. So when I heard raves about this one, I decided to give it a shot and I am so glad I did. This is an absolute butt-kicker workout. I am an intermediate/advanced exerciser (I work out 5-6 days a week) so I figured I could see what Level 1 was all about and move onto Level 2 right away. Listen to me folks--these workouts are HARD. Level 2 was VERY difficult--a good difficult though, very challenging. When Jillian tells you to start at level 1, listen to her she knows what she's doing. I've been at this for about 5 days, and I already feel a difference in my body.
Jillian is tough--absolutely NO rest in this workout (not even for a sip of water) but that's what makes it go by so quickly, and it makes your body change, according to Jillian. You're done before you know it--but by the end you've gotten a kick butt workout and feel like you've really done something. She bases her workout on the 3-2-1 method: 3 mins strength, 2 mins cardio, 1 min abs. Her strength circuits remind me of Jari Love--compound exercises that work the upper and lower body simultaneously. The cardio is good as well: a lot of jumping, so watch those knees (she has a modifier for beginner and lower impact) And the abs is straight up ab work--a variety of crunches and twists on the floor.
This is a great workout and I find Jillian to be tough but she's pretty likeable. Be warned though: she's no-nonsense. I think it's funny when during the stretch she admits she's not flexible and struggles to reach her legs on the floor. I thought "Ha, Ha, finally something I'm better at than Jillian!" lol
If you really want to get a good workout and to jumpstart your weight loss get this DVD you will not be disappointed. It's great for those who are short on time too and want to try something new; every workout is just under 30 mins!

By Little Miss Cutey (Melbourne, Australia)

This is a really good workout. It's geared a little more to advanced exercisers, but the choreography is fairly basic and you will definately feel this the next day. There are three workouts that combine toning and aerobics together which are about a half an hour each. This way, you're burning fat and toning muscles at the same time. It's a little challenging, but fun and effective. The first workout is the easiest of the three and from there it gets more challenging. The most challenging workout is tough like she shows on The Biggest Loser (ie travelling pushups and tough jumps etc). It's a good idea if you're intermediate to begin either at the start or middle and stick to that for a while and then move on. Each workout uses toning, kickboxing and ab work. I found this really good to do. It's absolutely a good idea to not go too quickly with it and begin at the lower of the three levels even if you do it only a couple of times - you can always advance as soon as you're ready for your next workout. She may not be the best cuer, but she is certainly encouraging and motivating. This is fun and I highly recommend it. I've only done it twice so far since it's so new, but I can still feel my muscles thanking me. This is great.

Jillian Michaels: Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism





Jillian Michaels: No More Trouble Zones



Books


Making the Cut: The 30-Day Diet and Fitness Plan for the Strongest, Sexiest You


Winning by Losing: Drop the Weight, Change Your Life

Games

Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2009 for Wii. A great seller on Amazon.

John Tucker Must Die

John Tucker Must Die aired on FX today Sunday, March 01, 2009. Three ex-girlfriends of a serial cheater (Metcalfe) set up their former lover to fall for the new girl in town so they can watch him get his heart broken. The film was released on July 28th, 2006. It was written by Jeff Lowell. Betty Thomas was the director. You can get the dvd on amazon with the link below. There is a trailor and an interview video at the bottom you can watch. Thanks for visiting.

woman going insane after missing her flight video

This is a youtube hit today. Everyone is searching for this video about a lady who missed her flight and freaking out over it. Is there more to this video than meets the eye? I don't believe so.

Fracas perfume by Robert Piguet

Fracas products by Robert Piguet














Smells, like sounds and colors spark off emotions, especially when harmoniously combined, like musical chords. Situations and conflicts can also provoke emotions. The overwhelming feelings experienced by audiences of films or plays were already known by the classic Greek tragedians : they called these extreme changes in emotions "catharsis", which can translate as purification.

In his work "Poetics", Aristotle has analysed how the triggering of sudden intense emotional disruptions result in a feeling of renewal, restoration and cleansing. Like a beneficial storm, the cathartis or purification's mysterious psychological process leaves us refreshed and revitalized but transformed.

