Big Tony

Comments on my last discourse on why man likes younger woman. Shows, how little I actually know about woman in general. Fuck it, I am staying single. Any comments? [Typically, a woman will want to own her man. Train, nag and make him into her version of a better man. A younger woman will not do that.] Typically, the younger a woman is, and/or the less educated and independent a woman is, the more she is likely to "want to own, train, nag and make the man into her version of a better man." Naturally, relationship of any kind is a type of owning itself. If you are familiar with "Le Petit Prince," you’d know that once we start to look forward to see/hear from/meet with someone, we are already tempted to own this person, either for friendship or love affair. This is a very basic human behavior. However, the older we get, the more self- control we must keep for ourselves. Hence more mature women tend to better control her desires, and knowing that "nag/train/mold her man" will not make him into a "better man." Infact from her personal experiences, she knows too well that it will only make him "a man who tries to run away." Whereas younger women who are lack of such experiences and realization, will keep trying it. until she fails enough to realize that it’s impossible. she then gives up. [It's easier to impress a younger woman, one doesn't have to own 2 mortgages, a suv, and have a fat 401K plan, before being considered to have a casual relationship. Having funny things to say is enough.] it’s an urban myth to believe that it’s easier to impress a younger woman because you don’t have to have all that much material things. but the fact is, the more mature a woman is, the more likely it is for her to be financially independent herself. Therefore at that point, all she really appreciates is someone who tells a decent joke. she doesn’t care much if her man owns 2 mortgages, asuv, and having a fat retirement plan, because she probably has all of those herself. It’s still easier to impress a younger woman because we should say, that’s all you need. all you need is material things to impress her. cuz she probably cannot see beyond that. It’s more difficult to impress a mature woman because you need something that aint skin deep. [Younger woman have tighter bodies.] this, I agree. However, they don’t seem to know how to take care of their tighter bodies and thats when they age very fast! Slap on that sunscreen and anti age, young chickas! [They won't get mad at you if you don't consider marriage as a proper topic after 4 months of dating. Dating them for 4 weeks and realizing it's not working out and staying friends is not considered wasting her love life.] in this section, let’s disect a woman’s life in three parts: young/unexperienced - middle/mediocre - older/mature and experienced mediocre women tend to nag about marriage, typically when we are passed the age of 28, all that doesn;’t seem to maek much difference to us anyway. we’ve come a long way to realize that there’s no use to rush. sure we still wanna get married, but we are  more open to other options now. as long as we have regular sex and we appreciate the more personal things that surround us. hence we believe this: "men come and go, but a good mascara is forever" and older women are just more bitter,

 The
ENTJ needs to consciously work on recognizing the value of other people’s
opinions, as well as the value of being sensitive towards people’s feelings. In
the absence of this awareness, the ENTJ will be a forceful, intimidating and
overbearing individual. If this is not the reason why some people call me
insensitive, and some other calls me big T, I don’t know what.

So, Jess from BJ, asks "Why do older man like younger woman?" ,
"Because they are prettier?"

Reply:

No.
Well, some man just wants to be in more control.
Typically, a woman will want to own her man.
Train, nag and make him into her version of a better man.
A younger woman will not do that.
It’s easier to impress a younger woman, one doesn’t have to own 2 mortgages, a
suv, and have a fat 401K plan, before being considered to have a casual
relationship. Having funny things to say is enough.
Younger woman have tighter bodies.
They won’t get mad at you if you don’t consider marriage as a proper topic
after 4 months of dating.
Dating them for 4 weeks and realizing it’s not working out and staying friends
is not considered wasting her love life.
The concept of biological clock is only referred to in terms of jetlag.
They are actually excited about getting a job, and not faking having a career
but secretly wish their Dad was still willing to take care of them again, and
wish you would turn into their Dad.

Her answer was "Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, guess you can’t blame
them"

And they haven’t been fucked whichever way from Sunday. (I crudely added)

"Oh my…." she says.

Right, Jess is 24.

If I was talking to a 28 year old, she would have gone Bridget Jones
internally, while hoping to be Mrs Smith on the outside, but appearing more
like Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, or Miranda. (Take your pick)

Until the younger girl dump your ass for a non testrostrone decreasing male.
That is.

Take your pick, chose your poison baby.

Anyways the formula  is half your age  +  7.  Nobody can blame you. 31/2 + 7 = 22.5.  Noone born after 1983.

If you go below that, you best be ready for the usual ‘Cradle Robbing,  Jail  bait,  DOB,   grandpa, balls down to your knee, she call you daddy? " comments.

Reserve that for when you are old, divorced, rich, and eccentric. Don’t root the younglings, hogs.

I remember talking about this 3 years ago in the EAC office, about guilt, conscious, and following the rules of the society. People who cannot contain their urges to
harm (or kill) people repeatedly for no apparent reason are assumed to suffer from some mental
illness. However, they may be more cruel than crazy, they may be choosing not to control
their urges, they know right from wrong, they know exactly what they’re doing,
and they are definitely NOT insane, at least according to the consensus of most
scholars (Samenow 2004).  In
such cases, they usually fall into one of three types that are typically considered
aggravating circumstances in addition to their legal guilt — antisocial
personality disorder (APD), sociopath, or psychopath — none of which are the
same as insanity or psychosis.  APD is the most common type, afflicting about 4% of the
general population.  Sociopaths are the second most common type, with the American Psychiatric Association estimating that 3% of
all males in our society are sociopaths and Stout (2005) estimating 4% of the
population.  Psychopaths are rare, found in perhaps
1% of the population.

    Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD)
is practically synonymous with criminal behavior. It’s so synonymous, in fact,
that practically all convicted criminals (65-75%) have it, with criminologists
often referring to it as a "wastebasket" category.  Antisocials
come is all shapes and sizes, but psychologists
consider the juvenile version of it to be a juvenile conduct disorder. The main
characteristic of it is a complete and utter disregard for the rights of others
and the rules of society. They seldom show anxiety and don’t feel guilt. There’s
really no effective treatment for them other than locking them up in a secure
facility with such rigid rules that they cannot talk their way out.

Profile of a Sociopath Religion of the mind, and the destoryers. 

One of the most provocative ideas about business in this decade so far
surfaced in a most unlikely place. The forum wasn’t the Harvard
Business School or one of those $4,000-a-head conferences where Silicon
Valley’s venture capitalists search for the next big thing. It was a
convention of Canadian cops in the far-flung province of Newfoundland.
The speaker, a 71-year-old professor emeritus from the University of
British Columbia, remains virtually unknown in the business realm. But
he’s renowned in his own field: criminal psychology. Robert Hare is the
creator of the Psychopathy Checklist. The 20-item personality
evaluation has exerted enormous influence in its quarter-century
history. It’s the standard tool for making clinical diagnoses of
psychopaths — the 1% of the general population that isn’t burdened by
conscience. Psychopaths have a profound lack of empathy. They use other
people callously and remorselessly for their own ends. They seduce
victims with a hypnotic charm that masks their true nature as
pathological liars, master con artists, and heartless manipulators.
Easily bored, they crave constant stimulation, so they seek thrills
from real-life "games" they can win — and take pleasure from their
power over other people.

On that August day in 2002, Hare gave a talk on psychopathy to
about 150 police and law-enforcement officials. He was a legendary
figure to that crowd. The FBI and the British justice system have long
relied on his advice. He created the P-Scan, a test widely used by
police departments to screen new recruits for psychopathy, and his
ideas have inspired the testing of firefighters, teachers, and
operators of nuclear power plants.

According to the Canadian Press and Toronto Sun
reporters who rescued the moment from obscurity, Hare began by talking
about Mafia hit men and sex offenders, whose photos were projected on a
large screen behind him. But then those images were replaced by
pictures of top executives from WorldCom, which had just declared
bankruptcy, and Enron, which imploded only months earlier. The
securities frauds would eventually lead to long prison sentences for
WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers and Enron CFO Andrew Fastow.

Scientific consensus says that only about 50% of personality is
influenced by genetics, so psychopaths are molded by our culture just
as much as they are born among us.

But wait, you say: Don’t bona fide psychopaths become serial
killers or other kinds of violent criminals, rather than the guys in
the next cubicle or the corner office? That was the conventional
wisdom. Indeed, Hare began his work by studying men in prison. Granted,
that’s still an unusually good place to look for the
conscience-impaired. The average Psychopathy Checklist score for
incarcerated male offenders in North America is 23.3, out of a possible
40. A score of around 20 qualifies as "moderately psychopathic." Only
1% of the general population would score 30 or above, which is "highly
psychopathic," the range for the most violent offenders. Hare has said
that the typical citizen would score a 3 or 4, while anything below
that is "sliding into sainthood."

On the broad continuum between the ethical everyman and the
predatory killer, there’s plenty of room for people who are ruthless
but not violent. This is where you’re likely to find such people as
Ebbers, Fastow, ImClone CEO Sam Waksal, and hotelier Leona Helmsley. We
put several big-name CEOs through the checklist, and they scored as
"moderately psychopathic"; our quiz on page 48 lets you try a similar
exercise with your favorite boss. And this summer, together with New
York industrial psychologist Paul Babiak, Hare begins marketing the
B-Scan, a personality test that companies can use to spot job
candidates who may have an MBA but lack a conscience. "I always said
that if I wasn’t studying psychopaths in prison, I’d do it at the stock
exchange," Hare told Fast Company. "There are certainly more people in
the business world who would score high in the psychopathic dimension
than in the general population. You’ll find them in any organization
where, by the nature of one’s position, you have power and control over
other people and the opportunity to get something."

But how can we recognize psychopathic types? Hare has revised his
Psychopathy Checklist (known as the PCL-R, or simply "the Hare") to
make it easier to identify so-called subcriminal or corporate
psychopaths. He has broken down the 20 personality characteristics into
two subsets, or "factors." Corporate psychopaths score high on Factor
1, the "selfish, callous, and remorseless use of others" category. It
includes eight traits: glibness and superficial charm; grandiose sense
of self-worth; pathological lying; conning and manipulativeness; lack
of remorse or guilt; shallow affect (i.e., a coldness covered up by
dramatic emotional displays that are actually playacting); callousness
and lack of empathy; and the failure to accept responsibility for one’s
own actions. Sound like anyone you know? (Corporate psychopaths score
only low to moderate on Factor 2, which pinpoints "chronically
unstable, antisocial, and socially deviant lifestyle," the hallmarks of
people who wind up in jail for rougher crimes than creative
accounting.)

