Trade Gap:

Record Box Imports for Port of Long Beach

Containerized imports in Long Beach set a new record in October, with a 25.2 percent growth over the same period last year.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Romanian, 67, pregnant with twins
Wait, WAIT, Sarah is the Oldest on record: 99yrs old, she laughed, this lady does not look like she's laughing!

Yahoo! News - Experts: Tsunami Kills Few Animals
This is amazing!

Latest News and Financial Information | Reuters.com

Chicken Compassion just what we need!

"The goal you set must be challenging. At the same time, it should be realistic and attainable, not impossible to reach. It should be challenging enough to make you stretch, but not so far that you break."

Rick Hansen
Wheelchair Athlete, Speaker and Founder of Man in Motion World Tour

"You must give some time to your fellow men. Even if it's a little thing, do something for others - something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it."

Albert Schweitzer
1875-1965, Medical Missionary, Theologian and Philosopher

"Never let the fear of striking out get in your way."
--George Herman "Babe" Ruth

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."

Ralph Waldo Emerson
1803-1882, Poet and Essayist

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing."

Helen Keller
1880-1968, Blind/Deaf Author and Lecturer

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/business/yourmoney/19dell.html
This is well worth reading on Dell!

On Friday I traveled to the world headquarters of CURVES for women in Waco, Texas. Phil Vardaman and Darryl Jinkerson from ACU traveled with me! Curves is the fastest growing fanchise in the USA. A perfect replicatable business model:
No Inventory, basically a service business
Women love it, its no frills and caters to 30min workouts, they invite there friends!
1 person can run it--low staff requirements
and really low $$ to get in one: approx: $40K
Low monthly franchise fees as well.

We had a great time and came up with a name for one for men:

HANDLES

The key would be for men to be able to work out while setting in an e-z Chair with several remote controls.
Will it work?

"History has a place for just about anyone if they show up at the right time and die in the right place"
Homer H. Hillis, Jr.

The U.S. trade gap with China -- sensitive politically because U.S. exporters blame an artificially low yuan currency for keeping the China's goods cheap -- also hit a record $16.8 billion. Imports from the Asian giant leapt to a record $19.7 billion.

The U.S. trade gap with China -- sensitive politically because U.S. exporters blame an artificially low yuan currency for keeping the China's goods cheap -- also hit a record $16.8 billion. Imports from the Asian giant leapt to a record $19.7 billion.

Dollar General has 7100 stores and planning to open 695 stores in 2005! Sales are strong! Mass Retailers are starting to make $1 sections of the store. Is it the Name: Family Dollar, Dollar General, Dollar Tree. Going back to the turn of the century are we not: 5 and dime, Ben Franklin 5 and 10.
Article in Wall Street Journal says in Nov sales of Dollar General increased 3.4% while Wal-Mart edged .7%.

"Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."

Benjamin Franklin
1706-1790, Scientist, Publisher and Diplomat

Roy H. Williams Says:
"Talk to the customer in the language of the customer about what matters to the customer. Bad advertising is about you, your company, your product or your service. Good advertising is about the customer, and how your product or service will change their world."

"You can't escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today."

Abraham Lincoln
1809-1865, 16th U.S. President

If you don't know all that goes on your better off! Homer Hillis

Did you read that 40% of Americans take perscription drugs! Wow, this is the most chemically dependent country in the world, the largest consumer of drugs in the world. Alarming.
What if you could take a natural product that is helping people achieve great health results?
Check out: www.myvemma.com/homerh
I totally endorse this product.

"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it."

William Arthur Ward
1921-1994, Pastor, Teacher, Author and Editor