Works of art capable to bring us to the level of catharsis are few: poems, plays, songs, symphonies, paintings or now films they remain the legacy of giants, the Homer, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Mozart or van Gogh. They are the great timeless classics and speak a universal language. By ephemeral means, true artists have always tried to reach the universal after an often painful emotional journey through their own human natures. Results can sometimes be ambiguous as remarked British art critic Walter Pater (1839-1894) in his writings about the mystery of Mona Lisa , "this beauty into which the soul with all its maladies has passed."

Scientists now know that the sense of smell is not perceived by the cortex of the brain. Smells connect straight into the lower brain, which relates to memories and emotions. As a result, if fragrances do not have any " cognitive" effect, they can have an enormous emotional impact. The same scientists have also found out that women are more receptive to colors and smells than men.

Perfume making, like film making is a new art form. Less acknowledged than the so called "fine arts" perhaps, but a true art form nevertheless. Modern perfume making actually started in the 1920's. New chemical components called "aldehydes" opened the possibilities to create elaborate complex compositions. Aldehydes make fragrance notes "sparkle". Emotions provoked by compositions of well arranged fragrance notes are more intense.

Among the multiple fragrances available today, very few have reached the status of true classics. One of the most famous is Chanel's No.5, actually one of the first "artificial" perfumes deliberately created as a composition. There is no coincidence in the fact that Chanel No.5 has had its popularity enhanced by several emotionally very influential artists. Everyone knows Marilyn Monroe's witty reply when asked once by some journalist what she wore in bed: "Why, Chanel No.5 of course!" Andy Warhol also contributed to make Chanel No.5 into a pop icon when he created several of his world famous silkscreens with the No.5 bottle as a motif.

Less widely known but a true masterpiece, Robert Piguet's Fracas is now gaining in popularity after having for years remained a cult fragrance among the privileged and the happy few. The very concept of Fracas is intentionally disruptive and emotional. Fracas, in French means tumult with nuances that could be conveyed through words like ram, crash, blast, or irrupt. It was intentionally provocative but also intriguing. Like a mystery. Fracas puts you in a mood where you want to know more about the person who wears it: it is insolent but also spell-binding. Emotional, sensuous, carnal and very sexy. You get hypnotized and enchanted.

I discovered Fracas as a young fashion model in New York many years ago. At the time I was wearing some of Kiehl's famous compositions like "Rain" or "Smoke". I also enjoyed a fine citrus fragrance called "Love" which has now disappeared. Coming once into a studio where I was booked, I had the surprise to discover that I would work in the company of one of the models I admired the most, Donna Mitchell. She was surrounded with this fascinating fragrance and I asked her about it. She told me the story of Fracas. In the evening, when I came back home, I had bought my first bottle and started a long love story with this perfume.

Fracas was the creation of Swiss born Robert Piguet (1898-1953) one of the era's most talented fashion designers in Paris. With the cooperation of specialist Germaine Cellier, Piguet had launched his first fragrance, Bandit, in 1945. Cellier and Piguet then started to work on a completely new concept: a fragrance which would be of the utmost elegance but at the same time very provocative and emotionally charged. It came out in 1948. Piguet chose the name Fracas.

An intriguing, complex and rousing composition of tuberose, jonquil, jasmine, lilac and white iris, Fracas was too disruptive and too carnal not to provoke some hesitations and was not immediately accepted. Robert Piguet unfortunately fell ill shortly after. A perfectionist, he did not want his fashion house to survive him. After selling the expensive real estate, he generously gave a part of the money to his 400 employees and retired in Lausanne where he died in 1953.

Less strict with his fragrances, Robert Piguet accepted the continuation of his line of perfumes. But without the back-up of a powerful commercial organisation, Bandit and Fracas could not really compete with other fragrances from larger companies.

Few fragrances have been copied as much as Fracas. Its influence can be perceived in many recent compositions, which have often tried to provoke similar emotional reactions. Over the years it has remained the secret cult fragrance of many celebrities from different generations : today it is the favorite of icons like Princess Caroline of Monaco, Madonna, Uma Thurman, Courtney Love and many others.

Read more from Georgina Tree

Clarence King - Diane Rehm Show - Martha Sandweiss - "Passing Strange"

Clarence King was a famed explorer, scientist, and hero of late nineteenth century history. But the blue-eyed and fair-skinned King also led a secret double life passing as a black man. A historian examines the secret King only revealed on his deathbed to his black wife of thirteen years. - as reported by The Diane Rehm Show.