This view is supported by research by psychologists Belinda Board
and Katarina Fritzon at the University of Surrey, who interviewed and
gave personality tests to 39 high-level British executives and compared
their profiles with those of criminals and psychiatric patients. The
executives were even more likely to be superficially charming,
egocentric, insincere, and manipulative, and just as likely to be
grandiose, exploitative, and lacking in empathy. Board and Fritzon
concluded that the businesspeople they studied might be called
"successful psychopaths." In contrast, the criminals — the
"unsuccessful psychopaths" — were more impulsive and physically
aggressive.

The Factor 1 psychopathic traits seem like the playbook of many
corporate power brokers through the decades. Manipulative? Louis B.
Mayer was said to be a better actor than any of the stars he employed
at MGM, able to turn on the tears at will to evoke sympathy during
salary negotiations with his actors. Callous? Henry Ford hired thugs to
crush union organizers, deployed machine guns at his plants, and
stockpiled tear gas. He cheated on his wife with his teenage personal
assistant and then had the younger woman marry his chauffeur as a
cover. Lacking empathy? Hotel magnate Leona Helmsley shouted
profanities at and summarily fired hundreds of employees allegedly for
trivialities, like a maid missing a piece of lint. Remorseless? Soon
after Martin Davis ascended to the top position at Gulf & Western,
a visitor asked why half the offices were empty on the top floor of the
company’s Manhattan skyscraper. "Those were my enemies," Davis said. "I
got rid of them." Deceitful? Oil baron Armand Hammer laundered money to
pay for Soviet espionage. Grandiosity? Thy name is Trump.

In the most recent wave of scandals, Enron’s Fastow displayed many
of the corporate psychopath’s traits. He pressured his bosses for a
promotion to CFO even though he had a shaky grasp of the position’s
basic responsibilities, such as accounting and treasury operations.
Suffering delusions of grandeur after just a little time on the job,
Fastow ordered Enron’s PR people to lobby CFO magazine to make him its
CFO of the Year. But Fastow’s master manipulation was a scheme to loot
Enron. He set up separate partnerships, secretly run by himself, to
engage in deals with Enron. The deals quickly made tens of millions of
dollars for Fastow — and prettified Enron’s financials in the short
run by taking unwanted assets off its books. But they left Enron with
time bombs that would ultimately cause the company’s total implosion –
and lose shareholders billions. When Enron’s scandals were exposed,
Fastow pleaded guilty to securities fraud and agreed to pay back nearly
$24 million and serve 10 years in prison.

1% of the world population are screened to become hitman, snipers, and perhaps now corporate execs. Even screening mayer briggs / Jung typo is not going to get these out of the way.

However, it’s extremely important to identify early on, if your partner, investor, go to man, client, is or have one of these personalities especially in entrepreniural projects. At the same time, one also don’t want Sainthood, unless you operate an nonprofit NGO.

HBO produced a dramatic series based on ROME. A sort of "Gladiator" extended.

Every episode is produced as if it was an one hour movie. For males it’s absolutely amusing.

I doubt females relate as well, for almost all females within the show are either scheming nobles, slaves or scorn woman. It was a man’s society back then. However, although the males are imperfect, at least as a male one can relate to their failings. The females, one just find meddling.

The other shows Lost and Prison Break have lost some of their appeal, as the never ending stories. There is almost no story development. West wing and Everybody hates Chris on the other hand are most watchable. Hurray for torrent downloads. The entertainment industry needs to figure out how to buy out the torrent engines and charge download fees, or else the DSL Tevo/ mininova growing users will eventually overtake regular cable subscribers.

Been out less and less of late, and have observed new group dynamics forming. It is again changes in the young expat social structures are new people arrive and other leave. The successfuls stay, and the disheartened leave. The new gen arrives and will soon step up to the business arena as this gen step into the investment arena. It’s almost time for couples to move to engagement. Each wave is pushed by the next wave. Even apnc now have a second generation.

Commented perhaps  only  by someone who have been here long  enough to observe  the changing of the tides again and again. The last wave to come is the final departure. A move to another city, or country, as transients do during their youth as well as settle down, once part of their wonder lust has been satisfied.

Almost everytime I meet younger females and sometimes males, my friend jokingly warn against making them mai mai. For the last 16 years, I have accuulated quite a number of siblings who now no longer need advise and care, but offer a hug whenever I see them. I have often said that to have even the slightest influence on a younger generation search for their path is by far the easist way to leave a small mark in our lifetime. The act of caring although still driven by self centered sense of being looked up to and useful is still appreciated. I have a tendency to look after sisters and brothers, perhaps because I was born the youngest with a misleading body of the oldest in the family, yet have always craved to have younger siblings.

Perfectly sassy and independent people seem to revert to younger versions of themself with me. I suppose when I have kids this need of mine will go away.

In the mean time, my subconscious separates the would be potential partners from the possible siblings. For this winter I will forgo a new sibling for a potential partner to watch downloads and have popcorn with.

Still the best way to keep track of everyone is to use friendster. You find that being here 9 years, many of your friends tend to have left Shanghai, and after 6 month write less and less. I tend to always have the browser on in the back ground.

2 things to note.

1. Great love of food can be seen Joyce’s blog
2. The Shanghai stock market will tank again next year.

It’s unbelievable to have been up 6% in the last 2 month, only to have the last remaining stock dip 20% even after double tripling up to average a lower stock price. China stockmarket really sucks. Perhaps the wise thing is to cut my loses now, and get in on the tank next year.

Whats worse? SNDA Shanda tanked from 38 to 20 in the last couple of month. Today especially because a competitors home entertainment system developed by AMD and Microsoft released before Shanda’s. I am just waiting for one console to play not only, online games, surf web, watch dvd, play x-box and playstation knock off games all for 5000 rmb. Only in China can something this drastic happen.

Interactive content and IPTV on flatscreen TV in HD will be the next speed leap.

Time to snore. Its almost sunrise and I am finally feeling sleepy.

"Really", that’s the comment I get when I tell people of my stomach problem. Run to the WC 7-9 times a day. Still getting cramps. To which, a friendster friend from OC tells me that I am better now to understand the plight of female menstrations. "Put a warm water bottle on it" she says.
"Great" , Old Faithful and Emasculation. 
Hopefully, stomach bug is all it is, because if there is anything else wrong, I would hate to have to go to the hospital. Sigh, we wait and see my consistency tomorrow.

There is some traction on my concept businesses, and 2 of the websites are 75% from being finished. One business have the potential of picking up traction in the next 3 month. It’s almost time for the core-team to sit down and talk about structure and setup. I dislike getting funding, but for the building materials industry it may have to be done.

Always the weird thing with my attention span and business. The moment business potential increases, my interest in ladies with future potential decreases. Hopefully this inversely propotional drives will balance itself out as financial growth and health increases.

My passion and problem at the same time, is my need to start new projects. When the projects get to be a certain level, I stop being interested and want to start new ones. Unfortunately this means, these companies only get to the first growth curve. I think, for my next couple of projects I will have to plot realistic exit strategies even before finishing with the growth curve, so I will have my impetus to push to the next peak.

Just finished watching the "Lord of War". An interesting narration is that " US, UK, Russia, France and China are the 5 largest weapon suppliers in the world. More interesting is that all 5 countries are the 5 seats on the UN Security Council" based on actual events, free lance gun runners are used to supply the enemy of their enemies when these countries can’t be involved, and that is how these free lance guy runners make a living.

When asked why he won’t stop running guns, because it makes lots of money? the answer was simply "because I am good at it".

A spoke in the gears of this machine we call the human society.

How do you want to contribute to society? (when we are not partying, or playing football that is, lets keep it real) and no, kids you don’t know about is not a valid contribution.

Seems I need to find a deal maker, accumulator or lord of sorts to complete my flow wheel. As far as I can tell, that’s a sales person/ lawyer, a banker/ ISTJ, or a financial manager.  Better yet, females with SF and Greater China heritage. 

The eduation necessary means that they will usually be in school until they are 25 or 28. Perhapes I should be getting loans with banks more and using more associate lawyers for deals.

Hmmmmmmmm, more impetus for business.

So, not to continue my diatribe, but  at least update of my "web experience" discourse and come to terms with my personal  uproar , below is how it played itself out.

The reason why I was so worked up about it , was because the website warned on the login page if we weren’t looking at a security site picture, or 3 personal questions, most likely the page was a trojan hacker, and Marshell was trying to use it to steal my bank id and passcode.

now, since I wasn’t able to log in, and everytime I tried, no site picture or questions poped up, I was paranoid that I was REALLY login in to a trojan site, and someone IS performing a "mission impossible/ Alias" hack on my ass. You gotta remember that everytime I logged in, I DID put in my ID and Passcode, and everytime it did tell me that my passcode was too long, and  like a rat trapped in a  revolving  maze, Catch 22 is the last thing that you want to realize. So this was  the reason that I spent 4 frustrating hours trying. Which lead to my diatribe, and my hex on BOA.

So, yesterday, I call the hotline (again long distance) in California, and the dude, was like, OH>>>> delete your existing cookies, and try to log in again. Thanks for banking with BOA.

I tried it and IT WORKED!

Now, why there wasn’t a FAQ online, or even a phone contact listed online I have no idea. The information is listed AFTER getting pass the password, but that’s a catch 22!

For my frustration, perhapes my financial guardian angels were feeling bad for me, but on Friday, I was offered some nominal shares to be an advisor, a loan introduction for a local bank, and 20 million USD to invest in.

No free lunch if you are thinking this is. Nominal shares have no value, but the advisor role can help push the company up, loan offered is just the bank way of saying, "I think you can make some money for me, how about 7% compounded?", and the 20 million USD is even more so. 25% equity stake, 18 % return, and annuality considerations.

The vote of confidence is flattering I must say, but except for the advisor roles, I’m definitely not carrying a burden unless I have a huge upside and low risk.

Played football yesterday, and have aching joints today. I will definitely need to take some joint care supplements so, I don’t grind anything down, and be effect by cold weather in my old age.

The physical aspect of playing with teams, was just as fun as the constant shit talking.  Plus, a couple of nice gals came out to hang so the males won’t turn into complete ball scratching macho muscle heads.

One of the gals, who happen to be partying with this group I was with on Friday night, asked the eternal question of why Tony does not dance.

Let me just set the record straight.

1. Man don’t dance.
2. Russian circus bear dancing is not a good image.
3. I grind in private.
4. I like to have a mental connection first.
5. I actually consider the club environment to be like watching the Discovery documentary on chimp mating rituals, or even tribal mating dance. Now, if dancing good meant that you were THE ALPHA MALE, and only you are allowed to mate with an entire group of females upon winning, I would find Mormon sense in this and do the proper latter day saints duty and perform the grind till you drop, Stiffler trot.