You can listen to the segement at
http://wamu.org/programs/dr/09/02/11.php#24678

Here's Martha Sandweiss's new book on the subject.



Photo Credit : The New York Times. Photo by Sage Sohier.


“Passing Strange” tells an astounding true story that would beggar most novelists’ imaginations. It exposes the bizarre secret life of a well-known historical figure, but that secret is its least sensational aspect. The secret was hidden in plain sight until Martha A. Sandweiss, the deductive historian who pieced together this narrative, happened to notice it. Her great accomplishment is to have explored not only how the 19th-century explorer and scientist Clarence King reinvented himself but also why that reinvention was so singularly American. Best of all are Ms. Sandweiss’s insights into what King’s deception and its consequences really mean.

Clarence King has often been written about by historians, but mostly in academic books about the mapping and geological exploration of the American West. He also turns up in biographies and literary histories, since he moved in glittering circles and was once widely held in high regard. He was called “the best and the brightest man of his generation” by one close friend, Secretary of State John Hay.

Hay went even further: “This polished trifler, this exquisite wit, who diffused over every conversation in which he was engaged an iridescent mist of epigram and persiflage, was one of the greatest savants of his time.” Another admirer put it this way: “The trouble with King is that his description of the sunset spoils the original.”

King was a blond blueblood from Newport who distinguished himself at an early age. He traveled West in the 1860s, found work with the California State Geological Survey, helped to map the Sierras and became geologist in charge of the United States Geological Exploration of the 40th Parallel in 1867, when he was 25. He then became a familiar luminary in both New York and Washington. But his early years of roaming were just a prelude to what seems to have been a permanently rootless state.

Or so it seemed to his friends, who became used to his unexpected absences and thought of him as a perennial bachelor. Their impressions of him went no further. What they did not know was that when King was not living in various clubs and hotels, he was married and the father of five children. He was deeply devoted to his wife, Ada, a black woman 19 years his junior. This blue-eyed man, descended from signers of the Magna Carta, had successfully cultivated the impression that he was black too.

The existence of Ada and their children became publicly known only in 1933, at a trial in which Ada tried to recover the trust fund she had been promised by Clarence. He had been dead for more than 30 years, so the shock waves generated by the trial were considerable. Most dramatic, in Ms. Sandweiss’s account, is the way that revisionists demoted Clarence from hero to “tragic hero,” not to mention “the most lavishly overpraised man of his time,” upon discovering the he had been married to a former slave. This was typical of the sickening headlines surrounding the trial: “Mammy Bares Life as Wife of Scientist.”

All of this has long been a matter of record. It took Ms. Sandweiss to pinpoint and explore the fact that Clarence went further than merely marrying Ada and concealing her existence from his friends. He also adopted the name Clarence Todd, under which he married Ada, and claimed to be a Pullman porter, a job held exclusively by black workers. Employment on a train helped explain to Ada why he was so well traveled and so frequently absent from home. (Later he would claim to be a clerk and a steelworker too.)

Ms. Sandweiss constructs the life of the heretofore unknown young Ada, extrapolating from very scant evidence to create a remarkably solid portrait. Ada came from Georgia, was born pre-Emancipation and traveled to New York City to live as a domestic and children’s nursemaid. In other words, she went from one set of strictures to another, and only with Clarence did she achieve some kind of autonomy in a middle-class household. This article was written by Janet Maslin of the New York Times. You can read more here - New York Times

p90x book

here ya go

Hudson River Plane Crash

Photo credit: Janis Krums/Twitter; hat tip - RadioPatriot and Alley -Insider. Krums was on a ferry and took the photo with her iPhone. WCBS2 in NY reports Flight 1549, an Airbus 380 that took off from La Guardia Airport. Bound for Charlotte NC.

FNC says 146 passengers on board. Water taxis reportedly picking up survivors.

Passenger : Jeff spoke with media. They smelled gas before crash. Everyone on board was rescued. According to the N.J. State Police , the pilot declared an emergency in flight and a “bird strike”.

Get the whole story at http://wcbstv.com/

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

John 3:16 - Tim Tebow

JOHN 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Tim Tebow from the Florida Gators newest addition to his eye black marks during the BCS National Championship Game last night against the Oklahoma Sooners was John on one mark and 3:16 on the other.

The Florida Gators won 24-14.