Yes, tapping asses is fun, but turning 31 going on 32,  oats have been sowed,  and  now  playing football is much more fun than drinking or dancing at clubs.

A note about  reaching the testosterone peak at age 20, and then from age 30, a decline happens.

As we all know, testosterone in adult males, feeds libido, builds muscle mass and helps maintain energy levels, explains WebMD. Testosterone levels
              begin to drop by about one percent each year. In the short-term,
              this might not sound like much. However I can definitely tell the difference between age 18 and 31.

If there is such a thing as a bodily substance more fabled
than blood, it’s testosterone, the hormone that we understand and misunderstand as
the essence of manhood. Testosterone has been offered as the symbolic (and sometimes
literal) explanation for all the glories and infamies of men, for why they start
street fights and civil wars, for why they channel surf, explore, prevail, sleep
around, drive too fast, plunder, bellow, joust, plot corporate takeovers and paint
their bare torsos blue during the Final Four. Hey, what’s not to like?

Testosterone is a hormone that’s also very important for people
              wanting to shed fat while preserving (or even gaining) lean muscle.
              In fact, hormones such as testosterone are one reason why you can
              lose weight on the scales without being able to shift the fat that
              seems to be glued to your stomach.

Think of a hormone like the remote control for your television.
              In much the same way that you change the channel using the remote
              control, hormones can change the way your fat cells respond to the
              food you eat.
            

Your body has billions of these tiny fat cells. They expand to
              many times their original size in order to store fat. They also
              shrink when they release stored fat. Fat cells respond to hormones
              in one of two ways, depending on whether the signal is lipogenic
              or lipolytic.

            

The term lipo means fat, while lysis means breakdown.
              So, a lipolytic (pronounced lip-o-lit-ik) hormone increases the
              number of fat calories burned for energy. Hormones that promote
              fat storage, on the other hand, are known as lipogenic (pronounced
              lie-po-jen-ik). In other words, lipogenic hormones promote fat storage.

              The parts of a fat cell that accelerate the release of fat are called
              beta-receptors. The parts of a fat cell that put the brakes
              on fat loss are known as alpha- receptors.If a fat cell has more beta-receptors, it will release stored fat
              more quickly than one with fewer beta-receptors. That’s where testosterone
              appears to help. By increasing the number of beta-receptors, testosterone
              makes it easier to lose stored fat.

One way to keep weight off, is to gain about 2kg of muscle mass a year. This will keep energy burn higher, and keep the fat mass off. Naturally, the body will lose muscle mass as Testosterone levels decrease, but a healthy balance can keep a male body strong. Winning keeps testosterone levels high, and explains why sports is good post age 30.

For more information on it’s effect see the link below.

T Levels to Performance and Social Standing

The Gladiator Diet. [paragraph] Stress, inactivity and smoking can
all lead to low T levels, but eating the wrong foods is testosterone’s
No. 1 enemy. Bottom line: Eat the following 10 foods to boost your
testosterone, and your muscles will grow bigger and harder. It’s that
simple.

  1) OYSTERS

  WHAT’S INSIDE: Protein, magnesium, lots of zinc

THE FACTS: Along with increasing your physical endurance, oysters
pack more zinc than almost any other food source–just six gives you
almost seven times the RDA–and zinc plays a key role in muscle growth
and testosterone levels.

  HOW TO GET IT: Eat a serving of oysters once a week, raw, cooked or canned–but preferably not fried.

  2) LEAN BEEF

  WHAT’S INSIDE: Protein, iron, magnesium, zinc, saturated fat

THE FACTS: "Few things have as positive an impact on testosterone
levels as lean meats," says Gillespie. Beef specifically offers the
added benefit of high protein and zinc–two nutrients key to optimizing
testosterone and muscle-building potential–in one source. And while
you don’t want too much saturated fat in your diet, you require some to
produce testosterone.

  HOW TO GET IT: Grill or broil a lean cut of steak a few times a week.

  3) BEANS

  WHAT’S INSIDE: Protein, fiber, zinc

THE FACTS: Beans are indeed the magical fruit … but not for that
reason. Beans pack a bigger shot of zinc than any other member of the
veggie family; some (like baked beans) even rival the zinc content of
red meat. Add that to a food that’s high in protein and fiber and low
in fat, and you have a winning combo.

HOW TO GET IT: Baked beans, lima beans, navy beans and kidney beans
are all good choices. Canned versions are as nutritious as dry.

  4) POULTRY

  WHAT’S INSIDE: Protein and little fat

THE FACTS: "High-protein diets have a positive impact on muscle
mass and thus testosterone levels," says John E. Morley, director of
the Division of Geriatric Medicine at St. Louis University. "And high
fat seems to have the opposite effect." So while chicken and turkey
lack high zinc levels, their protein-to-fat ratios make them important
to your diet.

HOW TO GET IT: Roast or grill skinless, boneless portions of turkey
or chicken several times a week. Or choose chicken and turkey cold cuts
for lunch.

  5) EGGS

  WHAT’S INSIDE: Protein and cholesterol

THE FACTS: "Testosterone is synthesized from cholesterol, and as
such, food containing cholesterol is a good source of building blocks
for testosterone," says Robert S. Tan, MD, an associate professor of
geriatric medicine and an andrologist at the University of Texas in
Houston. Eggs are a source of pure, unadulterated cholesterol, and one
recent study showed that the excess cholesterol in eggs isn’t as
harmful as previously thought. So stock up on whole eggs (unless
otherwise instructed by your physician).