Jan 8 Florida Oklahoma
1 0 0
2 7 7
4 7 0
3 10 7
T 24 14

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Tebow is the son of Christian missionaries. He's trying to do what he feels is right and spred the word. Tebow has played before showing Phil 4:13 on his eye blacks.

Postchronicle.com reported : "As far as the game goes, the high-scoring shootout between Heisman Trophy winners never materialized. Oklahoma's Sam Bradford couldn't score from in close and Tebow threw two interceptions, the figure he had all season.
Tebow, however, would shake off those two miserable throws to rescue the top-ranked Gators (13-1). He would lead them on a game winning drive to the clinching score - a jump pass for a 4-yard touchdown to David Nelson with 3:07 to play that made it 24-14. Tebow was later picked the game's most outstanding player, rushing for 109 yards."

Please feel free to leave comments :)

Palm Pre - Just another cell phone?

Today January 08, 2009 Palm finally announced the new Palm Pre , the new operating system that will be on the phone called Web OS, and the Touchstone -- a wireless charger that uses inductive technology. You put the Pre on the magnetic Touchstone and it stays there charging.

PRICING & AVAILABILITY - They did not announce when it will be available or what it will cost.

SPECS- The Palm Pre is a multi-touch screen device with a full vertical slide-out QWERTY keyboard and accelerometer. The EVDO-capable device is Wi-Fi-enabled, and comes with GPS, Bluetooth 2.1 with stereo support, and 8GB of storage. There's a 3 megapixel camera with LED flash, mass storage-friendly microUSB plug and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It comes with a WIRELESS CHARGER!
It has a 3.1-inch 320 x 480 multitouch display, with a silver center button below that, and touch sensitivity all down the face. The lower part is for "gestures."

Palm claims the new OMAP CPU it has gives it power like a laptop.

The Pre is smaller than the iPhone. It weighs 4.8 ounces. The homescreen user interface (UI) has customizable application widgets running at the bottom of the display. Touch a widget and the app instantly pops up. All of your open applications appear on the UI as a deck of cards. Flicking from right to left and left to right on the gesture pad allows you to scroll through your "deck" of applications.

Palm's e-mail application lets you check all of your e-mail accounts at ONCE!

You can start typing an e-mail contact and Web OS will search all of your e-mail accounts and add it to your contact list. If it can't find the contact it searches your corporate exchange database.

All of your contacts from different instant messenger services show up on one list.

If you use the keyboard to start searching for something, Web OS searches all your contacts and apps instantly, if it doesn't find results on the device it searches the web. The phone has alert pop ups for things such as IM's and E-Mail. It has a dashboard for your notifications.

COMING TOMORROW : a bit on the new Blackberry Storm! You can visit engadget.com and check out they're Related Topics section on the Palm Pre. Cool stuff there.

Costa Rica earthquake kills 3 leaves many injured.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

"Today is a day of mourning for Costa Ricans, because the earthquake killed three people, two children and a woman," said President Oscar Arias at a joint news conference.

The magnitude of the earthquake was 6.1.

The bodies of two sisters were found near the epiccenter by police and residents of the area. The two sisters were selling sweets near the epicenter. They were killed by a landslide caused by the earthquake.

The woman died of a heart attack.

The quake injured 208 people, damaged some 42 communities as well as electricity networks, and cut off some 300 tourists in a luxury hotel near Poas, according to emergency services.

The earthquake hit at 1:21 pm (1921 GMT) about 22 miles northwest of the capital. people said they had not felt such a strong tremor in 30 years.

It was felt across the Central American country and also in Nicaragua.

Transport Minister Karla Gonzalez said the government had contracted most private helicopters in the country, which has no army, to help with rescue operations.

The emergency commission declared a red alert in the capital and surrounding areas "where serious damage to infrastructure, roads and homes has been reported and some people were injured and trapped in their houses."

There were reported broken windows, and cracks in roads in San Jose.

Costa Rica had over 4,700 earthquakes in 2008, around 60 were felt by the residents, according to the observatory.

Nancy Killefer - Chief Performance Officer announced!!! with video

as reported by The Huffington Post January 7, 2009. WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama said Wednesday that reforming massive government entitlement programs _ such as Social Security and Medicare _ would be "a central part" of his effort to control federal spending.