  HOW TO GET IT: Start your day with 3-4 whole eggs cooked in olive oil or fat-free cooking spray.

  6) COTTAGE CHEESE (1% MILK FAT)

  WHAT’S INSIDE: Protein with very little fat

THE FACTS: One cup of 1% cottage cheese has more protein and less
fat than a serving of lean beef or chicken. Have it as a snack or with
a meal for testosterone-boosting potential.

  HOW TO GET IT: Eat 1 cup of cottage cheese each day.

  7) BROCCOLI

  WHAT’S INSIDE: Indole-3-carbinol, fiber

THE FACTS: "Elevated estrogen levels lead to fat accumulation and
can interfere with muscle growth," says M & F contributor Chris
Aceto, author of Championship Bodybuilding. In a clinical study,
indole-3-carbinol cut the largely female hormone estradiol in half for
men. "Broccoli contains high levels of indoles, food compounds that
help reduce bad estrogen," adds Aceto.

  HOW TO GET IT: Eat as many servings of broccoli as you can stomach.

  CABBAGE

  WHAT’S INSIDE: Indole-3-carbinol, fiber

THE FACTS: In addition to exhibiting the same estradiol-restricting
properties as other cruciferous vegetables, cabbage is high in fiber.
"Fiber is great for controlling weight, as it prevents the consumption
of fattier foods," says Gillespie. "Keeping weight down has an
anti-estrogen impact."

  HOW TO GET IT: Load up that fat-free brat with sauerkraut and have a side of slaw–just go easy on the mayo.

  9) RUSSELS SPROUTS

  WHAT’S INSIDE: Indole-3-carbinol, fiber

THE FACTS: You should have listened to your mom: Brussels sprouts
do help you grow up big and strong. Like the other vegetables on our
list, these specifically target bad estrogen and pack just as much
fiber.

  HOW TO GET IT: Hold your nose and power them down.

  10) GARLIC

  WHAT’S INSIDE: Allicin

THE FACTS: In clinical studies, garlic’s active ingredient enhances
testosterone levels and inhibits cortisol, a hormone that competes with
testosterone, limiting its actions and breaking down muscle tissue.

  HOW TO GET IT: Season other foods with garlic when you can, but eating whole cloves provides the most direct benefit.

  RELATED ARTICLE: Checking Your TESTOSTERONE

Gillespie explains that the best way to keep your testosterone
level up is to get it checked every year. "If possible, start before
age 30 to establish a baseline," he explains. "Then you’ll know where
you want it to stay as you get older."

  Total testosterone is just one of the three important numbers to know. The three key components to testosterone level are:

  * Total testosterone: 400-600 ng/dL

  * Free (unbound) testosterone: 25-30 pg/mL

  * Estradiol: No more than 15-20 ng/dL

* Stick to the ratio. According to Gillespie, "Men should aim for
45% of calories from protein, 35% from carbs and 20% from fats." As you
put daily menus together, these numbers will help you maintain this
diet.

* Avoid high-glycemic carbs. Gillespie notes that carb-rich foods
high on the glycemic index can negatively affect your testosterone
level.

* Think protein and fats. High-protein and moderate-fat foods are
crucial for enhancing testosterone and, as a result, building muscle.
Make these foods the building blocks of your diet.

* Eat oysters when you can. This may be the hardest food on the
list to obtain but, as Aceto puts it, "Oysters are the original
testosterone booster." Many restaurants and grocery stores have them
available.

* Pick the right main courses. Keep this in mind, and the road to
sound meal planning should be clear: Choose protein over carb-loaded
dishes.

* Add the right sides and snacks. Select snacks and side dishes the
same way you would main courses. For example, pick beans and broccoli
over carrots. Changes like these are simple and easy to make.

  * Avoid cigarettes and go easy on alcohol.

How hard is that?

 

I’ve been creating
multiple websites for my new concept projects the last few months. One of the
things they keep on telling me is the Metcalf Law and Reeds Law.

Anyways, net users
are much less forgiving now a days, and will take their business elsewhere if
the website do not provide the super efficient functionality that internet has
spoiled us with.

For instance, Bank
of America is using a sitekey to prevent identity theft, but it did not give
notice for those of us who had NO idea that they were changing security
systems. On top of that, Sun Micro is having trouble with the sitekey, and no
passcode and ID will log on for the next 6 hours.

But, they failed to
inform us of this, and I ended up spending the last 5 hours trying to log on to
my bank acct. The f*cked up thing, is that I actually did log on once, without
the sitekey, and then it told me I couldn’t anymore. So I called their 1800
number from

China

,
and they told me I would be paying long distance fee. (automatic prompt), and
on top of that after waiting for 10 minutes ( the connection broke the first
time when I waited for 3 minutes), the nice lady got on the phone and told me
they were having tech difficulties.

The thing is,
earlier last night, I even wrote them an email about this problem, and the AI
form letter answering bot sent back a letter telling me that there were no
problems. For some reason, I was blocked with sitekey security on Firefox, BUT
not with Internet Explorer until 1pm tonight. Can you imagine my confusion? I
thought a virus or spyware had majorily hacked into my online bank acct, and
either my credit rating just went into the toilet, or they added a couple of
zeros to my acct. either way, I couldn’t tell, because I couldn’t get access!