Obama made the pledge but provided few details as he named Nancy Killefer as his administration's chief performance officer, creating a new White House position aimed at eliminating government waste and improving efficiency.

Noting that the Congressional Budget Office had just estimated he would inherit a $1.2 trillion federal deficit for fiscal 2009, Obama promised to cut unnecessary spending.

"We expect that discussion around entitlements will be a part, a central part of those plans," Obama said. "And I would expect that by February in line with the announcement of at least a rough budget outline we will have more to say about how we're going to approach entitlement spending."

For the first time, Obama gave a ballpark price tag for his massive economic plan aimed at generating jobs and jolting the country out of recession. Aides have said it could cost as much as $775 billion over two years. Outside economists have suggested as much as $1.2 trillion would be needed.

"We expect that it will be on the high end of our estimates but will not be as high as some economists have recommended because of the constraint and concerns we have about the existing deficit," Obama said.

At the brief news conference, Obama also deferred to President George W. Bush on the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Even as he's delved into domestic issues, Obama has refrained from commenting on the conflict and has insisted that he would allow the current chief executive to deal with foreign policy matters until the Jan. 20 inauguration.

"We can't have two administrations running foreign policy at the same time. We simply can't do it," Obama said. "The silence is not as a consequence of a lack of concern. In fact, it's not silence. ... I've explained very clearly what institutional constraints I'm under when it comes to this issue."

Still, Obama said he was "deeply concerned" about the conflict. He also offered assurances that he was being briefed consistently on the issue and his national security team was "up to speed."

As he named Killefer, Obama promised to scour the federal budget to eliminate what doesn't work and improve what does to "put government on the side of taxpayers." He said: "We can no longer afford to sustain the old ways when we know there are new and more efficient ways to getting the job done."

Killefer, a director of a management consulting firm who previously served as an assistant secretary of the treasury under President Bill Clinton, will work with federal agencies to set performance standards and hold agency managers accountable for progress.

Obama pledged during the campaign to form a White House SWAT team of sorts _ led by a chief performance officer who would report directly to him _ to work with agency leaders and the White House budget office to improve federal programs and services.

Yet, even as he announced the post that's also aimed at spending taxpayer money more efficiently, Obama was spending his first week in Washington promoting his mammoth economic stimulus plan _ much of which will be new spending aimed at creating jobs and stoking the troubled economy.


Lets get some feedback on this subject. Tell me what you think about Obama's plans?

Have a Ball

January 07, 2009 - Ann Coulter appeared on the TODAY show today. The Conservative author speaks out about unwed mothers, ‘B. Hussein’ Obama. there was some obvious animosity between Ann and Matt Lauer because of a cancellation of her appearing on the TODAY show. Her cancellation was "to make way for a live report from Israel on the conflict in Gaza by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair" -according to Lauer. Coulter countered that TODAY could have given her a different time slot. Lauer accused her of saying, “The mainstream media hates conservatives.” “I didn’t say that,” Coulter said. She admitted that she agrees with the sentiment, “but I have much more colorful language.” “The point is, I was canceled twice,” Coulter rejoined, referring to a second scheduled appearance on Tuesday with Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford in the show’s fourth hour that was also dropped.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Other videos related to Ann Coulter

Naked Skier

JANUARY 6--Smoking gun website reported that a 48 year old male skier at Colorado's ritzy Vail resort was left dangling upside down and pantsless from a chairlift last Thursday morning. the incident happened on January first. This happened after the skier and a child got on the high-speed lift in Vail's Blue Sky Basin. the skiier fell through a gap supposedly because the fold-down seat was not in the lowered position. His right ski got stuck in the rising chairlift, and that kept him upside down because his boot didn't dislodge from its binding. The Skyline Express lift was stopped shortly after the incident. The man stuck for about 15 minutes before Vail personnel backed the lift up and got him out of the chair. Supposedly the skier was not injured. The press release did not explain how the mishap occurred, only that "the man was caught on the chair."

We'll see if this leads to litigation. I think its very likely that the man will find some way or reason to sue for this incident. What a shame it is how people cling to every chance they can get money for something. The incident was probably the skiiers fault to begin with. get more at http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0106091vail1.html

Hot Topix

Hi everyeone,
This is my new blog on everyday hot topics. I will be updating this everyday, so stick around. Thanks for visiting my blog!