Now, couldn’t the
website tell me that it was having tech difficulties when it was having tech difficulties?
I wasted last 5 hours + long distance mobile call from

China

and spent
frustration?  I could have spent that time sleeping or at least using the
internet for its real purpose, PORN! Instead, constant rejection from my own
online banking service.

Now, in this day
and age with instant gratification, would I ever ever ever want to come back to
this site again, if not for the fact that I freaking banked with them?

You guys feel me?

This goes back to
my thoughts on the principles of designing a website. If it’s not easy to use,
don’t launching the f**king thing because, it will pick up negative word of
mouth instead of referrals. And that’s really F*cked up, especially with the
amount of detail planning that goes into a community user/ function based site.

Below are the basic
applications and principles of Reed’s Law. An integral of Metcalf’s Law
equation turning into Reed’s Law.

The
Four C’s: Steps to Reed’s Law

Having read our
research note Business
Platforms: Profiting From Networks and thought about the overview of the
different classes of social networks and how they differ in the way the value
of the network increases with the number of members in the network, one person
was wondering how Amazon would go about moving its business up in the network
classes.

To very briefly
recap the discussion in the research paper, we identify three distinct classes
of networks and the way their value grows with the number of actors in the
network. Three laws are named: Sarnoff’s Law holds true for broadcast network
(e.g. television) and says that the value of the network is proportional to the
number of actors (so, to stick with the example, advertising costs on
television networks are roughly proportional to the expected number of
viewers). In contrast, Metcalfe’s Law is good for networks that allow paired
connections (e.g. the telephone network) and predicts that the value grows with
the square of the number of actors and Reed’s Law says that when the network
allow communities to form (e.g. most real-life social networks) then the value
grows exponentially with the number of actors.

 
   

      

      

      

      

   

   

      

      

      

      

   

   

      

      

      

      

   

   

      

      

      

      

   

   

      

      

      

      

Law:	Sarnoff	Metcalfe	GFN         (Reed)
Optional         Transactions	Tune In         Broadcast	Connect         Peers	Join/Create         Groups
Examples	OnSale,         Remote Access	Yahoo!         Classifieds, EMail	eBay,         Chat Rooms
Value         of N member net	N	N2	2N
Combined         Value of N, M member nets	N + M	N2         + M2 + 2NM	2N         x 2

.

For many platforms we can
identify four stages in the development of the network effects.

1. Content: In order to attract people to your platform
        in the first instance, content is king. Content can be either information
        or transactions. It is current, frequently updated, and relevant to the
        visitors you wish to attract. Examples abound in the online world where
        almost every web site has some form of content to attract visitors:
        CNN.com (news), Yahoo.com (sites), Amazon.com (books) etc. Newspapers,
        commercial radio and television are examples outside the web. In this
        stage you are publishing and Sarnoff’s Law applies.
2. Connectivity:
        The next stage is about connecting people. Companies move from content to
        connectivity by adding user identification and features like "add
        comments" functionality, reading circles, or classified ads. An
        example is the financial section on Yahoo where everybody can add comments
        about companies. Some businesses skip the content stage and start at this
        level; examples include mobile networks and dating sites. You are now
        connecting people, and Metcalfe’s Law begins to take effect.
3. Collaboration: Actors—whether customers,
        suppliers, investors, or casual visitors—can now author content, thereby
        achieving scalability and attracting new networks. A wonderful example is
        the Dutch Smulweb that
        brings together some 300,000 people who share information and experiences
        related to food and drink. Programming interfaces, of which the Amazon Web
        Services that we discussed in the research paper, is another interesting
        example where the connectivity is to a large extent happening off-site but
        in a way where the business retains profits. Some of the elements of the
        Amazon.com web site including user reviews and reading lists are pointing toward
        collaboration. At this stage, your network value still follows a power
        law, but you are now able to grow and scale in a way that was impossible
        with a central author. For the programming examples, this is Sarnoff
        times Metcalfe where you are able to broadcast the ability to connect
        networks, and we expect a value that grows with the cube (or higher) of
        the number of actors. (There doesn’t seem to be a name for this law in the
        literature.)
4. Communities:
        At this stage, actors are not only able to author content but are able to
        group together and form sub-communities. The classic example on the
        internet is Usenet: the hierarchy of discussion forums that pre-dates the
        World Wide Web considerably. (You can browse and search the discussions at
        groups.google.com
        and other sites.) Most real-world social networks are at this stage, and
        follow Reed’s Law.

As suggested in the descriptions,
many business platforms develop through these four C’s in order, gradually
increasing the value of their networks.

Back to Amazon as the example and
to a beginning of an answer to the question. Communities are the key, and
providing the infrastructure to build communities.

At the moment, Amazon.com allows
communities to form at the individual book level. That is probably too narrow a
base. One of my favorite thriller writers at the moment is Lee Child who has a
nice community web site at LeeChild.com. There
is no reason why those discussions should not take place on Amazon.com and be
fully extended through the web services program. Similarly, Amazon has a
classification of products known as browse nodes (an example of the
classification as you may see it on Amazon.com is Books > Subjects >
Mystery & Thrillers > General), and again there is a good place to
introduce communities.

Extending all of these
collaboration and community features through the web services program is
important to ensure rapid growth and scalability (level 3+ in the list above).

But making the features available
through the web services program is also essential to ensure profits. That the
network has value is all well and good, but unless Amazon ultimately profits
from building and connecting the networks there is no reason to embark on this
effort. The API exposed through the web services program ties everything
together and back to the Amazon platform.

Looking forward we can imagine a
meta-site providing a "plug-in" platform for new Amazon features.
Perhaps you’d like to browse books and search for them at Google at the same
time? Or would you like to have weblog (blog) comments about the book added to
the reviews at Amazon.com? Maybe display a graph of how the book has been
selling over the last few months?

All of these features are
existing solutions but implemented on different web sites with different
interfaces. Wouldn’t if be nice if you could log on to a single site, check the
boxes for the features you want and then browse the way you want it? There are
some technical infrastructures challenges that we would need to solve, but this
is certainly possible. Such a site probably wouldn’t be an Amazon-owned site,
but that is OK: the value is, as we have argued, in the platform.

Technical: blubbering.
Read on at your own risk of boredom.

Both laws give a
powerful bonus to interconnection; mergers and partnerships of networked
companies should be able to extract a premium resulting from these laws. When
we combine two networks together so that users of one network can connect
seamlessly to users of the other, Metcalfe’s Law tells us already that
substantial new value is created: (M+N)² = M² +N²+2MN. This bonus term, 2MN,
is substantial-up to 100% of the value in the original unconnected networks.
Thus there is an enormous incentive to find ways to interconnect networks,
since the members of each network can access a much larger set of potential
transaction partners. With the GFN law, interconnection is even more powerful,
creating many new potential groups that span the two networks: 2^M+N
= 2^M2^N. The GFN interconnection bonus percentage
itself grows exponentially with the size of the smaller network.

What we see, then,
is that there are really at least three categories of value that networks can
provide: the linear value of services that are aimed at individual users, the
"square" value from facilitating transactions, and exponential value
from facilitating group affiliations. What’s important is that the dominant
value in a typical network tends to shift from one category to another as the
scale of the network increases. Whether the growth is by incremental
customer additions, or by transparent interconnection, scale growth tends to
support new categories of killer apps, and thus new competitive games. See
figure 3.

 

We can see this
scale-driven value shift in the history of the Internet. The earliest usage of
the Internet was dominated by its role as a terminal network, allowing many
terminals to selectively access a small number of costly timesharing hosts. As
the Internet grew, much more of the usage and value of the Internet became
focused on pair wise exchanges of email messages, files, etc. following
Metcalfe’s Law. And as the Internet started to take off in the early ‘ 90’s,
traffic started to be dominated by "newsgroups" (Internet discussion
groups), user created mailing lists, special interest websites, etc., following
the exponential GFN law. Though the previously dominant functions did not lose
value or decline as the scale of the Internet grew, the value and usage of
services that scaled by newly dominant scaling laws grew faster. Thus many
kinds of transactions and collaboration that had been conducted outside the
Internet became absorbed into the growth of the Internet’s functions, and these
become the new competitive playing field.

What’s important in
a network changes as the network scale shifts. In a network dominated by linear
connectivity value growth, "content is king." That is, in such
networks, there are a small number of sources (publishers or makers) of content
that every user selects from. The sources compete for users based on the value
of their content (published stories, published images, standardized consumer
goods). Where Metcalfe’s Law dominates, transactions become central. The stuff
that is traded in transactions (be it email or voice mail, money, securities,
contracted services, or whatnot) are king. And where the GFN law dominates, the
central role is filled by jointly constructed value (such as specialized
newsgroups, joint responses to RFPs, gossip, etc.).

In "real"
networks, it is important to note that although the total value of optional
transactions that involve pairs and groups grows faster than linearly, the
total price that can be paid cannot grow that fast. Typically, the consumers of
the value have money and attention resources that scale linearly with N.
So the law of supply and demand will kick in, lowering prices until the
available resources (dollars and attention) are saturated. What’s interesting
is that this saturation process affects all types of optional transactions-so
GFN value, peer transaction value, and broadcast content value all competes for
the same resources. Once N grows sufficiently large, GFN transactions
create more value per unit of network investment than peer transactions, and
peer transactions create more value per unit of network investment than do
broadcast transactions. So what tends to happen is that as networks grow, peer
transactions out-compete broadcast content in the arena of attention and return
on investment. And remarkably, once N gets sufficiently large, GFN
transactions will out-compete both of the other categories.

Now please excuse
me for quoting so much technical explanation, but if facilitation produces the
must number of transactions, BOA fucked up majorly with their sitekey, and lack
luster performance of informing members of their in-efficiencies, resulting in
a loyal user now actively looking for a better internet experience.

And that’s a
negatively decreasing value graph if I ever saw one. It will end up looking
like this! Straight fucking down. 

And yes, this is
the most rambling, a disgruntle man at 5:17 in the morning without sleep has ever
laid on anyone. I apologize if you kept on reading through this blog. This was
not meant to bore you, but for me to vent.

Anyways, don’t
throw this back on me if while you friends who test my new site out find me
calling the pot black, at least you guys aren’t banking with me.  The key
is testing, and more testing prior to launch. No rushing.

Funny thing, both
Anglophilic Joyce and Little Ann are online with me at the moment and it is
5:30 in the morning.  I need to get some sleep.

Peace out.